Be Extra Human

Be Extra Human

A neighbour of mine who lives up the road has a beautiful vegetable garden on her sidewalk. The other day, as I was walking by, she was busy with her daily harvest, picking kale among other things. I’ve tried kale before and did not like it, so I asked how she prepares it to make it safe for human consumption. So she told me she bakes them in the oven to make crispy kale chips, and that they are really good. Being someone who cooks a lot, I asked whether it would work in the air fryer as well, to which she shockingly replied: “I don’t know, I don’t have an air fryer”.

What, no air fryer?! I could hardly believe it.

I don’t know how long these machines have been around, but they rank among the top five inventions of the last 10 years in my estimation. You can cook pretty much anything in them, while making it faster, easier and healthier than other options.

I mean, what is not to love? We modern humans adore fast and easy. I know I do!

That got me thinking about the things I’ve recently been doing that were neither fast nor easy:

• Early morning runs in the cold and dark with my friend, preparing for a half-marathon in October.
• Having important conversations with a loved one that need to be had.
• Trying to set a good example for my teenage son, who seems to be growing up way too quickly.
• Growing our business while many people around us are experiencing challenging economic times.
• Planning for the future, trying to make good decisions with limited knowledge.
• Doing my best to actively participate in my own process of personal growth, to not stay stuck in old ways that no longer serve me.

There are no air fryer, AI-backed, quick and easy solutions to any of these things. It would be wonderful if we could just push one button, type a prompt or open the right app to solve them, wouldn’t it?

I don’t think so. It would make our experience of being alive so much less human. Consider what Brad Stulberg has to say:

“Say no to synthetic slop. Be extra human. Prize competence. Reward quality. Behold beauty. Contribute. Create. Love.”

To be clear, I also use AI. I used it to build a website a couple of weeks ago. It worked brilliantly. But for all the other things that humans are meant to do, I think we’d better do them ourselves. And I am definitely not throwing the air fryer away!

Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful weekend.

Get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.