She Blinded Me with Science: PYL In-Flight: Mar 22, 2023

Welcome Back My Influential Passengers:

I’ve been experimenting with various tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT (am now a monthly paid subscriber to get access to GPT-4), Bing AI, OpenAI’s DALL-E, and now Google’s Bard. I have access to Notion AI but haven’t given that one a try.

I had a topic for this week’s PYL In-Flight but was struggling to get started on it. It felt so overwhelming this week, to sit down and write. I’ve been distracted by a thousand little things, with way too much open space in my calendar, both of which left me paralyzed.

So with my access to Bard today I asked it to: Write a blog post about parenting young adults and college students, the transition as a mom or parent, how young adults struggle with adulting, and the transition for the parent

And this is what it gave me:

Parenting young adults and college students is a unique and challenging experience. As your child grows into an adult, you will find yourself letting go of more and more control. This can be a difficult process for both you and your child.

The transition to college can be especially difficult for both parents and students. As your child moves away from home, they will be faced with new challenges, such as living on their own, managing their time, and making new friends. Parents may feel a sense of loss as their child leaves home. They may also worry about their child’s safety and success in college.

There are a few things that parents can do to make the transition to college easier for both themselves and their children. First, it is important to talk to your child about what to expect. Help them to understand the challenges that they will face and how to overcome them. Second, it is important to stay in touch with your child. Let them know that you are there for them and that you support them. Third, it is important to trust your child. They are now an adult and they will need to make their own decisions.

Parenting young adults and college students can be a rewarding experience. As your child grows and learns, you will see them develop into a capable and independent adult. This is a time to celebrate your child’s accomplishments and to support them as they embark on the next chapter of their life.

Here are some tips for parenting young adults and college students:

• Let go of control. As your child grows into an adult, you will need to let go of more and more control. This can be a difficult process, but it is important to remember that your child is now an adult and they are capable of making their own decisions.
• Be supportive. Let your child know that you are there for them and that you support them. This will help them to feel secure and confident as they navigate the challenges of adulthood.
• Trust your child. Your child is now an adult and they will need to make their own decisions. Trust them to make good choices and to learn from their mistakes.
• Communicate. Communication is key to a successful relationship with your young adult. Talk to them about your expectations, their goals, and their challenges. Listen to them and offer them your support.
• Be patient. It takes time to adjust to adulthood. Be patient with your child as they learn and grow.
• Celebrate their accomplishments. Your child is now an adult and they are capable of great things. Celebrate their accomplishments and be proud of them.

I thought this was pretty damn good but it is fairly clinical. It doesn’t have my personality, nor is it written in my writing style.

Is it a good start for a blog post that I can build on? For me, not really. I like to bring my readers along with story, something you, as a reader, might be able to relate to. My goal is to share something and make my readers feel seen, heard, and less isolated in the world.

This did not even get close.

Bard (and the others) claim they will learn and get better over time. While I didn’t see a way to upload some samples for Bard to learn my style, I did try the following: Write in the following style (and I included the last PYL In-Flight).

And this is what I got:

Sure, here is my response:

It sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time on your 20-day trip to Europe. It’s great that you were able to take the time to write blog posts about your experiences, and it’s even better that you were able to relive the trip through pictures and notes.

I can relate to the feeling of being able to do what you want, when you want, without having to work around everyone else’s schedule. It’s a great feeling to be able to travel and explore without having to worry about anything else.

I’m glad that you and your son are planning another big trip together. I hope you have a great time and make some wonderful memories.

Here are a few tips for planning a successful road trip in Europe:

• Do your research. Before you hit the road, make sure you do your research and plan your route. There are many different ways to get around Europe, so it’s important to choose the best option for you.
• Book your accommodations in advance. If you’re planning on visiting popular tourist destinations, it’s a good idea to book your accommodations in advance. This will help you avoid any last-minute headaches.
• Be flexible. Things don’t always go according to plan when you’re traveling, so it’s important to be flexible. If you miss a train or a flight, don’t let it ruin your trip. Just take a deep breath and figure out your next move.
• Enjoy the journey. The road trip is just as important as the destination. Make sure you take some time to enjoy the journey and appreciate the beautiful scenery along the way.
• Make memories that will last a lifetime. Road trips are a great way to make memories that will last a lifetime. Soak up the sights, sounds, and smells of Europe and create some lasting memories with your loved ones.

Not exactly what I was looking for but an interesting experiment nonetheless.

