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What if being polite to a chatbot could improve your own habits? Imagine if even your smallest interactions with AI could lead to personal growth! Welcome to an unconventional exploration of AI and habits in Live Well and Flourish. I, your host Craig Van Slyke, unearth the surprising connection between my fascination with AI chatbot, chat GPT, and my ingrained manners. Join me as I unravel how my interactions with this non-sentient software, shaped by my lifelong politeness, reflect the deep-rooted habits that contribute to my overall excellence.
Venture further as we discuss the profound power of metaphors and their role in shaping our perceptions and interactions. I reveal how my metaphor of chat GPT as a patient, knowledgeable, and non-judgmental colleague influences my behavior toward the AI. We'll also examine your metaphors and their effects on your approach to life. This unexpected dialogue promises an insightful perspective on the blend of technology and personal growth. So, prepare to reflect, learn, and perhaps even thank your own machines after this intriguing journey. Tune into Live Well and Flourish and let's traverse this fascinating path together. Remember, the pursuit of virtuous habits extends beyond humans to even our interactions with machines.
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Live Well and Flourish website: https://www.livewellandflourish.com/
The theme music for Live Well and Flourish was written by Hazel Crossler, hazel.crossler@gmail.com.
Production assistant - Paul Robert
Craig 00:00
Welcome to Live Well & Flourish. I'm your host, Craig Van Slyke.
Much to my wife Tracy’s lament, I’ve become enamored with ChatGPT. It’s pretty bad, in fact, it got so bad I started referring to our cat Taz as CatTAZ. Poor Tracy, she has to endure a lot from time to time ...
So what does this have to do with flourishing? Well, let me explain. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, ChatGPT is a kind of generative artificial intelligence, which is just AI that creates stuff. ChatGPT is a chatbot interface, and that means that you interact with it by entering messages into a chat window. It’s kind of a conversation and it’s more than a little magical.
Back to flourishing. Pretty quickly after starting to use ChatGPT, I realized that I consistently was polite in my interactions with it. I almost always say “please” and “thank you” even though I’m fully aware that ChatGPT is just software. It’s not a sentient being so it doesn’t seem to make sense to bother being polite to it. … or does it?
Craig 01:12
So, why am I polite to ChatGPT? Well, my joke answer is that I’m polite so that when the AI overlords take over, they’ll view me as one of the good humans. But, there are some serious reasons that are really why I thank ChatGPT … three of them, in fact.
The first reason is habit. My brothers and I were taught from a very early age to be polite. Please, thank you, sir, ma’am … all of these are deeply ingrained aspects of the Van Slyke vocabulary. We were taught that this was an important sign of respect, but there was really more to it than that. Our training in respect really led us to be respectful people … Mom and Dad taught us respect and we subsequently built a habit of respect and eventually became respectful people.
So, my politeness to ChatGPT is, in some respect, due to my habits of respect and politeness. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” or something like that. I’m not sure that he really said that, but the saying aligns with his view of how excellence is built. It's built over time, and by consistent practice. It seems to me that being polite to ChatGPT not only reinforces my habit of virtue, NOT being polite would degrade that habit. At least I think it might, but why run the risk?
Craig 02:43
That last point is really important and it brings me to my second reason for thanking ChatGPT. Not doing so might break my virtuous habit. Habits can be built, and they can be broken. You break a habit by repeatedly acting against the habit. This is really useful when trying to break counterproductive habits, but it can also disrupt productive habits. So, I decided to just go with my virtuous habit of being polite, even though ChatGPT isn’t human. Being polite with ChatGPT is not only easier, it helps me maintain and strengthen my virtuous habit of politeness and respect.
Now, I don’t thank my closet for holding my clothes, nor do I thank my truck for carrying bales of alfalfa. So, why thank ChatGPT? Well, I think it’s because it emulates human conversation. It really is like chatting with someone over text. In fact, it’s kind of spooky at times. Because it’s sort of like interacting with a human, I believe that NOT being polite would weaken my habits of politeness and respect. Is that crazy? Maybe, but the cost to me is small, in fact, it would require more effort for me to consciously avoid being polite to ChatGPT than it would to act habitually. So, I type please and thank you.
Craig 04:09
The big message I’m trying to communicate is to be diligent in building your virtuous habits and vigilant in maintaining those habits. These are both critical to building and maintaining your excellence … at least that’s what Aristotle thought.
This brings me to my last point, the power of metaphors. I’m thinking about doing a whole episode on the importance of metaphors, but for today, I just want to say that metaphors are powerful tools for shaping your perceptions of and interactions with the world. Some believe that our brains are, to an extent, kind of metaphor machines. We develop metaphors to help us make sense of the world. My metaphor for ChatGPT is of an infinitely patient, very knowledgeable, non-judgmental colleague. This metaphor helps me use ChatGPT effectively, so it’s important that I maintain that metaphor. Since I would be polite to a colleague, I’m polite to ChatGPT. It’s pretty simple really. If I didn’t treat ChatGPT with respect, it would interrupt this useful metaphor and degrade my use of the system. Metaphors are important, but they’re not sacred. So, it's useful to spend a little time reflecting on your metaphors and, when they seem counterproductive, to change them. I’ll try to talk more about this in a future episode.
Craig 05:33
Well, that’s all for today. As you go through your week, remember to guard your virtuous habits and useful metaphors, even if it means being polite to a machine. I think I’m gonna go thank my truck. Talk to you next time.
