Ep 105 - Overcoming AI Workplace Anxiety and FOBO (Fear of Being Obsolete)

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Hey, it's Kerry. Hey, will your job go away? Will what you know and how to do what you do be irrelevant? Well, it's called fobo, the fear of becoming obsolete. And it's real. It's an set of feelings that are growing and we're going to talk about it today. I'm going to give you some tips on how to address it and perhaps even overcome it in the workplace that you have or that you're about to enter. If that sounds interesting, relevant, or meaningful, stick with me and I'll see you on the other side of the music. Hey there. Welcome to the ChatGPT experiment. This is the podcast designed to help curious beginners better understand how to use tools like ChatGPT and Claude and the like to find value of nugget for your personal or professional needs. My name is Kerry Weston. I'm your host and I'm glad you're here. Hey, listen, today I want to talk about a term that's being phrased as fobo, Fear of becoming obsolete. Fear of becoming obsolete, specifically around AI. There's a lot of tensions and anxiety and emotions in the workplace about if I don't, what will happen if I don't learn this, if I don't know how to do this, what will happen? There's also fear in people entering the workplace because they're being told that the Position, the job, the role has to have AI pieces. But you know, what is AI piece, right? What is AI skills? Like, what are we supposed to be doing and how are we supposed to be using? How does it fit in? This is where the anxiety comes from. So I just want to talk about that today and share some feedback that I've received from you, some questions that I've received from you and talk about how to calm that anxiety. If you are wondering about how do I do this, how do I implement something that I don't really understand into my job, into my position, into my next job, how do I get hired for something that maybe requires me to know a little bit about AI? So I want to give you some things to think about, how to reframe it in your mind, and maybe a couple things that will help you reposition the anxiety into positive curiosity. Okay, so the first thing I've shared or you've shared with me is that after listening to the podcast, this is a pretty repetitive email that I get. After listening to the podcast, folks are sharing that they understand a little bit more about the basics of how to approach AI. And when I say AI, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, those learning language models that have become kind of the retail front of AI, right, they understand that it's not about learning all the features, functions, menus, settings and all that, it's just about how to engage. Right? I have a 15 year old and I have a 17 year old that are born in the digital age. They're born of texting, social media, TikToks and Snapchats and all this stuff. And the one thing that scares the heck out of them is talking to a real person on the phone or even in person. Walking in and looking somebody in the eye and having a conversation scares them, but it scares them because that's not what they're used to. They are used to looking at a screen, they're used to looking at a phone and that's how they live now. So doing something outside the norm is very scary. But then you learn that once they do it, it's fine. Once they learn how to break the ice of having a conversation or start the conversation, yes, it's scary to them, but they realize that nothing bad is going to happen. And most of the anxiety was based around the unknown. They were building their own anxiety and AI. I'm being told by you as you send me emails that a lot of the anxiety around using tools of AI is the same. It's that calming of the fear. Once you dip your toe into the water. And if you are having a conversation with yourself, if you're having conversations with others, if you're feeling this phobo, the fear of being obsolete, if you're feeling anxiety in the workplace, just take a breath for a second and give a name to it. First thing I would say is give a name to it, like, what are you actually afraid of? What are you fearful of? What are you scared of? What's causing those feelings. I read an interesting article friend of mine, Brian shared on LinkedIn content marketing article from Robert Rose that talked about, a lot of folks are saying they need to know AI, they need to learn AI, they need to implement AI because that's what the companies are telling them. That's what the job postings say, that's what their bosses tell them. But they're not quite sure what that means. They are just saying it because they know that that's what will get them hired or that's what will get them promoted. But there's a lot of confusion and misunderstanding behind those statements, right? The misaligned priorities based on saying yes to what people are looking for, rather than understanding what that means. It does create some emotional tension, it does create anxiety, it does create uncomfortableness in the workplace. And so giving a name to it, what I'm actually afraid of, I love having that conversation with my kids, like, what are you afraid of? Or when I had employees, like, tell me what you're afraid of. Let's put a name to it. Because if we can define it, then we can talk about it. Otherwise it's just kind of this blur, this tornado of chaos that we feel like we can't get our head around. So what are you actually scared of? And when you say that out loud, you start to move towards, okay, well if I'm scared of that, then what would help me get over it? And I will tell you that a lot of you have shared with me that you were scared of not knowing what the heck people are wanting, what the heck this thing is, what it's capable of, what you're supposed to be doing with it. And I'm talking now. These learning language models, ChatGPT and Claude. The fear itself was really about all of the possibilities and opportunities and all these things that they've been hearing. And it was an overwhelming sense of, I don't know yet, I don't know all this stuff and I don't know where to start Eating the elephant, right? How do you eat an elephant? You start with one bite. I've never eaten an elephant. So I think my answer to that, how do you eat an elephant? Would be, I wouldn't. I'd go get a hamburger. But that's pretty much the overwhelming anxiety a lot of you are sharing is that before you started listening to the podcast, you were feeling that this thing was an overwhelming topic that was just too big to get your head around. And so defining what is it that I'm really anxious about? The second thing is a tip that I share with you quite a bit is instead of trying to learn everything, instead of trying to impress and to try and take classes to learn all the features, functions, menus, buttons, settings, etc. Just find something in your life, work, life, professional life, whatever it might be, that you can just start to see if there's any way that a tool like Claude, Chatgpt and others could be helpful for. Again, not starting with AI and figuring out how AI fits into my world, but finding something in your world that AI might be good for. So reframing, is there something in my life that I could maybe use this for and start exploring that. So when you look at it that way in your job, in your life, it lessens the pressure to know everything and start with one thing. And I would share with you