# Intro: This video isn't about AI Before we get started, I need to share some context: Back in November of 2024, I started research on this very video. It was originally going to be a video about the state of AI. I'll be honest, the process of researching this video has weighed a lot on my brain for this past year; It was incredibly frustrating because the topic of AI kept changing. The use cases for AI have also gone to such dark places that I honestly didn't expect to find. Maybe I was naive for that, but I needed to rethink how this video was going to go. Trying to keep up on how AI was being used was clearly going to drive me insane. I want to have this conversation differently, because I don't want to put you in the same headspace I found myself in when researching this video. I want you to watch this and be inspired to do feel like you can do anything. I eventually figured out what bothered me the most about AI. It doesn't feel optional, at least with how it's being presented. It's in my computer, it's in everyone's phones, it's being added to every website, smart fridge, whatever you want to call it. If it plugs into the wall, they're trying to shove AI into it. Heck, even a large portion of videos posted to YouTube are constantly talking about AI. Due to the sheer volume of attention it demands lately, I feel that I haven't been allowed to have a choice with this technology like I do with other things. The smartphone is optional, so I don't have one. Social media is optional, so I personally don't have any. I choose not to deal with subscription services and all the other major complaints about tech these days, so I knew what I needed to do: Find a solution on how to make AI optional. So, here's the thing. There are a thousand videos on this platform to tell you why AI is terrible or fantastic. By the time you're seeing this video, you've likely already gathered your own opinions about AI, and so I don't want to become another voice in your echo chamber for you. The discussion of AI will be kept to a minimum, because I'm completely tired of hearing about it. I stopped watching videos about AI from creators that I love to watch. I don't care if it aligns with my views or not at this point, because I'm just exhausted. This video isn't about AI: This video is about the experiences I've had in my life, what they've taught me, and why they give me reason to believe that AI is optional. # Education: Part 1 Kids today have been presented with a new magic button that has lots of people worried. It will do all of their homework, and exams. The discussion surrounding this comes from a place of worry, and understandably so. There are some real data points to show that kids are slipping behind our standards for education, and it's putting a lot of stress on parents and teachers. The way it's being talked about is creating a side effect I find more troublesome, though: It's identifying children as being "dumber", and that bothers me for a lot of reasons, one of them being that my own personal education journey weirdly parallels this exact problem. I want to use my experience to push back against this idea that kids are becoming "dumber", because it's not always about the graphs, and the language surrounding this conversation matters a lot. Let me explain: I had a relatively normal entrance into public education. In the first grade, I can vividly remember using those cool bubble iMacs the school had in the library. I loved playing games like Nanosaur, which from what I can remember is a game about teleporting high tech dinosaurs. I had homework, I had exams, and I was doing really well from what I recall. Though, I do have a vivid memory of when I got caught attempting to cheat on a spelling test once. I very much got in trouble for that, so I suspect I may have been much more average than what I remember, but I know I was doing alright overall. In third grade, I was reading at a fourth grade reading level. In fact, the library was one of my favorite places not just in school, but outside of school as well. I used to read books about the Titanic, and I loved just browsing though books about space and science. I loved attending the Scholastic Book Fairs, reading Goosebumps and Captain Underpants. I really thrived in learning things at a young age. However, about halfway through third grade, for reasons I'm not sure of, I was moved to a new school, a charter school. And right off the bat, something was weird about this move. You see, I was a physically small kid, and I'd already experienced bullying at my previous school. So to mitigate the risk of being bullied further, the school decided somehow that the best course of action was to send me back to second grade. I only found that out that was the reason a few years ago. At the time, I didn't really understand that there was a difference between charter schools and public school. I don't blame my parents for not really knowing either, because I know I struggled a lot to communicate the issues I faced. I mean, there are a lot of differences between charter schools on their own. I'm sure there are good ones out there, but the one I went to wasn't one of them. Now, there are a few things I need to tell you about this school: Everything was very artsy, which is why I suspect I was even considered to go to a place like this. There was also no homework or exams. Sounds great from the kid's perspective, right? Well, it goes a little further than that: This school didn't have a computer lab. There were no computers at all. In fact, the school didn't even have a library!. There were plenty of