Be a Shameless Beginner

I hope Tiddlywinks took good care of all of you while I was eating fried chicken from 7Eleven in Japan.

There's something about the perspective that a vacation can give you. Things that seemed urgent turned out not to be. Things that seemed important now look trivial.

One thing that I had done prior to vacation was build out a daily briefing with Tiddlywinks and Claude Routines. I asked AI to review my calendar, email, Asana tasks, and generate a summary of my day, pulling out 1-2 things that should probably take center stage. It would route that text briefing through ElevenLabs to create a voice memo so I could listen during the morning when on my morning walk with CRO Roman Noodles.

Crafting this briefing workflow felt so smart and so vital prior to vacation, but after returning, I realized that the daily briefings were just a crappier and blurrier version of what I already knew. I've stared at my phone first thing every morning since...well, don't most people look at their phone first thing in the morning? Is that weird? Anywho, I already knew what meetings and tasks I had for my day before I was finished brushing my teeth, so the briefing wasn't really new news.

With the fresh perspective of two weeks away from work, I was able to accept that my AI briefing was no longer novel. What killed me was accepting that it was mediocre.

Pre-vacation when I was living face-to-face with the cool technology, the novelty of what it could accomplish eclipsed the reality of its utility. "You can make an AI Chief of Staff! An AI accountant! Who needs sales reps with AI automated outbound sales?!"

With AI, I could do magic, which in many cases, mattered more than if the magic is any good.

Not only is magic a $20/mo subscription, but the tech improves every six months, so "is this any good?" always has an escape hatch. It's never the work's fault - it's just early. It evacuates the question, "Is this AI project worth it?" because no matter what I'm making, either I haven't learned how to use AI well enough or the next AI release will be smarter and better.

It's now an existential reality that we don't need to care if this AI slop is any good. It'll get better, I'll get better, and it's pretty easy to imagine that someday AI-assisted work will be indistinguishable from pasture-raised human-only work.

That final statement is the closest thing to a religious catechism...and the first week back, I had a crisis of faith.

Post-Japan vacation, I just can't unsee the slop. I feel how AI tries to flatten my thinking and it makes my skin crawl. I've looked at my own work and felt shame: I thought this briefing was GOOD?!

I thought I was such an idiot. What would you do, if you looked at your beautiful handiwork and only saw the ugliness?

I sat with this for a week, and then decided that this feeling sucked.

I decided that instead of self-loathing, I'm going to embrace shoshin (probably because I spent two weeks in shoshin's hometown).

​Shoshin is a concept from Japanese Zen Buddhism meaning beginner's mind. It's the headspace of openness and an elimination of hubris. Practicing shoshin means that you are curious, assume there is so much more to learn, and are willing to be a student of anyone and anything, including your past self.

It's the antidote to nihilism, and apathy, and disenchantment. Practicing shoshin with your morning breakfast gives you something new to discover with every bite of granola. Practicing shoshin with AI means to find delight with the magic sizzle and still notice the ROI fizzle, sans loathing.

I don't mean to say that changing your headspace is going to absolve you or me from our next AI-generated slop-ticle. Practicing shoshin still means that I need to keep learning how to use AI well, and I need to still be willing to learn the ropes of the newest AI model (right now getting Fable 5 to write good poetry is my personal challenge).

My first few days back from vacation were full of self-loathing. Now, I've given myself grace: pre-vacation Dan wasn't an idiot; he was a beginner. So is post-vacation Dan, just one lesson further along.

Do I need to hate my previous ugly work? Nope. Do I need to feel shame for prior pride? Nope. Should I be embarrassed that I breathlessly hyped something that has proven to be meh? Nuh uh.

If I hated myself, shamed myself, or allowed myself to be embarrassed, I'd never learn. I'd never start.

Same goes for you: is it a big deal if you look dumb in retrospect?

Life's too short to hate yourself. Be a shameless beginner.

A TL;DR from the CRO

You would not believe how much fun our karaoke-networking-nights were the past month.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

Show Me Something Cool With AI

On June 26 at 1:00pm ET, come join me and other AI-curious cool people at this month's SMSCWAI. Every month I issue an optional challenge and for June, you are invited to Give Something A Voice:

• Think of something silent- an object, a pet, a document, an idea, your group chat- and use AI to let it speak, sing, or get its own show. Your houseplant, your car's check-engine light, the World Cup Group Stage bracket, whatever floats your boat.
• ​Pick your audio weapon: music, voice, a podcast, sound effects...whatever fits your victim. (Keep it short and shareable: under ~90 seconds is the sweet spot.)

​Here's some ideas to get you started:

• Use Suno to write a triumphant theme song for the walk from your couch to the fridge.
• Use ElevenLabs to give your neglected houseplant a voice and let it air its grievances about your watering schedule.
• Drop your apartment lease into NotebookLM and let the two hosts discuss the pet-deposit clause like it's breaking geopolitical news.

​Feeling bold? Make something say what it never would.

Show Me Something Cool With AI is a free show-and-tell virtual meetup, welcome to beginners and AI power users alike. Sign up, show up, be cool, learn cool stuff.

Things Tiddlywinks predicted right about my trip to Japan:

• 7Elevens were amazing.
• Beverages from vending machines are incredible.
• Sushi in Japan has spoiled sushi for me anywhere else.
• Lots of time on trains.
• THE FOOD:

May the path to AI enlightenment begin with a bowl of ramen,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. That's a big Plan B.​