#23: Creative Underload

Rethinking Creative Value In An AI World

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Breaking News This Week

To help provide additional context on the importance of the topics I discuss each week in this newsletter, I thought you should be made aware of (if you are not already) a fascinating development in the world of artificial intelligence.

Last week on Friday, Sam Altman (CEO of Open AI) was fired by the board of directors. On Wednesday, Sam was reinstated to his position as CEO and much of the board was replaced.

This reinstatement came in large part due to the support of Sam by Microsoft, but also from (almost) the entire OpenAI employee workforce threatening to quit if Sam was not reinstated.

The most interesting part, to me, is why this drama happened in the first place. While not 100% clear, there was reference to a "threat to humanity" as a result of breakthrough research on artificial general intelligence (AGI), or artificial super intelligence. The AGI project is known as Q*.

For context, AGI, general intelligence, is not like ChatGPT, which is specific and narrow intelligence. Generative AI is not the same as AGI. But more on that another time.

As part of their definition of AGI, Open AI refers to AGI as "AI systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks".

I think that the phrasing "economically valuable tasks" provides interesting insight into the state of the world right now.

AGI has the potential to do so much more than provide economic value, but this economic framing indicates much of what our current society values: money.

There is so much more to "value" than money.

However, given that the most well-funded, well-researched, and well-supported companies in the world are trying to build a super intelligence to replace human economic value, I think this begs the question: if AI can replace our economic value as humans, what will we value next?

If your job is knowledge-based (value is generated with your mind) and your employer is not talking about these issues, they may be laggards.

Recalibrating Recap

Welcome to Recalibrating! My name is Callum (@_wanderloots)

Join me each week as I learn to better life in every way possible, reflecting and recalibrating along the way to keep from getting too lost.

Thanks for sharing the journey with me ✨

Last week, we touched on innovation overload: how the rapid pace of technology advancement in the age of AI is wreaking havoc on our ability to keep up to date with information.

With a surplus of information available to us every second of the day, we experience cognitive overload (too much information). This overload burns people out and leaves them feeling like they are always falling behind as innovation speeds ahead.

This week, we are going to continue by discussing a related problem I have noticed: creative underload.

In a world where people are clamouring to replace the economic value of humans with AI, I think each of us should take a look at the bigger picture.

The Bigger Picture (Why you should care)

As I discussed in Non-Linear Thinking, society (in large part driven by corporations) has historically valued the cognitive contribution of humans more than creative contributions.

Cognitive > Aesthetic.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) both cognitive and aesthetic needs must be met to reach self-actualization of the individual, and, I believe, to achieve collective actualization of the human species as a whole.

In Innovation Overload, I explained how the rate of innovation is increasing, making it more difficult than ever to keep up to date with the latest information. This information overload burns people out as they perpetually play catch-up with innovation.

With the emphasis on cognitive development over the last 60 years, we have begun to train humans to favour their cognitive skills more than their creative skills. However, the tides of value are beginning to turn.

Instead of continuing to treat humans like machines, robotic autopilots, performing the same tasks over and over again on the cognitive corporate hamster wheel, we will begin offloading that work to actual machines. To artificial intelligence.

AI is formed of computational systems and data that can operate with logic at at level that will likely (if it hasn't already) surpass human ability.

Where does that leave us?

The replacement of traditional human economic value opens the door to a societal value shift. That shift does not have to be for the worse.

Maybe, just maybe, we will be able to break the hamster wheel of corporate conformity and open a new world of exploration and wonder. A world where being human is valued differently than being machine.

Let's take a look.

Societal Overvaluation of Logic

With the historic emphasis on logical development, we have been habitually trained to increase the attention paid for cognitive value. Naturally, this decreases the attention available for creative value.

In a world that is constantly vying for your attention, wouldn't you spend it on what will bring you value? If what you find valuable is earning income based on your knowledge (reasonable), wouldn't you want to tip the scales towards learning skills that increase your "worth"?

We live in a workaholic, hustle culture, that praises overwork and making the most money. Maximizing "value".

I believe that, over time, this overvaluation of logic based systems has had a negative impact on our collective ability to pay attention to other aspects of our lives.

Our attention is being trained to discount the creative in favour of the logic. We are encouraged to focus on the hype cycles that everyone else is paying attention to, rather than what naturally piques our own interests.

When not being trained to increase our logical valuation, we are further being trained to spend the remaining attention on entertainment. While entertainment is not, in and of itself, a bad thing (I actually think it's quite a good thing), it can become a bad thing when we do not leave any attention to focus on ourselves.

Having spent most of our attention at our jobs, using up our mental energy, we spend the remainder of our attention scrolling news, social media, or television, consuming more information that tips us over the edge into overload. We are informationally overloaded, saving little to no attention for what we would actually like to do with our lives.

