"Today," she said, pacing the aisles, "we aren't just reciting facts. I want you to draw the process of cross-over and explain, in your own words, why it’s the reason none of you look exactly like your siblings."

As he looked at the blank paper, the tangled "shoelace" diagrams from the actual textbook flashed in his mind. He closed his eyes, trying to remember the logic behind the sketches he’d ignored. Slowly, he began to draw, realizing that while the GDZ could give him the result, it couldn't give him the understanding.

He ended up getting a C- that day. But that evening, when he opened Kamensky's book again, he didn't reach for his laptop. He realized that the "cheat code" was a short-term fix for a long-term problem: you can't outsource your own evolution.