You’ve probably heard the saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” That’s supposed to mean that we can maintain safety and manage risk by keeping what we have now.
I don’t hunt outdoors, so I have no idea if that saying is true. However, in my experience, I have not found that settling for what we have now is better than the risks of experimentation. That experimentation often helps us create a much better life. Mostly because we discover other options when we experiment.
But, that means we often have to drop that one “in the hand” to get something much better.
The world is in chaos, and I feel as if I have too little control over anything in my life. You might feel the same. Sometimes, when we feel too little control, we might want to hunker down and not change anything.
Let me offer an alternative: this is an excellent time to experiment.
There is no such thing as a “safe” or low-risk way of living or working. Since there isn’t, what would we have to do to experiment and create those other options that might offer us something better? As usual, I have some ideas.
Some Options to Create Experiments
Here are the questions I asked myself for my options:
- What are the things that bug me so much that I cannot imagine using them at all? Alternatively, what are things I can’t wait to try?
- How short an experiment can I create?
- How will I know this is something better?
There are plenty of things that bug me, but the pervasive nature of LLMs and “AI” in everything irritates me no end. However, I do use AI voices for some of my audiobooks. Why? Because the cost of human narration is so high, I cannot recoup the investment. (I make very little money on the audio “sales” from Amazon. Don’t get me started on my other options. I need to re-evaluate those options and decide if I want to support that company. So far, the answer is a big, fat, NO.)
However, I have started using LLMs to improve my bio and other marketing copy. I also have and use Grammarly, but very lightly. That’s because no one reads my writing because of its perfection—or lack thereof. People read my writing because of my author voice, my way of phrasing my thoughts.
So yes, I use LLMs for marketing copy, but not for general writing. (I recommend you do the same.)
I sometimes use LLMs for search because general search is so terrible. Sometimes, that experiment lasts just hours and then I get fed up with both the LLMs and search.
Here’s the key: I limit all my experiments with both the experiment context and its duration. That’s one way to see if I’m settling for the current reality or managing the risks of a new reality. I can’t know I will create something better, but I often do.
How Can You Know This Is Something Better?
I always reflect on my experiments. (See Want to Choose Again? Reflect to Create New Options for one way I retrospect and How Often Do You Reflect? for how I replan.) The shorter the experiment, the faster you can assess the value of the outcome.
You are the only one who can assess the value of the outcome to know if this is something better for you.
However, most of the time, we do have to stop what we’re doing now (drop something) to get something better.