# Use AI to learn skills rather than outsource your thinking

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/use-ai-to-learn-skills-rather-than-outsource-your-thinking/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Dylan Field](https://realalpha.app/people/dylan-field/) · Dylan Field is CEO of Figma. · Co-founded Figma in 2012 and has led the design platform as CEO through its 2025 NYSE IPO.
- Host: [Chamath Palihapitiya](https://realalpha.app/people/chamath-palihapitiya/) · Founder & CEO, Social Capital · Led Facebook's growth team; his firm backed Slack and AI chipmaker Groq.
- Host: [Jason Calacanis](https://realalpha.app/people/jason-calacanis/) · Founder & CEO, LAUNCH · Early Uber angel; sold Weblogs Inc. to AOL; hosts This Week in Startups.
- Host: [David Sacks](https://realalpha.app/people/david-sacks/) · Co-founder & partner, Craft Ventures · PayPal's first COO, founded Yammer; White House AI & crypto czar 2025–26.
- Host: [David Friedberg](https://realalpha.app/people/david-friedberg/) · CEO, Ohalo · Founded The Climate Corporation, sold to Monsanto for about $1.1B in 2013.
- Show: All-In
- Episode: [Dylan Field: Is AI Replacing Designers?, Design is the New Code & Democratizing Creativity](https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/), Oct 19, 2026
- Moment: 35:56 to 38:13 of the episode (2 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/use-ai-to-learn-skills-rather-than-outsource-your-thinking/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/?t=2156

## Quote

> “use ai to **further your understanding** of the world to learn to do things you never would have dared to do before”
> — [Dylan Field](https://realalpha.app/people/dylan-field/) at [37:07](https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/?t=2227) · All-In

## Takeaways

1. AI can make learning and daunting tasks more accessible.
2. Outsourcing thought differs from using AI to learn.
3. Field ties making to curiosity, effort and bravery.

## About this segment

Dylan Field contrasts outsourcing thought with using AI to learn skills that once felt out of reach. He sees curiosity and effort as ways to expand what people can make.

From “Dylan Field: Is AI Replacing Designers?, Design is the New Code & Democratizing Creativity”, Oct 19, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[35:59](https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/?t=2159) Yeah, that's cool. Just as we wrap up, a lot of the commentary on AI that's negative is that it takes away human agency, human potential gets capped out. Can you just talk a little bit about your view on the potential of every human to be a creative, to be a designer? And how AI might perhaps magnify every person, not just the, quote, creatives, whether in some elite class of artists in some special building, but the ability for every human to create and the ability for every human to design and produce things in the world and where you sit with that right now.

[36:35](https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/?t=2195) I think it's even broader. I think it's, as a human in general, pre-AI, post-AI, you have a choice. Do you want to consume or create? Do you want to take the easy path or do you want to like climb the mountain? and what i'm seeing happen right now a lot is people are letting ai think for them uh less at figma but like more just like in my interactions with the world uh i just see a lot of this at the moment and that's one path you can take but the other one is actually use ai to further your understanding of the world to learn to do things you never would have dared to do before because they were would have taken so much time to learn or it's so hard uh and to really expand like the potential ways that you can like live as a human uh that to me the latter is the interesting part yeah the former like why would i want something else to think for me like my entire life has been

[37:36](https://realalpha.app/v/2Zj6uMv3kTA/?t=2256) about like figuring out how to think and um i don't know i just hope that people use ai to create good and to like go be a force for it rather than just kind of like joining the hive mind. Everyone can be a maker. Everyone can be a maker. Everyone can go do bold things. It's about willpower and it's about curiosity and if you're curious and you're willing to do the work be brave and speak your truth. Yeah exactly and then I think that you can go do incredible things.