How To Maintain Your Sanity Amidst (More) Unprecedented Times

Especially as you're reading through the most recent Open AI news

If you blink too fast, you might miss it:

Wars. Inflation. Tech.
Natural disasters. Pandemic. Science.
Fashion. Education. Politics.

In less than a decade life "as we knew it" had changed again, and again, and again.

These changes have been coming in so fast, that our understanding of the world has not had enough time to recover.

You may have noticed that it's becoming increasingly harder to normalize this disruption.

We can no longer use old rationalizations to justify a new world that is staring us in the face.

It's only been about 30 years since the World Wide Web was invented.
15 years since the first iPhone was released.
8 or so years since we started plugging into "smart technology."

And it's only been one year since we started adopting AI in mass.

One, singular, year.

If you're feeling awash with anxiety and worry about the future, your future, I first want you to know that you're not alone. There are millions of people out there asking themselves the same questions, carrying the same concerns and motivations, with the same financial responsibilities.

Depending on the kind of person you are, that thought may, or may not, help.
It helps me.

Secondly, I want you to remember that we've been here before.
And Humanity will (hopefully) prevail.

Without opening a single history book I can list several historical examples, from the not-too-distant future, when society needed to change its understanding of work, and the laws around labor:

The Abolition of Slavery. This required not only changes to laws but also a profound shift in social attitudes and economic practices.

The Industrial Revolution. Machineries began to automate work so we needed laws to regulate working hours, conditions, and the employment of children.

Automobiles triggered the need for developing traffic laws, safety standards, licensing requirements, and later, emissions regulations.

Radio and Television Broadcasting. Nuclear Energy. Financial Markets.

And, now (the infamous?) Internet and Digital Age.

Now we're dealing with issues of privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, and net neutrality. We're dealing with AI alignment, a tech arms race, and fears around job security. We're dealing with a seemingly infinite and a new and rapidly growing list of issues, some of which will reveal themselves by the time I finish writing this article.

My point is...

Life has never been smooth sailing. Ask your parents. And your grandparents. And your great-grandparents who probably had to go to war. And their parents before that, who had to do the same.

Greed has never not been an issue.

Opinions have never not been polarized.

And fear has never not been the governing emotion for any generation.

Having said that...

The problem is not that things are happening.

The problem is that things are happening too fast.

And while I try to maintain a cool head and excitement for the future, I also strongly believe that the 21st century could very well be the most important century - for all the wrong reasons.

Never has someone been able to cause so much harm with so little.

If you look at literally any graph ever, and zoom out to look at history in greater context, you will notice a substantial uptick right above the 21st century.

GDP up.
Healthcare access up.
Global Population up.
Greenhouse gas emissions up.
Deforestation up.
The possibility for a nuclear catastrophe, also up.

Things could very quickly go sideways.

My motivation for painting this picture is not to give you a false sense of security or, to do the opposite and fearmonger. I hope to empower.

Panic, hopelessness, and hatred are NOT driving emotions for positive change.

A few days ago, the Biden administration issued an executive order on AI. A few days after that, Open AI dropped another substantial update.

For better, or worse, life as we’ve known it has changed, yet again. Just like that.

One of the core tenets of Stoicism, is the dichotomy of control: the idea that we must learn to distinguish between what we can control - our own actions and responses - and what we cannot control - the inevitable changes and happenings of the world around us.

To maintain a sense of tranquility and sanity, you have to accept that life has always, and will always, change. The velocity at which it does so, is also beyond our control.

Make peace with change and you will be at peace.

And before your cognitive dissonance has the chance to object, please remember that just because you're accepting the current state of the world, it doesn't mean you're weakening your resolve to improving it.

It simply makes going insane, less likely.

P.S. I programmed my own Humane Marketing GPT. You can try it here.

Marketing as a job will likely be made redundant in the near future, so I’m trying to ensure that higher ethical standards will be infused in the AI that will help write/design/persuade.

I will keep improving it every day, until it can fully replace me.