Just this week (or maybe it was last week, who cares) there was a news article that Sam Altman was fired (momentarily) due to a potential artificial intelligence discovery that is so dangerous that it could threaten humanity. I'm telling you though I don't have to wait till AI unleashes it's full power into the world. I'm already there. How may you ask?
Let me tell you - your devices, one on your wrist, the other in your pocket and the third on your desk spend the entire day whispering sweet nothings in your ears. It's like that nagging spouse that doesn't go away. (Mind you - mine doesn't nag; I wish he did though so I would be absolved of doing all the nagging in my household). Anyways beside the point.
So here I am one fine old day (which really is like every day) sitting on a Teams call trying very hard to concentrate on the subject being discussed so that I can further my projects. All of sudden my wrist starts vibrating.... ok it's a text message - keep it cool; I will pick it up after the call, I think to myself. No more knee jerk reaction, I am really working hard to build that discipline.
Then there is a second, third, fourth....gosh there is a dialogue going on somewhere......world peace or at least my world might be threatened. I begin to sweat.... what if! Smiling and nodding on my call, I think to myself ok one sneak peek doesn't really hurt, so very discreetly I pick up my phone outside my camera's view to see where the fire is.
My family has to bring up all their life issues right now......and on the priority scale family comes first. Priority box checked I proceed to read the messages. My younger daughter is wondering if I'm doing pick up in half an hour (smart little cookie, because I've ofcourse forgotten about it, and she'd be out in the cold waiting for me), my older daughter just texted... and when she texts it's usually urgent because it's usually about committing thousands of dollars to another course or certificate or program at her college or it is to ask advise about something going on in her life at that moment, that in an adult (read teenager) world really can't wait. My husband is wondering if we can add another couple to the dinner party we are hosting next week. Just as my tiny little brain is processing all these messages... I've missed what's being said on the call. Crap, it is my turn to respond... I make some non-committal, discreet comment and let someone else pick up the rest of it.
Then all of a sudden just as I am staring at my screen yet thinking about how I'm going to respond to the three of them, one of my monitors lights up (I have three by the way) I've gotten an email about a burning issue that I was dealing with, and I JUST HAVE TO respond to that also.
So now while I am trying to concentrate on my teams call AND respond to my daughters (husband can wait) I am also opening my outlook to say - hold the press - I will come back in an hour, crap hour and half, I yet have to go pick up my daughter. Meanwhile, my blood pressure is rising because I've lost the plot on the call and am panicking because I really need to make this work. Aaaaaaaah! My poor little brain!
Yes, yes, yes I need to be more focused not be so trigger happy, do more yoga, meditation, go to a mountain, become a hermit (the thought does cross my mind - everyday) shutdown everything when I'm really trying to concentrate, I know. Trust me I have become more disciplined. In the past month I only interrupted my Teams call once, when my niece was announcing to everyone on the call that she needed to go do her business. Other than that, I now know that I can wait to respond to "my hair is on fire" emails/texts, because on a given day someone's hair is usually on fire. But for the moment, I will take the easy way out and blame it on the devices!
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