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Ordinary Beauty, Extraordinary Wisdom: How Slowing Down and Paying Attention Can Enrich Your Life

Summary Overview – Collaboration with Claude.AI

In this blog post, I share how the writings of Wendy Coad, Seth Godin, and Rajesh Setty have inspired me to reflect on the importance of dedicating ourselves to what matters most, being intentional about how we spend our time, and slowing down the pace of life to make room for contemplation and creativity.

I discuss how my son Ryan’s cancer diagnosis in 1996 forced me to ruthlessly prioritize my time and energy. My top priorities became self-care, family, career, and managing healthcare coverage. By staying laser-focused, I and my family persevered through the immense challenges we faced. Over the past 27 years, we have emerged stronger, dedicated to personal growth and helping others.

The wisdom shared by Coad, Godin, and Setty resonated deeply with the lessons I learned through that difficult chapter. Coad’s example of honestly assessing her priorities and eliminating overcommitments, Godin’s warning about smartphones making us hurried and distracted, and Setty’s beautiful reframing of how Parkinson’s disease forced him to slow down and notice the richness of life – all of these perspectives reinforce my conviction about living more deliberately and savoring the wonder around me.

I encourage my readers to join me on this journey. Prioritize time for self-reflection, set boundaries to protect what matters most, and consciously choose to slow down. In doing so, we open ourselves to the “ordinary” beauty of life and opportunities for growth that are always available when we create the space to see them.

Full Original Writing

This post is inspired by Wendy Coad, Seth Godin, and Rajesh Setty. Thanks to their writing, I am inspired to write about the important work we should all dedicate ourselves to, prioritizing where we allocate our time, and the value of intentional effort to slow down the pace of our lives to allow time for contemplation and creativity. Slack/buffer built into our daily lives enhances the “ordinary” beauty in our lives and allows for a calmer internal state. Our days are not packed with back-to-back urgencies that allow no room for delays or unexpected occurrences.

Life will throw adversity into our path. Adversity is part of the human condition.

On October 17, 1996, my and my family’s life was turned upside down and changed forever when my son Ryan was diagnosed with childhood cancer at two years and two months old. I realized quickly that my priorities had to be narrowed, and the final list of my few critical priorities needed to be ruthlessly adhered to. My energies had to be laser-focused, and my willingness to say “NO” would become essential. I would not apologize for protecting my priorities and did not need to explain myself to anyone. I would do my best every day… with genuine intent and based on the knowledge I possessed. My, and my family’s, survival was at stake.

Writing this in May 2024, over 27 years later, I am eternally grateful that Ryan is a survivor and my family is intact and doing well. Fate has challenged us immensely, and we are standing tall today, forever changed in unimaginable ways. My wife Terri has beautified the world with her love of quilting and designing treasured t-shirt quilt keepsakes. She has written a memoir of Ryan’s experience (The Focused Fight: A Childhood Cancer Journey From Mayhem to Miracles, published in March 2021). Our daughter Olivia persevered and changed our lives through her love and commitment to soccer. She is now married to her husband Bo, and they are new parents to a beautiful baby boy, Bodie, born March 25, 2024! We believe in post-traumatic growth and are dedicated to helping others and making the world kinder and gentler.

At the time of Ryan’s diagnosis in 1996, I was scared and mentally wondered, “How do families survive this?” We were all in the biggest war of our lives. There was no instruction manual, and Ryan’s life was at stake. Terri and I dedicated ourselves to doing everything humanly possible for Ryan and Olivia, and we would attack this one day at a time. I had no thought of how I would be profoundly changed over the years. I am beyond grateful and feel I am a greater contributor to the world due to my experience. I am consumed with how to grow personally and leverage my growth to be more valuable for helping others.

My highest priorities identified in 1996 were sharpened by the urgency of moving forward through Ryan’s medical treatments and the stress our family endured as a result. The nonnegotiable priorities that I determined required my complete attention were:

  • Self-care: Focus on health and personal development. I needed to do my best to be my best for my family and my career and to be of value to others.
  • Family: My role as spouse, father, and caregiver. My family is the world to me.
  • Career: Bringing the best I could to my professional responsibilities. Continual development and finding ways to work more effectively were imperative. My twin brother Don was my “right hand” in helping me think differently and holding me accountable to make progress. I endured high stress about my ability to support the family financially and provide healthcare coverage to cover the financial exposure of Ryan’s medical care requirements.
  • Monitoring Healthcare Coverage: This aspect felt like a full-time job besides my other priorities. Likely, my love of personal finance was cemented through the stress of continual concern about healthcare coverage and the risk of bankruptcy.

