This was such a surprising delight to find, Karen. I’ve not come across your work before, but I really enjoy the way you write. It’s personal, vivid, and easy to follow, but still carries a much bigger point underneath. Your distinction between being afraid of the thing itself, and being held back by the friction of not knowing how to begin, is as real as it comes. And besides the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that exact vampire scene play out in one of my ‘never-admit-in-public’ guilty pleasure shows, I resonated with your analogy so much.
That sense of being lured into something on the promise of ease, only to wonder what you might be giving up once you’re inside, was such a good way of describing a fear I think a lot of people have, even if they don’t always say it out loud. This was a great read. I look forward to reading more of your work 🙂
Karen, what a fantastic post! I felt like I was with on every step to the pool and then through with AI. I laughed at “cold, cold, cold!” because I do the exact same thing!
And then I had to shake my head reading about you in the submarine. You are so strong and I am in awe of what you’ve been through in your training and what you did after. You are a superwoman.
I loved reading about your journey with AI, the Google phase (definitely was there).
Thank you for sharing this wonderful post! I hope if people who aren’t yet friends with AI read this, it’ll inspire them to dip that toe into the pool.
Yes! Everyone should dip a toe now or then. That would be such a win for this post. Even if it’s not a toe into the AI pool.
Fun fact. It wasn’t actually a submarine. It was a large metal cylinder meant to mimic a helicopter that had crashed. It had bench seats inside and the frame around us had open windows and one open door. Then they’d drop it from about 6’, let it submerge with water, then it would roll over to one side and we’d all be hanging upside at the bottom of the pool in this device from our seatbelts waiting for the “okay” to egress (swim out). In full flight gear! Ah. The memories. I could write just about that. LOL.
OMG!! Love the added detail, and my brain is exploding. The amount of regulation you must have had to exercise is beyond what I could imagine. Truly a superwoman!!
Anyone can do it! It’s a mindset. Not that it was scary. It was. Watching my search and rescue crew do it with us was eye opening. They really thought it was FUN to try and escape in time and brought underwater cameras. The whole “instead of I have to” became “I get to.”
Haha I love that! It’s so true. The mindset carries so much of the work. This reminds me of the definition of flow which is that you are the boundary of where the challenge meets your skills. In that cylinder-helicopter, you start out waaaaay over your head (literally) in the challenge. Then as your skills catch up, it becomes fun and you can actually do the activity in flow. There’s also this added layer (this all comes from the book Flow by the psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi) where when you’re doing life-threatening activities (like free climbing), it forces you to get super present which also puts you in flow.
I adored this post. We tend to stay stuck because starting has become SO automatic that it doesn't even register as a choice anymore.. At some point the non-decision is the actual decision!
This is a beautiful journey, Karen! I'm the same with Cowork, beyond the security issues I feel are still too unresolved for my liking, I honestly can't think of a single thing I need it for right now 😂 I'm open to learning but I also feel less FOMO than I used to. I read those articles and think "how cool", then I move on to the next and then go back to perfecting my really fun artifact 🤩
Thank you, Dallas! Your slow loss of FOMO is great and I’m there now as well. I’m hoping other people see that it’s okay to see all of these options without fear, but with curiosity.
You are a fantastic storyteller Karen. It really is amazing how much we can resist or put off, and then learn to like it once it feels familiar. Such a good lesson.
This was such a surprising delight to find, Karen. I’ve not come across your work before, but I really enjoy the way you write. It’s personal, vivid, and easy to follow, but still carries a much bigger point underneath. Your distinction between being afraid of the thing itself, and being held back by the friction of not knowing how to begin, is as real as it comes. And besides the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that exact vampire scene play out in one of my ‘never-admit-in-public’ guilty pleasure shows, I resonated with your analogy so much.
That sense of being lured into something on the promise of ease, only to wonder what you might be giving up once you’re inside, was such a good way of describing a fear I think a lot of people have, even if they don’t always say it out loud. This was a great read. I look forward to reading more of your work 🙂
Karen, what a fantastic post! I felt like I was with on every step to the pool and then through with AI. I laughed at “cold, cold, cold!” because I do the exact same thing!
And then I had to shake my head reading about you in the submarine. You are so strong and I am in awe of what you’ve been through in your training and what you did after. You are a superwoman.
I loved reading about your journey with AI, the Google phase (definitely was there).
Thank you for sharing this wonderful post! I hope if people who aren’t yet friends with AI read this, it’ll inspire them to dip that toe into the pool.
Yes! Everyone should dip a toe now or then. That would be such a win for this post. Even if it’s not a toe into the AI pool.
Fun fact. It wasn’t actually a submarine. It was a large metal cylinder meant to mimic a helicopter that had crashed. It had bench seats inside and the frame around us had open windows and one open door. Then they’d drop it from about 6’, let it submerge with water, then it would roll over to one side and we’d all be hanging upside at the bottom of the pool in this device from our seatbelts waiting for the “okay” to egress (swim out). In full flight gear! Ah. The memories. I could write just about that. LOL.
OMG!! Love the added detail, and my brain is exploding. The amount of regulation you must have had to exercise is beyond what I could imagine. Truly a superwoman!!
Anyone can do it! It’s a mindset. Not that it was scary. It was. Watching my search and rescue crew do it with us was eye opening. They really thought it was FUN to try and escape in time and brought underwater cameras. The whole “instead of I have to” became “I get to.”
Haha I love that! It’s so true. The mindset carries so much of the work. This reminds me of the definition of flow which is that you are the boundary of where the challenge meets your skills. In that cylinder-helicopter, you start out waaaaay over your head (literally) in the challenge. Then as your skills catch up, it becomes fun and you can actually do the activity in flow. There’s also this added layer (this all comes from the book Flow by the psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi) where when you’re doing life-threatening activities (like free climbing), it forces you to get super present which also puts you in flow.
I am still in awe of you haha!!
💙🩵 I will have to check out that book. But I can attest to it being true already!
I adored this post. We tend to stay stuck because starting has become SO automatic that it doesn't even register as a choice anymore.. At some point the non-decision is the actual decision!
Thank you, @Mia Kiraki 🎭! So glad it resonated. 🩵
I really enjoyed reading this! Thanks Karen!
This is a beautiful journey, Karen! I'm the same with Cowork, beyond the security issues I feel are still too unresolved for my liking, I honestly can't think of a single thing I need it for right now 😂 I'm open to learning but I also feel less FOMO than I used to. I read those articles and think "how cool", then I move on to the next and then go back to perfecting my really fun artifact 🤩
same re: Cowork!
Thank you, Dallas! Your slow loss of FOMO is great and I’m there now as well. I’m hoping other people see that it’s okay to see all of these options without fear, but with curiosity.
You are a fantastic storyteller Karen. It really is amazing how much we can resist or put off, and then learn to like it once it feels familiar. Such a good lesson.
Thank you, Natalie! 🩵💙🙏🏻