Thoughts After A Deep Chat with A Friend

Met a close friend recently for dinner, we talked, and talked. Got caught in the conversation so much and by the time I realized, it was 6 hours later… It was a lot to catch up on, and hearing his recent changes and achievements inspired me and made me so proud of having such a special friend. We literately went over a lot of random topics, and many of them resonates so much, so wanted to write them down so can maybe rewind later. Heads-up that half of this is about AI, so skip to the second half if it’s boring to you.

Some memorable moment was when we discussed how we should feel when AI is producing the work in seconds when it takes us human hours, days, or even months to do. Yes, it’s great seeing it from productivity’s perspective, but it takes away the real value, creativity, enjoyment, and achievement feeling of those who used to create them by hand. If this becomes the trend, some of these works could’ve gone extinction if it comes to the time when no real people know how to product them. That’s why I could understand why Miyazaki was upset with all those AI generated work.

There’s no right or wrong on interpreting this AI change. It comes with benefits and sacrifices. Hope we (including the next few generations) can balance out the lever: pushing the technology forward and without losing the originality of our own input.

I’ve always been optimistic about this AI change. Yes, some people are losing their jobs because of AI, but in the other side of the window, there are other opportunities being created because of AI need. Changing has always been happening just like how trains, airplanes, and internet were created. We just need to adapt.

Of course there’s also worries about AI’s capability. Yes, there were times when it didn’t even know how many Rs in Strawberry, and self-driving cars still crash sometimes, but realizing the fact that AI is still in the early stage depending on the industry, and it’ll only get better from here. Same thing for AI governance and security, it will be set to the right position as long as there’s no AI monopoly happening.

Comparing to all those previous mentioned concerns, what hit me the most are AI pollution and human devolution. AI pollution sounds a bit negative, but basically as more models being built and more media being generated, there’ll be less originality existed on the web. How much will it be and how much does it matter? I don’t have an answer, but knocking on the wood hoping this is just me overthinking. Same for human devolution. There’s currently not a fine line between leveraging AI to make our work more efficient and losing our thinking ability as we rely on it more and more. Only time will give us the answer.

Enough about AI. We also chatted about work and relationship. It’s funny that we found out how similar work is comparing to relationship. Both are dealing with people, though different kind of relationship, but I was surprised how much are in common on the surface level. I was really grateful for having someone in my previous relationship who could communicate with me patiently when things went south. Knowing not everyone is like that, and especially when they had very different background and can barely resonate with your frequency, it’s really difficult to find the right communication strategy and action. Ya, just have to admit life sucks being an adult sometimes. All we can do is to use our best judgement, and when looking back years later, you’ll realized everything will make sense.

Looking back, I’m actually pretty happy for where I’ve become. In the past 3 years, I’ve been exercising consistently, both cardio and weightlifting. It brings enchantment when seeing my chest muscle got bit bigger, having stronger core, and feeling light when running. Though still need to work on building heart and lung muscle as I can be out of breath easily when running. And also need to work on sleeping early, which has been an easy-and-hard challenge, for years…

For the next couple or few years, will probably focus more on mental aspect, somewhat related to Psychology, which is to be more self-aware and communicate better when getting emotional. I think reading some relevant books helps, but reading has been one of my biggest weaknesses as it’s impossible for me to stay awake 5 minutes after reading, so may have to try some alternative approaches. Also need to build up confidence and be less sensitive. Most importantly, love ourselves more.

Anyhow, enough nagging, throwing some pics here as record, not AI generated btw.

Hope you can get to where you wanna be soon too! 😉