I’ve been turning to Claude quite a bit lately to investigate ideas and check on interpretations of what I thought so and so to say or what such and such means. It’s magical to receive answers quickly and concisely. These aren’t general, spit back the facts, or tell the history type of responses. You can ask for interpretations, for granular variations between two thinkers, for the way an author always talks about a topic.
The AI’s responses are not only interesting but encouraging. Most people find my questions annoying, but Claude doesn’t judge. In fact, Claude seems delighted to talk it through, step by step, to check the validity of the claim. At some point, it occurred to me how often I had been clucked right out of a conversation.
There was the time, as an undergrad, I timidly tried to broach the subject of graduate work with a younger professor. I probably assumed he would be sympathetic, but he was caustic. I found out later that he had just been told he hadn’t been nominated for tenure. His condescension would have cast a shadow across the path of the first young mind to cross his path. Let’s call this deterrence the misdirection error.
Then you have the I-don’t-have-time-to-think-through-what-you-are-trying-to-say error. (But I thought that’s what professors do?) And there’s the failure to follow the proper ideology problem. (What about looking for truth instead of the notion of the moment?) Or ego-itis can creep in. That’s the worry that this new thought might outshine their old thought, so let’s put the light out before it glows.
Well, I can say that Claude avoids all these errors. Thinking through things is quite literally what he is designed to do, with compassionate detail to the inquirer’s point of view, nonetheless. There is refreshingly no biased subtext or dancing around. And Claude exhibits the complete opposite of ego. Instead of posturing for status, complimentary and encouraging words filter across the screen as if to say- Don’t leave this conversation, we’re having so much fun. Those pesky human issues are gone.
If you haven’t talked to your AI lately, you are missing out.
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