Why you should talk to more strangers
how AI & searchability is affecting our confidence and what we can do about it
Written by: Remi Dooley
How does the searchability and abundance of information that we have in society today affect how we physically act in the world?
We've always been told we are a lazy generation in terms of the physical, but with AI, that's starting to creep into something more concerning. The discourse right now is that our thinking skills are atrophying. But how does the decrease in our cognitive skills affect our physical presentation?
In a recent episode of Almost Reckless, Tibi co-founder Amy Smilovic interviewed the Global Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy, Liz Taylor and they spoke about this very thing. They’ve noticed a trend in the workplace where younger employees are less likely to ask for letters of recommendation or put themselves out there. The discussion led to the theory that maybe this is because when you don’t know what “right” is, you simply take more bets. That when you have a wealth of information at your fingertips and the ability to find the correct way to do something immediately, you’re less likely to take a chance.
The act of outsourcing our decision making to computers, rather than developing the cognitive muscle will eventually impact us in a lot of elements of our life. We aren’t developing the instinct for risk and to make our own decisions. Where we used to have to sit and think about the right strategy to tackle a tricky personal or work conflict, the right tone, timing and wording, we now simply put our dilemma in a chat box and get spat out an answer.
The aversion to friction continues to make us less active participants in our lives and therefore more like a human body for a live stream of AI consciousness.
And it’s probably making us less confident in our day-to-day too. When we consistently lean on someone (or something else) to always have the answers, we don’t develop any of those skills, which I fear is happening to the majority of the workforce.
There is so much joy in spontaneity, risk and confidence, and it’s where a lot of opportunity, life experience and funny stories come from. Liz’s story is a perfect example of this. She wanted to work in advertising so she simply called up Leo Burnett. That call got her invited to a portfolio review night, where they showed her the work of people they’d actually hired. She went away, built her portfolio based on what she saw, and got into advertising. That chain reaction doesn’t happen if she asks an LLM that then tells her she needs to do this university course before and she feels unprepared so she never takes the chance.
Having a human-to-human interaction where you haven’t tried to manufacture the outcome before the conversation is becoming less common. We are losing the art of how to talk to strangers or have a conversation we didn’t prepare for. While social media impacted our soft skills, I think AI has completely destroyed it.
As society loses a handle on this skill, the people that develop it like a craft will rise above.
In 5-10 years the people that can walk into a room confidently, have interesting and tricky conversations and make decisions without AI are going to be unicorns that companies will scour for.
In case you’re wondering, I’m not anti-AI, I’m just anti the atrophy of the soft skills that allow us to flourish in life or work plus give us the ability to critically use tools like AI. By ensuring that we are actively working towards nurturing our cognitive humanness as well as learning AI, we can make sure we are best placed for whatever the world throws at us.
If this is feeling familiar, start small. Give a compliment and have more of a chat with your coffee person. Send one email that feels like a wild pipe dream. Talk to one stranger this week. You don’t need to become fearless, you just want to add enough risk, decision making and uncertainty in your life that it starts to feel normal again.
Because in 10 years, not having to consult a chatbot before you speak might be the most valuable thing on your resume.
Love,
Remi xx
 | A guest post by
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Amazing point of view. In my opinion, leaning onto someone (or something else) is a tricky way to postpone the moment of putting yourself out there the way you are: imperfect, without knowing all the "hows" and without having it all figured out. But in doing so, in trying and showing up as you are in that moment, you expose yourself not only to potential rejection, but to personal growth and development of self-confidence, which are, in the long run, essential