watercolor paints and candle wax and yarn, and I'll admit, learning how to make candles from beeswax, and learning how to sew and knit was pretty cool. However, what wasn't cool was that for the next 6 years of my childhood education, this was ALL that I learned. We were not challenged to read anything, because... well, where would the books be? I used read for fun at home, but by attending a school that seemingly had no will to properly educate their students, that quickly faded. There was no math, science, history, no unraveling the mystery that all started with the big bang! ... (Sorry, I don't know what came over me). Actually, that's not entirely true. I can show you the entire extent of my math education: These gnomes would trade gems. and it was all told through magical tales. It was all just basic subtraction and addition. There was nothing about, say, the multiplication table, something I learned about for the first time in high school, but we'll get to that later. You know what I did learn about? Various world religions, such as Norse and Greek tales. I also learned how to speak German, though I have long forgotten how to speak it. This school was really weird, man. despite being moved back to 2nd grade, i was still bullied! Granted, I've come to learn is pretty normal, as much as it sucks. The way this school worked was that the teacher and kids all went up in grades together. As a result, I had the same teacher a majority of the time I was there. I know that being surrounded by the exact same group of people with no changes in behavior over those 6 years broke me. Some of the bullying was certainly for my size, but a lot of it was just a vague "You're stupid" as I really didn't fit into this group. I hated being there so much, but I really struggled to articulate it at the time. When the opportunity came up to choose between going to a normal public high school, or the charter high school that most kids would go to, I obviously picked against them. I went to a regular high school. And that's when the avalanche of ignorance hit me. I was so comically unprepared for such a transition. I walked into my first class of the day, Algebra, and was hit with "So as you learned in middle school..." just for me to have nothing. I didn't learn that... And having been bullied for the past 6 years by my peers, I was incredibly hesitant to say "Hey, I don't know what the heck any of this this is." I didn't want to be picked on by this new group of people, I just wanted to be left alone. So I didn't ask for help. I just stopped trying to do the homework. I didn't try on the exams. I was failing every metric that they tracked for. This is the exact situation we often see in students today. They're struggling in the most fundamental areas of education that we have to offer. However, we usually write these kids off as being "stupid" instead of delving deeper into the issue, which is incredibly dangerous.. I myself rapidly identified as "stupid" because of these results. I felt like everyone around me knew what an idiot I was. I was constantly burdened with a feeling of dread that I was going to add nothing of value to the world. I truly felt like a waste of time and space. As I continued to isolate myself and not try to do anything, these feelings just got worse. All of this boiled in my brain nonstop for years, until one day, it became too much. I couldn't take the pressure anymore. I had come up with a plan to end it all, but luckily, something in me said "Hey, you should probably tell someone", and so I told my dad. He took me seriously and got me help, and I stayed at a hospital for two weeks. There was a lot of trauma to unpack in here (bonks head), so I started therapy and began the long and painful journey of trying to move past this feeling of stupidity that would continue to haunt me for years to come. I really gotta give credit to my teachers in high school. It is so apparent to me now that they knew where I had previously gone to school, and what the consequences of that really were. I have no doubt in my mind that they bent the rules to make sure I could just barely pass my classes just so that I could move onto the real world. Some of those teachers did go above and beyond to try to help, and I'll be forever grateful to them. Two of them had heard about my hospitalization, and they got some of my peers to make me this thing. It is a little box that says "Anthony is..." and inside of it are laminated words that describe who I am. There are a lot of really kind things in this little box. However, one of them never clicked for me: "Smart". I held onto it regardless. It meant a lot that they cared about me this much. Their kindness really impacted me lot that day, and I won't ever forget it. Throughout my experience in high school, I didn't do any homework, I did poorly on exams I failed every single math class spectacularly, and I got C's and D's in most other classes. At least I didn't get bullied, though, so I guess that's a win. After 4 long years, I somehow managed to graduate with a 1.9 GPA. I didn't even bother with any of the big standardized tests, like the SAT. I just jumped straight into work, in the only area of life that I felt like I wasn't a complete idiot. Technology. # Technology and Creativity You see, throughout my time of going to that pesky charter school, rather than doing the homework I wasn't given, I would tinker on the computer. I learned how it worked, I learned how to break it, and I learned how to fix it. I was admittedly better at breaking them than fixing them, but hey, I was a kid, what do you