This is brilliant tactical work! The “Midnight Library” framework for career exploration hits different when you can actually simulate the scenarios instead of just fantasizing about them.
What I love most: you’ve turned career anxiety into actionable intelligence. The shift from “what if I’m making the wrong choice” to “let me test-drive this decision” is exactly the kind of implementation-focused thinking that separates successful people from perpetual dreamers.
This is the kind of practical AI application that actually changes lives instead of just generating content.
Yesssss, there are so many ways AI can help us move forward in ways that just weren’t possible before. It really comes down to how imaginative we are with it.
Wow, just wow. I am 76 and trying to use AI as I am still working and living inside a high-tech start-up with brilliant minds and technical expertise @snapB2B.com My son is a new Admissions Director for an established if not historic university in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. I have been suggesting for some time that university recruiters should focus on providing real assistance in overcoming youthful teenage anxiety for those high school students agonizing over choices. This is the first thing I have read that is really, really, really relevant to my thinking.
Enough, that I am going to register and take the ChatGPT course. I now use this, as well as Plerpexity and Claudio, for my daily creative pursuits. Life-long writer and former community newspaper publisher. I use Grammarly all the time, and I have never met a piece of new technology that I did not love or struggle to use.
I am off to a 55-year staff reunion with former student newspaper colleagues for lunch today, or I would stay longer. I have this post in my Evernote file, so I don't lose it.
I am impressed. I love and concur with TechTiff commentary below when he commented the following, which I wish to emphasize here, bnecause it so well expresses my reaction to your post too.
"What I love most: you’ve turned career anxiety into actionable intelligence. The shift from “what if I’m making the wrong choice” to “let me test-drive this decision” is exactly the kind of implementation-focused thinking that separates successful people from perpetual dreamers.
This is the kind of practical AI application that actually changes lives instead of just generating content."
Your post is brilliant just like the mind, soul and understanding that led you to create this post. I am following you on LinkedIn and you are my new Go-To person for developing my skills and thinking on utilizing AI tools until I run out of runway for the remainder of my life. AI makes me want to live for another 76 years and see where it leads. Sorry i will miss its penultimate achievement. It sucks being mortal. Bless you.
Hi David, I think this is the most moving comment I’ve ever received on my work. I can’t stop smiling, and I’ve re-read your words several times already. I’m so glad to hear it resonated with you this deeply.
If your son would like to explore implementing the system I described in his university (and this post only shows a small part of it), I’d be happy to have a chat with him. My colleague and I would really love to see it being used to support young people, far beyond the reach we had when first working on this project.
Thank you again for the lovely response. I notice with great admiration and satisfaction, as someone who measured my newspaper publishing success on how many Letters to the Editor a certain news story or feature on a community feature would generate, your consistent and thoughtful responses to those who take the time to reward your talent with textual applause. In life and love, feedback is everything.
Matt recently sent an invitation to some industry colleagues asking for a review of a proposed creative marketing campaign that an agency was proposing for Mt A.
Three days after I composed my response, which I summed up with the comment that it was "more icing than cake". Then, I stumbled upon your article describing an AI application you developed for HR after researching the capability to try on a career choice virtually. Your application caught my eye because it provides a virtual scenario that simulates what a future career life choice might be like, in a user-friendly format.
I loved the concept, theology, and relevant use of virtual experience to guide one's actual life choices. ( I had based my marketing campaign response with a proposed marketing strategy for Matt to consider around releiving the life and education choices faced by all teenagers at some point). I proposed trying to build content around addressing their fears and needs, rather than offering a quiet supportive community life as a differtation choice in which university to chose.
It was exactly what I was attempting to describe in my thesis commentary, composed to Matt and his education fraternity friends, on getting at the source of a decision-making problem through relevance as a model of marketing, rather than selling a university town location for its visual tree-lined facade and natural environmental pleasures, which is off the beaten urban track to big city locations.
If I can be bold and suggest the following,
I want to leverage this unexpected and fortuitous connection to you as a developer, thinker, activist, communicator, and entrepreneur (not necessarily in that order), to establish an active connection between you, Matthew, and me.
I would propose further defining the problem that I believe your baseline application, with some refinement in focus, could provide as a core, lead-generation application solution, around which Mount Allison University (MtA) could develop and evolve a competitive advantage in recruitment efforts to attract the best and brightest students.
I had already suggested BD-Before Daria, providing an imaginary application for high school resource teachers that would aid them in providing an informed high-tech resource, offering a glimpse into any future career that completing a university undergraduate degree would enable and enhance. The logic being that School counsellors are major influencers in opening up possible pathways. The application in my mind would be quietly identified as "Powered by Mt A" or some other licensing requirement, serving as a quietly effective link back to a targeted admissions information soft-sell page.
Now, this is a significant challenge, as University Management can rival the "steady-as-she-goes" philosophy of change management. However, all universities are suffering from a questioning of the cost versus value ROI for even high-achieving high school students, let alone their parents, who are patrons of the payment fees or debt burden enablers.