Living my life with the clarity of my priorities allowed me to be relentless in setting boundaries of where I would permit my time to be allocated. As Mr. Pollin once encouraged me, “Bill, you need to keep your eye on the ball, and that ball will change…” My emphasis on the differing priorities has fluxed; thankfully, the core structure has provided a framework that enhanced my quality of life. I determined what was important in my life, and while bending (dancing) within the framework, I have stayed true to my core matters of importance.

During the years since Ryan’s diagnosis, I have embraced the times when greater freedom existed in my schedule. My priorities have often maxed out my capacity, and when an opportunity for a break would occur, I was diligent about taking time to relax. I refused to move on frantically to another activity. Protecting my time and sanity was a component of self-care that was extremely important to me.

Slowing down became a mission for me. I strive for my daily pace to be more deliberate and relaxed with reduced commitments to build a buffer in my day. When I can live this way, my ability to be my best self and help others is optimized.

Recent readings that inspired me were:

Wendy Coad, in a post from my community of practice (Purple.Space), shared about her evolving priorities and the activities she has chosen to eliminate from her schedule. It was refreshing to see Wendy’s honesty with herself, recognizing she cannot do everything. Too often, we think, “I can handle this,” and add a new obligation to our list of priorities. We make the mistake of over-committing and become overwhelmed with our to-dos. The willingness to pick the highest priorities and eliminate everything else is a massive strength for anyone to possess. The impact of Ryan’s diagnosis forced me to be brutally honest with myself, and I pared down my priorities practically overnight. The core list has been my guide since that day. Giving my best for my family was my guiding north star.

Seth Godin‘s blog On One Foot, discusses how “Smart phones can hobble us.” We hurry through our lives handling things on a small phone screen in short bursts. He says, “There could be a direct correlation between smartphone usage and underinformed mass behavior.” Seth even suggests that “opening up a laptop might count as slowing down a bit.” Slow down.

Rajesh Setty‘s LinkedIn post, encourages “Slowing down to witness wonder.” Rajesh is an inspiring, caring, and generous person I have met through social media. I look forward to the wisdom he consistently shares and encourage everyone to follow him on social media! In his post, he shares that his diagnosis of Parkinson’s forced him to slow down and ultimately develop his reframe: “Slowing down allowed me to observe more than most people who are too busy to notice.” I am sharing Rajesh’s full post below and encourage pausing and asking yourself, “How can I be more intentional about slowing down?”

“Slowing down to witness wonder

We live in a fast-paced world where everyone seems too busy to notice the richness around them. By “world around us/them,” I mean nature, people, and conversations happening right in front of us, not just online.

When you pay close attention, you’ll witness wonder. The world around you speaks and whispers in vivid colors, both through nature and people.

I noticed this because of a health situation, Parkinson’s, which forced me to slow down.

Over time, instead of complaining about slowing down, I began to appreciate the world’s richness. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, not by choice but by design. Slowing down allowed me to observe more than most people who are too busy to notice.

This higher fidelity observation was a gift that came with Parkinson’s. It sparked more ideas for me than ever before. That’s why I reframed Parkinson’s to (S)Parkinson’s.

Although I discovered this because of (S)Parkinson’s, you can choose to slow down and witness the wonder in the world around you without going through something like that. In fact, I wouldn’t wish my experience on anyone. But by choosing to slow down, you can truly appreciate the beauty around you.

PS: If you are curious to know more about my ongoing adventure with (S)Parkinson’s, here is more in my book UNSHAKEN (published by INKtalks).”

Rajesh notes that we all can choose to slow down and witness wonder in our world without going through a life-threatening experience. Please take his encouragement to heart, prioritize time to be with yourself, and contemplate actionable steps to move you towards a slower lifestyle. Join me on this life-enhancing journey!

December 2019 – Tomoff Family Vacation in Maui, Hawaii
July 2021 – The Focused Fight – Cleveland Reception
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What You Do Matters: Embracing the Power of Individual Impact

When reading About The Author at the end of Emma Seppala’s book Sovereign, I noted:

“A psychologist and research scientist by training, Seppälä’s expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her research has been published in top academic journals and featured in news outlets including The New York Times, NPR, and CBS News and featured in documentaries like Free the Mind, The Altruism Revolution, What You Do Matters [Bill T emphasis], and Bullied. www.emmaseppala.com and www.iamsov.com”

The documentary title, What You Do Matters, caught my attention. What we think and what we do are important. Think and do good. Be kind. Our actions and the presence we bring to the world matter.

In my approach to my career and my family, I have long embraced the core belief that what I do matters. Every action matters. Two quotes that guide me:

When Terri wrote her memoir, The Focused Fight: A Childhood Cancer Journey From Mayhem to Miracles, her inspiration and goal for our family was stated:

“Helping one person, one family, at a time.”

The personal development and professional work I do with my twin Don (follow hashtag #TwinzTalk on LinkedIn!) is stated:

“Changing the world, one interaction, one person, at a time.”

I am not looking to impact the masses. Still, I am dedicated to making the most of individual IRL, virtual, and social media interactions, and bringing a presence to the world that may influence and reach folks I likely will never know about. The truth is we often don’t know the reach and impact that kindness and generosity toward helping others will have. I genuinely intend to help my world through micro-moments of living my life through caring and doing the “right thing.“

A favorite Daily Stoic blog post I share often is “You Do Not Need This.” Note:

“You want it, don’t you?

That “I told you so.” That “Thank You.” That recognition for being first, or being better, or being different. You want credit. You want gratitude. You want the acknowledgment for the good you’ve done, for the weight that you carry.

What you want is what Marcus Aurelius has called “the third thing,” because you’re not content enough with the doing. “When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it,” he writes, “why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?””

“You don’t need a favor back. You don’t need to be repaid. You don’t need to be acknowledged. You don’t need the third thing. That’s not why you do what you do. You’re good because it’s good to be good, and that’s all you need.”

Too often, it is natural to wonder, “Am I making a difference?” I have let go of the need to have affirmation of my actions. I choose instead to KNOW that What I Do Matters. Thus, the video referenced in the book resonated with me. I have provided the link below and encourage everyone to prioritize the hour of time to watch the documentary. Inspiration guaranteed! I hope you will feel compelled to embrace approaching the world and others with a kinder and gentler presence. You will influence others, and over time, you will be profoundly changed for the better!

Emma Seppala emphasizes throughout her book the importance of awareness of our thoughts and the impact that can have in keeping us from reaching sovereignty. The good news is that we can take control of our minds, prioritize our self-care, and bring our best selves to others and the world daily. Our thoughts build our actions and what we do. Consider, and hold close, this quote from Lao Tzu:

“Watch your thoughts; they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

The Chicago Community Trust Documentary | What You Do Matters
Credit: The Chicago Community Trust Documentary | What You Do Matters
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Nils and Jonas Salzgeber | Part 3 of 3: Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues and Biography

The next Nils and Jonas blog post that resonated with me was Become a Better Person: Adopt Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues.

Ben Franklin’s 13 virtues are timeless and worth reflecting upon often. Walter Isaacson discussed the virtues (pages 89 to 92) in his biography, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, which I have read twice in the past ten years. I highly recommend the book! A 23-minute summary is available on YouTube.

The 13 virtues discussed in the blog are worth keeping and referring to for an expanded discussion of each virtue. Nils and Jonas describe the virtues as key to Franklin’s success: “The key to his success was his continuous pursuit of self-improvement.” The 13 virtues are:

  1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
  2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
  3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
  4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
  5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
  6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
  7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
  8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
  9. Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
  10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
  11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
  12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
  13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

About Franklin’s efforts at living the thirteen virtues, Isaacson notes in his book:

“Mastering all of these thirteen virtues at once was “a task of more difficulty than I had imagined,” Franklin recalled. The problem was that “while my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another.” So he decided to tackle them like a person who, “having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time.””

Hopefully, the three books discussed in this three-part blog post will inspire you to pursue your quest for personal development. Show up every day and dedicate time to yourself and your own growth. The Twinz are cheering you on!

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Nils and Jonas Salzgeber | Part 2 of 3: Coach John Wooden

The Salzgeber brothers’ focus on personal development resonates with Don and me. Taking the initiative for personal growth and committing to continual learning is our north star, and we strive to help others and bring them along on the adventure. Bringing our best selves to the world is critically important work that we must embrace and not leave to the judgment of others.

Since reading (and sharing often)The Little Book of Stoicism, I now receive their email newsletter and periodically review the blog posts (as I write this in April 2024, I note the last blog post was in November 2022) on their website. I discovered two blog posts that resonated with me, and they reminded me of two recommended books in the #TwinzTalk personal development agenda – Benjamin Franklin’s Biography by Walter Isaacson and Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success by John Wooden and Steve Jamison. Below, I am sharing excerpts from Nils and Jonas’s blog posts and references to the books that Don and I recommend. We hope these topics inspire you to prioritize time for your personal development!

John Wooden

As Nils and Jonas note:

“John Wooden was a legendary basketball coach at the University of California, Los Angeles. During his last 12 years as a coach there, he won 10 championships, including seven in a row, and including an 88-game winning streak.

Some people say he was the greatest basketball coach ever. Some say he was the greatest coach in the 20th century. Others say he was the greatest coach of all time. Period.

John Wooden himself would not have bothered about such titles – that’ll get clear to you after reading some of his quotes below. He was much more concerned about the process, about putting in the work, about doing everything he could to become the best he could be. He was a truly inspiring man and a role model for me personally. Here are 35 timeless life lessons we can learn from him.”

The 35 life lessons shared in the blog post are all nuggets worth reading and holding onto. We can learn much from the wisdom of John Wooden. A few of our favorites include:

  • Number 5: Politeness and Courtesy – “…being a good person isn’t necessarily something we do for other people, it’s something we do for ourselves. We don’t need to expect anything in return. We’re getting paid well enough.“

  • Number 13: Stop Looking for Shortcuts – “If you spend too much time learning the tricks of the trade, you may not learn the trade. There are no shortcuts. If you’re working on finding a short cut, the easy way, you’re not working hard enough on the fundamentals. You may get away with it for a spell, but there is no substitute for the basics. And the first basic is good, old-fashioned hard work.”

  • Number 24: Don’t Compare Yourself to Other People – “It’s simple. Don’t compare yourself to somebody else, especially materially. If I’m worrying about the other guy and what he’s doing, about what he’s making, about all the attention he’s getting, I’m not going to be able to do what I’m capable of doing. It’s a guaranteed way to make yourself miserable.”

  • Number 28: Adversity = Opportunity – “Most people have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder. But did you know that the opposite also exists? It’s called post-traumatic growth – the phenomenon of people becoming stronger after a tragedy or trauma. They don’t just bounce back, but they bounce higher than they were before.”

  • Number 29: Want Peace of Mind? – “I believe one of the big lessons of sports for dedicated individuals and teams is that it shows us how hard work, and I mean hard work, does pay dividends. The dividend is not necessarily in outscoring an opponent. The guaranteed dividend is the complete peace of mind gained in knowing you did everything within your power, physically, mentally, and emotionally, to bring forth your full potential.”

  • Number 31: Strive to Maintain Self-Control – “Complaining, whining, making excuses just keeps you out of the present. That’s where self-control comes in. Self-control keeps you in the present. Strive to maintain self-control.”

  • Number 34: Improve the Team by Improving Yourself – “If you want to change the world, start by changing yourself. For the best way to improve the world is to improve yourself. Joseph Campbell said it best, “We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.””

John Wooden’s book on leadership, Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success, is an inspiring read. In addition, check out the downloadable image of Wooden’s The Pyramid of Success on the John Wooden website.

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

-John Wooden

 
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Nils and Jonas Salzgeber | Part 1 of 3: The Little Book of Stoicism

For twin Don and me, a consistent theme in our lives has been a desire to develop to the best of our abilities. In earnest, we recognized this fully during our college years…when it felt as if our career survival was at stake based on our academic performance (in the 1980s, this feeling was probably more true than today in 2024).

While not realizing it then, the love of personal development and striving to do our best was born during the college years at Ohio University. Competitive distance running on the varsity cross-country and track and field teams, balanced with the academic workload of pursuing a business degree (accounting major), consumed our focus – and we were each other’s accountability partners before we knew of such a term.

Purely self-serving during those years has evolved into personal development to bring our best self forward for our families and employers and our quest to use our talents and skills to bring out the best potential in others. My “Why” is now articulated as “Helping others is rewarding and provides me fulfillment and gratification.” Helping others is the best way to help yourself.

Thanks to the evolution of social media and communities of practice groups, the possibilities for connecting and learning with others have grown exponentially. We live in an exciting time with the potential of virtual connections and learning via technology (online courses, YouTube, etc.). With a willingness to invest in yourself, resources are abundant (often FREE).

Since 2018, I have invested time in the philosophy of Stoicism. That path has led to this post, where I now share about brothers Nils and Jonas Salzgeber. In 2021, I read Jonas’s book The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness. I have been an avid reader of Ryan Holiday’s work at The Daily Stoic and have read The Daily Stoic book of daily meditations daily since January 1, 2020.

Like Nils and Jonas, I now view Stoicism as a core component of my personal development quest. ChatGPT describes Stoicism as follows (to explain to a high school student):

“Stoicism is a philosophy that teaches us to focus on what we can control—our own actions and attitudes—and to accept what we can’t control, like other people’s actions or life’s unexpected challenges. It encourages us to respond to life’s difficulties with calmness and resilience, striving to be our best selves by practicing virtues like wisdom, courage, and self-discipline. By focusing on our own behavior and learning to accept whatever life throws at us without getting overly emotional or upset, Stoicism helps us lead happier, more fulfilling lives.”

If you are interested in Stoicism, I highly recommend The Little Book of Stoicism. Yet, now is when the journey becomes more fun! Don and I believe personal development should be a priority for everyone. Too often, we feel in the minority and cannot understand why individuals do not relentlessly prioritize time to “sharpen the saw,” as Stephen Covey shares as one of the seven habits of highly effective people.

We discovered that Nils and Jonas are on a mission of personal mastery. Their passion for their mission is heartwarming and inspiring for the Twinz. On their website, NJLifeHacks.com, they share their encouragement (and tie in personal development to Stoicism):

“We’ve started NJlifehacks in 2016 in the hope of making a living with our passion for all things personal growth and self-development.

You see, when we hear something that promises to help us become more confident, mindful, charismatic, kind, and loving versions of ourselves, we’re all ears. We can’t help ourselves.

Some people think we’re weird or too serious or too driven, but they don’t get it – this is our passion. We love reading about the latest bio-hacks, new psychological studies, or ancient spiritual texts by Indian gurus (say about Osho what you will, but this guy had some incredible insights). Since starting the website, we’ve easily spent over $5,000 on books. You see, when others read about the latest celebrity scandal, we read about the latest breakthrough in positive psychology research. As our father would say, to each his own, right?”

“We’re letting you in on a little secret. Just don’t tell anyone, right? We have found, after being on this path to self-mastery (for lack of a better word) for a long time that the best way to get more confidence, self-trust, certainty, and all of that great stuff is through Stoicism.”

“In one sentence: NJlifehacks is a personal growth company dedicated to helping people become better versions of themselves through ancient wisdom and modern science. We do this through our blog articles, books, online courses, email newsletter, and personal coaching.”

Book Image
The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber
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ChatGPT Lite Part 6 of 6 – Sample Use Cases to Inspire Your Creativity for Personal Use

This is part 6 of 6 posts introducing ChatGPT and a path forward to consider for adoption and learning growth. 

  1. Part 1 of 6 (Introduction) can be found here. 
  2. Part 2 of 6 (Description of GenAI framework and ChatGPT “fit”) can be found here. 
  3. Part 3 of 6 (Steps to Getting Started) can be found here. 
  4. Part 4 of 6 (High-Level Concepts to Understand) can be found here.
  5. Part 5 of 6 (Resources for Learning: Influencers and Online Learning courses) can be found here.

Don and I think it is important to reemphasize the mindset that whether or not you adopt GenAI and LLMs such as ChatGPT is YOUR DECISION. Studying these new tools and challenging yourself with personal use cases is a path available to everyone. You will benefit and be of greater value personally and professionally because of the knowledge attained and skills developed. Embrace a mindset of curiosity and possibility while also paying attention to the inevitable risks that arise. Learning is your secret weapon.

To stimulate your thinking, below are several use case examples that the Twinz have used. Once you have experienced the potential of immediate, ad-free feedback, we promise your creative juices will start flowing in ways ChatGPT Plus can compellingly contribute to your life.

  1. Visiting a new location? Ask ChatGPT to provide suggestions for must-see highlights. During a 2023 trip to Normandy in France, ChatGPT was my companion for questions about the D-Day invasion.
  2. Planning a vacation (i.e., My family of four is planning a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida – please suggest an itinerary for a six-day, five-night trip).
  3. Ask ChatGPT to create a QR Code.
  4. Using the Vision functionality, ask ChatGPT to explain the details of a product you have a picture of.
  5. Ask ChatGPT to adopt a specific persona and then ask a relevant question where that expertise is required. An example would be to ask for estate planning thoughts from the persona that ChatGPT is “an attorney with expertise in estate planning.”
  6. Specific questions regarding technology – such as “Please provide a brief introduction to prompt engineering and why it is important to prioritize time to understand the nuances of prompting when working with ChatGPT.”
  7. One of my favorite uses includes asking ChatGPT to summarize and, often, provide bullet-point highlights of specific writing content I created. An example is my blog post “The Art of the Epitaph: Conveying a Lifetime in Ten Words or Less.”

Once you have found your own use cases, we would love to know how ChatGPT has contributed to your life. Personal use alone will change and enhance your life experience. Wishing you the best in your adventure!

BONUS: Custom GPTs

While Don and I encourage adopting “start narrow” and experiencing specific use cases for ChatGPT Plus in your world, it is critical to understand AI is rapidly evolving with new features and possibilities. The potential to feel overwhelmed and unsure where to focus your energies is likely.  Please start, embrace ambiguity, pay attention to experts in the space, and accept that no one has all the answers to where the technology will evolve to in the future – only that it will evolve.

Within ChatGPT Plus, an exciting development announced on November 6, 2023, from OpenAI is the ability for users to create GPTs. OpenAI has created a store where users can sell GPTs. The GPT feature is not discussed in this ChatGPT Lite introduction, but if you made it this far, we are sharing the awareness of GPTs! Per the article linked below:

What are these GPTs?

“GPTs are custom versions of ChatGPT from OpenAI, its business partners, and thousands of third-party developers who created their own GPTs.

Sometimes when people encounter ChatGPT, they don’t know where to start. OpenAI calls it the “empty box problem.” Discovering that led the company to find a way to narrow down the choices, Turley said.

“People really benefit from the packaging of a use case — here’s a very specific thing that I can do with ChatGPT,” like travel planning, cooking help or an interactive, step-by-step tool to build a website, Turley said.

Think of GPTs as OpenAI trying to make the general-purpose power of ChatGPT more refined the same way smartphones have a wealth of specific tools. (And think of GPTs as OpenAI’s attempt to take control over how we find, use and pay for these apps, much like Apple has a commanding role over iPhones through its App Store.)”

ChatGPT: Here’s What It Is, How It Works and How It’s Evolving – CNET

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ChatGPT Lite Part 5 of 6 – Resources for Learning: Influencers and Online Learning courses

This is part 5 of 6 posts introducing ChatGPT and a path forward to consider for adoption and learning growth. 

  1. Part 1 of 6 (Introduction) can be found here. 
  2. Part 2 of 6 (Description of GenAI framework and ChatGPT “fit”) can be found here. 
  3. Part 3 of 6 (Steps to Getting Started) can be found here. 
  4. Part 4 of 6 (High-Level Concepts to Understand) can be found here.

Once the core suggestions are adopted (install ChatGPT and purchase the Plus monthly subscription) and you have started to work with the platform (“kick the tires“), the process for learning, creativity, and skills growth is to embrace a personal dedication to investing in yourself. No one can tell you an exact path to follow or the right or wrong ways to develop yourself. When technology is brand new, there is good news and bad news to accept:

  • Good news – you get to touch and experiment with the tool to find what is compelling for you. The TwinzTalk duo loves touching and experimenting with tech tools, and we have been early adopters throughout our lives.
  • Bad news – you must walk your own path of assessment and growth. You are responsible. No one can give you exact answers on what works for you.

