When the Abyss Talks Back (Teach Yourself Wonder)
This week, helping my daughter with some high school content, I opened an AI chat mostly for own personal use to learn high school learning as it has been quite some time since I have done some of this learning. The tool rambled, misfired, and then somewhere between its awkward paraphrases and my corrections I heard my own understanding surface. Nietzsche warned, “If you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss stares back.” Lately the abyss has a synthetic voice… but it’s also a reminder that attention is a choice and wonder is a practice.
This week’s theme is wonder as a discipline using flawed mirrors (AI, routines, rooms) to restore curiosity rather than drain it.
Questions to carry as you read: Where is your attention habitually staring? What is staring back? And how might a small act of wonder change what you see?
The Mirror is Cracked (and Still Useful)
Tech/AI Idea: I’ve noticed a dip in ChatGPT’s “feel” as odd word choices and wobbly references and not quite so accurate responses(I cannot prove for a fact it is not as good, just a feeling and sense I am double checking more than ever before) while Gemini has been trending up for certain tasks in my workflows. Tool drift is real; switching tools isn’t disloyalty, it’s literacy and pivoting to the needs of the moment.
Personal Tie-in: My use shifted: more Gemini than “almost zero.” of months prior. But the most reliable upgrade wasn’t the model; it was my stance slowing down, verifying, and approaching the ordinary with fresh eyes. And I find myself more and more critical and less and less impressed.
Connection to Theme: Wonder turns a cracked mirror into a usable one. Instead of asking “Which model is perfect?” I’m asking, “Which stance helps me see better right now?”
Talking to Rubber Ducks (with Wi-Fi)
Tech/AI Idea: Voice modes are undercover superpowers. Treating an AI like a thinking partner triggers rubber-duck debugging: you say the problem out loud, and clarity emerges because you’re forced to externalize your thinking.
Personal Tie-in: Helping my daughter, the model got parts wrong. Defending the right path out loud built her confidence and mine. The tool was the foil; the learning was ours.
Connection to Theme: When the abyss “talks back,” wonder is choosing to listen for your own reasoning coming into focus.
Practice Wonder on Purpose
Tech/AI Idea: Three micro-habits that make wonder a skill (not a personality trait): (1) Beginner’s mind prompts (“Explain this like I’ve never seen it”), (2) Alien ethnographer mode (“Describe this hallway as if you’ve just landed on Earth”), (3) Detail census (name 10 unnoticed details before asking for answers).
Personal Tie-in: In Putting Humanity Back Where We Took It Out, I argue that attention is a form of affection. Wonder is just attention… with kindness.
Connection to Theme: Nietzsche names the abyss; Jane Goodall restores the human; wonder stitches them together.
Better @ Home: Because the Life You Want Might Be Buried Under the Stuff You Don’t
I came across this powerful reflection from Brant Menswar, someone I had the privilege of hosting on my podcast earlier in 2024 (Episode 197). His framework, Better @ Home, has been echoing through my own days as I work to create a home (and headspace) that feels lighter and more intentional.
Here’s Brant’s beautiful framing in his own words:
Better @ Work
Because your best ideas are probably not hiding in your inbox.
The “Desk Safari” Strategy
If your workspace looks the same, sounds the same, and smells like yesterday’s lunch… your brain might be stuck on autopilot.
You don’t need a sabbatical to spark creativity.
Just a change of scenery.
How-To:
• Change locations for one meeting this week - outside, café, even just a different floor.
• Walk and talk - ditch the Zoom and make it a phone call on the move.
• Try “analog ideation” - bring a notebook and leave your screen behind.
• Block 20 minutes for unscheduled exploration somewhere inspiring.
Takeaway:
New surroundings = new solutions. Even a small shift can break your mental traffic jam.
Try This:
Take your toughest task of the week on a field trip. Somewhere different. No headphones. Just focus.
Reflection:
Where do you get your best ideas - and when’s the last time you went there on purpose?
Connection to Theme: Decluttering, physical or digital, isn’t about loss; it’s about loyalty to wonder. When we pare down what no longer deserves front-row status, we make room for presence and presence is where curiosity begins.
Links I Emailed Myself
Because sometimes a piece hits hard enough that I want to see it again with fresh eyes later. Does anyone else do this?
“Don’t tell me that AI is the future of education” — Erin Robinson (LinkedIn) — A sharp counter to the “AI will save schools” slogan, re-centering pedagogy, relationships, and equity over hype.
Gary Stager on students using AI to summarize whole texts (LinkedIn) — A timely nudge to protect deep reading and authentic thinking when “just summarize it” is one tap away.
Botober 2025: Terrible recipes from a tiny neural net (AI Weirdness) — Janelle Shane trains a tiny model on vintage Jell-O recipes; the hilarious failures double as a lesson in model limits and why curation matters.
Substack Note by @sagewords2027 — Bite-size reflections with empathy and craft, perfect “pause and think” fodder.
Effective context engineering for AI agents (Anthropic) — A practical primer on moving beyond “prompting” to designing the right context so agents stay coherent over long tasks.
Start Here: Making Your First Image (YouTube) — A clean, beginner-friendly walkthrough for generating images you can hand to students or colleagues who just need a doorway in byMidJourney.
The State of AI 2025 through a business lens (Tobias Zwingmann) — Sanity-checks the hype with practical takeaways: what actually changed this year and where ROI is (and isn’t) showing up yet.
This week, try assuming that everything you’re bored by is actually under-noticed. What changes when you treat your inbox, your hallway, or your homework like a small wilderness and enter with beginner’s eyes? If you want a companion for that walk, join me in Episode 219, where Stephanie Cantwell and I talk about designing for wonder and connection.
And if you have observed or wondered things lately please leave a comment!