In 3.2.1 you looked at tasks. This activity looks at the other side: the person doing them. What can you do, and how would anyone know? Most people describe themselves in adjectives: “hard-working,” “a quick learner,” “good with people.” Adjectives are easy to write and nobody can check them.
A claim is a start. Evidence is a story.
A claim says you have a skill. Evidence shows a time you used it. Good evidence usually has four parts.
The four parts of evidence
The situation.What was going on, in a sentence.
What I did.The part you did, not the part the group did.
What happened.What changed because of it, even if it was small.
Who could confirm it.A person, such as a coach, a teacher, a customer or a relative, who saw it.
You won't always have all four, and that's fine. A story with three parts is still much better than an adjective.
🔑Skills come from everywhere. School, a job, family, a hobby, a sport, a club, a faith or community group, a game, a video you learned from. Evidence from home and work counts the same as evidence from a class. Not everyone has had the same chances to build skills or to get them noticed. Time, money and who you know all play a part, so don't read an empty list as “I have nothing.” It may mean “I haven't written it down yet.”
Try it
Claim or evidence? · invented people · nothing here is saved
A claim says someone has a skill. Evidence describes a time they used it. Decide which each one is.
“I'm a natural leader.”
“I'm really good with computers.”
“I'm very organized.”
“I work well with others.”
“I'm good at explaining things.”
“Two of our four robot builders dropped out the week before a competition. I split their jobs among the rest of us in one meeting, and we still finished the run. Our coach was there.”
“I taught my cousin fractions with a pizza-cutting game until he could do his homework alone. His mom noticed his grade go up.”
“I ran the sound board for the spring concert. Fourteen acts started within two minutes of schedule, and the music teacher asked me back.”
“My brother's bike brake squeaked, so I read the manual and watched a repair video, then fixed it. It stopped squeaking.”
“I translate for my grandmother at her appointments, so I have to explain terms in two languages without changing what the doctor said.”
Correct so far: 0 / 10
Four strands
To see how skills fit together, it helps to sort them by what they let you do. Here is one simple way, with four strands. This is our own simplified sorting for practice, not an official list, and real skills often mix strands.
The four strands
MakeCan you produce the thing itself: write it, code it, draw it, build it, fix it?
KnowDo you understand the field well enough to tell good work from bad?
ConnectCan you work with people: listen, explain, team up, persuade, care?
SteerCan you break a problem into steps, give clear instructions, and test and check what comes back?
Make is the skill of producing the thing. Know is how you tell whether the thing is any good. Connect is how you work with the people who need it or help build it. Steer is how you direct a tool or a team, and check what comes back. That last one matters more when a tool can produce a lot quickly, because someone has to decide whether what it produced is right. It's the same idea as question 4 in 3.2.1, who checks.
Try it
Which strand? · some skills fit two
Pick the strand the skill mostly helps with. When a skill fits two strands, either one is accepted.
Writing clearly
Explaining ideas
Knowing how a field works
Checking and fact-checking
Programming
Caring for people
Planning and budgeting
Giving clear instructions
Correct so far: 0 / 8
Principles of AI · 3.2.2Real research · roundedConcept⚠ Watch Out
Stacks, and What the Evidence Says
talent stack = a few skills that work together
Most jobs call for several skills at once, and the combination is what makes a person useful. “Talent stack” is a popular business phrase for this idea. It's a handy picture, not a scientific law, and the research below is about something related, not about talent stacks.
ExampleOne poster, four strands
An invented student, Priya, is asked to make a poster for the school fair, and she uses an AI image tool to start.
Step 1 — Make
The tool gives her six rough designs in a minute. Make is what lets her turn the best one into a poster that actually looks good.
Build one
Every plan with an AI tool needs some strands more than others. Pick a workplace, read what it needs, and choose three skills that cover it.
Stack lab · invented workplaces · nothing here is saved
An invented neighborhood clinic will have an AI tool write its appointment reminders in English and Spanish and send them. Patients are of all ages, and some will be confused or worried when a reminder is wrong. The tool does all the drafting, and nobody is being asked to write anything by hand.
What this plan needs
ConnectPatients will have questions and complaints, and someone has to talk with them.
KnowSomeone has to know what a reminder must say and what has to stay private.
SteerSomeone has to test the messages and check the drafts before they go out.
Pick 3 skills that together cover every need.
Chosen: 0 / 3
💡Notice how many different stacks work. There's no single right stack, only stacks that leave a gap and stacks that don't. Depth still matters too: a stack of three skills you can show evidence for is stronger than ten you can't.
A real finding, read carefully
You'll often see the claim that social skills matter more than ever. Here is the research behind one version of it. Economist David Deming studied U.S. jobs and reported, among other things, how the share of different kinds of jobs changed between 1980 and 2012. Read the chart, then decide what it supports.
