An Experiment In Intention Morning Intentions. using Claude.AI 3.0 March 5, 2024
Created by: Rob Tyrie (Linkedin Profile)
This is an experiment. Yesterday the new version of Claude.AI was released. Based on early reviews it has near or very close performances to ChatGPT 4. On a number of tests, it does exceed the capabilities of ChatGPT. In announcements from the company, they claim that it has better reasoning capabilities and a specialty around financial analysis that will be very interesting to business people.
As is my normal practice when something you really like this gets released I run a few tests. This morning I did something rapidly to test the capability of some Journal writing.
I created a set of original writing that was based on information that I know about. I kept things at a high level thinking about philosophy and approach to business and wanted to expand the ideas into a longer form piece. I set up a clear prompt for Claude.ai and gave it instructions to produce a short result and then a longer result. I find that this prompt pattern produces more dependable ideas all though repetitive.
This is the original writing:
Good Morning..Seize the Day.
Embrace that sunrise and get something done today that you wouldn't otherwise do. And, remember to be grateful for the things that you have and the things that you've earned.
Control the things you can control and be patient with the universe for those things and people you cannot control.
Remember that you can't control any other human being, however, you can be interdependent with anyone.
Find peace and delight in the creation of things by your own hand from your own mind.
Assume for Good intentions from other people around you and that things you think are evil might be mistakes and omissions.
Ask the people you work with how you can help them tune into conversations as early as possible. This is a great way of deciding how to engage.
As.Stephen Covey said, "Seek first to understand...". That's a good way to start any conversation with a friend or enemy.
That's a good way to start the day. Good morning. 🌞
#7Habits #brucethespruce
It’s pretty derivative and based on things that I’ve read and understood across the last few decades. I wanted to see if the bot could expand and pick up on some of the illusions of the operations and philosophies that I was alluding to.
Overall. it does a pretty good job of writing at the pretty good senior undergrad level. I have to do some double-checking but I didn’t notice any egregious errors or confabulations. I purposely picked people that were well written about in time. I laughed out loud when Odysseus entered the picture. I’m highly skeptical of the quote but I do kind of love it.
Here’s the experiment and think about where I started and where it is. If I was really writing this for publication… in a journal or some publication on www.greyswanguild.com, I would spend another hour fussing over the editing and adjusting it to match a few more things. I think I want to change that be a metaphor but I’m not quite settled on that yet 🌼🐝.
This is the prompt that I use to generate the essay:
User “Hi we’re going to do some work here on creating an essay that’s fit to be published in the New York Times as an op-ed… it’s about morning intentions. I’d like to expand these thoughts and dip into different philosophies like those of Marcus Aurelius, Peter Drucker, and Stephen Covey.. in my work that I will paste here. Please read it three times. And then I start expanding it to make it clear... add a steel thread of a metaphor through it. Work on an essay that is clear novel interesting has high perplexity... There should be wit and you were like that in articles published in The Economist.”
User:
“Expand this to a 1500-word essay created by Rob Tyrie an entrepreneur. He writes things on robtyrie.Medium.com and on greyswanguild.com”
Here is a 1500 word essay on morning intentions, expanded from the previous draft and written from the perspective of Rob Tyrie, an entrepreneur who writes at robtyrie.medium.com and greyswanguild.com:
Seize the Dawn: A Meditation on Morning Intentions
Created By Rob Tyrie(Claude.AI)
Each new dawn offers a fleeting moment of pure potentiality. As the first rays pierce the night's stillness, the world around us seems to hold its breath, awaiting the day's directions and designs. In this fragile space between dreaming and awakening, we are unconstrained by the day's demands, crystallizing intentions not yet hardened into inevitability.
How will you wield this whisper of inception? What longings will you breathe into existence before the wind of obligations overpowers your aspirations? This is the still point- the pause where you choose whether to let the day become yet another dropping sand through the hourglass of mundanity...or to seize the dawn as a fresh chance to create, to grow, to impact the world in a way it wasn't before you opened your eyes.
For me, the morning familiars - hot black coffee, a belting stretch, the comforting routines - serve as a ritual for harnessing and directing my intentions. I'm reminding myself through these motions that while so much is outside my control, my power and my agency still await in the unstruck morning hours. As Marcus Aurelius reminded himself daily, "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."
With my first few sips of coffee, I feel gratitude well up from deep within me. Not the saccharine disposable gratitude of hashtag inspirational posts. A bone-deep gratefulness for the earnings of my life’s labour thus far - relationships, experiences, and learnings. An appreciation for the cumbersome backpack of failures and detours that became intuition and wisdom. I didn’t choose the circumstances I’ve been handed, but my energy comes from the distinctive patina of efforts spent polishing those circumstances.
