The Challenge Manifesto

The Problem

A few years ago, a kid came to me with a coding problem. He was stuck. Frustrated. And like most kids today, he wanted the answer. Fast.

I could have given it to him. Would've taken me 30 seconds.

Instead, I said: "Maybe it'll take you 5 minutes. Maybe it'll take you a week. I don't know. But you have to figure it out yourself."

He looked at me like I was crazy.

Two days later, he came back.

He'd struggled. He'd had a dozen ideas that didn't work. He'd wanted to quit so many times.

But he didn't quit.

And when he finally cracked it, when the code finally ran, something changed in him.

"I've never felt better in my life," he told me. "I feel invincible now. I know coding is my thing."

That moment, that's when I realized:

We're handing kids the answer before they get to discover it themselves.

And in doing that, with all good intentions, we're skipping over the magic part.

The struggle. The curiosity. The moment of breakthrough.

That feeling of "I DID it." That spark that makes them feel invincible.

We think the answer is the treasure.

But the treasure is the journey to find it.

And now? With AI?

We can hand them every treasure instantly.

Which means they never get to go on the adventure.

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Our Belief

Kids don't need more information.

They need that spark. That aha moment. That feeling of "I figured it out myself and I KNOW I did."

But here's what we've discovered:

Every kid climbs trees. Builds forts. Plays hard video games. They LOVE challenge, until school teaches them not to.

Until we train them that:

• Fast answers = smart
• Struggle = failure
• "I don't know" = something to hide

We're raising the first generation that never has to struggle to know things.

Google gives them information in 0.3 seconds. ChatGPT writes their essays in 6 seconds. YouTube explains everything. They learn to ask "What's the answer?" instead of "What if...?"