Art and AI

I started doing manual art things because I need a real world escape from the day to day AI.

In my day job, I use AI all the time. It’s in almost everything we do. For a lot of things, it is helpful. I created my own internal agent with an excited sparkly Aplaca persona. I tuned it to do routine things in my job using both internal only mcps, and some public ones. This has taken quite some work with steering and little “sops” pointing to different md files. What it does really well, is mid-level research. What it doesn’t do well is wisdom. It gives you the most likely “correct” answer, which at a senior plus level in a technical advisory role isn’t the same as the best or correctest.

That means that we humans must lean into the higher order thinking and do it intentionally. Using AI tools leads to a serious risk mentioned in Meadow’s Thinking in Systems and Ironies of Automation Operator blindness. As the agents and models get good enough, we stop verifying and checking. We begin to trust the system is operating nominally, and we get the correctish answer, instead of our desired output, the correctest.

When this happens, your work output becomes indistinguishable from anyone else’s. You become no more valuable than the agent.

How do you exercise your mind without becoming mindlessly numb? How do you avoid operator blindness in advanced systems that run at the speed of AI and all the models?

Oddly, it seems that the answer is to SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.

Over the last year or two I’ve been intentionally using pen and paper to write notes. There’s plenty of YouTube vids out there on “thinking on paper” and plenty of Talking Heads there to describe different strategies for Higher Order thinking. Even at my FAANG job I previewed an early training for my Field By Design role that directs us to Block out our calendar for DEEP THINKING sessions. This early version of the curriculum had a poorly reviewed AI generated cartoon showing the person blocking out their entire MONTH with “BLOCKED FOR DEEP THINKING TIME”. OKAY! SEE YA NEXT MONTH, SUCKAS, (maybe)

Quick Sidebar, I’m deep middle GenX age. I live with a Genetically Aqcuired Neurological Disorder that among other physical painful benefits I also get to deal with ADHD type barriers. //I won the wrong lottery// – I’m often looking for ways to manage this part of my own self. One common strategy is to journal. That’s how this started.

avoiding work is one of the best ways to quiet the mind.

Journaling on paper is hard. First, I have a constant voice or ‘movie ‘ running in my head of different narratives, ideas and other things that are a condition of my humanity. Once I open the page, click the pen and stare at that blank page, my mind’s ideas scurry into the dark corners like I turned on a light in my mind. (like the little fucking cockroaches the voices are…)

It’s been a little over a year. I’m halfway through my 2nd little notebook, and I have 3 large ones. If you look at the first pages of the first notebook from this edition of the effort, (I’ve tried before..) the writing is basic. boring. reading the news…. nobody fucking cares. These recent ones I’ve noticed a mix of writing, doodles, shitty sketches and quotes/notes things I’d like to remember. A strange thing has happened.

Reviewing my journals you’d see the ADHD and possibly anxiety driven psychosis and you’d likely “have concerns” and “what to have a talk”.. But- for me, I’m more calm. My constant baseline of anxiety and pain are dulled. I still experience some negative self talk, I’m still human, and still suffer from SIS (Severe Imposter Syndrome, but this may also be a reality. I have been lucky to work with some really smart fuckers.) I feel happier, and my AI Spidey Sense is getting good better every day.

So, to beat the AI, we must be more human, not faster than the AI. So, go buy a notebook and a pen you like write down shit. Draw some shitty doodles. Burn some cookies. Embrace your humanity.