You Don’t Need to Catch Up on AI: Curiosity Is Your Change Strategy

Feel like everyone else has figured out AI while you’re still trying to catch up? Here’s the problem: “caught up” may be the wrong goal. AI is changing too quickly for any of us to finish learning it. The leaders who will navigate this era best won’t be the people who know everything. They’ll be the people who build the capacity to keep learning, ask better questions, exercise judgment, experiment, and adapt as the ground moves. In the first episode of *Technically Joyful*, Gabrielle Kohlmeier explores why curiosity may be one of our most important change strategies in the AI era, especially for accomplished people who are used to being the ones with the answers. Drawing on her own journey from perfectionism to leading AI transformation, Gabrielle explores growth mindset, digital fluency, intellectual humility, psychological safety, and the power of becoming comfortable being experienced and a beginner at the same time. And this is where joy matters. Joy is not the opposite of rigor or discipline. It is fuel for exploration. Fear narrows our field of view. Curiosity, interest, and positive emotion can help broaden it, giving us more capacity to see possibilities, take smart risks, and keep learning when the work gets uncomfortable. Because you don’t need to catch up before you begin. Beginning is how you catch up. **In This Episode** - Why AI fluency is not the same as knowing everything - The “30% rule” for digital fluency - Moving from “I don’t know” to “I don’t know yet” to “let’s find out” - How to be experienced and a beginner at the same time - How perfectionism can disguise itself as excellence - Why intellectual humility is different from insecurity - Why leaders need to model beginnerhood - How joy can fuel learning and change - Reframing anxiety as excitement - Why curiosity is a change strategy **Your Rep: Play the ELI Game** Pick one thing you keep thinking you should already understand. Ask your AI tool to explain it at progressively deeper levels: **ELI7:** Explain it like I’m seven. **ELI12:** Explain it like I’m 12. What did you add? **ELI17:** I’m 17 and pretty smart. Take me a level deeper. **ELII:** Explain it like I’m an intern. **ELIE:** Explain like I’m an expert. What are the three things I actually need to understand, and what can I safely ignore for now? Keep going until you move from “I don’t understand this” to “I have a foothold.” Then verify what matters. AI can hallucinate, oversimplify, and miss nuance. The goal is not to hand over your judgment. It is to use AI to accelerate curiosity while retaining it. **Sources & Resources** - Tsedal Neeley & Paul Leonardi, *The Digital Mindset* - Carol S. Dweck, *Mindset* - Reshma Saujani, *Brave, Not Perfect* - Amy C. Edmondson, *Right Kind of Wrong* - Tenelle Porter et al., “Predictors and Consequences of Intellectual Humility” - Barbara L. Fredrickson, “The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology” - Alison Wood Brooks, “Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement” **Ways to Connect with Gabrielle** **Subscribe to *Technically Joyful*** on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube: technicallyjoyful.com **Newsletter:** technicallyjoyful.com **GK Strategic Advisory:** gkstrategic.com **LinkedIn:** linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-kohlmeier