WHAT ChatGPT is teaching me about Navigation and Drift

I HAVEN'T written much on social media for years, or indeed anywhere in public, for a mix of reasons. Partly I've been enjoying the deep dive of active listening afforded by my 2017 entry into coaching - such a delicious contrast with being pebbledashed by Twitter as head of charity comms.?

There's also the fact that when I write, I like to be honest and open, and in the past few years I've been negotiating very difficult personal changes which still need privacy and care. While journaling as fervently as ever, I've tried to be patient with my resistance to "outward facing" writing, received plenty of coaching on it, and trusted that I'll write again when I'm truly ready.?

Sure enough, I've recently felt a bit of writerly wind in my sails around the idea of intentional drift, and how it relates to navigation through life. It seems to me that modern culture frames any kind of drift as failure. Certainly, coaching clients often come to me feeling shame at being "adrift" in their lives - even the ones who have reached destinations most people might judge as success, be it wealth, status or a loving family.?

I like to help these clients hold the possibility that drifting is actually an essential part of way-finding, particularly in the second half of life, when we often need to sift out goals that were merely borrowed from our upbringing or society, in order to find our own calling.?

I've arguably made a profession of such drifting - whether literally in my nautical and journalistic travelogues, or metaphorically in the semi-accidental discovery of coaching as a generative space for deep diving.

SHADOW DRIFT?

But people keep asking me what's happened to my writing, and I'd be kidding myself I didn't admit there's probably also a shadow element to my 15-year hiatus from publishing. It first solidified with a failure to finish a first attempt at a novel back in 2011 and has settled since into not wanting to write anything public, be it blog, tweet, article or paperback, that isn't completely thought through.?

If I was coaching myself I'd at least be wondering if this isn't just common-or-garden performance anxiety or perfectionism. And with that suspicion I've recently been opening myself a little more to conversations and opportunities to test the ideas that are exciting me, whether with friends, colleagues, podcasters, or most recently and alarmingly, with #chatgpt.?

I'm late to the AI party, but this afternoon I decided to jump in with both feet:

AI suddenly makes "writer's block" seem as quaint as a Victorian bathing costume.

Me: "Can you write me a poem about navigation and drift?"

ChatGTP [after about 5 seconds]:

Amidst the vast and endless sea

Where the horizon meets infinity?

Navigating through the waves we go?

A journey to destinations unknown

With charts and compass in our hand?

We plot our course to foreign lands?

Guided by the stars above?

We set our sights on distant coves

But sometimes the winds they shift and blow?

And take us where we did not know?

Drifting on the currents wide?

Lost in the open ocean tide

Yet even in the midst of drift?

We hold on to hope and a sense of gift?

For sometimes it is in wandering free?

That we find the path we're meant to be

So let the winds take us where they may?

And guide us through the night and day?

For in navigation and in drift?

We find adventure and our spirits lift.

MACHINE WISDOM?

I was gobsmacked. Okay, so it's not going to win the TS Eliot Prize just yet, but there's some wisdom here, right? Is it genuine machine wisdom, or just pinched from someone online???

Me: Thankyou! Is this your own work?

ChatGPT: Yes, I wrote the poem myself. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Me: [hoping to expose philosophically hollow AI algorithm] What does it mean??

ChatGPT: The poem explores the theme of navigation and drift, which can be interpreted metaphorically as a reflection of our journey through life.

In life, we often set out with a plan, like sailors charting their course across the sea, but sometimes unexpected winds and currents can take us off course, just as life's circumstances can push us in unexpected directions.

The poem suggests that even in times of drift or uncertainty, we can hold onto hope and trust in the journey. Sometimes, wandering free can lead us to unexpected and valuable experiences that we might have otherwise missed if we had stuck to a rigid plan.

Ultimately, the poem celebrates the adventure and beauty of navigating the unknown and the value of staying open to the unexpected.

INTENTIONAL DRIFT

Me: [wheeling out my favourite idea] What would happen if we were to drift intentionally?

ChatGPT: Drifting intentionally can mean purposely letting go of control and allowing ourselves to explore new experiences and opportunities without a predetermined plan or direction.

Intentional drifting can be a powerful way to break out of routine, challenge our assumptions and beliefs, and expand our perspective on life. By letting go of expectations and embracing uncertainty, intentional drifting can help us discover new passions and interests, connect with people from different backgrounds and cultures, and gain valuable insights about ourselves and the world around us.

However, it's important to note that intentional drifting can also come with risks, such as losing a sense of direction or feeling overwhelmed by the lack of structure. It's important to balance the benefits of drifting with a sense of purpose and direction, and to be mindful of our own needs and limitations.

Overall, intentional drifting can be a powerful tool for personal growth and discovery, but it's important to approach it with intention and awareness, and to stay grounded in our values and goals."

OUT OF A JOB?

My first reaction to this is: Holy Sh*t - I am out of a job - both as a writer and a coach.?

My second reaction is a sense of excitement, a call to step up. Like when you're expecting a routine call-centre-level exchange and it turns out to be one of those mind-blowing philosophical conversations that sometimes start up late at night round a campfire/kitchen table.

It feels like a sort of vertigo, close to what I experienced once aboard a reed boat hitting the huge, slow Pacific swell, realising just what a tiny dot I was in an enormous ocean. Is anyone else feeling this queasy excitement, with the daily headlines of panic from AI experts, a sense of riding something that is going to change everything?

If this is what machine-learning can come up with in a matter of seconds, in response to an artistic and then philosophical prompt, aren't creatives as much as actuaries heading for an unrecognisable world? Even if the doom-mongering about AI falling into the wrong hands proves unwarranted, I'm already feeling the massive impact on my sense of what meaningful work means.?

Interestingly, this revelatory interaction with AI is also the first thing which has kicked my arse hard enough to get me writing this - and pressing publish before I've had time to edit, refine or bottle out. I'm never going to be able to compete with the hive mind of the world - but perhaps this writing thing was never a competition in the first place.

What if, in my desire to be sure of what I write, I've missed out on the joy of jumping in the river with everyone else, and seeing where it takes us? Of publishing deliberately at dodgy first draft stage as part of the learning? ChatGPT freely admits that it "may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts". Can I at least relax enough to contract for my own possible mediocrity?

UNFINISHED DRAFT

Truly, AI makes "writer's block" seem suddenly as quaint as a Victorian bathing costume. I'm almost laughing at the utter irrelevance, complete pointlessness of my waiting till I've formed a perfect thought or perfect sentence, in a world where the try-fail-learn-improve cycle of machine learning can create such a fascinating starter-for-ten in as many seconds.?

What a nuanced, balanced, elegant piece of thinking from our collective digital worldwide brain:?"It's important to balance the benefits of drifting with a sense of purpose and direction, and to be mindful of our own needs and limitations."

And suddenly, my need is to embrace those limitations in the name of finding new direction. I feel both braver and more afraid, looking at what's drifting towards us. As this vast AI wave of infinite potential and possible menace builds slowly offshore, I seem to want to navigate towards it.?

What about you?