expect? I also made all kinds of things: Basic .BAT scripts, super cool cheat code websites, and most importantly to you watching, videos. I browsed the internet and explored forums, and one day, I discovered a fun website called YouTube, which inspired me to make even more videos. I would watch incredibly creative claymation videos and I'd try to make them myself. I would watch Flash animations, and I'd try to make my own with Microsoft Paint and Windows Movie Maker. The video playing in the background is an actual video I made in 2008! I was amazed to find it in a massive pile of CDs my dad had from when I was a kid. In high school, I would help my fellow classmates fix their iPods. I regularly would snag a copy of all their music because I was poor and I didn't get iTunes gift cards very often. To this day, I still have that collection of music.. I'm amazed I was able to keep a copy of it all over the years. I also helped teachers with basic troubleshooting. I started making friends to create videos with, which in turn became memories I'll cherish forever. Shout-out to my friend Daniel for being a massive inspiration in my life. You're one of the core reasons I am who I am today. In my senior year of high school, I entered the workforce. I got a job at Geek Squad, which was the perfect stepping stone for me. I learned a ton about communication skills, and I learned that I loved talking to people and helping them understand technology. Shortly after I graduated, I started to play around in Blender. This is the first render I ever made, all from a tutorial that came out way before the donut tutorials were ever a thing. I was really melding this love of creativity and computers in a way that I didn't think would ever take me anywhere. It's a simple joy that's persisted through to today. I mean, I think that's worth highlighting. I felt an enormous amount of joy in technology. It made me feel like I could do stuff. I was lucky to have family that nurtured this passion. If we could nurture that kind of passion in kids today, I'm certain it would help whatever metrics we think we need to measure them against. You see, even though I had this one thing I was very good at, I was still convinced that I was stupid. If someone tried to praise me for being so smart, I'd immediately dismiss them. I was genuinely convinced that they were lying to me. I thought that computers were easy just because I was young, and that everyone my age was good with computers. It's not like I was going to college or anything like that. From a conventional Western view of education , the only view I really knew at the time, I was just an uneducated stupid person who happened to be good at one thing. Eventually though, I thought that maybe I should try to go to college. I thought that if I were to ever get past this feeling, I'd need to go to school. # Education: Part 2 I figured I should start with the one thing I felt the most stupid with: Math. It was the very first class I took when I went into high school and it was the thing I felt I was the worst at. So, if I were ever going to do college, if I were to ever become smart, I thought I should start there. You know, get it out of the way first so that I could just move on from the subject forever. I went to my local community college, and I placed into a pre-algebra course. With enormous fear and hesitation, I attended my very first college class. The worst case scenario was that I failed again, and I just kept moving forward with the career in fixing computers. It seemed to pay alright, after all. Wait... math is fun? I was stunned to learn that I not only enjoyed math... I was actually good at it. I was also doing rather well in the class, I even completed my homework and exams. One day, I got this exact exam handed back to me. This was first exam in my LIFE where I scored 100%. This exam shattered everything I thought I knew about myself. I was just sitting in a classroom full of strangers, staring at a sheet of paper that was screaming back at me: "You were wrong". Not just on the exam, but about myself, And it was my own actions that proved it. I was the one that chose to attend this class, I was the one that put in the work, and I was the person who aced that exam. I realized shortly after this that I was probably good at math the entire time, but I had just been so convinced that I wasn't that I never gave it an honest try. I mean, I had been writing code at this point, so I was doing math the entire time and I just didn't realize it. Playing piano is just math. Screwing around on the computers is math. Heck, even animation is math, you have to consider frame rates and all kinds of things. Now, that's not to say that I was magically better at everything, of course. The following semester, I took an English class and barely passed with a C. That's okay, C's get degrees, so I took the next level of English... and I dropped out after two weeks. I didn't get it. Nothing was clicking, and I kind of just gave up. That was the last time I went to college. # The importance of Failure I know I failed my goal of getting a degree, but that failure taught me so much. I learned that I didn't need a degree to no longer feel stupid. I learned that I was wrong about what I believed about myself. I learned the importance of failure and challenging my own opinions. Failure is a fantastic teacher, so long as you're willing to learn from it. It is so clear to me now that I didn't understand that in high school. I was the one getting in my own way, and had I not put all this pressure on myself and this fear of failing.. Well, I