We could start with a Zoom and provide a forum for you and Matt to connect and start your own relationship. He is a mini-me, but he is also more cautious as he is far more sensible and risk-averse than I have been. It has not been easy being my son, but he does love a good idea and has innovated in the various schools he has represented. Mt A recruited him at graduation 25 years ago into international admissions as a new area for them to attract international students. He has travelled the World and is comfortable in China, or Dubai, as he is in rural New Brunswick.
I spent much of my workday today reading your highly insightful analysis and comparisons of various AI tools in your Substack publishing. You define my life's mission and personal motto, which is "to be relevant to your time and place". Then I went back to the original article and saw your response, and I decided to see if we could find and create something magical from our mindful connection.
To sum up in a sentence what I want to convey to you. You do good work, well.
I will send my recruitment idea commentary as an attachment on LinkedIn, where I believe we are connected. My email is jonah2009@gmail.com.
My wild idea application description should help initiate a discussion on what it will take to transition from a wild idea to a demonstration concept, and ultimately to commercial acceptance and ROI economics for both parties. Best, David
This is such a great expansion of what prompting can be. I’ve been exploring something similar via Reflective Prompting, not just using AI to simulate a path, but to surface the inner questions I wasn’t yet asking.
Sometimes the prompt isn’t about forecasting the future. It’s about returning to the self who’s already. I love how you’ve made that concrete here.
This is such a beautiful prompts, Daria. I’ll definitely be trying it out. You always share the most thoughtful and insightful posts on AI truly educational. Thank you for consistently putting your best into everything you share.
Thanks so much, Sae! really appreciate you saying that. I try to share things I’d actually want to use myself. Let me know how it works for you once you give it a try.
Obsessed with this use case. I’ve learned early on to stop agonizing over what might have been so I don’t lose sight of what is. Often, people don’t realize they were living the dream until they lost the dream.
The idea of leveraging AI in the pursuit of happiness makes me meta happy.
This is brilliant tactical work! The “Midnight Library” framework for career exploration hits different when you can actually simulate the scenarios instead of just fantasizing about them.
What I love most: you’ve turned career anxiety into actionable intelligence. The shift from “what if I’m making the wrong choice” to “let me test-drive this decision” is exactly the kind of implementation-focused thinking that separates successful people from perpetual dreamers.
This is the kind of practical AI application that actually changes lives instead of just generating content.
Thank you, Tiff!!
Yesssss, there are so many ways AI can help us move forward in ways that just weren’t possible before. It really comes down to how imaginative we are with it.
Wow, just wow. I am 76 and trying to use AI as I am still working and living inside a high-tech start-up with brilliant minds and technical expertise @snapB2B.com My son is a new Admissions Director for an established if not historic university in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. I have been suggesting for some time that university recruiters should focus on providing real assistance in overcoming youthful teenage anxiety for those high school students agonizing over choices. This is the first thing I have read that is really, really, really relevant to my thinking.
Enough, that I am going to register and take the ChatGPT course. I now use this, as well as Plerpexity and Claudio, for my daily creative pursuits. Life-long writer and former community newspaper publisher. I use Grammarly all the time, and I have never met a piece of new technology that I did not love or struggle to use.
I am off to a 55-year staff reunion with former student newspaper colleagues for lunch today, or I would stay longer. I have this post in my Evernote file, so I don't lose it.
I am impressed. I love and concur with TechTiff commentary below when he commented the following, which I wish to emphasize here, bnecause it so well expresses my reaction to your post too.
"What I love most: you’ve turned career anxiety into actionable intelligence. The shift from “what if I’m making the wrong choice” to “let me test-drive this decision” is exactly the kind of implementation-focused thinking that separates successful people from perpetual dreamers.
This is the kind of practical AI application that actually changes lives instead of just generating content."
Your post is brilliant just like the mind, soul and understanding that led you to create this post. I am following you on LinkedIn and you are my new Go-To person for developing my skills and thinking on utilizing AI tools until I run out of runway for the remainder of my life. AI makes me want to live for another 76 years and see where it leads. Sorry i will miss its penultimate achievement. It sucks being mortal. Bless you.
Hi David, I think this is the most moving comment I’ve ever received on my work. I can’t stop smiling, and I’ve re-read your words several times already. I’m so glad to hear it resonated with you this deeply.
If your son would like to explore implementing the system I described in his university (and this post only shows a small part of it), I’d be happy to have a chat with him. My colleague and I would really love to see it being used to support young people, far beyond the reach we had when first working on this project.
Thank you again for the lovely response. I notice with great admiration and satisfaction, as someone who measured my newspaper publishing success on how many Letters to the Editor a certain news story or feature on a community feature would generate, your consistent and thoughtful responses to those who take the time to reward your talent with textual applause. In life and love, feedback is everything.
I appreciate the positive response to considering having an initial conversation with my son, Matthew Jonah ( https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mount-allison-university_meet-matt-jonah-00-director-of-recruitment-activity-7306672661638643712-nJgo/ ).