the best tip I've ever received and it's been mentioned and even the topics of a few episodes here on the podcast is just open up the tool and say, I don't know how to use you, I don't know what you do, and I don't know how I could benefit from you, but I'm curious, I'm interested to see if you can help. Here's who I am and here's what I do, and here's who I do it for. This is the company I'm in, or this is the business I'm in, or this is the industry that I'm in. This is my role, and here are a few things that I do on a daily basis. Not knowing anything about this tool, not knowing anything about how you work, not knowing anything about your capabilities, but being curious, how do you think you could help me? And you're going to be surprised if you talk to a tool that way that you're going to get that feedback back. Now, a couple things. Many of you are listening and going, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do that already. What are you talking about? Well, the third tip I'm going to give you is humans are going to drive AI. The interaction. The human interaction is what's going to drive AI. And talking to it like A human and talking to it and thinking in a conversational tone is the way in which you get value, it's the way in which you get clarity, it's the way in which you get benefit from the tool. So it's not about finding a skill, it's about having a conversation. Yes, with a computer, having a conversation in real time, in real way, with depth and context and even sharing insecurities and thinking about all the things you don't know and all the things you're struggling with or all the things you wish or want to know or curious about. The ability for you to have a conversation with a tool, once you've told it what you're looking for and what your challenges are, or what your anxieties are, or what your roles are, you'll start to see feedback and guidance and insights and direction that will calm some of the anxiety. You'll start to see that like I share with my kids, once you actually have a conversation, that person is not going to turn into a scary monster that's going to rip your head off. This is not a scary monster that's going to rip your head off. This is a tool that's designed to want to assist. This is a tool that's designed to want to help, but it needs your input. Right? It needs your context, it needs your direction. So talk out loud. What is it that I'm afraid of? Right. Find one thing that you might be able to have a conversation with a tool like ChatGPT and Claude to see if there's any benefit or any way which it can help you and then have that conversation be thorough, have that conversation be meaningful in terms of details, context and background. And my four part framework to help you out. Four part framework is this when you have a conversation with a tool like Cloud or chatgpt, number one, what are you doing? Share. What are you doing? Number two, share why you're doing it. There's your context. Number three, define what does success look like, what would be a good outcome? Right. And number four, do you have questions for me? If at any point you could say, this is what I need to know, and that could be just pure anxiety, that could be skills that could be a question. And then go through that framework, you're going to find that the anxiety is going to lessen, the clarity is going to increase. You're going to start to see what I call your idea. Treadmill is going to spin a little bit. You're going to start to get some feedback that's going to allow you to find benefit. Okay, so this fear of being obsolete, this phobo, is more about understanding the anxiety of what it is that you're scared of less or more than trying to figure out what skill it is that you're missing. Because most people can't define what they're missing because they don't know the process, they don't know the details, they don't know the context of this AI anxiety to begin with. Okay? So if you're at work, here's an exercise. If you're at work and this is an AI thinking forward institution and people are talking about, we need to find ways to bringing AI in here, then just have a conversation, explain what it is that you do, explain what your role is in your company, and you're going to find that the fear, this is the irony, the fear of a tool like ChatGPT or Cloud Thinking replacing you, okay, Is going to be replaced by it thinking and working with you. Okay, let me say that again. You're going to find that if you start having a conversation with a tool like ChatGPT, explain, literally explain what I'm talking about. I'm trying to find value. I'm trying to find ways in which you can help. I don't understand you and I need you to help me try to figure this out. The fear of being replaced by that tool is going to be replaced itself with the benefit of the tool working with you side by side. And I've shared before, the best value of AI is not having it work for you, it's having it work with you. And the more that you can define what it is that would be valuable, that you can define what is that you're trying to do and ask questions and have it become a brainstorming partner, have it become a, a problem solving partner with you, you're going to see that anxiety, the fobo, right, the obsolete anxiety is going to go away and you're going to start to see how this can become a partner rather than an option to replace you. Right? And that's really what this obsolete thing is. It's about. I'm not going to be needed anymore. Well, you are, you know, you are going to be needed. It might be in a different way, by the way, because I don't know what position or context or. There's so many variables about that in the real world, but the ability for you to understand that you can, no matter how you're looking at this, no matter what position you're in, no matter what level of experience you have using a tool like this, the ability for you to say I can work with it or it can work with me is going to be one of the most powerful anxiety calming approaches that you can take. Okay, so name the fear, find a thing, have a conversation and look at it in terms of how can this work with me instead of being a force that's going to work against me or even as this phobo refers to, replace me. I hope that helps. Just a little bit of nuggets as we go through and thank you for sharing your emails and your stories. It's inspiring to see how many folks are walking through this anxiety path successfully and I will share with you that there are a significant amount of consistency in the emails that I get from you that says thank you, I didn't understand how and now I do. And that how is not again how to use every tool and tip and function, but it's how to approach it, how to have a conversation with it, how to see it as a problem solving partner. And I do read your success stories. I do see the things that you're overcoming, I do see the new ventures that you're launching. I do see how you are taking anxiety, converting it into curiosity and then productivity. And I think that's awesome. So I hope this was helpful in a meaningful way. If you've got anything to share, you can reach me@chatgptexperiment.com but otherwise, as I've always shared with you, the most important component to getting through phobo or anxiety or even just your basic starting block is your own curiosity. So be curious, be good and until I talk to you soon, be well.

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