might have done better. But at the same time, I'm glad I didn't do better, because that failure led me to where I am today. Failure is what AI takes away from us. When you use an AI chatbot or whatever, you don't get it wrong, the AI does. You aren't really challenged with AI in any meaningful way. If you want to become a great writer, making AI write everything for you will not do that. Sure, the writing will be there, but YOU didn't do it. You didn't gain a skill. You didn't suck at writing over and over and over, until you slowly got better. Failing is a critical step to growth. Without failure, there is no growth. Failure means you get to participate in one of humanity's greatest traditions. Heck, one of life's defining features. Failing and learning from that failure means that you get to grow and thrive. You aren't born understanding how to walk, you learn to walk by falling down, over and over again. The difference to failing as a child and failing now is that you didn't have a concept of shame with failure as a child. You were bad at things when you were a kid, but shame couldn't stop you from failing to get better. Understanding why you failed is also important. Failure cannot be learned from if you don't try to figure out why you failed. I've told my friends this many many times, but you can't expect to get anywhere if you hit the wall the exact same way every time. Change something, anything, and see what happens. There is a lot of fear behind failure, and I think that's perfectly normal. But there's a really neat solution to that. It's called the "opposite action framework". It's the idea that if you're in a position where you feel you can't do anything because of the fear, you should go in the opposite direction. If you're scared to fail, challenge yourself to fail at something. Practice failing so that it's not scary anymore. For example: When you're depressed and scared to talk to people, do the opposite of what you fear try talking to a stranger.. Whatever the fear you find yourself stuck in, challenge yourself to do the opposite. Feeling scared of failure is perfectly normal. I want you to think of something you KNOW you'll fail at, and then I want you to practice failing until idea of failure begins to roll off of you. Not musically inclined? Find a piano and play it. Not good at drawing? Pick up a pen and draw anything. I want you to embrace failure as not something of shame, but something of growth. Shame can be a choice. It's a choice in the sense that we are able to shape our beliefs, but beliefs are built up and reinforced over time, and sometimes it's through really intense or even traumatic experiences. It can be incredibly difficult for some people to view these things as malleable, and I think it's important to note that this isn't just a light switch you can turn on in your brain. It takes a lot of time and energy to take away shame from failure, but when you do, you can use that change to build each other up. Some of my older videos are things I consider failures in many ways. This video was a failure in regards to visualizing information. This video was a failure in research and understanding. This video was a failure in workflow management. Just because I feel I failed in those ways, it doesn't mean I look at them in shame. Each one has taught me something new. This video taught me how to better visualize information. This video taught me to spend more time in the research phase, and validate my findings with experts. This video taught me how to master the workflow to making these videos. # I don't believe in stupid people Speaking of previous videos, one of the things I saw a lot of people talking about in the comments of the last video was this concept of "stupid" people. I don't subscribe to the idea that people are stupid. I have obviously been haunted for the vast majority of my life by believing I was stupid because of what I *thought* intelligence really was. In the same way shame is a belief that can be shaped, what is "stupid" is also shaped by our own experiences and social standards. I actively choose not to perceive people as "stupid" for what they know or don't know, because not everyone knows the same stuff. I mean, I don't know how to drive a semi-truck. I don't know how they get the gas in light bulbs to make them glow. I bet someone watching this very video does know how at least one of these things work though, and they're leaving a comment right now to share what they know that the rest of us don't! I didn't even know why there was a difference between vowels and consonants until just a couple weeks ago. Heck, I didn't even know how to spell the word "consonants" until I started writing this script. I know I'm really good with plants, though. I know how to draw, which is fun, and I'm pretty good with Blender, but even within that I have my limits. For as much as I love math now, I have no idea how geometry nodes work, and I'm terrified to start learning. My point is that everyone is good at something, and dismissing them just because they don't also know the things you know does a lot of harm. Like I said earlier, my education journey weirdly parallels what a lot of kids are dealing with today. Right now, they have a button that will do anything for them, and they don't need to do... well, anything. The homework gets solved with an app. The tests get cheated on in the same way. The books and history are all summarized in short form content. I suspect that soon, we're going to see an influx of kids seeking help in the same way I did. I worry that we're going to have a huge