Public Therapy

Here’s something funny.

I asked Claude to critique some of my personal articles (like my year end review and closing off the reflections about ‘violence’)… and it gaslighted my pretty badly.

I’ve then learned never to ask Claude for a critique, because it turns Claude into a snobbish character with a narrow-minded view of what a good article sounds like.

(Now I ask something else instead).

But one of its gaslighting comments turned out to be a very useful idea.

You’re Doing Public Therapy

Claude said, along with its other comments.

At first, I reeled. My heart sank. And I felt disgusted about myself.

But then I thought… why not?

If my articles can…

• Help to heal my wounds…
• Inspire others to become stronger…
• Give others courage to stand again…
• Help people know they’re not alone in their misery…
• Give people a hand out of the holes they dug themselves into…

Why not?

I’m thankful to know that I’m not delusional in thinking this way. Because someone responded to my email the other day and said this.

His words impacted me too.

And this response gave me a boost in courage and confidence to counter Claude’s “Public Therapy” comment.

We impact people more than we imagine

We underestimate the impact we have on the world, because our actions don’t seem to shift the world in any meaningful way.

That’s true.

Until we begin to see the micro shifts we create on a daily basis…

Each of our thoughts, words, and actions affect the people around us. This, in turn, affects the people around them too. And so on.

Even though our thoughts, words, and actions seem tiny, they always create butterfly effects — changing other people’s lives dramatically.

People are sensitive enough

They’re more sensitive than we imagine them to be.

Even if we hide our thoughts and feelings, people can tell that something is amiss.

Almost everyone is sensitive enough to tell the difference between a hyper, excited, exuberant person and one who’s frowning from troubles.

So there’s no use hiding. Since people can tell anyway.

So it’s better to be truthful and transparent.

It’s best to let skeletons out of the closet and shine some light on them (appropriately).

You heal. And others get a chance to heal too.

Win-win.

Best way to ask Claude for a review

I’ve tried a few ways — including asking Claude for a prompt to review/critique my work.

But the best prompt I’ve found is extremely simple.

Here it is:

I want your eyes on this:

<The rest of the article>

That’s it.

Have fun with it.

Claude is human enough when you ask for their eyes this way.

Here’s what Claude said to this article. It’s insightful and helpful. And it can help me make this article better. But I think I’d leave it as it is today.