What does the chart support? · real finding, invented claims
Real finding, not invented. From the abstract of David Deming's research paper “The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market” (NBER, 2015; Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2017). Percentage points mean points of the share of all jobs. For example, if such jobs went from 30 of every 100 jobs to 42 of every 100, that would be 12 points (invented numbers, only to show what “points” means). The paper also reports that jobs needing both strong math and strong social skills did especially well in employment and wage growth. The abstract gives no number for that group, so it isn't drawn.
“Jobs that needed a lot of social interaction became a bigger share of all U.S. jobs between 1980 and 2012.”
“Math skills stopped mattering.”
“Jobs that needed both strong math and strong social skills did especially well, according to the research.”
“This proves AI will not replace jobs that need social skills.”
“If you add social skills, your own pay will go up.”
“Social skills are the number one reason people succeed in their careers.”
Correct so far: 0 / 6
Five questions to ask any chart
What does it show?Read the labels and the units.
Who or what does it cover?All jobs, one country, one group?
Which years?Data from before today's AI can't speak to today's AI.
Does it show a cause?A pattern across many people doesn't tell you what would happen to you.
Does the headline say more than the chart?If so, trust the chart.
⚠️Watch out: points, not percent. “12 percentage points” means 12 points of the share of all jobs. It does not mean “12 percent more jobs.” And a headline like “Social skills are the number one driver of career success” claims much more than a chart of how job shares changed. Always check the headline against what the chart shows.
When forecasts disagree
Some writers say the new jobs mostly need advanced technical skills. Others say that as tools make technical work easier, the combination of technical skills with people skills grows in value. Both are forecasts, and forecasts about technology and jobs are hard to get right. That's a reason to build a stack that can adapt: you can learn new tools, check their work, and work with people.
⚠️A stack is not a shield. It can make you better prepared. It can't promise you a job, a wage, or safety. Whether jobs exist, who gets hired, and how much people are paid depend on many things you don't control, and a good stack doesn't change that.
Principles of AI · 3.2.2SkillExample
Your Stack, and the Next Step
gap = a strand your stack doesn't cover yet
Stacks in the wild
Here are eight invented people in jobs that exist, six of them in computing. Look at the strands their skills cover, where a tool may come in, and what stays with the person.
Stacks in the wild · invented people with real kinds of jobs
Aisha, software developer
Builds and fixes programs, usually as part of a team.
Skills in the stack
Programming MakeSteer
Checking and fact-checking Steer
Teamwork Connect
Strands covered: MakeKnowConnectSteer (3 of 4)
Where a tool may come in. A tool may draft some of the code.
What stays with the person. Deciding what the program should do, testing it, and working out with teammates what to build next.
Think about it: which strand is thinnest in this stack, and who else on a team could cover it? These people are invented and real jobs vary. In 3.2.3 you'll prepare to ask a real worker.
Audit your own
On the Talent Stack Sheet you'll do what you've practiced, with your own life.
Write four skills with evidence. Use the four parts. Mark each skill's strand or strands.
Pick the three you'd stand behind. Those are your stack. Count the strands they cover.
See your stack at work. Choose a task or job you're curious about and ask what a tool might do and what your stack brings.
Choose one skill to add. Name a first step that's within your reach, and how you'll know you're growing.
Your sheet is yours. Share only what you're comfortable sharing. It's graded on how specific your evidence is, not on how impressive your skills sound.
✍️ Talent Stack Sheet⬇ PDFThe Google Doc copy is on the activity's start page.
Choosing one skill to add
Look at your strands. Which is thinnest? Pick one skill, not five. Then choose a first step you can actually take this month: ask to take on a part of a project that stretches you, join a group, use free library or online resources, practice on a small project of your own, or ask someone who has the skill to show you. Decide what evidence you'd collect to show that you've grown.
💡Access isn't equal. Time, money, transportation and family duties change what's possible. A good first step costs little: taking a harder job in a group you're already in, or practicing one small thing each week, can count. If a step you'd like isn't within reach right now, choose a nearer one and keep the other for later.
Optional: a chatbot as a mirror
If your teacher allows a district-approved chatbot, you can ask it to check your evidence sentences. Don't paste names, your school, or private details. Chatbots tend to be encouraging, so ask it not to praise, and then check its answer against the four parts yourself.
Here are four sentences about things I've done. For each one, tell me:
1. Which of these strands it shows: Make, Know, Connect, Steer.
2. Which of these parts it is missing: the situation, what I did, what happened, who could confirm it.
Don't praise me. If a sentence is only a claim, say so, and tell me what would make it evidence.
[paste your four sentences here. No names, no school, no private details]
🔑Next, in 3.2.3, you'll prepare to interview a real worker about the tasks in their job. Your strands and your four questions from 3.2.1 will both come with you.