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It’s My Fault

When I think about life and all the things that I want to accomplish, I realize that there are many barriers that hold me back. No matter how I look at myself and everything in between, there’s an inescapable reality that comes to mind: “Somehow or another, if I look at any part of what I see, I can conclude it is probably my fault.”

Whether this is true or not, it’s the feeling that I carry into life. If I didn’t do something, then I think it is my fault. If I did do something and it went wrong, it is also my fault. Almost everything that happens in this lifetime and to me is my fault.

It’s a strange, liberating but also potentially harsh way of looking at the world – this idea that somehow or another you are responsible for everything that you experience.

Trivially, this cannot be true for the simple reason that external affairs and things aren’t totally in control, But it’s definitely a liberating one. Like you, I am just another human being. I might have talked to certain people that you may find difficult to reach. I may do things that you may not expect, or otherwise consider conventional.

But like you, I am human and in many ways I am weak.

Across countless occasions, I can remember the ways I planned but did not execute, seek after things but did not cross the boundary as mistakes stretch out across time in the proof of time gone by, but things not done.

I look at all of that and I accept it.

This is all very different from what I experienced when I was a younger person. The idea of failure was unacceptable, and I would do everything in my power to fight against it. Now I’ve come to realize that the world is a lot messier and more complex, and that the standard that one should expect of oneself is a lot higher. In many ways, I need to step up my game.

Does reflecting in this way change anything that I would do and that I intend to do? I would like to think so – the alternative, I suppose, would simply be to just continue in old patterns even as a metamorphosis proceeds, a skin sheds and something new comes from within.

What it yields though is a separate matter. I write this at the dawn of new beginnings in world history with many new friends, memories, reflections, and bonds that I can call genuine now compared to the last year, but with many more things that I realize I need to do.

It remains to be seen whether they will be done, but I will try to do them all in a timely manner and look forward to showing you what is to come!

Mensa – A Small Reflection

Today I thought I’d write a brief blog post on Mensa, the organisation that I’ve been a part of for the past couple of years. It’s been a long time since I really thought about this, but a lot of things have really changed. 

As Carl Jung once said, “We are a psychic process which we do not control, or only partly direct. Consequently, we cannot have any final judgment about ourselves or our lives. If we had, we would know everything–but at most that is only a pretense. At bottom we never know how it has all come about. The story of a life begins somewhere, at someparticular point we happen to remember; and even then it was already highly complex. We do not know how life is going to turnout. Therefore the story has no beginning, and the end can only bevaguely hinted at. The life of man is a dubious experiment. It is a tremendous phenomenon only in numerical terms. Individually, it is so fleeting, so insufficient, that it is literally a miracle that anything can exist and develop at all. I was impressed by that fact long ago, as a youngmedical student, and it seemed to me miraculous that I should not have been prematurely annihilated.”

I joined Mensa when I was a teenager of 17. Insecure, lacking identity, and wanting to try something new. 

Imagine my joy then when I took the test scored a pretty decent score and ended up joining the Society, finding it to be a safe harbor for myself in a strange world.

I thought it was a natural thing to do – to find myself a spot where somehow I wouldn’t feel so alone, to be in the presence of people who were the brightest in the world, who could change that world and make it a better place. There you see, a whole bunch of pivotal assumptions, many of which I learned were wrong:

First of all, I realized that Mensa was definitely a place that gathered people. It wasn’t necessarily a place where the feeling of loneliness would disappear. After all, a person can be alone but feel completely at home, yet live in a sea of people but feel lonely and longing for the connection of kindred souls.  

I learned quickly that Mensa was not a place of the brightest; instead, it was a collection of strange individuals here and there, some of whom liked puzzles, others of whom just enjoyed attending events – it was then that I realized that the idea of intelligence was not necessarily the same as intelligence. In its inchoate form, it manifested as an ennui, a disillusionment, and an unhappiness in a crowd that I was now a part of – but that I realize was not filled with what I consider even remotely transformative.

Secondly, I realized that Mensa was not for changing the world; indeed, that didn’t align with how everything was set up anyway, given that the very bylaws of the society themselves say that the society as a whole has no opinion. Still, I was there, just spending time thinking that it would be interesting and that I would find some meaning inside from the people around me – Only to find disappointment, although I should say, that that disappointment was the fruit of my own expectations. 

The last of these realizations is something I came to only recently and that took more than ten years to realise… But I think it is quite important. 

Like anything in life, Mensa is what you make of it – your expectations, the people you encounter, the conversations you have, and the moments that you share with others. All of which subsist in an infinitely collapsing probability wave function bearing enormous possibilities. That’s not unique to Mensa; that’s true of everything in life. It’s just that Mensa was one of the places where that lesson was learned – an academy in which multiple ridiculous premises came together to form and fashion an arena for the competition of my ideas with the reality that surrounded it.

