#120—Matt Beane: Mastering the Learning Gap: Skill Building in an AI-Augmented World

Matt Beane, is an Assistant Professor in the Technology Management Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has conducted extensive field research with robots and AI seeks to uncover systematic positive exceptions that we can use in the workforce. His award-winning research has been published in top management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly and Harvard Business Review, and he has spoken on the TED stage.  Curiously enough, 2012 he was also selected as a “Human-Robot Interaction Pioneer.” Matt took a two-year hiatus from his PhD at MIT’s Sloan School of Management to help found and fund Humatics, a full-stack IoT startup.  All this is testament to his passion for bridging what he calls the “master-apprentice gap.”  In this discussion, we dive deep into topics from his book, The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines.___________________________________________________________________In this episode, Matt shares: His concept of “the skill code,”— and the 3 Cs needed to ensure skills are able to transfer between humansThe setbacks organizations could face if they don’t address the widening gap that is preventing upcoming workers from gaining skills from more experience workers. Imagine what happens if – doctors, lawyers, engineers, chefs, and other apprenticeship-heavy professions are unable to build bench skillsWhat science and psychology teach us about how humans have traditionally learned and developedThe steps business leaders can take to ensure that this novice-expert gap remains manageable_______________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Highlight from today's episode1:13—Introducing Matt+ the topic of today’s episode3:18—If you really know me, you know that...5:07—What's your definition of strategy?05:50—Matt shares what lead him to the subject his research and latest book  11:20—Learning skills through a three-tiered approach: See one, do one, teach one14:48— Defining skill vs knowledge 16:38—3 Cs: Challenge 21:35—3 Cs: Complexity  23:42—3 Cs: Connection 28:48—The impact of AI on capability building 31:41— Organizational strategy for skill preservation 34:12—How can people follow you and continue learning from you?_______________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources:Personal site: www.mattbeane.comLink to book: The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent MachinesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbeaneTwitter: https://x.com/mattbeaneThank you to our executive producer Zach Ness, our producer Nazanin Homayoun Jam and our editor James Pearce. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast