Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where you’re free to procrastinate with a meaningful break before getting back to work. The current format:

• 💡 3 ideas worth procrastilearning over

• 🗣️ 2 quotes to help you refocus

• 🪄 1 tip to keep you on track

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. ChatGPT is now in a robot

The other week, the robotics company Figure showcased its terrifying robot doing the dishes and giving somebody an apple. I'd like to go with a scaremongering angle for now, so here's The Daily Mail on the story:

Reading this story you are left to either assume that robots will kill us all, as The Daily Mail wants you to think, or simply that all physical and manual work is going to be done by robots in a couple of decades, perhaps starting a new global dystopian caste system splitting society into people who have robots doing everything for them and people who don't.

Some more optimistic types think we will all have to return to a classic liberal arts education system to deal with this new world. The author Devon Eriksen argues that, with most jobs becoming obsolete, education will instead have to focus on the following:

Looking at this list, it sounds admirable. I do worry though that it's more likely humans will eventually end up like the characters in Michael Moorcock's fantastic Dancers At The End Of Time series: they have all-powerful technology inherited from their ancestors but are otherwise clueless.

2. Imagine you die each day to deal with procrastination

This is a handy mental model to use when suffering from any sort of inertia: imagine you die every day. Think of your life as being made up of thousands of individuals who all live one day, and that you are a tribe: "Sacrifice yourself for yourself to better your community of selves".

That summary probably didn't make sense, so just watch the video below.

3. People are using AI as a therapist

Mostly ChatGPT, but other apps too. The famed science journal Nature even has an entry analysing the phenomenon.

Like the NY Times author above, I've tried "talking" to Pi too - I found it a useful experience. Its sunny disposition probably won't work for many people, but it helped me reframe a few things I had been thinking about and gave me a bit of clarity. Would I use it if I had more serious problems? Probably not, I'd prefer a human. But for a little pick-me-up for my smaller neuroses (and to save my loved ones from listening to me moan), it does the trick.

If you want to try this sort of thing with ChatGPT, this Joy Ninja article recommends using this gentle prompt to start:

For this conversation I would like you to act like a trained therapist. Your specialty is Rogerian therapy. Your task is to reflect back to me what you believe I am thinking and feeling without giving specific advice.

Remember though, that if you do try any of this, keep the hard facts in mind:

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 tip to improve your AI use

Keeping with the AI theme earlier, here's a double tip for those trying it out.

If you find your output when using AI a bit disappointing, it may be because you need to change what exactly you're telling it to do. This is the art of prompting. First, let’s make sure you’re using the best AI model possible:

Access GPT4 for free

The fancier model used by the paid version of ChatGPT usually requires a subscription in every app that offers it. But it is available in one place for free.

If you install Microsoft's Copilot app on your phone, there's actually an option to use it there. You can get the app on Android here and iOS here.

Now that we have access to GPT4 in Copilot, let's try an example with its image-generating abilities. If I try the phrase "Create an image of three dogs on surfboards in the future", I get this:

Admittedly that’s pretty good, but it’s a bit silly, and it could be better. What simple change could we make?

Try Promptify to improve your prompts

If I feed the same idea into Promptify, the prompt it recommends I use is:

"Create a high-detail illustration of three dogs riding surfboards on waves of illuminated, holographic data. The style should be futuristic, employing a neon color palette. Imagine a perspective from a hovering drone camera, offering a dynamic view. The mood should encapsulate optimism and excitement, symbolic of leaps in future technology. Include the backdrop of a future city skyline, aglow with vibrant, pulsating lights."

Using this more ornate prompt, Copilot gives me this classier and more convincing image, which I much prefer:

Promptify can aid you in making detailed AI prompts for most use cases. You can browse how it can help you here.

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading. Here’s a picture of a zebra.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff
Currently reading: Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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