The Twelfth House The Twelfth House+: Using AI to clear mental clutter so you can do more thinking, reading ideating ... perhaps channeling?
đź“š Resources and Links:
* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here
* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here
* Mentioned in today’s episode:
* Channeling a Manifesto Class — happening on 8/28!
* can an AI tool “channel” messages?
* Holisticism Resources 4 u:
* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation
* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.
* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked
* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable
I almost didn't record this episode because, honestly, I think we’re all a bit AI'd out. Or maybe it’s just me, IDK.
But since we're deep in a series about channeling, creativity, and the importance of wielding your consciousness, I figured it was time to address the elephant in the Substack server room.
Here's the thing: I'm not anti-AI, but I'm also not about to let a computer do my thinking for me. Like???? Have you guys even read a sci-fi novel before? That’s an obvious recipe for disaster-slash-technological apocalypse.
I can have empathy for why someone might be tempted to outsource writing, thinking, creating, innovating, designing, etc. to a non-sentient algorithm. But I believe using your brain and wrestling with ideas and concepts and art and reality and consciousness and self-concept is like… a biological imperative. Is that not kind of the point of living? Anyway, I’m by no means the first person to point this out.
After spending weeks talking about why the wrestling and way-finding process of creativity is so essential to our humanity, I've got some thoughts on how to use these tools without, you know, completely atrophying your gorgeous brain.
My Personal AI Commandments
* I don't use AI for anything I can't do myself
* I don't use AI “just for funsies” — it’s a waste of resources, like leaving the water running or turning your AC on full blast at noon in the middle of August. Also AI is boring! Why would I talk to a chatbot when I can just talk to a smart person. Or even a dumb person, at least that would be entertaining.
* I always ask: What am I going to do with the extra time? It better be thinking, reading, creating, playing with my kid, channeling spirits, or touching grass… otherwise I fear I have lost the plot.
Actual brain rot — “use it or lose it”
I grew up in the 90s and have an irrational fear of contracting something like Mad Cow disease and my brain turning into Swiss cheese. If you also fear brain rot, let me introduce you to a concept that will either help you sleep like a big brained baby or keep you up at night staring into the black hole of your ceiling — “use it or lose it.”
Scientists studying dementia found that individuals who started to use a hearing aid as soon as they lost some of their hearing — vs. those who did not use hearing aids once they become audio impaired — had lower rates of dementia later in life. Why? Because the anti-hearing aid group stopped using the part of their brain that processes listening and language comprehension, resulting in neurological atrophy.
Spooky. I think about the “use it or lose it” principle when it comes to my physical muscles, my creative muscles, my intuitive muscles, and I can’t help but feel it’s totally true.
So here's my first rule: If I can use my own brain to do it without emotionally thrashing myself, I'm going to try. Basically, I don’t want to run to AI first if I’m feeling lazy. Feels like a slippery slope that ultimately robs me of my abilities, which leaves me totally reliant on AI.
Before you automate anything, ask yourself: What are you going to do with that extra time?
If your answer is "make more mediocre content faster," please stop. The world doesn't need more AI-generated blog posts. But if your answer is "think deeper thoughts, read more books, have actual conversations, or create something genuinely meaningful," then yes—let AI handle your grocery lists and email sorting.
Think of it like the nutrition concept of "crowding out." Instead of just removing the bad stuff, you add so many good things that there's no room for the junk. Use AI to clear mental clutter so you can fill that space with the stuff that makes you more human, not less.
What AI kind of sucks at as of right now
* Good writing: There are tell-tale signs (the “It’s not *** — it’s ***” formula…) and honestly, the majority of the writing that LLMs are pulling from is mediocre at best.
* Original ideas: Once again, LLMs use large data sets to predict the probable next word in a sentence, and then the probable next idea in a paragraph. This predictive nature means that even if you really work the platform to help you come up with new ideas, you’re still probably reheating someone’s nachos.
* Working reliably: A few weeks ago I spent 30+ minutes trying to get ChatGPT to make a simple grocery list based on five recipes I’d uploaded to the chat. It kept forgetting ingredients, miscalculating numbers, hallucinating recipes. It would’ve taken me less time to just grab a pen and paper and write out what I needed.
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