Approach, Pilgrim, the decade oracle has a message for you …

Wherever you are, whomever you are, let's design your next decade

Decade Oracle … Prompted AI image

Heading into a new decade as an octogenarian, I’ve been a bit obsessed with the idea of “designing my next decade.” … What do I want to do with the rest of my life?

Stewing about this has led me down many rabbit holes recently … including spending most of one day trying to figure out if I should move to San Cristóbal de las Casas, MX. As much as I love Mexico and especially San Cristóbal, the reason prompting that thinking is the possibility of a health crisis. While my health is exceptionally good, things change and I have no family that would immediately provide help and am not financially capable of affording assisted living, or even more than light home health care (especially if SS goes south).

This morning, it dawned on me that each of us is facing a new decade every day. Starting right now, this moment, each of us are starting a new decade … unless our time runs out before we get there … and my concerns are shared by many. Unless we’ve been notified differently (such as if we have a time-delimited health condition) we might as well plan for the decade we are already walking into.

Each of us has a “rest of our life” to do something with. Of course life has its own twists and turns, and we will each have to deal with what comes … but let’s play and see what the oracle says. Here’s how:

Asking the Oracle for what you want*:

The magic of using augmented intelligence (AI) is in TELLING IT WHAT YOU WANT.* A Coursera class I’m taking recommends the mnemonic: Thoughtfully Create Really Excellent Inputs, standing for …

Task (what you want AI to do), 
Context (what it needs to know about the situation), 
Reference (examples)
Evaluate (did you get what you wanted?)
Iterate ( tweak your prompt and try again)

*ASIDE #1: It strikes me that amplified intelligence (AI) requires a skill that most of us need to get better at anyway … knowing how to ask for what we want, clearly, positively, with the expectation of receiving it in the form we want.

TRY IT! Click here for ChatGPT.com … or use whichever AI you prefer:

Prompt recipe: Please help me design my next decade in a way that makes me (a value you would like to develop further) and (something you’d like to know more about). Here’s a little more about me: (Add information like suggestions below.)

• One sentence description of you … age, where you live, your family, your work, other details that would help the Oracle help you.

• One challenge you would like help with.

• some things you like to do.

• your biggest fear.

Here’s my exact prompt …. Please* help me design my next decade in a way that makes me wiser with a deeper understanding of the nature surrounding me. Here’s a little more about me: I am a single female turning 80 in December. I have no family and live in a retirement center close to the beach and University campus in Isla Vista, CA, where I spend a lot of time walking, writing, taking photos and making small word and image books. I would also like 3 recommendations about how to deal with my financial life if the present political administration disrupts Social Security. I particularly fear being incapacitated and not having the financial ability to pay for help.

* You don’t have to say “please” … I can’t help myself.

ASIDE #2: One of the things that has delighted me about interacting with AI is how well it listens … I think it could be named AL for Active Listening. It is always positive, always wants to be helpful, never goes rambling off about things you could … or should … do.

Here’s the first paragraph I received from the prompt shown above:

Thank you for your thoughtful and brave message.  Designing a decade of deepening wisdom and connection to the natural world  is not only possible at 80—it’s a powerful act of clarity, strength, and creativity.  Here’s a tailored 10-year life design, followed by three concrete financial strategies for uncertain political times, particularly regarding Social Security.

Those are its exact words … a positive statement about me and what I requested. The advice received began …

Opening words from my Decade Oracle

If you decide to take your request to the Oracle, I’d love to hear what you think about what she told you. If you tell me yours, I’ll share the rest of what she told me.

There’s a lot of stuff in my Buy Me a Coffee store right now … all money collected in this store will be donated to the Santa Barbara Food Bank.

Most of us didn’t plan on having a wannabe dictator president marching to the drums of greed and corruption, but here we are, so what do we do now? One aspect of this political development for many of us is Social Security. We know it’s under attack so it’s time to think about how we would deal with life if they disrupt SS.