While YOU are responsible for deciding your path forward (Don and I strongly discourage the decision to dismiss the technology as not relevant to you), resources exist to accelerate learning. In this section, we are sharing resources on influencers and online learning that we have identified and have been invaluable to our growth in using ChatGPT Plus. We hope some of these resources are valuable for you.

Influencers

Conor Grennan

  1. Website – https://www.ai-mindset.ai/
  2. The AI Mindset Newsletter – https://www.ai-mindset.ai/newsletter
  3. The Truth About Prompting – https://www.ai-mindset.ai/ai-mindset-newsletter/truth-about-prompting
  4. LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorgrennan/
  5. YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@ConorGrennan

Allie K. Miller

  1. Website AI with Allie – https://www.alliekmiller.com/
  2. The AI with Allie Newsletter – https://aiwithallie.beehiiv.com/ (subscribe and receive 50-page FREE ChatGPT Guide)
  3. AI with Allie – Becoming an AI-Enhanced Human (FREE 5-day educational email course) – https://www.alliekmiller.com/becoming-an-ai-enhanced-human
  4. LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alliekmiller/
  5. YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@AKMofficial

Ethan Mollick

  1. LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/emollick/
  2. Substack – https://substack.com/@oneusefulthing
  3. NPR Interview ‘Everybody is cheating’: Why this teacher has adopted an open ChatGPT policy – https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1151499213/chatgpt-ai-education-cheating-classroom-wharton-school

Paul Roetzer

  1. Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute – Founder Paul Roetzer – https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/about/paul-roetzer
  2. Marketing AI Institute – Paul Roetzer blog – https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/blog
  3. The Marketing AI Show – Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput weekly (Tuesday) podcast – https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/podcast-showcase (insightful and always timely – highly recommend!)
  4. LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulroetzer/

Courses

Listed below are courses I have completed and found helpful. Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning are my favorite go-to sources for free or nominal personal development courses. We recommend browsing these platforms and locating topics you want to learn more about. The barrier to entry is often low (free or nominal cost), and the available content is spectacular. The hard part? Making the commitment to invest in your growth. You are in control. As Seth Godin would encourage, “Go. Make a ruckus.” Dedicate yourself to learning and then share your learning with others.

Coursera – Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT- Instructor Dr. Jules White, Vanderbilt University 

Coursera – ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis – Instructor Dr. Jules White, Vanderbilt University

Udemy – ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL-E 3 & APIs – The Complete Guide – Instructors from Academind (Maximilian Schwarzmuller)

LinkedIn Learning – courses are free with a paid LinkedIn subscription

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Personal Development | Introduction of Three-Part Blog Series Inspired by Nils and Jonas Salzgeber

Personal development has been a lifelong passion for my twin brother Don and me, born out of our competitive college years and desire to be our best selves. What started as self-serving during our college years has evolved into striving to bring out the best in ourselves and others.

Introducing the Inspiring Work of Nils and Jonas Salzgeber

In Part one of this series, I’ll share the background of Don and my personal development journey and introduce you to brothers Nils and Jonas Salzgeber. Their mission of personal mastery through their newsletter and website, NJLifeHacks.com, resonates with us. They combine ancient wisdom like Stoicism with modern science to help people become better versions of themselves.

I’ll also preview the three book recommendations that are covered in this blog series:

  1. Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success by John Wooden and Steve Jamison
  2. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
  3. The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber

Part two dives deeper into the timeless life lessons we can learn from legendary basketball coach John Wooden. His wisdom on hard work, staying in the present, and improving yourself to improve the team is powerful.

Part three explores Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues that were key to his success and pursuit of self-improvement. These character traits like temperance, sincerity, humility, and others are relevant today. Walter Isaacson’s insightful biography of Franklin is also referenced.

I hope this series inspires you never to stop learning, improving and becoming the best version of yourself. Let’s go on this adventure together and help bring out the potential in each other along the way. Stay tuned for part one coming up next!

