Building Ladders

Building Ladders is both a practice and a philosophy. It’s about creating tools and systems that extend human potential by helping people climb to expertise previously out of reach. Instead of forcing people to adapt to rigid technological structures, ladders adapt to people—meeting them at their current understanding, honoring their ways of thinking, and helping them ascend toward capabilities they couldn’t access before.

This metaphor draws inspiration from Shambhala Buddhist philosophy, where ladders represent paths of ascent toward our highest potential. In technology, building ladders means removing unnecessary friction and artificial barriers, allowing people to engage with complex domains on their own terms.

Why Ladders, Not Bridges?

A bridge connects two points at the same level—you still need the ability to walk across it. Traditional resources like books, guides, or tutorials are bridges. They assume you already have the foundational knowledge to engage with them.

A ladder lets you climb to a completely different elevation. Each rung is within reach of the last. AI-powered ladders can:

• Meet you at whatever level of understanding you’re currently on
• Adapt to your unique epistemology using metaphors from domains you already understand
• Let you climb incrementally—each step accessible from the previous
• Enable vertical movement to expertise that would normally require years of traditional education

The Core Principle

For decades, computing has followed one rule: humans adapt to computers.
We memorize shortcuts, learn syntax, internalize file systems.

Building Ladders flips this rule.
Instead of humans adapting to machines, machines adapt to humans—speaking your language, understanding your intent, and translating complex domains into terms you already understand.

What It Means to Build Ladders

1. Start with Human Intent

• Understand what people are trying to accomplish
• Recognize their existing mental models and ways of knowing
• Honor their preferred ways of working
• Meet them at their current level of understanding

2. Encode Expertise as Climbable Rungs

• Capture expert knowledge in reusable patterns
• Break complex domains into incremental, accessible steps
• Make each rung reachable from the previous one
• Create tools that teach while they assist

3. Enable Access to Previously Impossible Domains

• Make advanced mathematics accessible without learning LaTeX
• Enable accessibility expertise without years of training
• Allow programming through natural language instead of syntax
• Open specialized fields to diverse ways of thinking

4. Maintain Transparency and Agency

• Show the reasoning behind automated actions
• Allow users to understand and modify the process
• Build trust through explainability
• Preserve human agency—augment, don’t replace

Ladders vs. Walls

Examples of Ladders in Practice

Technology That Climbs With You

• Apple’s Math Notes: Write equations naturally by hand; the system understands and computes them without requiring LaTeX syntax
• AI Alt Text Generation: Extracts author intent from page context using the same questions accessibility experts ask, making this expertise available to anyone
• Voice Assistants: Accomplish complex tasks through natural conversation instead of navigating menu hierarchies
• Visual Programming: Build complex logic through visual manipulation, making programming accessible to visual thinkers

What Makes These Ladders?

Each example:

• Meets users at their natural way of working (handwriting, speaking, visual thinking)
• Removes artificial barriers (syntax, menus, text-only interfaces)
• Makes expertise accessible without years of training
• Adapts to the user rather than forcing adaptation

Why This Matters Now

AI, particularly Large Language Models, makes building ladders more powerful than ever. These systems can:

• Understand human intention from natural language, handwriting, or other natural inputs
• Translate between epistemologies, making expert knowledge accessible through your mental models
• Adapt to individual users, meeting each person at their current rung
• Encode decades of expertise into patterns anyone can climb

This isn’t about making things easier—it’s about making the impossible possible. A person who thinks visually can now engage with abstract mathematics. Someone without formal training can apply accessibility expertise. Complex programming becomes accessible through natural language.

The Call to Action

The question isn’t whether we can build ladders—it’s whether we choose to.

Every tool we create, every pattern we share, every system we design is a choice: Will we build walls that exclude and constrain? Or will we build ladders that help humanity climb?

Build ladders, not walls. The world is waiting to climb.