We have all seen the movies, we know how this plays out, yet we continue to feed the monster that is trying to kill us...
I'm talking about AI.
I never thought I'd be the old man yelling at the new technology about the dangers that it brings. I'm well aware that in 1899, the former U.S. Commissioner on Patents Charles H. Duell famously said, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." The car, the phone, the internet... It has improved humanity greatly. However, this time I really believe that it is different. Here is why I still have never used AI and don't plan to anytime soon.
Remember when you were a kid and you had to go visit some place that you had never been? Someone gave you instructions and eventually you figured it out. Your subconscious mind was picking up on all sorts of details around you because you were going to need to remember this spot if and when you returned. You always found the spot you were looking for. I remember my senior trip to California when my buddy Dave printed out an entire folder of directions to each and every potential tourist trap in California. Half the fun of that trip was figuring it all out.
Then Mapquest and eventually Garmin came out with GPS and today we have Google or Apple Maps at our fingertips. About a month ago, I was looking for a boxing gym in Herriman. I was given the address, but instead of using my brain and thinking about it (located around 2700 W.) I just typed it into my phone and started driving. Eventually, the GPS took me to a neighborhood and it said we had arrived. I knew this wasn't the right spot, so for the first time, I looked at the address and realized I was on about 5500 W. The address I had literally typed in was 2700 W., yet here I was about 30 blocks away without even thinking for a second on my own.
And this is the real fear of AI. I don't know if we will experience a Terminator 2 type of doomsday where the robots and AI literally try to wipe out humanity. I'll go with the experts and guess that it is around a 20% chance of that. Much more likely is that a bioweapon is created by the AI and ends up in the wrong hands, wiping out half of humanity. But even if none of that ever happens, the fear I have of AI is much different.
We all have a terrible sense of direction because we quit using that part of our brains. What happens in 10-15 years from now as more and more of society offloads any kind of creativity or critical thinking skills, asking AI to do it for us? And before you type that into ChatGPT for the answer, let me just answer it for you, it won't be good.
I already know coaches and have friends who type every single question that falls onto their plates into ChatGPT to tell them what to respond. Young adults don't want to talk on the phone cause they can't run their answers through an AI robot to come up with a funnier or more creative answer.
I have yet to use AI a single time. I am well aware that I am going to be temporarily left behind by those who create new companies, write new programs, and do whatever the hell else people are doing with AI. But I am confident this is a bet that will pay off. In 10 years, I will look back and I will be so grateful that I didn't plug in another part of my brain into the matrix. My goal is to be less plugged in, not more. And offloading my own thoughts, ideas, and creativity to a robot seems like the fastest way to turn myself into one.
I have long-time friends who never created social media accounts. I used to make fun of them and tell them about all the benefits they are missing out on. We had no idea in the early days of social media about the dangers they would create. The reliance on our phones, the anxiousness and the jacked up nervous systems it would create. Most of the smartest people I know are ditching social media. I don't think any of us are jealous of someone who is on their phone all day.
I'm not sure if you have noticed recently, but social media has a real problem these days. By definition, something doesn't go viral unless it is outrageous or completely out of the ordinary. It has also become such a huge source of social status and income that everyone is trying to build a bigger audience. Because of this, social media is no longer about connection; it is about attention. We have replaced what is valuable with what is loud.
My life is a perfect example of this. I built a social media following and I get a lot of attention because I post a lot of things that create noise and drama. I get stopped almost daily because of my podcast and TikTok videos. A lot of people probably look at my life and think they should do what I did. The irony of this is that in my coaching program, I don't teach men to be like me, I teach them to be like my brothers and brother-in-laws. They are the ones who have built a family, show up each day for their wife and kids, and they are the ones who do it out of love and not for attention. Again, though, their lives don't play well on social media.
I am forever grateful that I have an audience that I can share messages like this with. I am grateful that when I travel all I need is my phone to help me get around every single country in the world. And I am grateful that so many men have been able to find We Are The They because of the marketing and success I have had reaching them on Instagram and Facebook. But I don't think I would do it all the same if I were to start over today. I don't think the trade-off has been worth it. I recently deleted social media from my phone and I am pulling way back from my usage. It is a brutal task. I am for sure addicted.
The work I have been doing this past year has been to calm my nervous system and to appreciate more peace and my own presence. Even this message was sent to my team in an email and they are the ones posting it for me. So if you see me pulling back from social media, I'm not doing it for the likes or clicks, in fact, I won't even be talking about it on my main pages, which are IG and TikTok. I just want to unplug a little more from the system that is obsessed with stealing my time and attention. It's a battle that I am taking on for my own inner peace and clarity. One thing I won't be doing is prompting that very system that is attacking me on the 10 best ways to do this. If you see a post or article written by me, it will probably have plenty of errors in it. But it will be written by me and that's just the way I like it.
(Even as I write all of this, I hope it gets plenty of attention and goes viral... We have problems.)
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