More Inspiration and another story....

I once again come to you with another story from my life inspired by none other than our resident thinker Mr. Tony Carr (see the link below to his article that started it all). For some context this article may initially not seem connected so here is the moral before the story. Tony writes about using words, overusing words, and such general ideas. This made me think of Chat GTP and BAIRD and the like. Why? I am glad you asked. ?? Just like using a thesaurus or any other TOOL we can sometimes end up out of our depth. Many of the AI developments are like this. They may fool us into thinking we know more or are better than we are. Such was the case for me in my story....

I was in my mid-twenties. working at a landscape company as their mechanic. Small family-owned outfit of about fifty or so employees. I answered to the owner or one of his sons as it were. His sons were close to my age and into all the things young men of that age and with their means tend to be into. In this case, it was motorcycles and dirt bikes in particular. They came to the shop to have me work on one of the units that was not running quite right. Most of them were standard two-wheel units but they did have one three-wheeler. I got the bike fixed and was being chided to take one for a ride. Now I had owned dirt bikes previously, but It had been years since I had ridden one. At first, I declined. The pressure mounted. To set the stage for what comes next I will tell you the drive into the shop was gravel and about a quarter mile long. More pressure from the group I give in and mount the three-wheeler. A quick pull and it roars to life. I click it into gear and take off down the drive. Behind me, I hear Trey (the boss's son) start his bike and him coming up behind me. Competitive spirit kicks in. I begin catching gears and push the throttle for all it has got. Trey and his two-wheeler nipping at my heels. The end of the drive is fast approaching. I cut the power... dropped gears... and leaned in. The bike digs in and responds... A small push of the throttle, some crunching of gravel, and I am heading back in the other direction. Trey turns and is right back on me. I begin swerving right and left in a vain attempt to hold him off. I crossed the main gate into the shop (the imaginary finish line in my mind) and "won". still moving at nearly top speed. I shot down past the shop turned around the backside and noticed the stump. I rocked the three-wheeler up onto two wheels and counterbalanced it with my body weight as the wheel skipped over the top of the stump. I was still upright! I cut the last two corners and skidded to a stop in front of everyone. I killed the motor and hopped off. I pointed at the three-wheeler and said "That thing is going to get someone killed". I had nearly been "someone". For those brief five minutes, I felt invincible. The unit "felt" so stable. so unshakable. It made me feel like I knew what I was doing. Like I could do anything. I got lucky. I had no business riding as I did. Yes, I did it. Yes, I take responsibility. Still.

It is much the same as the words mentioned in the post from Tony. Add in AI and it gets even worse. We feel "stable" and "invincible". As long as in the end we know our limits and keep them in mind. be careful out there....

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/anthony-b-carr_writing-thought-for-today-usually-if-you-activity-7187013711105040385-RSfx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

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