Attention is Everything!
Puedes compartir o leer este Artículo en Español.
The image was generated with assistance of ChatGPT.
There are two fundamental emotions that underpin all categories of emotions, or all emotions, for that matter: positive and negative emotions. Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology," first used these terms, but not as we would understand them today: with a “good and bad” connotation. He used these terms as ‘desirable’ and ‘undesirable’ emotions that propel an agent to move forward or to retreat.
In our everyday life, we are constantly pushed and pulled by all sorts of circumstances—but are we really? What pulls us, if not our aim—whether conscious or not? We could say that circumstances are what trigger us, but we also push and pull at things ourselves—often to avoid seeing and recognizing the real pressure we face: not having a conscious purpose.
You see, when you have a clear and well-defined purpose, when you have an aim that is truly groundbreaking, positive emotion is gold—it strengthens your determination, fills you with hope, and brings you joy—it propels you to keep going. When you have a purpose but are not advancing towards it, you experience negative emotion, and even though you feel discouraged and overwhelmed by it, it is still easier to get inspired and going than if you had no truly groundbreaking purpose at all.
Is productivity possible if your attention is not laser-focus on a truly grand purpose or aim?
In the last article I stated plainly that “If you just want to make money, you are lost!” the reason being that money is a collective value we assign to something, and “value” determines why you seek something, it is not an ultimate objective. If you follow value per se, you will get so tangled up that you will not know what’s up or down—value will dictate it for you.
However, if your aim is not ground shattering, then the positive emotion derived from advancing towards it will be like the excitement of a new toy—it will fade away after a short while.
I highly recommend a superb lecture by Jonathan Pageau in the 2024 ARC conference, where he discusses what happens when we treat something meant to be an intermediate step as a final aim—like when we prioritized safety above all else during the lockdowns.
AI, the Disruptor!
We are in the midst of a “great meaning crisis” (John Vervaeke), and it affects just about every aspect of human culture and society. There are so many factors and external pressures which impact our lives, that individuals across all demographics are experiencing mental distress.
“It is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (59.3 million in 2022; 23.1% of the U.S. adult population)”
— National Institute of Mental Health
In other words, when we don’t have a meaningful aim and are continuously overwhelmed by negative emotions, our psyche develops a chronic ailment we call stress. This crisis is mirrored in industries and corporations alike, as well as all sorts of businesses—the visions of the companies we work for lack true meaning, and as a result, the tasks we perform daily at work feel purposeless… therefore, negative emotions are continuously present!
We are intelligent self aware beings, the embodiment of orientation and purpose in the Cosmos. Without the integration of these two attributes, there is no positive emotion, no progress—we are left stressed and disoriented!
Now AI is here to stay—trying to stop it is like trying to grasp the wind in your hand.
If you have a clear aim, AI becomes a powerful tool to help you find your direction and achieve your purpose. If you only use it to pretend to be something you are not, then—as the saying goes—“you may cheat some people some of the time…” but ultimately, you are only cheating yourself out of a grand opportunity to transform yourself and your life.
If you don’t have an aim, a strategy, and an action plan… then you are part of someone else’s plan.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, AI is going to change how you work, how you relate to others… it’s already doing it—just like social media has disrupted our lives since the beginning of this century.
Learn what AI is- Learn how to use it—not just to be more productive and efficient in your work, but to challenge yourself to become more than what you currently are.
This is the newest of a series of articles (Index: “AI, friend or foe?”) that reviews AI; investigating what it is, how it is going to change our lives and how we can prepare ourselves to live in a world where everything seems to be moving at a warp speed.