Stickman Charles — Curiosity
Dear Mr. Peng,
Hello, how is everything?
It has been a year and a month since I last wrote a letter to you.
During the eight months since I left China, I learned a lot and experienced a lot. I realized I needed a place to store my work and thinking: projects, articles, books and monthly reviews. So I created a personal website called Stickman Charles (stickmancharles.com). Charles is my English name, and I really love stickman drawings — simple and easy to understand. I also founded a studio called EchoForge (echoforgeef.com). I'm also a member of a tech financial startup group.
Clearly, the AI era isn't just a blueprint anymore. It's really entering our lives. Take ChatGPT or DeepSeek — they update faster and faster, even faster than anybody imagined. AI takes over many jobs, many opportunities, and even human confidence.
Right now, there are thousands of videos sharing opinions about education in the AI era. As a student, I also want to share my own opinion: Every student should have curiosity, and it's getting more important right now.
Curiosity is a strong desire to learn, know, or explore something new. The key words are learn and explore. Based on my research and some chats with my classmates, I'd say primary school is one of the most important and effective periods of the whole learning experience. During this period, students can usually spend more time learning and exploring the world, rather than on endless tests and tasks.
In my opinion, we shouldn't use rankings to define students, because a ranking is too narrow. Every student has their own hobbies, their own dreams and their own values — not just a test score. Sadly, the main mission of modern education is built on a few scores.
Over time, parents will slowly accept it, until their own children become "robotic" kids.
But AI changed everything. It can do many repetitive tasks with better quality and efficiency. It writes routine code, generates PPTs, Excel sheets and Docs, and even works as customer service. For example, DeepSeek's balanced model, v4-flash, costs less than a hundred dollars a month but can do almost everything for you.
Better performance, lower price, why not use AI?
That is why people say AI is replacing humans — the "robotic" humans — especially since it is cheap and versatile.
That means AI can also be an extremely useful tool for ordinary people. If you want to learn some specific knowledge, it's not "just ask Baidu" anymore, it's "just ask AI". If you want to code something, just ask AI. And if you want to work on something, just ask AI.
All we need is curiosity. You can ask a question, and AI will give you the answer in just a few seconds. Curiosity is not talent; it is a habit. That is also why primary school teachers are irreplaceable. Every student can grow it, but sometimes it takes a teacher to wake it up and keep it awake.
That is why I really appreciate your teaching and your example. You showed me how to grow and keep my curiosity. I could never have come this far without you.
For all the younger students, I just want to tell you this: wherever and whenever you are, keep your curiosity, and ask why more often.
Sincerely,
Charles Tao
2026/8/26, Canada
Companion video: Competition and Ranking / 竞争与排名