When Shortcuts Become Sacred
Tools that democratise capability without democratising understanding transform expertise from achievement into accusation.
When convenience eliminates the journey to mastery, it creates not experts but performers of expertise—individuals who can execute without comprehending, who mistake facility for fluency. The profound irony emerges: those who travelled the difficult path of genuine learning become villains in this narrative, accused of deliberate obfuscation rather than recognised for hard-won wisdom.
This inversion extends beyond technology into culture itself. Unable to achieve mastery through discipline, we sanctify shortcuts and construct elaborate justifications for our avoidance of depth. The expert becomes the enemy of progress whilst ignorance masquerades as innovation. We build pseudo-religions around our tools, complete with rituals and theological treatises that reframe convenience as enlightenment.
Yet the cruelest paradox remains: when everyone can appear capable, no one becomes truly competent. The very tools promising to elevate all ensure that none transcend mediocrity. What requires no journey offers no destination; what demands no understanding enables no discovery.