We all have a negativity bias
In my free time, I enjoy dabbling in some psych literature. I've always thought it'd be an interesting major to study in undergrad, and maybe in another life I'd be your Psychologist. Who knows if I'd be a good one, but it's safe to say it occupies some of my time and is a nice plant I'll continue to water.
I'm no Freud, but I have my own interests in meta cognition and appreciation for a good book about why I, or you, are thinking the way you're thinking. I've read some of the hits from Gladwell and the Best Seller Atomic Habits, but also part-time-studied Wayne Dryer.
I'll dive into this niche another day.
For now, this is my attempt at a smooth segue into our negativity bias as humans and an interesting thought process to leverage modern tools.
Compliments Feel Good.
Call it ego, but most people (me included) appreciate a genuine compliment, the kind that’s earned, not fished for. I try to practice positive self-talk, because as Daniel Kahneman and David Goggins (stay hard) point out, you can truly influence your mood or your mind. In other words, you control your thoughts.
As it probably read in your second grade classroom, thoughts turn to words, words to actions, or something along those lines.
What if you could hear it from somebody else?
I'm not saying going online and fishing for compliments. You should not be asking people to pump up your self-esteem and create some artificial balloon of confidence. No, what I mean is really hearing it in a different way.
The issue is not that you don't receive enough compliments, it's that you don't give yourself enough credit. You might not hear the compliments. I had a strong supporter of mine tell me in a time of frustration, that the person I was a year ago, would be very proud of myself today. This simple comment has stuck with me and I try to pull it out of my bag of tricks every now and again.
My thought process is this: what if someone could reiterate the struggles you’ve overcome or give your accomplishments the justice they deserve, would you still feel the same dopamine hit if it came from artificial intelligence?
It starts with a simple prompt
For those unfamiliar, a simple structure to follow when prompting your favorite LLM is Task, Context, Persona, References, Evaluate and Iterate, if necessary. In the screenshot below, or link here, you can see a sample prompt I've constructed in ChatGPT with this format, but with some of the details from my own life experiences thus far. At the risk of data privacy (who know's what can be sold now), I've used some inaccurate info and names.
Go ahead and copy the output, or convert it to a pdf., then drop it into NotebookLM. Notebook LM is an note taking AI tool launched by google labs in 2023. It's updated with the latest gemini models and has been a lifesaver as a graduate student.
If I have a 40 page document I need to read by tomorrow, I can convert it to a 20 minute captivating podcast and listen on my way to campus. If your a visual learner you can even generate a video explanation as well, pretty effing cool.
The big reveal
Take a quick listen in to the 10 minute podcast linked below, it's really creepy and cringey to hear, but it does what was intended, to hear a third party talk about you.
It still needs some fine tuning, but you get the gist. I encourage you to try it yourself to see how it makes you feel. If you’re feeling a laugh, here’s the move: upload a friend’s info, turn it into a podcast, and then casually throw it on during a car ride. Sit back and wait for the moment they realize the “episode” is literally about them.
Until next time, disfruta.
