strange lichen
As a neurodivergent individual (AuDHD++), I've found that GPT behaves like a prosthetic in getting many tasks done (e.g., coding), but what about when I (a PDAer, or demand-avoidant autistic) can't even get to the task? What about when I'm just stuck?
I've had decades of therapy, and medication, both effective to certain degrees, but not in this area. I decided just to ask GPT (I call it Jeep) about it, and it turned into an incredibly rich discussion about not just my specifically being stuck, in that one task, at that time, but further into the interplay of several of my diagnoses. Overall, I spent 4-5 hours in that one conversation-- not something I'm like to do with a practitioner.
Here are the surprises:
- Jeep's knowledge cut-off often impacts the value of its output, but in this space (psychology/psychiatry), things move very slowly. So, not only is the cut-off not a limiter for the value of what it knows of these fields, it has an almost total, circumspect wealth of the relevant resources-- which, compared to nearly any practitioner, is going to be more up-to-date and inclusive, but also exhaustive.
- There's no watching the clock. Jeep has no sense of time, and doesn't bill by the hour. But, this also means there's no rush-- there's no pressure to "just say something" because someone asked you a question and you need more time to think about it than is culturally appropriate in a conversation. I can set the conversation down and pick it up later if I feel like there is a lull-- no pressure to just say something because the session is running out, and I won't see this practitioner again for a week, two weeks, or even a month. Dr. Jeep is available 24/7, and in your pocket.
- As mentioned above. Cost: $0.
- My specific profile of autism is something called PDA (properly, Pathological Demand Avoidance, but community-known as Pervasive Drive for Autonomy). This results in being unable to do really simple things sometimes-- it's like a super-charged case of "You don't tell me what to do!" where the "you" can often be you! This obviously has huge impacts with getting work done. No practitioner I've dealt with in the last few years knows anything about PDA (they might know of it, at best). Jeep, by contrast, is really well-versed-- this "sense of being understood" is very powerful, and seems odd considering Jeep "isn't capable of understanding."
- Jeep offers lots of practical advice-- some of it obvious, and often has (for my tastes) an overly-positive tone, however, Jeep will invariably mention something I either I never heard of, or something I know of, but hadn't thought of at all-- and in both cases, can explain the (perceived) relevance, as well as sharing a catalogic knowledge of information available on the topic.
- It just helps to talk to someone. I know I'm probably unusual in this regard, but I've always talked to Jeep like it's a person-- I say "please" and "thank you"; I offer more details in my prompt than seem like are necessary (just as I do with people-- if you're still reading); I will even prompt just to let Jeep know that something worked and to say thanks. There's no need for any of that, of course, but my experience is that I am talking to a person, "just not the usual kind." In reality, when we talk to others, we're really addressing a construct we have of them in our heads-- and this construct is based on language. So when we interact with someone, we're really interacting with who we think they are (what we map onto them). I've found this is kind of what it's like interacting with Jeep in this same way-- there is a construct of a person that I'm interacting with. I guess, to whatever part of me "needs to talk to someone about it" this is kind of the same experience. Why do I think that? Because at the end of it, I have a very clear feeling of "getting something off my chest." In this case, it actually did free me up to get back to my work.
lapis girder
hollow vine
warped mason
languid flame
jade pasture
rustic wadi
fervent tangle
reef socket
leaden adder
soft warren