DALL-E is a text to image platform that I played with to try to come up with the book cover image I’d originally wanted for Piloting Your Life. I heard about DALL-E and other text to image solutions on an a16z podcast titled Unlocking Creativity with Prompt Engineering.

Before listening to that podcast, I had no idea what prompt engineering was or that text to image technology was even a thing. And yes, I spent some time going down this rabbit hole before I decided that it’s still pretty early in the lifecycle as you can see from the image generated with the prompt: three women dressed as pilots walking away from a helicopter, one black woman carrying a flight bag, one white woman carrying headphones, one asian woman carrying a flight bag.

While I was at an end-of-season party for one of my tennis teams, the topic of ChatGPT came up and there were a few who had the opinion that it’s not a good thing. I disagreed.

Not only do I think these technologies are fantastic tools, I believe that we women should actively use as many of them as we can. Now!

With our use and interaction, we will be able to influence the future of these products. We can help eliminate or mitigate the biases, offer up new use cases, and encourage more ethical use of these tools.

We should also be teaching students how to responsibly use these tools. I’d heard someone say that it’s like the calculator was back in our day. We weren’t allowed to rely on them, we had to do the math ourselves. And now students without calculators are left out and left behind. Replace calculator with ChatGPt or DALL-E.

My son Adam used ChatGPT to study for an exam last week. He typed in the study question, read the response, asked other questions based on the response, and continued to dig into the topic, eventually learning more in the process. It was an effective study and educational tool. He loved it!

I’ve been using ChatGPT to research our trip to Europe at the end of May after Adam graduates. I asked questions like:

• What are the best places to see between Venice and Florence?
• What parts of Venice should we consider staying at in Venice?
• What is Umbria known for?
• What airlines fly between Paris and Venice?
• What are the best train stations to leave a Hertz rental car outside of Rome?

I also used it to ask some questions about my knee which is not happy after back to back matches Friday night and Saturday morning.

• Why would my knee be sore, stiff, and inflamed after tennis?
• What should I do to reduce the inflammation?

After getting the response, ‘while I’m not a doctor,’ ChatGPT offered up some answers and suggestions rather than links to articles or videos I had to click through to and read or view to try to get to an answer. This is a gamechanger for me as I don’t love to query and dig, query and dig, query and dig. Similarly, I am terrible at thrift stores and places where you have to sift through thousands of things on a rack. I just don’t have the required patience.

When I was asking questions about the trip and Adam was viewing my screen, he observed that search engines like Google are going to be a thing of the past. I agree.

Going back to why we need to interact with new technology when it comes out, Joanne Wilson (aka Gotham Gal) shared a post called Women Need to Break More Glass. The topic: I genuinely believe the world would be a better place if women transformed, amended, or at least modified the world.

From the post:

Why should women have to succumb to how men set up the world? The world needs some serious glass broken right now. What if, in every industry existing today, women decided to leave and begin the same sector with only women at the top? We can start with the banking world. It appears that they need a lot of help. Then move on to other industries, from media to the art world. There is so much that needs to change that could be run better and have better cultures, and it is long overdue to change how the majority of everything has been set in stone by male leaders.

And most of our biggest industries have been started by men. What would they look like if they were run by women who decided to break every single rule and create entirely different cultures? Workplaces that cared about their families, their health, and their life outside of the workplace. Where profits were distributed to everyone in the business, anything over a certain amount of profits would go to help others less fortunate. What a world we could create.

I responded back to her with one word (or number) 100%. She’s so right. Especially when it comes to companies like OpenAI that was founded by someone with a less than stellar reputation. Note: it does look like they have a woman CTO.

We need to claim our space to be heard and to influence what exists and how we operate in the world.

Using new technology is just one of the ways we can do it. And right now, these tools are a great place to start.

Let me know what you are experimenting with, how you are using the tools, and what I should be looking at next. If you try out a tool because of this post, please let me know. Try more than one. I like Bing AI for some things that don’t work as well in ChatGPT. Bing AI suggests follow up questions that you can select and includes links to the sources which I think is very helpful.

May you find peace, acceptance, and love today as you navigate being human.

With much love and gratitude,

Terri

This week’s song: She Blinded Me with Science by Thomas Dolby. When I was thinking about songs about experimenting, it lead me to think about science and then this 1980s favorite popped into my head. I can’t remember the last time I heard this song but it’s quite fun. It’s also fun to watch music videos from the early days.

Journal prompt / reflection: Do I embrace new technology? Am I intimidated? How can I be more curious?

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