Ben Walsh

@sukh_saroy AI

Everyone is hyped about Claude Cowork… but barely anyone knows how to actually use it to replace real work. I collected 300+ mega prompts that turn Claude Cowork into a full-blown productivity engine. Comment "AI" and I’ll DM you everything.

If your child becomes a reader, about 80% of the education job is already done. That's my honest assessment after working in education for over thirty years. Everything else is secondary. Most parents think science education is important. Yes it is. But if you can't read the biology textbook, you're not going to learn biology. Reading is the meta-skill that enables all other skills. History requires reading. Science requires reading. Even math increasingly requires reading as it becomes more sophisticated. The child who reads voraciously will figure out everything else. The child who doesn't will struggle with everything.

Latest post: A phrase from computer science that explains why students can pass every skill check and still not understand the subject, and what it means for how we design educational technology.

C.S. Lewis had a prescient warning for the internet age: the enemy doesn't need to ruin you, he only needs to distract you. Distraction is an important theme in "The Screwtape Letters." The demon Screwtape notes that a reliable way to lead a patient to hell is to distract him with jargon. Having the patient evaluate ideas not by their content but by their labels (progressive, conservative, liberal, fascist, feminist, woke, racist, etc.) ensures that he never engages meaningfully with their content. "Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous — that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about." Jargon is one distraction. Even better is to fix his attention on the "stream of immediate sense experiences" so that his attention is drawn away from universal issues. This keeps a person completely distracted from thoughtfully engaging with things: What's going on in politics today? What's the latest influencer drama? One wonders if Screwtape himself was behind the naming of the social media "feed." Lewis recognized that the path to hell is not so much paved by grand sins than it is by small, everyday distractions from what really matters. This is why path to goodness begins with reclaiming your attention, and turning your eyes from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Wasting time by "doomscrolling," like any distraction, is never neutral — it distracts you from doing good in the world. Here's why the devil wants you distracted: theculturist.io/p/why-the-devi…

Great to see the @guardian covering the biggest story of the last week. theguardian.com/law/2026/feb/0…

Great post from @MaryMyatt on curriculum - the main thing is the main thing marymyatt.substack.com/p/essentialism…

@godofprompt Claude

Opus 4.6 just dropped and it's the most intelligent AI model ever released. But 90% of people still don't know how to prompt Claude properly. That's why I built the "Claude Mastery Guide" packed with: → Prompt engineering mini-course → 30 key prompting principles → 10+ mega-prompts ready to copy-paste → Strategic use cases for every skill level → Recently updated If you want to actually use Claude at full power, this is the one. Like + comment "Claude" and I'll DM it to you. (Must be following)

For those of you who follow Paul Kirschner (and those of you who don't, but should), his account was hacked and he no longer has access to it. Please follow his new account @New_Old_Paul and unfollow and report @P_A_Kirschner PLEASE RT

For those of you who follow Paul Kirschner. His account was hacked and he no longer has access to it. Please follow his new account @New_Old_Paul and unfollow and report @P_A_Kirschner PLEASE RT

@GerMilHistory x.com/i/status/20160…

@robkhenderson The underreported adverse reactions to school based mental health inventions needs more…reporting. Thanks Rob. x.com/alegalprocess/…

"interventions don’t work at all: no improvement in mental health symptoms, either immediately after the course of lessons or later down the line. In fact, some studies have found that universal mental-health lessons actually make things worse." theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Read the full post on the importance of artificial learning environments here: open.substack.com/pub/carlhendri…

@GerMilHistory And don't forget the follow up email 🙈

@GerMilHistory 🤣

@History_Ben it worked (surprisingly). I have sent you an email :).

@GerMilHistory I may have out-ranted you, sorry :)

@History_Ben Looking forward to it

@GerMilHistory And I really liked your Telegraph article about AI slop polluting historical memory. I mailed you on your website!

@GerMilHistory I'm honoured thank you!

@History_Ben thanks for the follow. Big friend of your oeuvre. Many of your textbooks are prescribed reading/studying for our history guides.

"Increased instructional time in social studies—but not in English Language Arts—is associated with improved reading ability." Yes, you read that right. More dosage of reading instruction isn't associated with reading gains. Add social studies time, on the other hand... From @redandexpert's study on instructional time and reading outcomes: @educationgadfly @MichaelPetrilli