Psychology

Can You Imagine Starting?

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I was going to do a post on media forms and what we can learn about today’s media from the Dada art movement, but Serdar had to go and get all brilliant and discuss how people can’t and shouldn’t wait for the right conditions to start something. It deserves it’s own blogpost, so me discussing art movements has to wait.

Serdar points out how people wait for the right conditions and how you can always find advice, from Doris Lessing to Buddhism that the time is never right, never perfect. The problem of course is helping people understand it’s time to get off their butts and do it. If you’ve ever tried to get someone – or yourself – “going” you know what I mean.

Now I work with Agile methodologies, as anyone who’s known me for five minutes is aware. Agile is about breaking work down, doing it in order of importance, and very importantly getting going. Just start and take feedback later – in fact doing something means you at least get feedback so you can do better (or even just quit). Agile isn’t “move fast, break things” it’s “move fast, make things.”

Thus as you can imagine I have to help people “get started” and “just get going.” Which should be easy as I have a lot of experience, a lot of certifications, and a very irritatingly effective attitude of “just do it.” Should be easy with a person like me, right?

Of course you know the answer is that it’s not, which irritates me at an irrational level. Sometime I “buddy up” with “just give it a try.” Sometimes I “Agile harder.” Sometimes I end up a therapist. But Serdar’s post made me realize in some cases what people lack is the ability to imagine starting. It’s easy to look at a big project or some ambitious idea and be so overwhelmed you can’t imagine starting – and in some cases it’s easier to imagine failing.

It’s easy to imagine not starting. I’ve realized as I mull offer Serdar’s writings that people like me are trained imagining how to start, other people have that imagination of how to start and we have to help others develop that capacity.

Of course easier said than done, and each person or group is an individual case. Maybe we have to inspire. Maybe we have to (in some cases literally) draw a picture. Maybe we encourage a prototype. Maybe we just “give it a shot.” But we need people to be able to see starting despite “imperfect” conditions.

Which means when we’re trying to help someone overcome a fear of imperfect conditions, our first job might be to help them see what’s possible. But the next job is helping them develop that imagination.

Steven Savage

Different Times, Different Mes

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

One of my obsessions for while has been to ask what the world could be like if our combination of technology and culture had taken different directions. In 2024 a friend said that it felt like nothing new or really good had been invented in 15 years, especially internet-wise. That has had me reviewing all the different choices and events that have led us to where we are now from a technical-cultural standpoint, and how it might be better.

So I started reflecting and asking what did I want to see? Where could things have gone different – and gone better?

That led me to some speculations of course, such as if there had been more social media regulation, or if certain technologies had becom popular at different times. But know what really got interesting?

Asking who I’d be if things had been different in the worlds of technology and culture.

This started by me imagining a world where the internet B.S. of today had never arrived – something I may write about. I tried to imagine myself in a world with different technologies, a world more environmentally conscious, a world where we weren’t doomscrolling. It was essentially writing speculative fiction in my head, but the mental exercise hit hard.

I can see how in some cases I’d have been the exact same kind of person, just using different technologies. I could see how I’d also be different a few twists and turns in the economy and I’d never have become a programmer. I could see how I’d also be the same- because I in many cases I’d still be a Project Manager, even in a semi-Solarpunk, not-quite-utopia I imagined.

Relating a possible future to a possible me, helped me grasp such trends and potentials much better.

This led me to another speculation – I began asking about what my life would be like in the case of particular technological divergences. That has proven to be a great way to understand our world the way it is and what it could be?

What if Work from Home had come early (and believe me it was seeded earlier than you think)? Or phone companies had seen things like AOL and come up with competition? What about prefab homes returning? What would it take to have technologies be different, culture be different, and what would I experience?

I find that idea of imagining “being there” really helped me understand impacts – and unintended impacts. It also helped me understand a few things about myself – such as my ability to get enthused about cool stuff even if it is kind of dumb.

I may actually write some of these ideas up and make a series of it. What can I speculate en and learn from using my knowledge of technology and history? What can I share – and what can we discuss – about possible worlds to understand this one.

But if I write it or not, I want you give it a shot. Ask about “historical divergences” you can imagine, and who you’d be if they happened. Especially if it’s about a better world – since you might be surprised at who you are even in a more ideal place and time.

Steven Savage

It’s The Ones We Noticed

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

People developing psychosis while using Chat GPT has been in the news a lot. Well, the latest story is about an Open AI investor who seemed to lose it in real time, leading to shall we say concerns. The gentleman in question seemed to spiral into thinking the world was like the famous SCP Foundation collective work.

Of course people were a little concerned. A big investor AI losing his mind isn’t exactly building confidence in the product or the company. Or for that matter, investing.

But let me gently suggest that the real concern is that this is the one we noticed.

This is not to say all sorts of AI bigwigs and investors are losing their minds – I think some of them have other problems or lost their minds for different reasons. This isn’t to say the majority of people using AI are going to go off into some extreme mental tangent. The problem is that AI, having been introduced recently, is going to have impacts on mental health that will be hard to recognize because this is all happening so fast.

Look, AI came on quick. In some ways I consider that quite insidious as it’s clear everyone jumped on board looking for the next big thing. In some ways it’s understandable because, all critiques aside (including my own), some of it is cool and interesting. But like a lot of things we didn’t ask what the repercussion might be, which has been a bit of a problem since around about the internal combustion engine.

So now that we have examples of people losing their minds – and developing delusions of grandeur – due to AI, what are we missing?

It might not be as bad as the cases that make the news – no founding a religion or creating some metafiction roleplay that’s too real to you. But a bit of an extra weird belief, that strange thing you’re convinced on, something that’s not as noticeable but too far. Remember all the people who got into some weird conspiracies online? Yeah, well, we’ve automated that.

We’re also not looking for it and maybe it’s time we do – what kind of mental challenges are people developing due to AI that we’re not looking for?

There might not even be anything – these cases may just be unfortunate ones that stand out. But I’d really kind of like to know, especially as the technology spreads, and as you know I think it’s spreading unwisely.

Steven Savage