Is school still worth it in the AI era?

In just one month, in this new AI era, I have transformed from someone who was afraid of coding to someone who can confidently code their own solutions in NextJS.

Let me clarify this statement: I don't mean that I'm a good developer, just that I now have the confidence to make things happen. Something I never had in 10 years of digital entrepreneurship.

If someone with little to no coding experience can become at least confident in attempting it, what will it be like in 15 years when my children grow up?

Will languages still be relevant to learn? Will coding become a simple natural conversation with a machine?

Last year, I faced a decision: choose a private school for my children that focused on developing students' capabilities, or a public school with a more diverse student body where language instruction might not meet my expectations but which emphasized social and emotional skills.

School started two weeks ago, and I've come to a clear realization.

The public school, my choice, was the right one.

Today, you can learn almost any hard skill online (marketing, coding, languages, etc.), and it will become even easier with AI improvements. But the one thing that neither the internet nor AI can easily replicate—and I find it really hard to overcome—are soft skills.

How do you treat others? How do you lead? How do you make decisions? How do you embrace struggle? How do you deal with failure? How do you find meaning in your work? How do you build strong friendships? ...

Schools were once places for children to learn hard skills and indirectly acquire soft skills. Over time, schools will increasingly become battlegrounds for children to learn soft skills, while leaving hard skills to better, more adaptive, and more personalized systems (AI).

So whether you're a parent now or not, always choose for your children what allows them to learn how to deal with the world.