Unfortunately, this overvaluation on logic and sapping of attention through over-stimulating content does not leave us with time in our lives to be creative.

On a day to day basis, this creative underload may not seem very important, but what about over the course of a human lifetime? Your lifetime?

What about the course of MANY human lifetimes?

There is no innovation without creative observation - Rob Walker

How can we change the world for the better if we don't allow people to pursue their natural creativity, what makes them innately human?

We have lost our creative patience, and I fear what that means for a world whose leading corporations are building an artificial intelligence system for replacing human generated economic value.

Creative Self-Disbelief

With the decline in our creative patience, our ability to spend our limited attention on creative pursuits, we, over time, reduce our creative abilities entirely. Our attention is not trained for it.

With everyone else overvaluing intelligence and logic, we begin to believe that we can only contribute to our community, employer, and society at large through our cognition, our logical value.

Remember, esteem has two parts to it: internal (self) and external. Our external esteem comes from the validation of others. With cognitive overvaluation, we begin to believe that the only way we can contribute value is by meeting those external expectations.

With the social devaluation of creative acts in favour of logic and intelligence, we begin to internalize this external value system.

We start to spend disproportionate amounts of time trying to achieve that external validation through the hustle culture, saving almost no time for our own self-development.

We do not spend enough time on autotelic actions (acts that are done for the sake of doing them).

Like a plant without sun, without practice, our creative skills wither until they are almost non-existent.

We lose faith in our own ability to "be creative" in the first place. We become imposters, strangers to the person we used to be.

"I'm not an artist"
"I'm not creative"
"I could never do that"

... are a few of the things we tell ourselves for why we spend little to no time on creative acts.

We lose belief that we are creative at all, reserving creativity for other people who are just "naturally creative".

We have creative self-disbelief.

Selves-Suppression

Imposter syndrome and creative self-disbelief are related: they both involve an overemphasis on some aspects of ourselves and a disbelief that our other selves are capable of creativity or can exist in the first place.

To conform is to form a similar type. Our traditional economic system pushes conformity so that people can "fit" into the system as a whole.

People are valued for being a single version of themselves. They are told they are "of value" when they behave in a way that doesn't rock the boat, that complies with "the way things have always been done".

Over time, people let go of their other selves, believing that they only have one self of value.

That is a lie.

Unfortunately, this lie is one we have been told our entire lives. We have been told it so many times that we begin to internalize it and believe it ourselves.

We suppress our true selves (of which there can be many) so that we receive the acceptance and validation of others.

But they are still there.

Hope is not lost.

My Journey of Self

Burnout Brain - Callum

I have spent the last 21 weeks considering these very questions as I stepped out of conformity. With time, I have begun to see the emergence of my other selves.

I was extremely burnt out from my job. It has taken me months to get to a place where I feel I am properly recovering from this burn out.

Months of self-exploration, self-reflection, and increasing my self-awareness.

The more I learn to let go, to let myself just BE, the more I find my selves coming into alignment, generating intrinsic value. Boosting my self-esteem rather than external esteem.

Realignment - Callum

Note: to help share this journey, I have been creating a YouTube series (coming soon) that goes into more depth on many of the topics discussed in my newsletter. If you would like to be notified of when they become available, please consider subscribing here.

I am becoming more and more excited at the thought of getting to know these others selves better so I can continue exploring the wonders of the world through different lenses.

In the age of artificial intelligence, I think it is more important than ever to explore who we actually are. To find flow.

The better we each understand the different aspects of our selves, the more we we will begin to understand what it means to live in a world where the traditional economic value system is changed. A world where the door of unlimited possibilities is opened. The Age of Imagination.

A world where we can be valued for who we are.

But, to be valued for who we are, it helps A LOT to know who that person is.

Here's what I've found helpful so far:

Selves-Identity

Anti-Suppression - Callum

After years and years of suppressing the selves that are not "valued" by others, it can be difficult to begin listening to them.

Many people, upon trying, give up quickly. Their attention is not trained for that type of noticing. With such a short glance, they think that there is nothing to find.

They get bored.

That boredom is also a lie, dependent on your own perspective.

What is there to be bored about in life? We have the most incredible imagination machine (our minds) ever to come into existence (at least, so far, generative AI is pretty cool). This integral imagination machine is with us every single second of our entire lives.

The issue is not one of boredom, but is instead one of attention. Our ability to quiet our minds and listen for what remains is a skill that we lose when fracturing our attention with informationally overloading tasks (scrolling, too much tv, etc.)

