Why everyone needs to Go To Hell! (It's good for you)
Would we really be better off if we never again had to shoulder the 'burden of the blank page', or does the struggle actually improve us?
This is a story about going to hell and back. It’s a phrase that came to mind last night watching a re-run of Alien with Sigourney Weaver.
We’ve all made that trip many times (thankfully without monsters), but for me it’s the coming back bit that matters most. Here’s why…
Imagine: someone you know has never learned to swim, a good friend, your child perhaps. There’s a brand new piece of technology you strap to your arms and legs that does the swimming for you. You’re in the water, physically swimming but you’re not learning how to do it. No need to struggle, you’ve got the tech. What a fantastic gift, right?
Or a broken heart, crushing disappointment, sudden rejection – much better to avoid them. Who needs that?
Learning a tough new skill or falling in and out of love can feel like going to hell and back. But we learn something crucial about ourselves, other people, emotions, skills. We learn about and from failure, and what it takes to succeed.
We grow stronger, we get better and we develop.
Going to hell and back is one of the most important human journeys we can take.
Except, it seems, when it comes to storytelling.
I recently attended a fantastic conference for the world’s leading data companies, insights analysts and market researchers. I’d been asked by the organisers of the Insight Innovation Exchange (IIEX) to talk about the work I’ve been doing with PepsiCo, elevating the influence of teams by creating a ‘brand newsroom’. Pepsi’s Tracey Neis and I have been using journalistic storytelling to translate data into meaningful content that encourages people to make decisions and the work has been award-winning. Here’s us…
AI was obviously the topic that, rightly, interested most other speakers at IIEX and their presentations were largely inspiring. But I kept hearing these phrases:
‘AI can do all the legwork when it comes to storytelling’…
‘You’ll never have to face the burden of the blank page again’…
‘It does the hard work of building a story so that you can concentrate on other things...’
Like what? Ordering lunch?
I know that these observations about AI aren’t revelatory but watching Ripley (Weaver) battle her way to hell and back, I kept thinking yes, the blank page is hell. It’s hard but it forces us to do things that AI can’t do:
To be curious
To ask questions and find different answers that lead to more questions
To go down rabbit holes where we find things we hadn’t anticipated
To sharpen our critical thinking and analytical reasoning
To compel us to communicate and collaborate with others
To confront dead ends that force us to turn around and start again
To lead us to serendipitous moments that we hadn’t even considered
To flex our creative muscles, the ones we don’t often use but which are far more powerful than the ones we habitually do
To force us out of our comfort zones and think differently
To build character
To get us learning, makes us better and build up our human skills
And to become more useful to our clients, to our teams and bosses.
Artificial intelligence is the most brilliant storytelling tool. Everyone should be experimenting with it.
But we as humans need to be at the beginning of that process – the blank page, the painful bit, the going to hell and back. Blending the speed and power of technology with the empathy and creativity of humans.
A recent study at MIT showed just how significant an impact using AI is already having on our brains.
It’s not good.
From studying students, the research revealed almost 83% of ChatGPT users couldn't quote from the essays they wrote minutes before.
Neural connections fall from 79 to 42 when writing an essay with ChatGPT – in other words, a 47% reduction in brain connectivity.
Teachers called ChatGPT-fuelled work ‘soulless… empty with regard to content… close to perfect language while failing to give personal insights’.
And yet… students who relied on Chat GPT thought their work was better than if they’d done it themselves! It was only when they tried to create work without the help of AI, that they found they were ‘significantly impaired’.
If we start off by saying ‘Let the AI figure it out and then we’ll come to it later on’, we’ll save time for sure. But we’ll all be ending up with the same stories, the same content, the same blandness, the same word salads.
We’ll just be the same as each other. Which is why – unsurprisingly – I think this is the best time for companies to be investing in upskilling their teams in how we communicate.
Storytelling is our secret sauce. Every one of us. It gives us a chance of seeing work and life in a unique way.
But if we don’t go to hell and back like Ripley, we won’t have any decent stories to tell.
We won’t grow stronger, we won’t get better and we won’t develop.
READ THIS
Adam Curtis is one of our great documentary makers who uses extraordinary visuals to link complex themes. To coincide with his new series, Shifty, he wrote this fascinating article about the post-war age of distrust in our leaders, their lack of competence and the shattering of the guardrails that kept society going. It sounds heavy but really it’s about storytelling and how powerful it can be in changing people’s minds.
WATCH THIS
Two minutes of brilliance from Nick Cave – but not his songwriting. This is a story wrapped up in a letter he wrote to a tormented fan who was giving up on life. In this excerpt from a chatshow, he reads the letter aloud, revealing his own struggles, how hope guides him through the travails of life and how it can help all of us. One of the most powerful letters I’ve ever heard, and thus one of the most powerful stories too.
LISTEN TO THIS
I am never deleting this from my Audible library. It is the most evocative piece of storytelling that I think I own. Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood – a life in the day of a Welsh village - as a radio drama but it’s also performance poetry brought to life through a series of voices. And there is no voice more hypnotic than Richard Burton’s who is the star of this BBC dramatisation. It’s a poem and a play. A tragedy and a comedy. A deep exploration of who we are and a celebration of what we love. And it’s a fantastic story.
I'm not convinced that we have to go to hell and back to create something meaningful. You don't have to suffer. Great stories can come from the mundane. Friction is necessary for learning and writing is a muscle that can become easier the more we practice it. The headlines focussed a lot on the cognitive drop, but what the MIT study also showed how little ownership people felt over the essays they had written. If AI helps shape the idea, even if only partly, where exactly is the line that makes it mine?
Thank you for your fascinating multi-layered article; the world seems to be daily spiraling into darker terrain and you helped to explain why! There have also been truly dedicated public servants who —in “Pollyanna” fashion— have been doing the “right thing” for their communities for decades… We, at least here in USA by Trump, have been tearing apart those lives & inspirations & service at a dizzying rate: I hope that we can all burn off this cynical programming & reignite schooling & interest in civics & GOOD public service before it’s too late!!!