careers, cassettes, and chatbots
march '24
In one of Sahil Bloom’s recent newsletters, he shares 'one powerful lesson' from a dinner with Gary Vee. As they talked about career longevity and entrepreneurial stuffs, this quote came out of conversation:
““You gotta love the dirt.” - Gary Vee” - Sahil Bloom
Sahil describes the dirt as the place you begin - the place where you find initial success and where you’re built. He says the dirt is ‘talking to customers, spending time in the weeds, engaging with your employees and colleagues, testing and learning.’
While I do think this kind of approach to ‘falling in love with humble beginnings and scrappy starts’ is important, I’d rather not embrace it. Silly of me to refute the advice of an entrepreneurial legend like Gary Vee? Sure. But, I think maybe you should hate ‘the dirt’ or else you’ll never find a way out. You’ll never jump out of the box you first started in and see what exists beyond. I do think the gritty, cumbersome, uphill battles are a piece of beauty along the journey, be it a business, career, relationship or mental health. But falling in love with the sound of a starter pistol builds nostalgia. I would rather fall in love with the view of the finish line.
It also reminds me of this quote from Interstellar:
"We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt."
Time to rewatch the film for the 60th time.
i’m feeling lucky
About 1/4 of these songs are courtesy of Spotify’s new feature: Song Psychic. It’s a unique interactive experience that “hand picks” songs based on pre-loaded questions you select. Obviously there’s no actual psychic presence or intent, but kudos to Spotify for keeping things interesting.
This month’s selection of 40 has features from Bob Marley to Summer Walker to Jamiroquai. Diverse, as always. Happy listening!
[Archive playlist can be found here, and in my spotify bio]
i hate music
I would like to introduce you to one of the worst articles written in the recent past:
Stop Listening to Music, It Will Change your Life
Mil Hoornaert talks about their experience of cutting music out of their life in order to bring more value to their mental health, sleep quality and focus/flow states. They go on to state all the positives of having a music-less environment and how music in today’s world is harmful and useless.
I. dis. a. gree.
Music is one of the most beautiful things that we have as living beings. And I say ‘living beings’ because all animals enjoy and experience music, be it through bone-flutes from 40,000 years ago or the rhythmic rustling of ferns in African deserts. I find it absurd that people have the audacity to say that a life without music is better and more beneficial than a life with it.
Imagine some of your fondest memories as a child in early schooling years, enjoying free time with your friends or spending special moments with your parents. I can bet that a good number of those memories involve a recollection of sounds and tunes that were heard in those moments. It could be the selection of cassettes in your parents’ jukebox or maybe the first song you bought on your iPod. I even remember when my parents’ got a Zune, I was thrilled to listen to the stock songs on there because we couldn’t afford an iPod and that was the only form of portable, hardware-less music player available to me. It had bizarre ringtone-like tunes but at the time, being able to listen to music without plugging in a casette or CD was everything. Music acts as an autonomous Dewey Decimal System for recollection of memories stored in the ether regions of our mind.
Also imagine the last time that your emotions were at level 10 - absolutely maxxed out. Not necessarily just negative emotion but also positive. We often tend to use music as a release of emotion, especially when we find ourselves on some extreme of an emotional spectrum. The drive home after a first kiss on a perfect date could spark that volume knob to be turned up all the way and some indie song blaring through the speakers. I’ve been that guy and I’ve seen that guy - hilarious from both views. Or other times, when emotions hit rock bottom, we resort to somber and mellow tracks that force us to sink into soft pillows as deep as they go. It’s a place of comfort and solitude that we create for ourselves.
The article talks about word-less music being helpful for focus and productivity and I agree, but that only accounts for a small percentage of our lives. I do remember spending sleepless nights in architecture studios listening to everything from Small Quartet Jazz to Disney Movie Soundtracks. Music that doesn’t have lyrics is extremely helpful for our hyperactive minds and can often help calm the nerves and release tensions. I have a friend who also downloads a playlist called Sound Bath and listens to it on long flights to fall asleep quicker. Yes, I am the friend.
Music is more than a medium of art and a section of interests on a dating profile. Music is language. I’d even argue to say that music is the only language that transcends cultures, races, genders and even time and space. The thing I find most fascinating about music is how we associate time and space with certain tunes and rhythms, sometimes unknowingly. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to connect with someone who was born in the 40s, and understand/appreciate the same rhythms that they do. My grandfather and my sister communicate best through Carnatic music, bonding over classical scales and nuances on Whatsapp calls. When folks say that music is unproductive and not necessary, I think they view solely as an art form. And in many extremist viewpoints, art is viewed as the antithesis of utilitarian work, so therefore bad. But when you understand that music is actually a language that allows us to time travel and communicate across borders, it’s reframed as one of the most important attributes we have as living beings.