group of people who think they're "stupid", all for reasons that were arguably out of their own control. I mean between the pandemic and now AI, I totally understand why a lot of kids are struggling right now, and I worry about the side effects that no one is really talking about. Knowing how cruel the internet can be at times, they may be left isolated when wanting to seek information, which in my own experience, is a very hard place to be. But even with that said, I don't believe for a second that any of these kids are "stupid". They might not have the conventional knowledge that I was convinced I needed for so much of my life, but that has nothing to do with their ability to be good at the things they're passionate about. Anyone can be good at anything. I don't care who they are, I don't care what background they have. If they are inspired to do something, they can do it. If you identify people as stupid and shame them for being something that you label them with, you are killing inspiration. If you truly believe a person is stupid, I challenge you to prove yourself wrong. Find out what they're good at. I know I was surprised to learn what I was good at. # Kindness You know what I believe is a powerful tool? Kindness. Around the same time I was attending that math class, I walked into a grocery store to buy a single carton of milk. This was a before the self checkout lanes were in every store, so it was just a classic stand-in-the-line situation. The guy in front of me had a cart full of stuff, likely his groceries for the next week or two. He turned around, and after seeing that I was buying only a single item, he said "Hey, go on ahead of me." I thanked him, checked out, and that was the end of that. This made me realize something. Kindness has a lot of impact, no mater how grand or insignificant the gesture might seem at the time. He was ahead of me, it's fair game for him to go first, right? But, he likely has been in a similar situation, buying just one item behind another person with a full cart, and having to wait it out. Granted, it's no more than five minutes, so who's to say if it's really a big deal or not. But the gesture shows empathy, and empathy is undeniably an instigator of growth. I have remembered every single one of these moments, and I have passed it along to others whenever able. Do they care about this tiny thing as much as I do? Maybe, maybe not, but that's not the point. I have been impacted by others doing it, so I do it as well. It's as simple as that. I'll admit, moments like this have been harder to come by lately. Part of it is because of the self checkout. There's no need to be kind to a stranger when you're never presented the opportunity in the first place. I can't offer someone to cut in front of me when there's no line. I feel like a lot of things are designed to keep us from interacting in the first place. We're fearful or angry or confused about all of those around us, which makes it almost impossible to even see an opportunity to be kind when it's there. Platforms like Facebook have caused so many problems because they sort the algorithms by most controversial. It makes people angrier. which in turn has caused people to get stuck in an echo chamber, fueling extremist rhetoric and tearing friends and families apart. These Silicon Valley behemoths have made it very clear that they're happy to profit off our suffering, regardless of the consequences. Heck, even AI chatbots claiming to be your friend only work because this fear of others that has been normalized across the entire tech industry. As a way to try to fight back against these designs, I try my best to find these moments, to just try to make someone feel like they mattered for a moment. You know what job must be awful? Being a car insurance agent. Like, yeah, insurance is kind of a scam, so any interaction you have with them is gonna be pretty lousy, but it's also not really the agent's fault. There are people way way above them in the food chain that are drawing the strings, these agents are just trying to survive like you and I. I had a moment in 2018 where I had actually been helped by my car insurance agent, but not from the insurance side. I had hit a pothole and popped a tire which dented the rim, which was apparently not covered by my insurance. But while I was talking to my agent, she went out of her way and helped research the best place in town to help me, to made sure I was taken care of. Was I annoyed that I'd paid thousands of dollars on car insurance, just for it to not come through when I actually needed it? Sure. But I was thankful that my agent was able to see how stupid the whole situation was, and that she went out of her way to help guide me. She had done things like that in the past, and every time she did so, it always made my day a little brighter. Saving a couple bucks here and there, or whatever. I thought she did a great job, despite the company she worked for trying to make that impossible most of the time. A couple of months went by, and I remembered that she had helped me out, so I gave her a call. Agent: (annoyed, exhausted) "Insurance factory, how can I help you?" Anthony: "Hey, I was just calling to thank you for your help a few months ago!" Agent: (annoyed) "...Is this a joke?" Anthony: "...what? No! I just remembered that you went out of your way to help me through a situation a few months ago, and I wanted to just call and say thanks for all your help over the years! That was all." Agent: "sigh... I'm sorry to be defensive, it's 4:30 on a Friday and it's been a hell of a week. I've been getting