[antifragile 4 🔥] ChatGPT parenting consultant, Reddit lawn care, my own advice comes back, wanting what you have.
#18: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.
Never wish for less time, even in the hard moments. It’ll be gone soon enough, it doesn’t need help. 😌
Welcome to the 18th edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.
It’s a weekly 4-item newsletter from The Antifragile Dad created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind. Some weeks will have a theme, others will meander. Expect it every Friday.
Here’s this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:
an experiment 🔬 with using ChatGPT as a parenting consultant
a Reddit post on lawn care 🌱 that might make you cry.
some of my own advice 😐 that was given back to me at the right moment.
an exercise 📝 to help want what you have
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1.) an experiment 🔬 with using ChatGPT as a parenting consultant
Our new baby boy is 6 weeks old and his sleep schedule is a work in progress.
And by that I mean he’s screaming like a rabid coyote at 3 AM every other night.
So, finding myself in that moment in an enterprising yet completely desperate mindset, I popped open ChatGPT and typed in some variation of “WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO NOW??”.
Fueled by my desperation and kicking privacy to the curb, I brain-dumped every fact my sleep-deprived mind could muster about the situation and told it to act like a “no-nonsense, brilliant child-rearing coach with expertise in sleep training”.
And you know what? I got some really helpful responses.
None of the information was groundbreaking. But for the sleep-deprived mind - having something that helps you calculate the updated daily nap schedule (like below) or reminds you of the difference between fussing (when you don’t intervene) and crying (when you do intervene) - is insanely helpful.
It’s not a parenting replacement - but rather keeps us on the path we want to be on. Like digital bowling alley bumpers, but for parenting.
I can understand why some find this technology frightening. It’s amazing how advanced it is already and, as fellow dad Spiro A puts it, “We’re not even in the top of the 1st inning yet. We’re barely in spring training”.
And we truly have no clue where it’s going to go. Just like in 1996 we had no clue the internet was going to allow us to book rooms in other people’s houses & rides in other people’s cars.
But a world where humans use second brains like GPT to elevate how they exist and perform is a world I absolutely want my kids to live in.
2.) a Reddit post on lawn care 🌱 that might make you cry.
Hopefully little feet will be stomping and scampering all around that thing making dirt patches and ruining your yard. And then theyll move out and the grass will come back green and beautiful and you will miss those brown patches more than you could ever imagine. Maybe a couple decades later new little feet ruin your yard again and you'll be happy.
Thanks to Alex G for this one! 🥲
3.) some of my own advice 😐 that was given back to me at the right moment.
A fellow dad was having trouble getting his daughter to sleep last year. I suggested that reframing those tough moments as wonderful, fleeting opportunities you get to share with your new baby could potentially help.
And it did! He said it was a game-changer for how he and his wife viewed those moments - going from frustration to love.
So cool, right?? And I must have totally internalized my own advice right??
Wrong 😑
After griping over our latest late-night foray with our baby, this fellow dad gently reminded me of my own advice. And…as you might have guessed, it’s been a game-changer ever since.
Hopefully, I won’t forget it again (maybe I should tell ChatGPT…)
Thanks to Dave L for the reminder!
4.) an exercise 📝 to help want what you have
Make a list of all the things you want in life…but also include the things you already have and put a check next to each one.
It’ll help you see how much you already have.
Don’t get tricked into thinking you’re behind.
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Two last things for you this week:
Find time to stretch and foam roll - stiffness sneaks in quicker as we age and slack on mobility (as evidenced by my last month). Stay on top of it. Fend it off!
Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥
With love,
Chris