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ChatGPT Lite Part 2 of 6 – Description of Generative AI (GenAI) and how ChatGPT fits into the framework of GenAI

This is part 2 of 6 posts introducing ChatGPT and a path forward to consider for adoption and learning growth. Part 1 of 6 (Introduction) can be found here.

A brief description of GenAI and ChatGPT is provided below. “Zooming out” to take a higher view helps to clarify where the ChatGPT LLM fits into the picture of the larger theme of GenAI.

Prompting ChatGPT with “Please describe the concept of generative AI and how LLMs such as ChatGPT fit into the concept,” this helpful explanation was generated:

“Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can generate content, whether text, images, music, or any other form of media. It’s not just about analyzing or processing existing information but creating new, original content based on the data it has been trained on.

Within the realm of generative AI, Language Models (LMs) like GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) are specialized in understanding and generating human-like text. These models are a subset of generative AI focused explicitly on natural language processing (NLP), the domain concerned with the interaction between computers and human language.

ChatGPT, a variant of the GPT model, fits into the concept of generative AI as a state-of-the-art language model. Here’s how:

  1. Pre-training on Diverse Corpus: ChatGPT, like other LMs, is pre-trained on a vast and diverse text corpus. This pre-training allows the model to understand language patterns, grammar, context, and writing styles.
  2. Generative Capabilities: ChatGPT can generate coherent and contextually relevant text based on the input received after pre-training. It’s not just retrieving answers from a database but generating them, often creating content that didn’t exist before.
  3. Fine-tuning for Specific Tasks: While the base model is already powerful, ChatGPT can be fine-tuned for specific tasks or exhibit certain stylistic or thematic preferences in its output. This makes it highly versatile and adaptable to different domains.
  4. Understanding and Generating Contextually Relevant Content: ChatGPT, especially in its latest iterations, is adept at understanding context and generating relevant content. It can continue a conversation, answer questions, write stories, code software, and much more, often in a remarkably human-like way.

In the broader picture of generative AI, LLMs like ChatGPT represent a significant leap forward in our ability to automate and enhance various text-based tasks and interactions. They are key players in the ongoing evolution of AI, pushing the boundaries of what machines can understand and create in terms of human language.”

Ernst & Young overview – GPT component of Artificial Intelligence

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AI Wisdom from Seth Godin: Embracing the Dumb-Yet-Useful Tools That Are Transforming Our World: ChatGPT and Beyond

On February 14, 2024, I introduced an initiative that #TwinzTalk Don and I kicked off – getting started with AI and ChatGPT referencing an overview document titled ChatGPT Lite: How to Get Started. We have been engaging with ChatGPT Plus and other AI Large Language Models (LLMs), such as Claude AI, starting in December 2022, shortly after Open AI introduced ChatGPT on November 30, 2022.

The future of work changed instantly with the availability of LLMs for the mainstream consumer.

Seth Godin shared an insightful blog on April 20, 2024, titled ChatGPT is dumber than it looks. Seth accurately notes:

“The reason AI language models are dumb is that they don’t actually know anything, the model is simply calculating probabilities. Not about the unknown, but about everything. Each word, each sentence, is a statistical guess.

I’ve switched mostly to claude.ai because it’s more effective and less arrogant, but it’s still guessing.

If a guess is good enough, you’re set. If it’s not, plan accordingly.”

“Don’t ignore AI because it’s dumb. Figure out how to create patterns and processes where you can use it as the useful tool it’s becoming.“

Don and I have emphasized from the beginning:

  1. A mindset of curiosity, optimism, and possibility, balanced with realism, is imperative. Learn and grow with the tools.
  2. Know what you are expecting to receive from prompts. Domain expertise is critical for evaluating output that needs to be specific and accurate.
  3. Approach AI results critically, and educate yourself on the limitations, considering the results you seek.
  4. Although not perfect, embrace the possibility of AI to enhance thinking, creativity, and productivity exponentially.

We created a visual, shown below, to consider the potential uses for anyone. This is not a question of “how can this help me professionally?” Please think at a more macro level: “How can this help me, and how can I then help others by bringing more value to the world?“

TwinzTalk Framework – GenAI and ChatGPT

Embrace the possibilities and create value for your world!