Hi, Reader, Happy Tuesday!
I hope you're breathing easy, drinking water, getting some sunshine and blowing bubbles.
There's a heaviness in the air this week that I know many of you are feeling too. Big, complicated emotions that don't fit into neat categories or quick takes. I'm sitting with it all myself - the grief, the confusion about how we treat each other, the question of what comes next.
In moments like these, I'm reminded how much we need space to process complexity without rushing to reaction. Which is part of why I wanted to share something that's been helping me navigate exactly these kinds of feelings...
Being placed in Gifted & Talented (GT) classes in 5th grade was probably the first clue that my brain doesn't run in straight lines. Sometimes when people call you smart, what they really mean is different. And being different can feel lonely.
Whatever "normal" is supposed to be, I never got that handbook. I spent a lot of years trying to blend in, only to realize as an adult that we're all different - and this idea of normal we cling to? It does more harm than good.
Here’s what my “different” looks like:
- I can zoom way out and see the big picture, then zoom right back in and spot the tiniest details.
- I connect dots between ideas that seem to live in totally different worlds.
- I often see a problem and the solution before other people even realize there’s an issue.
That’s the superpower side. On the flipside:
- My thoughts are rarely linear.
- I keep too many mental tabs open, and sometimes things get lost.
- I work in intense bursts of energy, which doesn’t always sync with other people’s timelines or my sleep rhythm.
- And I deprioritize housework (in other words, my house is often very messy).
This is exactly why ChatGPT feels like a revelation to me. AI helps me capture ideas before they scatter, sort the swirl into something usable, and make space for the human work that I do best.
A few ways it settles the noise for me:
- When I have a spark of an idea, AI helps me shape it faster so it doesn’t get lost.
- It acts like a second shelf for my brain - holding onto details I might not remember in the moment, timelines, next steps, even phrasing I want to revisit, keeping pieces safe until I'm ready to pick them back up.
- When I'm juggling multiple projects, it helps me context-switch faster by summarizing where I left off.
Here’s a tangible example - the newsletter you’re reading. I can hand this full draft to ChatGPT (or ClaudeAI) and quickly spin out smaller bites - a social post here, a caption there - without starting from scratch each time.
AI doesn't make me think differently. It amplifies how I already think, while handling the parts that used to trip me up. That partnership lets me focus on what only I can bring to the table.