Matt recently sent an invitation to some industry colleagues asking for a review of a proposed creative marketing campaign that an agency was proposing for Mt A.
Three days after I composed my response, which I summed up with the comment that it was "more icing than cake". Then, I stumbled upon your article describing an AI application you developed for HR after researching the capability to try on a career choice virtually. Your application caught my eye because it provides a virtual scenario that simulates what a future career life choice might be like, in a user-friendly format.
I loved the concept, theology, and relevant use of virtual experience to guide one's actual life choices. ( I had based my marketing campaign response with a proposed marketing strategy for Matt to consider around releiving the life and education choices faced by all teenagers at some point). I proposed trying to build content around addressing their fears and needs, rather than offering a quiet supportive community life as a differtation choice in which university to chose.
It was exactly what I was attempting to describe in my thesis commentary, composed to Matt and his education fraternity friends, on getting at the source of a decision-making problem through relevance as a model of marketing, rather than selling a university town location for its visual tree-lined facade and natural environmental pleasures, which is off the beaten urban track to big city locations.
If I can be bold and suggest the following,
I want to leverage this unexpected and fortuitous connection to you as a developer, thinker, activist, communicator, and entrepreneur (not necessarily in that order), to establish an active connection between you, Matthew, and me.
I would propose further defining the problem that I believe your baseline application, with some refinement in focus, could provide as a core, lead-generation application solution, around which Mount Allison University (MtA) could develop and evolve a competitive advantage in recruitment efforts to attract the best and brightest students.
I had already suggested BD-Before Daria, providing an imaginary application for high school resource teachers that would aid them in providing an informed high-tech resource, offering a glimpse into any future career that completing a university undergraduate degree would enable and enhance. The logic being that School counsellors are major influencers in opening up possible pathways. The application in my mind would be quietly identified as "Powered by Mt A" or some other licensing requirement, serving as a quietly effective link back to a targeted admissions information soft-sell page.
Now, this is a significant challenge, as University Management can rival the "steady-as-she-goes" philosophy of change management. However, all universities are suffering from a questioning of the cost versus value ROI for even high-achieving high school students, let alone their parents, who are patrons of the payment fees or debt burden enablers.
We could start with a Zoom and provide a forum for you and Matt to connect and start your own relationship. He is a mini-me, but he is also more cautious as he is far more sensible and risk-averse than I have been. It has not been easy being my son, but he does love a good idea and has innovated in the various schools he has represented. Mt A recruited him at graduation 25 years ago into international admissions as a new area for them to attract international students. He has travelled the World and is comfortable in China, or Dubai, as he is in rural New Brunswick.
I spent much of my workday today reading your highly insightful analysis and comparisons of various AI tools in your Substack publishing. You define my life's mission and personal motto, which is "to be relevant to your time and place". Then I went back to the original article and saw your response, and I decided to see if we could find and create something magical from our mindful connection.
To sum up in a sentence what I want to convey to you. You do good work, well.
I will send my recruitment idea commentary as an attachment on LinkedIn, where I believe we are connected. My email is jonah2009@gmail.com.
My wild idea application description should help initiate a discussion on what it will take to transition from a wild idea to a demonstration concept, and ultimately to commercial acceptance and ROI economics for both parties. Best, David
This is such a great expansion of what prompting can be. I’ve been exploring something similar via Reflective Prompting, not just using AI to simulate a path, but to surface the inner questions I wasn’t yet asking.
Sometimes the prompt isn’t about forecasting the future. It’s about returning to the self who’s already. I love how you’ve made that concrete here.
Thank you, Roi, that's true, it's all about self-discovery
This is so interesting!
I think I'm going to combine this with my 3-4 years worth of journaling and yearly review and tell me how my future is going to be like.
Okay now I got a new toy to play around with haha
Haha yesss, such a cool idea to swap in your diary notes! I’m so curious how that goes.
Loved seeing the photos of you in different professional settings! I’ve definitely daydreamed about all kinds of careers myself.
This was such a fun read, and the prompt you shared is genuinely valuable.
Thanks Jenny! I had a lot of fun putting it together. The idea for the images actually came from this video haha
https://substack.com/@writeaboutnow/note/c-126033159
Feels wild that we can now actually simulate big life decisions and see how they might play out.
This is such a beautiful prompts, Daria. I’ll definitely be trying it out. You always share the most thoughtful and insightful posts on AI truly educational. Thank you for consistently putting your best into everything you share.
Thanks so much, Sae! really appreciate you saying that. I try to share things I’d actually want to use myself. Let me know how it works for you once you give it a try.
Of course! I’ll definitely let you know once I try it. Appreciate you sharing it!
Obsessed with this use case. I’ve learned early on to stop agonizing over what might have been so I don’t lose sight of what is. Often, people don’t realize they were living the dream until they lost the dream.
The idea of leveraging AI in the pursuit of happiness makes me meta happy.