As the caffeine enters my bloodstream, I feel a subtle power localizing in my mind, locus of control and intention amassing. The same biological chemistry prompting bees to leave their hive also stirs me - that longing "to bring something sweet back." For what is our purpose as humans if not to use our big brain’s capacities to create, build, produce, and make things a little better through our endeavours? As Aurelius wrote, "What is not good for the swarm is no good for the bee."
My intentions become convictions as I identify the few domains I can truly control with constructive effort: My thoughts, my actions, my words, my choices. Everything else - the obdurate externalities, the fickle whims of others - I must have the wisdom to influence with patience and strong but supple efforts. To borrow the metaphor of Peter Drucker, I am the CEO myself, responsible for dynamically allocating my organization's limited resources toward purposeful work while ceding to the forces of the broader market.
That doesn't mean resigning myself to shutting out the world, Stillpointed morning is the time to honestly assess where interdependence can accelerate progress. To use Stephen Covey's advice: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." I take stock of the personal and professional relationships requiring my renewed commitment to listen deeply, meet others across lines of difference, and unite rather than divide our interests and efforts.
I find this attitude of curiosity, humility, and willingness to be influenced by others often reveals blind spots and unlocks forward motion. Like the sun coaxing seedlings out of the earth through gentle life-giving warmth and light, real elevation emerges most vibrantly through mutual nurturing and revelations sparked across the fertile spaces between our minds.
My morning intentions metamorphose into a personal strategic plan as I approve new priorities, dismiss distractions, and map the day's highest-impact projects and personal renewals. The simple reminder "Do one thing today you wouldn't otherwise do" becomes a dare to myself - a gauntlet thrown for my future self to pick up. Will I stretch my creative muscles, tackle a long-avoided challenge, and inject more discipline into my habits? The ante has been anted.
Of course, as Odysseus (sic: allegedly) warned, "No day is wholly foul, root-hoary bastards though we are." The morning inevitably gives way to the hectic day’s riotous barking. Appointments, emails, interruptions, obstacles - the tide of other people’s urgencies come crashing back in. Without the intention-shaping respite of dawn, it would be so easy to become unrooted, whipped around by the cyclone of other forces.
But now, anchored by the steel threads of morning ambition, the high-stakes priorities etched in acute clarity - I can roll with the day's punches yet remain upright, a stalwart tree bowing temporarily in strong winds yet stubbornly clinging to its rootedness. The gale-force demands will eventually retreat, and in their wake, my true work remains - the cultivation of incremental progress on cherished creations.
As the long shadows of evening exhale, I review what ground was gained, what fruitful efforts blossomed despite drought and storm. I tally progress toward the year's mission, and identify new areas to develop or double down. And just before extinguishing today's fire to rekindle my intentions at the first arch of tomorrow's dawn, I repeat a solemn vow:
"In pursuit of my life's longings and duties, I will wield the mornings as a prized window of influence - not to obstinately control the uncontrollable, but to purposefully harness my thoughts and energies daily toward worthy aims. To intentionally and interdependently create, grow, and spread more of what I wish to see flourish in this world."
Night inevitably arrives, but with the passage of darkness, the sun's preparatory rays will soon refract once more. A fresh inhalation of potentiality awaits to be seized at the dawn. Will you greet it as another day flitting by, unintentionally spent? Or will you approach the morning as an invitation - a sparse but sacred opening to breathe life into your life's dearest intentions?
The choice, as always, is yours when you open your eyes. Good morning.
[Ed. (Fact check (ChatGPT): While the themes of hope, resilience, and the changing nature of days are present, there’s no clear-cut line from Odysseus that aligns perfectly with the phrase "No day is wholly foul, root-hoary bastards though we be." It appears that the original quote might be a modern invention or adaptation rather than a direct translation from the ancient text. If there’s a specific sentiment or theme you’re trying to trace in "The Odyssey", I can help look for that! — oh yeah,. Claude.ai made up that Homer Quote, which is too bad because I love it!]
I am Rob Tyrie. I am an independent advisor and the CEO of IronstoneAdvisory.com. I have almost four decades of experience creating a building software for large-scale organizations for sales and marketing, finance, analytics and other specialized operations. I am focused on bringing new tools like model generation tools and artificial intelligence to the insurance and banking Industries in Canada, America and the rest of the world.
I’m also a founder and a managing director of the Grey Swan Guild, a virtual think tank that creates publications, reports and events to help people think and hopefully make the world a bit of a better place. We do useful things.
On the long weekends, and good breaks, you’ll find me reading a good book, listening to good music, hanging at the library in maker spaces, or exploring the world in the Parks with my Jeep and hopefully in a canoe too.