yelled at by people all week, and this was not was I was expecting." Anthony: "Oh, geez, I'm so sorry! No, I didn't realize it was late late, bad timing on my part, haha. I really hope your weekend is relaxing and I hope people calm the heck down." Agent: "No, no, the timing was honestly perfect. You just made my day, thank you for this. You have no idea how much I needed this." That felt really good, to make someone's day. I have certainly had people make my day, too, but this was one of the first times I was on the giving side of it. That was some really feel-good stuff. So, I continued to do it. I called dentists, eye doctors, I thanked receptionists I had interacted with dozens of times, and every single time, they were confused, as if it was a joke. When they realized it wasn't, and I was being sincere, they would all breathe a sigh of relief, and tell me how much it means. I have had people straight up hang up on me because they thought it was actually a joke. I've found it's much more effective in person, so if you plan on doing the same, I'd encourage that, but still, this revealed something really interesting to me. If no one believes I'm serious at first, this must not happen very often. So I make sure to do it even more now. I call friends on a whim just to check in, even if it's been a while since we last talked. I make sure they are reminded regularly that they are kind, they are loved, they are worthy of love, and that they're not a burden. I know it's easy to say that nobody cares about the good things in the world. Sure, there is solid data that it doesn't hit our brains as easily as the bad stuff does. I mean, this is why people still use Facebook. It's not because they're being presented with kind things, they're being presented with things that will cause confusion, frustration and anger. Those feelings stick around, and we LOVE to tell people about what is making us mad. We love to feel upset together. I know I love to complain about how bad companies are and how crummy privacy policies are - But wait, do I really? There's maybe a small hit of dopamine at first, but it's just sucky after a while. You know what has actually always stuck with me? Those moments where people went out of their way to offer their position in line at the grocery store. Or that box that my teachers made me when I wasn't doing well. I can think about any of these moments forever and feel just as good as I did in that moment. I cannot say the same about anything I've ever complained about to someone. Kindness is an awesome thing, and we should really strive to show it as often as possible, in whatever ways we can find. It makes a massive difference. Every moment of kindness others have shown me has inspired me to be kind to others. Shame doesn't do that. I've heard an expression a lot lately that is really starting to bother me. "Shame is a powerful tool" Shame is not an instigator of growth, if you ask me. If you shame someone about something they're doing, it doesn't stop them from doing that thing, it just stops them from doing it in front of you. It breaks a line of connection. Even if you still talk to that person, they won't talk to you about whatever that thing is. If anything, they're more likely to lie to you about it. That's not helpful for growth and connection if you ask me. # The solution to AI (and really anything) This brings us to the solution to AI, and really anything. Are you ready? It's a doozy: Do stuff without the shame of failure. Okay, I know it's a pretty simple answer. But it works. If you want to make AI optional, just don't use it and do something instead. If you want to know how to do something, seek out others who know how to do the thing you want to know. If you know how to do thing, be kind and patient when showing others. Learn to remove shame from the process of learning. In fact, this is WHY AI is so enticing. When you ask one of these chat bots a question, you know what it's not gonna do? Judge you for asking that question. If you jump on communities like reddit and you ask a question, you will mostly likely get hit by some jerk who says "Google it" or "Everyone knows that, stupid." They'll bring you down because of their current inability to be kind and patient. But here's the thing: Even they have something to learn. Helping them realize how harmful that line of thinking is going to go FAR further than calling them a jerk or whatever I just said. I obviously don't want people to rely on AI to learn things. That's why I'm trying to encourage people who know things to be excited when someone wants to learn something you know. If you don't think you can share information with kindness and patience, help guide them to someone who can. It's genuinely commendable to know your own limits, and there's no shame in admitting when you might not be the right person to help. Removing shame from failure and learning is only possible if we can ALL agree on doing it with kindness and a lack of judgement. Sharing information with kindness IS the solution. Doing things without the shame of failure IS the solution. Now you might be wondering, what does this have to do with making AI optional? Well, AI is a shortcut to doing stuff. It will get you the result you want. Heck, you might even be good at making the AI produce actually decent results, which in some cases can certainly be considered a skill. But let's look at how these companies are selling these tools to you. *play Apple Intelligence ads, Google AI ads* They think you're stupid, they think that you believe that you're stupid, and they're kind of counting on