I’ve had more than my fair share of musical involvement as a child and an adult. From Hindustani flute lessons to high school acapella performances to an EP born out of pandemic-boredom, music runs through me. Each interaction with music has given me such rich experiences, connections, and memories - I’ll cherish them forever. Many such songs and bits of music defined periods and moments in my life; I’ll leave you with an unfinished list of them:
Money Trees by Kendrick Lamar - the most grooved-to song on the way to a high school robotics tournament
Dostana Soundtrack - the only album uploaded via USB into my dad’s minivan
Fine Line by Harry Styles - inspired a mid-college identity crisis, a bromantic friendship, and a love for painted nails
Colours of India by Ganesh & Kumaresh - the earliest recollection of recorded music that is now drilled in my mind like some fever dream
O by Coldplay - the most peaceful moment on the soft sands of Sleeping Bear Dunes
Peruvian Pan Flute CD from Puerto Rico - my first introduction to other-worldly instrumental music (which may have influenced my interest in the flute)
Airtel Ringtone by A.R. Rahman - the rhythm I would use to knock on the door of my bestfriend’s dorm room in college, just so that he knew it was me
Seventh Element by Vitas - the hardest I’ve laughed in my current apartment
Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan - the hardest I’ve cried during a movie (Life Itself)
Siegfried by Frank Ocean - the only song to inspire a tattoo on me, so far
Kanne Kalaimaane - the song my dad would sing, to lull me to sleep after I wet the bed
through my eyes
I had an absolutely splendid time in India - I experienced special moments with my grandparents and extended family in their village in Kerala, and had a peek at unique rural scenes across Tamil Nadu. With nearly 3000 photos in 20 days, it’ll take me some time to cull and edit the finest frames. I promise to share on Instagram and maybe even throw an album link on here next month.
Until then, here’s a fun one from the streets of Thanjavur, where I really only had 10 minutes, as we had stopped for lunch on a roadtrip. As I approached this flower vendor, she was weary of my presence and called me a “loose” which roughly means I have loose screws in my head - aka crazy. I asked her if I can take a photo of her and her beautiful flowers and she was not at all interested, telling me to get lost as she grabbed her pail of water. I lingered for a second longer before bringing the camera to my eye, and taking the shot - perfect timing as she threw the water at me. A special moment, totally worth being in the splash zone.
get kinky with it
In today's digital age, the buzz surrounding AI is palpable. People turn to ChatGPT and CoPilot for all kinds of requests and assignments, from school essays to data analysis. And all these random articles and tweets urge users to make AI chatbots roleplay as different personas to elicit the best responses. I find that approach somewhat kinky and also counterintuitive because of the psychological ramifications we might be headed towards. Are we really trying to convince these AI models they're anything but natural language processing chatbots fueled by user-driven machine learning? And to be honest, would you ever ask a lawyer to perform surgery on a pregnant woman? Of course not. Yet, we expect AI to seamlessly transition between roles they're never designed to fulfill.
The paradox here isn't just deep; it's downright weird. AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, are versatile tools capable of providing a myriad of responses based on the data they've been fed. But here's the kicker: they're not writers, they're not data analysts, and they're certainly not therapists. They're somewhat of a jack of all trades, providing information and assistance in a wide range of domains, but never truly mastering any one profession.
Moreover, the advent of trainable LLMs and custom GPT-4 models has expanded the capabilities of AI, allowing them to be trained to mimic experts in specific professions. However, it's important to recognize that while these systems can be honed to offer expertise-like responses, they lack the breadth and depth of human experience and understanding. They may excel in mimicking certain behaviors, but they cannot replicate the nuanced decision-making processes and real-world contextual awareness that human professionals possess.
So, what are AI chatbots, then? Well, they're essentially glorified search engines, akin to Google or Bing, with a knack for conversational interactions. They excel at sourcing and synthesizing information at lightning speed, approaching the efficiency of consulting an expert in a specific field. But expecting them to roleplay as experts in those fields is a stretch too far.
Consider this: imagine asking an AI chatbot for legal advice on a complex divorce case. Instead of providing sound legal counsel based on years of experience and expertise, the bot might offer generic responses devoid of nuance or context. This misguided use of AI as a roleplaying lawyer could lead to serious legal issues and potential cans of worms for those involved. It's a prime example of the pitfalls of overestimating AI capabilities and relying on them for tasks beyond their scope.
Instead of using AI for roleplay scenarios in complex and nuanced cases, it's more prudent to leverage its capabilities as an information database or even just to ask it questions for clarification or basic information retrieval. By recognizing the limitations of AI and using it judiciously, we can harness its potential while mitigating the risks associated with unrealistic expectations.
Let's take the AI revolution with a grain of salt. While AI chatbots have their utility, let's not delude ourselves into thinking they're something they're not. And as for this article—well, who's to say it wasn't also crafted by a clever AI chatbot? Food for thought.
—
This piece was written entirely by GPT-4 with multiple revisions and inputs from my end. I asked it to roleplay several times, sometimes as a writer for Fast Company and other times as my senior editor at WIRED. I had to open multiple new chats as it kept stumbling over edits, but alas, “we” landed on this.
This piece was inspired by The Consciousness Box by Michael Bateman.
link dump
shot on iphone isn’t just shot on iphone
“This year is flying by,” as most young professionals say jokingly with a hint of remorse at happy hour events in dimly lit bars in South Austin. I’m trying to keep up with the days and also fill my days enough to feel fulfilled - a silly paradox. I’m looking forward to more exciting travel in March, along with big steps made on the Strike & Ripple front. Drop me a note if you want to hear more about what we’re up to!
In other plans for March, I’d like to get back in the climbing gym, watch Dune 2, return Amazon orders in a timely manner, and make a good cocktail or two. Til the March pitstop, I hope your ears are filled with good tunes and noses are filled with nothing but clean air.