There are so many other things I’ve discovered about Mensa. Dramas, fights, wars over things that seem apparently meaningless. Holiday gatherings one after another, friendships, meeting people. Realizing that not everybody holds the same image of intelligence. Realizing that you’ve found a safe space to talk about intelligence. Realizing that you can talk about anything and just have to bear the consequences in the many forums that the organization sets up. For those of us who are lucky enough to score in the top 2% in a local test. 

Mensa is not a place for changing the world. It never has been and perhaps it never will be. If it does change the world, it is not because of the society in itself, but rather it would be because of an accident and people who came together either by an act of chance or an act of god. 

Despite all of the self-doubt, contemplation, and everything in between, it has become a kind of home and a home that I appreciate, a place where there is more to discover.

It is for that reason and for no other reason that I continue to take joy in it. To enjoy the friendship of those whom I’ve met within it – For in it I know; there is more to go.

The Future of Writing: How Automated Speech Recognition Will Transform Your Writing

In the modern world, creating documents is a fundamental part of almost every profession, and they are key to a variety of tasks: communicating ideas, formalizing agreements, sharing information, reporting progress, instructing, or preserving records.

Whether you’re working in business, education, healthcare, law, or creative fields, the need to produce written content is pretty much everywhere — whether you’re creating a PowerPoint deck, writing a report, or crafting a script either for a YouTube video or for an episode of a TV show, you’ll definitely have to sit down and begin writing to bring out your ideas.

But as you may know, writing isn’t always easy.

In fact, it can be tedious and painstaking, imposing challenges upon your body that are difficult to deal with, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and the stresses of sitting down for long periods of time.

Thankfully, it’s a challenge that has a solution: Automated Speech Recognition (ASR).

ASR is a technology that historically hasn’t been the best at reporting down what people say, but it has remarkably improved although the best of it is something that still evades the modern and widely available voice assistants on iPhones and Android phones.

However, nowadays apps like Wispr Flow and also MacWhisper work effectively and allow dramatically more accurate and longer transcriptions that serve niches such as creating subtitles, as can the ChatGPT app on your phone along the way, which you can download on iOS or Android, Which allows you to use your voice to interact with your devices in ways that have historically not been possible and that also transform the way that we use our technology and therefore interact with the world.

Let’s dive into why.

While some of you already know that I started using Wispr Flow recently, I’ve actually been using a range of different transcription tools as part of the suite of different apps that make life simple and useful on a day-to-day basis.

In this article, I’ll talk about some of the advantages that I’ve seen from using Wispr Flow and also from ASR technology in general, and hopefully these will help you understand how it is that using these tools can be beneficial for you in writing and creating, transform your productivity and give your work a new edge, and maybe also add a bit of a twist onto your creative process. Ready for the ride? Let’s go!

1. Speed: Get Your Ideas Down in Record Time

Typing has long been the standard for writing, but let’s face it — typing speed can be a bottleneck, especially when you’re trying to keep up with a fast-moving train of thought. With automated speech recognition, the speed at which you can create content is no longer limited by your typing skills.

You can speak several times faster than you type, allowing you to capture ideas as they come, with no slowdown.

If you are able to speak out your ideas with the same level of quality as what you get when you are typing them out manually, you would theoretically be able to work much faster, create much more content, and just generally move onward with much greater speed compared to others around you!

Wispr Flow’s advanced speech recognition capabilities can transcribe your voice into text almost instantly, enabling you to turn even long-winded brainstorms into text documents quickly and easily.

This speed translates into more productivity and less time spent staring at a blank screen.

Of course, speaking is not exactly the same as typing because with typing you do look at a screen, think about the words that you’re going to say and then type them down one after another. That’s materially different compared to what you have with speaking, and it does recruit a slightly different network.

Typing does recruit a more slow and deliberate method of thinking that can result in slightly different documents, partly because the way that typing works is that you look at what you’ve written and then you look back and think about the new possibilities, while for speaking, you are very much just coming up with ideas on the fly as you think about the things that you had said before.

Some may argue that this leads to less detailed writing than what you’d have if you were simply to just type or handwrite but…

2. Natural Writing Style: Let Your Authentic Voice Shine Through

When you type, your writing can sometimes feel forced or overly formal, as you tend to follow traditional writing structures.

However, when you speak, your language often flows more naturally, mimicking the way you would actually converse with someone.

It’s no surprise that teachers of writing, including myself, encourage people to learn how to write the way that they speak to people — with an eye towards engaging the person who’s on the other side and towards thinking about the experience that they must be having while listening to our words.

