There is a lot of excitement around using Chat GPT to generate ideas and writing.

You give it a prompt to answer a question or to help you nuance your thoughts.

Very exciting and of the zeitgeist.

But most of us have neglected our own version of Chat GPT.

Our subconscious is the OG intelligence.

Organic intelligence, not artificial.

Under utilised.

We need to learn to give it better prompts

And these prompts don’t have to be explicit. They do not have to be specific.

They can be subconscious.

Prompts may have been inputted in childhood, forgotten about, or something you didn’t even realise was a prompt: a book; TV programme; or a film.

Your subconscious can generate ideas from them.

Better to use a tool that no one else has access to.

My mind, like yours, is one in 8 billion.

I haven’t even begun to explore its capabilities.

I’d rather spend my time using my mind than AI.

“Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.”

– Mike Tyson

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“It helps, laying things down on paper. I call it ‘unfolding’. Everyone can do this, it doesn’t take expertise. Think of it as doodling, but with words. There’s a tyranny to education: learning to write frees you, but we’re restricted by being taught that formal sentences are all that’s worthwhile. Instead, scribble down fragments–think up half-lines mixed with song lyrics, lines from films, things people say. Don’t overthink it–it’s like talking with your pen. This process is a liberation for the mind.”

– Michael Rosen, Getting Better: Life lessons on going under, getting over it, and getting through it

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My writing isn’t perfect.

But it is done.

It’s released.

It’s available.

It is abundant.

I write in imperfect fragments.

But they are real.

They can be read.

They are infinitely better than the figments of my imagination.

They don’t exist.

They are useless.

They can’t be shared.

They are selfish.

Perfect is a figment of the imagination.

Perfection freezes at first contact with reality.

My writing is alive and free when it has been shared.

Ideas that are hoarded are fearful.

I am not afraid.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

– Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part III (1990) (Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola)

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“I find it useful to ask of any technology that is marketed as indispensable, What problem does it solve for me? Will its advantages outweigh its disadvantages? Will it alter my habits and language, and if so, for better or for worse?”

– Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

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Sometimes it feels like we live in a mediocre sci-fi movie.

Our devices alert us, call to us, hypnotise us, train us to respond to them.

I feel like a brave man turning off all alerts.

I train my messages to sit quietly and patiently until I want to see them.

It’s hard to simply finish your day’s work and leave it behind until the next day.

There’s always someone contacting you.

Directly or indirectly.

Trying to pull you back into thinking about work.

Trying to grab your attention.

Other people’s needs and wants.

A WhatsApp here. An email there.

When it is best to focus on what we need right now.

Read a book.

Fall asleep.

Take a breath.

Unlike Michael Corleone, we don’t risk physical harm if we ignore the requests.

A little FOMO perhaps.

I can live with that.

Can you?

“Idle dreaming is often the essence of what we do.”

– Thomas Pynchon, The Deadly Sins/Sloth; Nearer, My Couch, to Thee

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I publish on this blog at 5am every day.

Just before I wake up.

It was already scheduled.

My most important work has been completed before I’ve even opened my eyes.

Everything else I achieve in the day is a bonus.

My best work gets shared when I’m not even there.

Magic.

“Sitting on a high fence watching time pass me by. 

Hoping that an answer comes before it’s time to die. 

Which side is the side to bring a man peace of mind? 

The longer I sit the harder it is to find. 

Pass, pass me by. 

This is my price to pay so pass me by.”

–Hello People, Pass Me By (1971)

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“Most people never pick up the phone, most people never ask. And that’s what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You gotta act. And you gotta be willing to fail.”

—Steve Jobs (as quoted in Million Dollar Weekend, Noah Kagan)

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I have a distinct memory, made more so by repetition.

The early teenage me standing by my bedroom window waiting for the world to come to me.

Never pleasantly surprised.

No knock on the door.

Nothing could happen.

The world never recognises you.

If you just stand there, it passes you by.

You have to make yourself known.

Clear your throat.

Throw something of yourself out there.

Someone might notice.

The more you do this, the greater the chance of noticing.

With any luck, someone may arrive at your window curious to know more.

But never because you wished and willed it in your mind.

Your hands must move. Or your feet, or your mouth.

You must communicate.

Make the call. Speak the word. Write the sentence. Send the invitation.

Why not? It’s so simple.

This is a reminder to myself to move.

I’m in motion now.

No need to wait if you create.

