There are truly no stupid questions (with AI).
Get in. We’re going to roast some chickens.
This post is also on Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
Slow down for a second, and you can do a lot better.
It turns out this rather benign (yet subtly annoying) sentence applies to more things in life than I am personally willing to admit.
After the war, in the 1950s and 60s, microwave minutes were the name of the game for the Cool Moms. The Suburban Housewives (aka the OG trad wives) touted their clout through Jell-O and kitchen hacks.
That is, until Julia Child came along.
Jules (you’re welcome) was roasting chickens—a process, to be sure.
There was flavor (season the bird!), heat (ew, dry chicken), fat (good bird), timing (oops), and texture (again, not dry, please) involved.
Was it as easy as Pressing Start?
No. Did it taste much better? Heck yes.
This type of cooking was perhaps naturally intimidating, at least to me. Personally, I can imagine all the different steps that I would almost unequivocally mess up, shortcut, or forget altogether.
But Julia’s approach was not intimidating. It wasn’t fussy. Instead, she laughed and hand-waved away any culinary slip or trip (it is the ART of French cooking, after all).
She showed women that they could cook delicious meals. Everything didn’t need to be seamless.
She showed women that they improve through trying and that they become more confident by trying, and that they can (and should!) get started with something simple.
In listicle format:
Competence is learned.
Confidence follows action.
Mastery starts with something ordinary.
For many women, their first roast chicken became the proof point. I can do this.
I’ve been thinking a lot about roasting chickens and Julia Child in the context of AI. I imagine a lot of people are trying to Press Start on the AI microwave and are disappointed with the lackadaisical results; that is, if they are even trying in the first place.
Instead, we should be focusing on showing people how to roast chickens so that they’re delicious. Back in the 50s and 60s, once roasting a chicken was mastered, any other fowl or sea-faring creature was next in pan.
If people learned how to use AI in a high-quality fashion that got them excited about the outputs, it’s likely they too will look for other things to roast.
At one point in time, roasting chickens was for chefs or the culinary adventurous. Now, it’s ubiquitous.
At one point in time, AI was for data scientists and software engineers.
But now it’s for everyone. We just need the right lessons and laissez-faire attitudes to teaching, and self-belief will follow.
Put another way, we’re at the point in time where you should learn how to roast a chicken, but it doesn’t have to be too serious.
I’m chatting (and hand waving à la Julia to the best of my ability) about Roasting Chickens here in hopes that others can learn from, well, my own learning.
If you have any questions that you are too shy or embarrassed to ask when it comes to AI, allow me to ascend cringe mountain for you by dropping them here.