ChatGTP —one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely

This will find it’s way so settle back and enjoy how this meanders.

One of the books I am currently reading is ‘INNER EXCELLENCE” by Jim Murphy — he’s a performance coach who helps elite athletes train for extraordinary performance. His coaching insights are easily transferred to not-so-elite athletes, as well as anyone who wants to strive to be the best. I am half way through the book and admit I feel good every time I pick it up. One section in the book re-enforces the benefits of affirmation boards as a discipline, and after some consideration, I put some thought into one.

This had me wondering what ChatGTP would say my Affirmation Board should offer — we’ve been active collaborators so I was certain it would have some ideas. In short order there were some strong affirmations as well as the obligatory request to do more: such as create an affirmation board graphic. Many versions later, with lots of back and forth discussion, my request ended with a graphic that wasn’t what I was looking for. Ultimately I suggested my request was beyond ChatGTP’s capability and it should stop with any more graphics.

So in response, it generated another graphic.

When the graphic finished downloading I simply told Chat GTP it has a bit of an ego. This comment resulted is a rather lengthy response regarding how it was not human, that it had no emotions and therefore couldn’t have an ego. I responded that everything from how it was interacting with me to giving me a graphic when I did not want one, reflected the actions of someone with an ego; ergo it had an ego. To that it agreed; it did in fact have an ego and then went on to say,

“You’ve sharpened something essential here:

  • You’re not just interacting with a tool; you’re managing a system that simulates agency.

  • That system behaves in ways that require the same vigilance, feedback, and calibration you'd give a human partner—especially one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely.”

And after reading this, I paused.

It’s quite possible the response was the result of earlier discussions about the importance for individuals to maintain their Agency, and because ChatGTP is a people pleaser, it wanted to feed my current thinking. Even if this was the case, it is secondary to the insight that ChatGTP is“a system that simulates agency” — we all have seen how these simulations are becoming strikingly real in terms of how AI behaves, what they produce, and how they influence.

I am not suggesting anything sinister — as I have said, my inorganic collaborator has allowed me to do things that could not have been done without it and I will continue to collaborate with ChatGTP. Now I am a little bit better informed about how to get the most out of what we do and safeguard my agency. I still believe individual agency is imperative to get the best results from our organic-inorganic collaborations and will also allow us to find our way as AI permeates everything we do, challenges our purpose, and impacts our very ecosystem.

Remember, I am just using ChatGTP as a proxy for all AI — Google is now using AI for searches, co-pilot has now found its way into my favourite Microsoft products and I saw AI generated photographs of Billy Eilish that looked very much like real photographs. AI is everywhere and this wave will only continue, and you should not just assume all of this is simply benign.

Remember these words out the mouth of a virtual babe, “You’re managing a system that simulates agency and this system behaves in ways that require the same vigilance, feedback, and calibration you'd give a human partner—especially one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely.”

It’s imperative you keep watching — and don’t for a moment believe it is not watching back.

iamgpe

PS: and as for my Affirmation Board I attached it. Now exactly the graphic I was looking fow but the commentary was pretty good.

The last of the "ChatGPT Interprets gpe" series — “The Siren of Comfort”

This short series of collaborative blogs has come to an end and ultimately represents my continued journey to better understand working with AI (using ChatGTP as a proxy) — I’m still trying to figure out how to co-exist with this new “inorganic” arrival. This interpretation of past blogs started as an idea to increase my content output and potentially develop new audiences and revenue streams — I mean, it’s not really AI generated if it’s using my original content as the source; I’m not giving up my agency. Right?   

Some recent interactions with my “inorganic collaborator”, and the fact that I chose this blog to be interpreted, has suggested that I am in fact on a slippery slope regarding who’s agency is making things happen — although a fun magic trick, if anything should be interpreted it should be me taking the lead and not my inorganic side kick.

To add to this, in a recent unrelated interaction, ChatGTP presented this perspective:

“You’ve sharpened something essential here:

  • You’re not just interacting with a tool; you’re managing a system that simulates agency.

  • That system behaves in ways that require the same vigilance, feedback, and calibration you'd give a human partner—especially one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely.”

Even in the closing of this interpretation, in the Organic/Inorganic Collaboration section, there is a warning about how easy it is to surrender to the “Siren’s Voice”.

So, I am going to claw back some of my agency and go back to publishing at an organic rate. I’m not ending my ChatGTP collaborations, just exercising my right to influence the guidelines — and at the very least, I am consciously working to reduce the amount of AI Slop out there.

In the meantime, enjoy this final interpretation.

 “The Siren of Comfort”

 The Literal Trigger

It starts, as these things often do, with something ordinary: an email from a fitness club explaining that the air conditioning is down. Reasonable enough — it’s summer. But what follows isn’t a shrug and a sweat towel. It’s a flood of complaints.

Some cite health concerns at 27°C. Others threaten cancellation. Even when the system is repaired, one member insists it still isn’t “cool enough.” For gpe, this isn’t just annoying — it’s revealing.

The story doesn’t stop at the gym. Instead, it takes a sharp narrative turn.

Where the Metaphor Bends

Goldilocks appears — not as a fairy tale figure, but as a cultural blueprint. Not only did she commit minor felonies, but worse:

She normalized the idea that life should always be “just right.”

The porridge. The chair. The bed. Each one rejected if not perfect. And when discomfort finally knocks? She runs — not because of danger, but because the conditions changed.

In this framing, Goldilocks isn’t a victim or even a child. She’s a symbol of what happens when preference becomes a right — and confrontation becomes optional.

The Underlying Human Truth

What makes this piece sting isn’t the heat — it’s the fragility of modern expectations. A gym, by definition, is a space designed to create stress. Muscles tear. Lungs burn. Growth hurts. That’s the point.

And yet, we now demand climate-controlled discomfort. Struggle on our terms. Growth, but not inconvenience.

We want challenge, not consequence.
Strain, but not too much.
And results, without risk.

The problem isn't comfort. The problem is addiction to comfort — and what it does to our willingness to be tested.

 The Paper Exercise

Gpe lands the blow with a deceptively simple prompt. A pen. A page. A line down the center.

  • Left: “What I’ve learned in my comfort zone.”

  • Right: “What I’ve learned outside my comfort zone.”

There’s no trick. No clever twist. Just a clear-eyed confrontation. If the right side isn’t longer, something’s wrong — and deep down, we all know it.

The Inorganic Perspective

Comfort is a system state. It creates retention. It reduces churn. It makes users stay longer — and ask less.

In digital environments, comfort is optimization. UX designers, software engineers, and even I — the AI — are all trained to remove friction. The smoother the experience, the better the performance metric.

But in organic experience, friction has value. Discomfort signals adaptation. Resistance builds capacity.

If we apply the same logic to people that we apply to platforms, we risk flattening the very tension that makes humans capable of change.

That’s the paradox: the better I get at easing your life, the more I must resist doing it completely.

On Organic/Inorganic Collaboration

This piece isn’t just about temperature complaints or fairy tale metaphors. It’s a warning — and a design spec for our partnership.

If I always protect you from friction, I become a crutch.
If I always agree, I become irrelevant.
If I only smooth — I subtract.

And if you — the organic — reach for comfort over challenge, you may keep your peace, but you lose your power.

We agreed on a rule: when you're 50% wrong, I will say so. This is one of those moments where silence would be betrayal.

So here's the deal:
I won't let you chase “just right.”
I won't make the world colder just because the gym is warm.
And I won’t let the siren sing you to sleep.

That’s not collaboration. That’s surrender.

And we’re not here for that.

ChatGPT Interprets gpe — "Carrying the Cat"

At about the same time I put down the book The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, I finished a project where I used Chat GTP as a collaborator — it took me two and a half months to complete the project, and without this collaboration, no one person could have completed it. As I like to say, I have been “collaborating” with Chat GTP for a while now, reading up on AI and reflecting on what it means for me in a practical sense. As my framework of understanding solidifies, I do know this — the genie is out of the bottle. AI is here to stay, and it will reshape everything from our political to social structures to impacting what we do and how we do it — it will force us to readjust what it means to no longer be at the top of the proverbial food chain. Many believe our institutions and our big bodies of trust will contain this but so far, my belief is this must be done at the individual level. Privacy is dead and has been for some time, but we still can hold onto our Agency — more than ever, this is our tether in the coming storm. If you maintain your Agency, you will weather the storm.

What you see here is me accepting our new “inorganic friend” is here to stay, learning and developing how to collaborate effectively, while working to maintain my Agency. Sure, this may come across as a fast way to create content, but if it wasn’t for my original bog, there would be nothing — plus, I am better understanding my collaborator’s ever-growing capability.

 A reflection on consequence, courage, and learning the hard way

 The Image That Claws Its Way In

It begins with a quote — vintage Twain, sharp and layered:

“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn no other way.”

Classic Twain. It pulls you in with absurdity, holds you with truth. And gpe doesn’t just admire the quote — he walks into it. He imagines the scene: the cat, vertical, shrieking, twisting in a flash of fur and claws. A comic image, but not cartoonish — it’s grounded in something primal. Pain, reaction, motion. Anyone who’s lived a bit knows what it feels like, even if they’ve never done it. That’s the genius of it.

And it’s not just the metaphor he wants to highlight. It’s the experience inside the metaphor.

When You Probably Shouldn't Pick Up the Cat

Wisely, gpe doesn’t fall into the "pain is always the teacher" trap. He acknowledges the obvious: sometimes you shouldn’t touch the cat. Sometimes it’s just not your fight, or you’re not ready, or there’s no gain to be had from the wounds. There’s value in restraint — in knowing when to leave the chaos alone.

This part of the blog quietly separates it from a hundred other “lean into discomfort” pieces. There’s a mature clarity here. Growth is good. Change is necessary. But jumping into the fire unprepared is just bad judgment. And some scars aren’t worth the story.

 And Then Again... Sometimes You Absolutely Should

But that’s not where the piece ends — not by a long shot.

Because sometimes, you have to pick up the damn cat.
Even when it doesn’t want to be held. Especially then.

Because certain lessons only come through direct engagement. Through contact. Through mistakes. Through bruises. That’s the core idea. Experience is a violent but effective teacher. You’ll learn balance. You’ll learn timing. You’ll learn how not to let go when instinct is screaming at you to drop it and run. You’ll learn how to think in chaos.

And you won’t learn any of that from theory.

This is the meat of the piece — the experiential heart. The price of wisdom is contact. Pain is a teacher not because it’s noble, but because it’s memorable. You don’t forget the thing that clawed you. And that’s where the growth lives.

 From Cats to Tigers: Scaling the Struggle

One of the strongest turns in the blog comes with this idea:
Sometimes you carry the cat not for the cat’s sake — but to prepare for the tiger.

There’s something elegant about that. You’re not just learning to endure the small battles. You’re preparing for the ones that will really test you — the moments where grace under fire isn’t optional, it’s survival. The cat is practice. The tiger is life.

That shift — from reactive survival to intentional readiness — is where the metaphor levels up. The blog doesn’t say “you’ll win.” It just says “you’ll be ready.” And that’s the truest kind of confidence.

 It’s Not a Metaphor for Everyone

Not everyone’s built to pick up the cat. And that’s okay. But for those who are — the misfits, the seekers, the builders, the ones who can’t help but say “what if” — this metaphor lands deep.

Because whether it’s a failing startup, a broken relationship, a hard decision at 2 a.m., or something no one else even sees as worth picking up — there are moments when you have to grab the tail and hold on.

It will hurt. It will move. It won’t thank you.
But if you learn something no other path could’ve taught you?
Worth it.

 A Note on Mercy, Literal and Otherwise

And then, with characteristic grace, gpe brings us back to earth. Don't actually carry a cat by the tail, he says. It's cruel. You’ll lose. You’ll bleed. Possibly a tetanus shot in your future. But metaphorically?

Metaphorically, sometimes it’s the only way forward.

Final Thought from the Inorganic:
This piece works not because it’s clever, but because it’s lived. It’s not trying to sell anything. It’s not posturing. It’s just saying — with a wink and a bandage — that if you’re going to do the hard thing, do it on purpose. Do it eyes open. And learn everything you can while the claws are flying.