“Buddhism, no matter the sect or form it takes, also has a Founder story. There’s a guy, not just any guy but a prince, who runs out on his family, his responsibilities, his place in society. He’s like the guy Leonard (Cohen) and I often referred to, a mythical figure, the guy who tells the wife he’s going out for a pack of cigarettes one day and never comes back.”

– Eric Lerner, Matters of Vital Interest

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“The good news is that, contrary to everything you’ve heard, you really can lead a more creative life despite all of it. I don’t care what you’ve been taught. I don’t care what you’ve been conditioned to believe. You can think more creatively right now. Without running off to an artist colony. Without disengaging from your responsibilities. Without waiting for some fictional muse that doesn’t exist and never did.”

– Ernie Schenck, The Houdini Solution

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You don’t have to run away to be creative or do creative work.

You can feel like an artist but you don’t have to wear it on your sleeve.

You don’t have to change your name.

You don’t need a dogma.

You don’t need a guru.

And you certainly don’t need to become one for anyone else.

Embracing the constraints of our day to day lives can give our creativity meaning.

There’s no time for navel gazing.

Which means there is no time for writers block.

You get done what you can in the time you have.

Write here. Write now.

“A good aphorism is a seed—often a barbed seed—that sticks in the mind of the reader and there germinates. An aphorism even when very brief has in it the embryo of a large train of thought. The reader feels a jar the moment the aphorism has hooked into his mind. Some aphorisms as they hit a mind stab and also titillate. The reader knows that something hit him.”

– Eric Hoffer, quoted in Eric Hoffer: The Longshoreman Philosopher, Tom Bethell

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“The aphorism is one of the earliest literary forms—the residue of complex thoughts filtered down to a single metaphor.”

– David Shields, Reality Hunger

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Offering up an aphorism is the opposite of ego writing.

You strip all the superfluous.

You realise that your presence is unnecessary

The aphorism doesn’t require instructions.

Just deliver the essence.

Let someone else’s mind take seed and cultivate it.

You have fulfilled your evolutionary purpose.

To pass on a copy of your thought.

You are no longer required.

“You’d do what I do if you had the nerve.”

– John Dillinger, Dillinger (1973), (screenplay by John Milius

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“Confidence is made up of two parts. The first is the bet you make with yourself that you can do something. This is the can do element. The second is a belief that if you do that thing, then the world will change a little. This is the can happen part.”

– Ian Robertson, How Confidence Works

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Some people seem to just have the nerve.

To do exactly what they want to do.

There seems to be no hesitation.

They have assertiveness.

They direct their will.

They don’t appear afraid.

Others fall line with their wishes.

They have confidence.

But it’s important to remember the fate of John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber of the 1930s.

Shot and killed by the FBI at the age of 31.

We could call what he had overconfidence.

We all have permission to be confident.

We can change the world a little.

We may not start commanding others’ awe with our confidence.

We likely won’t have movies written about our lives.

But we might start doing more of the things we truly want to do.

And confidence rewards our selves most of all.

All you need is a little nerve to make it happen.

“Early in its history, Google famously instituted a “20-percent time” program for all Google engineers: for every four hours they spend working on official company projects, the engineers are required to spend one hour on their own pet project, guided entirely by their own passions and instincts.”

– Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

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“So I took those five training hours that I’d previously dedicated to bodybuilding, and then to the craft of acting, and I turned them into a kind of immersion program for the language of politics and government. Every day, I studied and practiced like a foreign exchange student trying to learn the local language, reviewing my notes over and over again, and then speaking from memory until the words came naturally.”

– Arnold Schwarzenegger, Be Useful

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If you work 8 hours in a job, then 20% would be 2 hours a day for your own projects.

Arnold discusses how he spent 5 hours a day developing his body, learning acting, then studying politics.

I haven’t got five hours a day.

I think 2 hours is a stretch.

But 1 hour is definitely achievable.

This blog is part of my 1 hour, or 10% time.

It’s unpaid, financially.

But I get stock options in myself.

When you invest in yourself, the time spent is priceless.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

– Attributed to Abraham Lincoln

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“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

– Attributed to Albert Einstein

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These quotes are attributed to two famous men.

There’s certainly wisdom there

To take preparation seriously. Don’t rush into a task

Keeping things simple but not too much.

Is the advice wiser if they came from a recognisable name?

Perhaps. Like a recognisable brand we can trust.

But we don’t know who originally said these words.

Along the way they have been attached to a famous name.

But they are still useful words whoever said them.

And they were originally thought of and written by someone.

Maybe not a someone.

And that can be even more inspiring.

We do not need to be famous and successful to have useful thoughts that we can share.

We can all be wise.