Self-worth: A Story about Cake Mix and AI

Stories infuse every aspect of my life. I wake up and the narration begins. My morning prelude is disappointingly two-dimensional and starts with one of two options, most of the time.?

1. “I am tired”
2. “Yay”?

This year may see the addition of a third option as The Toddler starts “big school” at the end of the month - a whole 90 min earlier than kindergarten did.

I’d love to say I start my day with gratitude and meditation. While I grind the beans and press the red button, I move on to telling myself how I feel, what I am going to do, and, often because I likely got around 5 hours of sleep, that everything is ok and that "this is nothing my eye cream can’t fix."?

Then begins what I affectionately refer to as the high-risk part of my morning. This is the moment in which I assess whether a quiet voice or coordinated song and dance is required to ensure that The Toddler starts her day the right way. The right way, I have established, is based on a “we don’t cry in the mornings” philosophy; we say good morning, hug, and begin to chat about her story for the day.?

The story about our day continues in the car as we weave through the greenery and often past a cow or two. This is where I give it all I’ve got. I tell The Toddler who she is and what she is going to do. I tell her she is so kind and so strong. She chimes in, “and big.” I tell her to make sure that she says hi to everyone as we arrive and I ask her to be a good friend and nice to everyone. I tell her that’s who she is: that you never know who may need a friend today, but I know that she has it in her to be that friend.

As I head to the office, I begin to tell myself, often in a less linear way, that today is going to be great. I am going to wrap up that video, send out that update, work on that pitch, and wrap up that proposal. And I do all of this to the loud background music of Chase and Status’ boiler room mix. If you know, you know.?

“I’m not technical” is also a story I tell myself.

I don’t know when it began but I expect that it’s had the same detrimental effect that “I am not mathematical” has had on my sense of self-worth. Things that I am good at, are often narrated by my mother's voice in my head.?

Actual texts from my mother:

For over a decade, I made it my purpose to tell others’ stories, and my chosen medium was conversation.

I recruited talent and built teams of the best, for the best. I loved my job, it didn’t just involve telling the candidate or the client's story, but truly and deeply understanding it to make decisions.?

I still interview a lot of brilliant people. Marketing experts. AI comes up a lot in martech conversations and I have had the privilege of hearing many professional opinions: the case for operational efficiency, the case for creative expansion, and, of course, the lingering warnings about AI.

The Urban Legend:

GM (General Mills, not General Motors) had a surplus of flour post World War II. And the box cake mix was born. Also, this shortening and simplifying of the process made women feel less. Less important to the outcome, less engaged and committed to their craft, their family. The entire experience of baking was diminished as their input was simplified and bastardized.

Enter the Clever Marketers. “Add an Egg” became the new CTA on the box, a woman's role was amplified once again, and balance in the kitchen was restored.??

The Actual Facts:

According to Laura Shapiro, a culinary historian, “what it was really about was using up molasses.” And it happened in the 1930s when John D Duff, of Duff & Sons, applied for a patent for an invention that was essentially solving the molasses-excess problem. Of course, this invention also curbed the issue of managing the complexity of baking but according to the academics, adding the egg didn’t have so much to do with the baker’s sense of self-worth but rather, fresh eggs tasted better than powdered eggs.?

We are the culmination of the stories we tell ourselves.

The story we tell ourselves about AI will most certainly impact how we engage with it.?

As marketers, writers, and creative thinkers, perhaps we should subscribe to the falsehood, the urban legend of the cake mix.

Perhaps adding the egg is just what we need to do and perhaps defining what the egg means to us is the most important part of this game.

And, if you have made it this far, here is a completely irrelevant and gentle note from my mother: