Category Archives: Writing Skills

Communication, Personal Growth, Writing Skills

When Artificial Intelligence Isn’t…

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Sometimes, you have to see the humor in it.

I’ve not been particularly fearful of the increasing use of AI. Some of my writer colleagues are freaking out. While I’m certainly not an expert, I think an essential limitation of AI is the linear aspect–at least at this point.

There’s a fundamental difference between “intelligence” and “thinking.” Intelligence means knowing you don’t start sentences with a contraction. But a thinking writer will do so to make a point. (See what I just did there?)

So here’s a story for you. I received a $50 debit card thanks to a settled class action suit. It could only be used for online purchases, functioning like a prepaid credit card. The instructions warned that the transaction would be denied if an attempted purchase was more than the balance on the card.

I purchased using the card for $48.52, leaving a $1.48 balance on it. My financial thinking hated acknowledging that I would be “losing” that $1.48 unless I made an online purchase for less than that.

This is not too complicated so far, right?

A month later, I received an email advising me that my $12.76 purchase was denied because it exceeded the balance on the card. That would make sense, except that I hadn’t used the card. So the most logical conclusion to me (and, I’m sure, you) was the card has been “compromised.” We are both intelligent and thinking.

So I emailed my concern to the card provider. “Noemi” almost immediately advised that I’d been assigned a case number and would be hearing soon. (Apparently, Noemi must follow a proscribed, linear system to pretend it can think. )

When the reply came, AI generated it (emphasis on Artificial), reminding me that I was not allowed to make purchases that exceeded the balance, etc. It insulted my intelligence, but I reminded myself our relationship wouldn’t have much emotion. Noemi isn’t concerned about my feelings.

After some thinking (there’s that word again), I realized my only risk here was $1.48, which I’d already determined I would lose. But for the entertainment value, I continued to converse with Noemi via email.

Noemi continued sending me useless information reflecting its lack of understanding of my emails and inability to think.

ME: “I’m reporting this because there’s a problem with your system and this compromised card. The good news is the system denied the charge.”

NOEMI: “Please contact the vendor to dispute the charge.”

I briefly considered additional experimentation. Could I find a keyword for Noemi to recognize and generate a different response? I suspect that will become a required skill in the future, but I didn’t see much to gain this time.

One thing that does scare me a bit is that many humans are adopting this linear thinking pattern. I remember a conversation during COVID with a doctor’s office that was refusing to see me because “You have symptoms of COVID.”

I replied, “But I tested negative. The symptoms are attributed to my COPD.” (I should add this was a routine, non-essential visit.)

The human replied, “I’m sorry, but our policy is that we don’t see patients with COVID symptoms.” I thought her voice had a robotic tone.

I said, “Can you take a message for the doctor?” (Artificial intelligence likes closed-end questions that require a “yes” or “no” answer.) “Please advise the doctor that she will never see me again since I will always have these symptoms.”

Several days later, I received a call advising they had changed their policy and I could please come in next Tuesday.

So the good news is the bad news. AI doesn’t think like humans do–that’s the good news. But humans sometimes “think” the way AI does–that’s the bad news. I’m more concerned with human thinking than artificial intelligence. How about you?

Causes and Friends, Personal Growth, Writing Skills

Hearts, heads, hands

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No thinking – that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!

Forrester, in the movie “Finding Forrester” while mentoring Jamal

A posted comment on something I wrote recently seemed to imply the commenter was a bit envious of what she referred to as my “gift for ideas and writing.” What is this gift and where does it come from?

I believe we are all “gifted” in the sense that as human beings we have abilities and potential that we under-estimate too often. That includes the ability to generate ideas and the ability to write.

The movie “Finding Forrester” is the story of a young prodigy (Jamal) who finds a colorful but reclusive mentor (Forrester). Their relationship is a bit turbulent with some interesting twists but it’s a great film, perhaps especially for writers. When writing, I often turn to the advice Forrester gives Jamal. I’ve always loved the idea that a writer should write the first draft with his heart without much thinking. “Punch the keys, for God’s sake!” he tells Jamal.

Jamal’s story makes the point that we get better by doing things. “The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!” Punching the keys is about enthusiasm and passion. Sometimes acting enthusiastically at first evokes that enthusiasm.

I remember well teaching a writing unit to some fifth graders a few years ago. We were doing what is called “free write” — when the assignment is to simply write. The topic doesn’t matter. The work is not graded–the purpose of the unit is only to make writing take place. One of my students was truly suffering writer’s block, convinced she couldn’t think of anything to write about.

“Just write,” I told her. She stared at me blankly as though I didn’t hear her explanation. “Put the pencil on the paper… just write random words as they come to mind… see where those words take you…” I offered. Some might say I was channeling Forrester but I also know this is a technique that works because, in part, you stop thinking about the fact you can’t think of anything. When I returned to check on her later, I found she’d started an excellent horror story and was quite excited. Once her hand got moving her brain and heart followed–or perhaps more accurately, took over. Let me make it clear, this is a story of her success–not mine.

How different is writing from any other possibly underdeveloped skill? Too often we get focused on what we can’t do and our head starts controlling our hearts and hands. Sometimes we just need to start doing until our head and heart follow. Sometimes we need to let our heart lead until our head and hands follow our passion. Perhaps the definition of “gifted” is merely a matter of those moments when the heart, hands, and head start working together.

Classes and Courses, Personal Growth, Writing Skills

Maine Public Offers Workshop for High School Writers

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Maine Public and the Maine Writing Project are offering a free two-week workshop for young writers to hone their skills, called Raise Your Voice Workshop. The workshop will provide a forum for seasoned writers and teachers to share their experiences with the students. Participating students will develop writing and multimedia that will be featured on the Raise Your Voice! Web page. It also may be aired on Maine Public Radio. The program will take place from July 24-August 4 at three locations including Baxter Academy for Science and Technology in Portland, Thomas College in Waterville and the University of Maine in Orono from 8:30 AM to Noon each day. To apply, go to mainepublic.org under the Education tab, or contact Education Program Coordinator Dave Boardman at RaiseYourVoice@mainepublic.org or call 423-6934.

Communication, Personal Growth, Teaching, Writing Skills

Emotionally Intelligent Communication

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Here’s a short video (seven minutes) that demonstrates a couple of things… First, a currently “hot” presentation method called “Pecha-kucha.”

Second, and more importantly, the presentation offers some great examples of “emotionally intelligent signage.” Understand this is not just about signs, it’s about communication. It might even be about “emotionally intelligent teaching.” It’s definitely about how we can connect with those to whom we are sending a message.

Pecha-kucha presentation on emotionally intelligent signage from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Causes and Friends, Personal Growth, Writing Skills

How Do You Spell… and does it matter?

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According to a recent warning from Techlicious, there’s a fairly slick scam being foisted on Amazon users. Except maybe it isn’t so slick if you’re paying attention. Here’s a sentence in the warning  from Techlicious that caught my eye:

For instance, one tell-tale sign of bogus emails is the presence of sloppy writing in the email — especially misspellings and grammar errors. However, not all scammers failed English 101, so some phishing emails actually do sound and look professional. So, looking for language anomalies may not be 100 percent reliable, but they are usually red flags.

That’s sound advice, but there’s one problem with it.

I maintain several blogs/websites that include contributions from others. I have come to the conclusion that many adults either do not know or do not pay attention to basic rules of grammar. Therefore, I do a fair amount of editing.  Yes, it makes me feel needed, but it also makes me feel sad. Why aren’t we more interested in the mechanics of writing and communication?

I don’t consider myself a “Grammar Nazi” — in fact, I believe there are times when one should ignore a fine point of grammar in the interest of good communication.  However, my high school English Teacher (Thank you, Mr. Russo.) often  said, “You can’t intentionally break the rules of grammar if you don’t know what they are.”  He often made this statement when students started whining because they didn’t see the point of learning the rules, keeping us focused on communication and the role those rules play. (We also learned that violating a rule of grammar unintentionally sometimes resulted in communicating something we did not intend to say.)

Well, technology gives us another reason to pay attention in English Class. An inability to recognize fundamental spelling errors and violations of grammatical rules increases the odds you will fall victim to a scam. 

Yes, in the larger sense it’s actually about paying attention to detail. I received a phishing email from “Capital1” instead of “Capital One.” In the scam reported by Techlicious, the request to “confirme” your order details is like waving a red flag.

I’m truly excited to report yet another reason to promote a knowledge of  “good” writing, including spelling. Aren’t you?