Songyan Jiang (Hua) | Novellea Education | March 20, 2026
“What should my child study?” It’s the question I hear most from families. But lately, even colleagues in college admissions counseling are asking each other: with AI moving this fast, will the advice we give today still mean anything in four years?
There used to be clear answers. If you could handle the coursework, you studied medicine, law, or engineering. If not, you picked up a practical skill. Someone had always walked the path before you. It might not have been easy, but at least it existed.
Now? Stanford CS graduates are facing nearly double the unemployment rate of philosophy majors. The “safest” path has cracked open. Meanwhile, adults are scrambling to catch up with AI themselves while desperately trying to figure out what their kids should do. And the young people? Some are paralyzed with anxiety, some have checked out entirely, and some still insist “AI isn’t even that useful.”
When nobody knows what’s coming next, who gets to point this generation toward their future?
Two Reactions
I don’t have a standard answer either. But in conversations over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed two very different responses.
The first: “It’s over. If Stanford CS is useless now, what’s the point of studying anything?” Conclusion reached. Conversation closed.
The second: “So what is useful now?” “If AI can do all that, what can I use it for?” “I don’t get it yet, but I want to figure it out.” They accept reality without writing themselves off. The conversation is just getting started.
Carol Dweck named these two patterns in Mindset: fixed mindset and growth mindset. A fixed mindset treats ability as something you’re born with; results define who you are. A growth mindset treats ability as something you can develop: not knowing something now doesn’t mean you’ll never know it.
What Growth Mindset Unlocks in the AI Era
Think about scenarios that used to feel unsolvable. An international student who can’t catch a cultural reference? A few seconds with AI fills in the context. Dreading a conversation with a difficult teacher? You can rehearse the whole exchange first and prepare for tough questions. A professor who never shares a grading rubric? Feed your past assignments and feedback into AI to find the patterns yourself. An opportunity that feels out of reach? Ten minutes, and you have a targeted cold email ready to send.
The tools have been there all along. But you have to be willing to use them.
And behind that willingness is a quiet but crucial belief: I’m not at the finish line yet. I can still get better.
There May Never Be a Standard Answer Again
If you try to answer “what should I study” with a fixed mindset, the question is nearly impossible. You can’t bet correctly on a world four years from now. The old answers only seemed reliable because there were well-worn paths to follow.
But those paths are gone. Nobody has walked through the AI era before us.
That’s why growth mindset matters more than ever. When there’s no established road, the only thing you can rely on is your willingness to keep walking, keep learning, and keep adjusting.
“What should I study?” may never have a standard answer again. But “I am growing” is, in itself, a direction.
Reference: Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006)