ASR allows us to bring the modality of voice into the world of text, which effectively helps us to follow that advice naturally, and can translate into a more engaging and conversational writing style which resonates better with readers.

Using Wispr Flow for voice-based writing encourages you to embrace your authentic voice and craft content that feels less stiff and more relatable. It’s a way of letting your personality shine through, giving your writing a touch of humanity and connection.

Having said that, I do acknowledge that not everybody is a master of speaking. That leads me directly to the next point.

3. Practice of Public Speaking: Sharpen Your Verbal Communication Skills

Using voice technology to write doesn’t just help with document creation — it also helps you become a better speaker.

When you dictate your thoughts, you’re practicing the art of spoken communication, which is a valuable skill in its own right.

Speaking your ideas aloud helps you refine your verbal expression, giving you a chance to practice public speaking without even realizing it.

Real-time transcription capabilities mean that you can listen back and see how your spoken words translate into written form, making it a powerful tool for improving your clarity and persuasiveness in everyday conversations and professional settings, and a tool that is definitely useful beyond just document creation but also extends into learning how to engage with people and to persuade, inform and entertain with our voices as practiced in a unique modality that promises to improve the way that we speak, present and articulate ourselves whether at home and on our laptops or in front of an audience.

Beyond the consideration of strain, it’s also worthwhile to note that ASR helps us to…

4. Minimize Strain, Maximize Comfort

Speaking, unlike typing doesn’t put any strain on your hands and wrists.

You might not have thought that this was important at the outset, but the reality is that writing can be a physically demanding task, especially if you spend hours on a keyboard. It can lead to wrist, neck, and back strain, making it challenging to stay comfortable while working. Also, if you have carpal tunnel syndrome or pinched nerves, using a keyboard for long periods of time can be painful.

I know that that’s definitely what I personally experienced while I was using a keyboard very extensively and trying to type along the way. I would often find myself with wrist pain as a result of typing and would have to stop after a while.

Automated speech recognition (ASR) helps to resolve these problems, because…

  • Being able to articulate things very quickly means that you will spend less time on a computer overall, and as a result would spend less time than you would otherwise spend typing.
  • You would be able to eliminate almost all the stress that you normally sustain while typing because the only thing that you would need to do on Wispr Flow is just press a single button and then begin speaking along the way. Sure, you might need to drink a little bit more water along the way, but that’s always good. And all the other advantages that I mentioned also apply as well.
  • You can compose your content while sitting, standing, or even walking, freeing you from the constraints of the traditional workstation setup. It’s worthwhile to note that sitting down itself is an aspect of work life that poses unique new challenges in the workforce. Simply put, it’s not great for you. It’s even what some might call a generational challenge that is associated with the modern day paradigm of work and the development of the computer as a key device in creating, developing, and executing our work (I might talk more about this in the course of future LinkedIn posts!)

This ergonomic benefit makes voice writing an excellent option for anyone who spends a lot of time writing and wants to protect their long-term health and well-being.

Conclusion:

Automated speech recognition has many core advantages which I’ve deeply enjoyed and am proud to share. I hope that you’ve enjoyed thinking about some of them.

Let’s recap:

ASR is a technology that historically hasn’t been the best at reporting down what people say, but it has remarkably improved although the best of it is something that still evades the modern and widely available voice assistants on iPhones and Android phones.

However, on apps such as Wispr Flow, ChatGPT, and MacWhisper, the technology has matured to the point where it can help you get your ideas down in record time, it lets your authentic voice shine through, it helps you sharpen your verbal communication skills and practice public speaking, it helps minimize strain and maximize comfort as a result of the better ergonomics allowing you to work for longer in a fashion that is better for your body and that ultimately allows you to get things done more quickly, more efficiently, with less strain and in a way that teaches you crucial skills of interacting verbally and composing along the way.

I strongly think of ASR as a tool that will fundamentally change the way that we interact with technology and reshape the paradigm that we use nowadays for creating documents, projects, and ideas along the way, helping us create documents faster and more comfortably while also sharpening your public speaking skills and enabling a more natural writing style.

If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level and experience the benefits of using your voice for document creation, give Wispr Flow a try, and potentially MacWhisper as well, as you enjoy the transformation of our world through the development of this new technology and look forward to everything that there is to come that will improve the efficiency of our work and lives while at the same time freeing us up towards greater and more ambitious projects.

Affiliate disclosure: I have a financial relationship with both Wispr Flow and MacWhisper. They are incredible technologies that I completely believe in. If you happen to use the links here, I may receive a small commission that helps support my work. Thank you in advance if you choose to use these links! Hope you will enjoy using these new technologies; they are quite the ride!