We learn to accept boredom as a reality when, each time the boredom begins to arise, we reach for our reality-escaping devices (phones, computers, tvs) and we stifle that bored feeling with a quick shot of dopamine.

Mindfulness is BY FAR the best way I have ever learned to quiet my overthinking and anxious mind. Mindfulness allows me to enter my default mode network, calming my thinking and problem-solving brain so I can begin to listen to what remains.

Over time, consistent mindfulness practice helps develop self-awareness. Literally, awareness of the self.

This self-awareness can be used to take a look at the different versions of myself.

Which tasks do I enjoy doing? Why?
Which parts of me are cognitive? Am I overusing them?
Which parts of me are creative? Am I suppressing them?

Instead of letting the imposter flare up and tell me that my selves can't be creative, I can learn to ignore that voice with practice and hear what my true Voice is actually telling me.

Caring about what you pay attention to helps you pay attention to what you care about - Rob Walker

Overcoming Autopilot (Robotic Behaviour)

On Loop - Callum

Cyclic Growth - Callum

Once these selves have been identified, it is like locating a series of new seeds. The only way to see what they are is to plant them, nurture them, and watch them grow.

These selves are fragile, they haven't been nurtured in a long time, if ever. Instead of impatience and suppression, foster a mindset of creative patience and openness.

Recognize that overcoming the habits of non-creativity will take time. It takes practice, focus, and attention to rethink how to learn in a non-linear fashion.

Our education system was developed based on a universal curriculum, not by meeting each individual student's needs. Rethinking how to learn in a way that works for YOU is something that only you can determine.

When was the last time you knocked yourself out of autopilot and took a look at what it actually means to be you?

Take time each week to allow yourself to practice paying attention. Notice what comes into focus. If it is something that others have not noticed, even better.

Experiment with new routines, new habit systems that make dedicated time each day to develop the selves you have discovered or rediscovered. Habit-forming is not an easy task, which means that you should focus on finding what you truly value.

Hint, understanding what activities put you in a flow state will help with this value identification.

Finding these values can help you align your natural selves and can point you in a new direction in life.

Your values are are derived from your prior knowledge and experience, something that only you can understand fully.

Learn to nurture your original thinking.

The best way I have determined how to do this is by something that we all take for granted: our ability as humans to write.

Writing with Voice

Recalibrating Journey, from burnout to imagination – Callum

When we are burnt out, overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted, and just fed up with the way our life is going, especially when driven by forces outside of our control, adding another thing "to do" feels like the last thing you may want.

However, I do not suggest writing (journaling) lightly. I know what it is like to be burnt out and overwhelmed, stuck in a system that is not aligned with my selves.

What we often do not realize is that we go in loops of problem solving. We solve the same problems over and over again. The problems are solved repeatedly. We respond to the same problems in the same way (do you get it yet?)

We lack a continuous understanding of who it is we are and how we are operating. Our burnout and cognitive overload cause brain fog, making it hard to see into the future, but, perhaps even more importantly, obfuscating (removing clarity) the path we have already taken.

If we do not remember where we have come from and how we got here, our habitual selves will continue to operate in autopiloted loops.

Writing provides a time-stamped record of my thoughts in the moment. Future me (tomorrow, next week, next month, next year) can look back at my previous understanding and begin to identify problematic patterns.

The value of this pattern clarity CANNOT be understated.

Writing allows me to identify what worked and what didn't, over extended periods of time. I can think about my thinking and leave messages to future me on how to solve problems I've already come across before.

I use writing as a way to extend my mind. I offload thoughts, feelings, problems, solutions, ideas, and wisdom into my second brain. My digital mind. A place that has perfect memory of who I used to be.

In line with this entry, I can also record how I feel when I try new things. When I explore my creativity, I can tell future me how much I enjoyed one task over another.

I can track my cognitive overload, reducing it by offloading information, and my creative underload, increasing it by writing about my new experiences.

If you are interested in learning more about building your own digital mind to deal with information overload and creative underload, I will be talking about this with my paid subscribers, teaching them how to build their own creatively personalized knowledge management system.

Looking Ahead

No one knows what the future brings. If anyone says they do, they are merely guessing.

All we can know is our own experience that we are having right now. We should all look to reduce our cognitive overload and fill our creative underload so we can practice enjoying the moment for what it is.

Maybe AI will take all of our jobs. Maybe it won't.

Either way, the world is going to be significantly changed by AI.

What would you do in a world where you were allowed to explore your creativity?

What would your original expression look like?

Next Week

Next, we will continue exploring what it means to be original in an artificially intelligence world.

Stay tuned ✨

P.S. If you are interested in learning how I build my second brain to help me process information and identify patterns to solve my problems, please consider upgrading your subscription to paid. Your support means more than you know 😌 ✨

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