Search engines learned to answer. Then we stopped asking.

A decade ago, finding something online meant a small expedition. You tried a phrase, read three sites, and ended up somewhere unexpected. The route was clumsy, and it taught you the shape of a subject.

Today the answer is a sentence at the top of the page, sometimes before you finish typing. It is faster and often right. But teachers report a change: students arrive with conclusions and no map.

The value of the detour

Cognitive scientists distinguish between knowing a fact and knowing its neighbourhood. The first helps you pass a quiz. The second helps you spot a lie. Detours build neighbourhoods.

We do not need to abandon the shortcut. We need to teach the habit of asking a second question, the one the machine did not volunteer.