that. You should know how I feel about being called "stupid" at this point. So, if you want to make AI optional, get good at stuff. Be the exact thing these companies can't advertise to. AI can't be an expert on things. If you're an expert in your field, you know how wildly wrong AI can be, and so the solution is to just be better than that. Right now, it's a low bar, but these companies will always try to raise it. If we want to keep it optional, set aside your shame in being bad at stuff. Let go of your fear of failure and gain actual skills. You think I got good at reading privacy policies by reading AI summaries of them? Heck no, I got good at reading privacy policies by actually reading them. I got good by looking up terms when I didn't know them. If you've watched my live streams at all, you'll have seen this in action. There are plenty of words I stumble across that I've never seen in my life, and we just learn together. It gets easier the more you do it, and that's true for everything. If you truly want to learn how to do anything, that's it. You just have to do anything, and you have to do it a lot. Drawing, writing, communication, love, kindness, anything you can think of, I know you're able to , so long as you keep practicing. Passion helps a lot, and if you're not certain what you're passionate about, then just focus on practicing failure. I'd be surprised if you didn't find something you really like along that journey. I believed I was stupid for so much of my life, but the one thing that made that go away was doing stuff. I did what I believed to be right, I tried be kind, I redefined what it meant to become smart, I figured out a way to make AI optional, I constantly challenged my own opinions, I tried be creative, I learned to get over my fear of failure, I learned how to be more social, and because of all of that, I've learned how to do anything. For any of those kids that are being called "stupid" by swarms of people online, all based on some soulless data points, I want to just say that they're wrong. No one can define what you're good or bad at. I believe that is up to you, and I know you can do whatever you set your mind to. When you do something, be proud of yourself! As you progress and learn and get better, look back and connect the dots to see how you got there. The dots never make sense looking forward, only backwards. Take time to look back and appreciate the effort you've put into it. As always, please be kind and patient with each other. I hope you enjoyed this substantially longer than normal video. Massive thanks to the amazing people that support the channel. Y'all make it possible for me to even consider making this a full time job, which has truly meant so much to me. If you liked this video, and you also like that I don't take sponsors, please consider joining the Patreon. For only one dollar a month, you'll get your name in the video, early access to videos when they're made, and much more. If you want to support the channel but you're not able to donate, then like, comment, and subscribe. It makes a massive difference, I promise. Peace! Now where could he be... *doorbell rings, walk off camera and reveal new set, open door and pretty much redo steamed hams lol* Camwing: Well, Reject Convenience, I made it, despite your directions. RC: Ah, Superintendent Camwing, welcome! I hope you're prepared for an unforgettable luncheon! Camwing: Eh... RC: Oh, ye gods! My roast is ruined! RC: But what if... I were to purchase fast food and disguise it as my own cooking? Delightfully devilish, Reject Convenience. Camwing: Uh--! Music: Reject Convenience, with his crazy explanations Camwing is gonna need his medication When he hears Reject Convenience's lame exaggerations There'll be trouble in town tonight! Camwing: **REJECT CONVENIENCE!!!** RC: Camwing! I was just...uh... stretching my calves on the windowsill. Isometric exercise! Care to join me? Camwing: Why is there smoke coming out of your oven, Reject Convenience? RC: Uh... oh! That isn't smoke, it's steam! Steam from the steamed clams we're having. Mmmm, steamed clams! RC: Camwing, I hope you're ready for mouthwatering hamburgers! Camwing: I thought we were having "steamed clams". RC: Oh no, I said 'steamed _hams_'! That's what I call hamburgers. Camwing: You call hamburgers 'steamed hams'? RC: Yes! It's a regional dialect. Camwing:: Uh-huh. Eh, what region? RC: Uh... upstate New York? Camwing: Really? Well, I'm from Utica and I've never heard anyone use the phrase 'steamed hams'. RC: Oh, not in Utica, no. It's an Albany expression. Camwing: I see. Camwing: You know, these hamburgers are quite similar to the ones they have at Krusty Burger. RC: Oh, no! Patented Reject Convenience Burgers! Old family recipe. Camwing: For steamed hams? RC: Yes. Camwing: Yes, and you call them steamed hams, despite the fact they are obviously grilled. RC: Y- Uh.. you know, the... One thing I should... Excuse me for one second. Camwing: Of course. RC: Well, that was wonderful. A good time was had by all. I'm pooped. Camwing: Yes, I should be-- GOOD LORD, WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THERE!? RC: Aurora Borealis? Camwing: Uh... AURORA BOREALIS!? AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, AT THIS TIME OF DAY, IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY, LOCALIZED ENTIRELY WITHIN YOUR KITCHEN!? RC: Yes! Camwing: ...May I see it? RC: ...Yes! *they move into the kitchen, sit at the table and watch the lightshow dancing across the celling while they eat steamed hams* Camwing: Well, you are an odd fellow, but you steam a good ham