Kevin Kelly on Personal Growth and Well-being

Kevin Kelly

Is much easier to imagine how things break than it is to see how they work. And that's why entrepreneurs and all the others are rightly lauded because they're going against that grain. It is hard to imagine how we could have this thing that seems like it is improbable. And most things that work are improbable. That's the definition from the Santa Fe complexity theory is that things breaking down is the probable. Things, complicated things working are improbable by definition. And so you're against the improbable and that work of imagining the improbable and having the improbable succeed and believing it can is optimism, which means that the optimists are The ones who shape our future. So I'd like to give a little story of like a car. You need to have brakes on the car to steer the car. I'm with you so far. But the engine is actually the more important element. So there are people and there are organizations and there are methods that are going to be doing the braking. And I think they're essential. I want brakes on the car. But I just feel that the brake can overwhelm in cross-stagnation in that we also want to remember to focus on making the engine even stronger. So I emphasize the engine. So

Kevin Kelly

Dumb Schmarten is going to be engineered and will have multiple. So it'd be more and more difficult to kind of generalize. What I'm saying is that they're going to be engineered for specific tasks primarily. And there will be a general one. But the general one would be kind of like the Swiss Army knife. You know, it's like good generally, but not really the best in any one tool. That's the engineering maxim. So we should expect multiple varieties of these. And I think the other thing is that for me, the best stance is to think of them as artificial aliens. Aliens mean they could be like Spock or Yoda, very, very smart, but they're just doing things differently than we would do. If they have a sense of humor, it'll be a little off. But that is actually their benefit, because they help us think different. And that's what we're going to be using them for. That's what people are already using them for, is generating ideas. Like, there's probably an idea that no human would ever come up with, and that helps me come up with a new idea. The third thing I would say about the AIs is that most of them will be unseen. They'll be behind the office operating things, the plumbing, the infrastructure. And that's actually a sign of their success. Technologies succeed when we don't see them anymore. We don't think about them. They become boring. The majority of the stuff won't even be outward facing. They'll

Kevin Kelly

Everything you've said makes sense and tools will get specialized.

Tim Ferriss

They will become so embedded that we will cease to think about them, hopefully, right? In the same way that you waved at the lights, you know, we have all sorts of lights in here, but it's not like we walk into any room with artificial light and we think, good Lord. What is this miracle of engineering and human ingenuity? I think most folks would be like, okay, okay. So why is it under hype? What should surprise people or what are people not appreciating?

Kevin Kelly

So I was involved with the internet. I was living online for at least 10 years before 1992, 93, when WIRES started. And in a certain sense, it was like, we couldn't get anybody to take it seriously. It was dismissed as teenage boy stuff. And it was kind of, that's what it was. But I felt like, no, this is like, this is really significant. This is really powerful. And what changed it was an interface change. It became visual for the first time. And the web was pictures and stuff. And that's when everybody got it. Most of the AI happening today has been happening with all these chat, has been happening for years. What's new is that we now have an interface. We have the conversational. It's the idea of the large language We

Kevin Kelly

All, I generate posts, a AI picture every day in the half bin. When did you switch from manual to? Last June, almost a year ago. Which tools do you mostly use? I tend to go to MidJourney still.. Midjourney has a very curious interface. It's a Discord channel. And at first, I was completely bamboozled and infuriated with that. But I came to see it as genius. Why is that? Because everybody's working in the open. It's like the ultimate learning vehicle. And I learn something every time I go on. Being a student in the surgery theater back in the day. Exactly. You're seeing how other people do it. It's not behind closed doors. They're doing it in public. And oh my gosh, you learn so much that way. So fast. And what's interesting, the year before that I did a piece of art every day on my iPad with Procreate, I spent almost as much time on the AIs making an image as I do when I make it myself. Because again, the accusation among the painters in the 1800s when the photography came along was, oh, you guys, you just push the button. And we realized, of course, now that photography is not just pushing the button. There's a lot more involved in making a really great photograph than just pushing the button. You have to be in the right position, all this kind of stuff. And the same thing with the AIR. It's,

Kevin Kelly

Going to take a slight detour because that is my want.

Tim Ferriss

I'm going to take a slight detour because this is on my mind. Do you still recommend sabbaticals? And how would you suggest, maybe for people who have not heard our prior conversations, think about sabbaticals, the value of how to actually take a sabbatical.

Kevin Kelly

What does that mean? Right, right, right. No, I'm a huge fan of sabbaticals. And I think I had some advice in the book. I put it, I think we overemphasize our productivity and efficiency, but the best thing for your work ethic is to have a rest ethic. Yes, actually, that's one I've started. Something along the lines of the key to a great work ethic is having a great rest ethic. So this idea of, I think, goofing off, wasting time, sabbaticals, Sabbaths, taking a Sabbath, are all essential to the creative life. It's