AI and Shoshin
Inspiration for this blog post:
A Coder Considers The Waning Days of the Craft by James Somers
One of the most powerful tools we have when working with data & technology is Shoshin (初心) - a word derived from Zen Buddhism. Shoshin is many times translated as “beginner’s mindset.” To approach a situation, issue, problem, or opportunity with beginner’s mindset means to let go of our expectations and pre-conceived notions, to put aside our experience and knowledge, to amp up our curiosity, and to examine our work with limitless possibilities. It may seem like this is a message for the hardcore IT-folx and software engineers, but it matters for all of us using data & technology for mission-driven work. And in particular, it is imperative for us to use beginner’s mindset as we start to dip into the world of AI.
“If your mind is empty, it is ready for anything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few” -Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
The newest, shiniest credentials available today are in AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning). Sometimes these credentials are referring to the deeply technical skill and knowledge that it takes to build, maintain, and improve AI and ML technology - algorithms and programming languages. But other times these credentials are referring to the skills and knowledge to use AI and ML technology in our work. Just as we had to learn “how to Google” we are learning how to interact with platforms like ChatGPT. An open and curious mind is a golden ticket into this world. Why? Because to get good at using it, you have to play around with it. You can’t break anything! But you also can’t expect it to give you what you want right away.
Aly Juma provides some more practical ways that help us to embody beginner’s mindset:
Experience Wonder
Practice Failure
Question Assumptions
Pay Attention
Solve Problems Differently
Try New Perspectives
These parts of beginner’s mindset are so vital to engaging with AI in many different platforms, not just asking a ChatGPT bot for an answer to a question. Credentials are nice, but more important is for each of us to make this technology work for us. And perhaps at the top of the list for effectiveness in learning to use AI is the second point - practice failure. It isn’t your failure, nor is it the failure of the technology. If we don’t get what we want or expect to get at first, it can be discouraging. But this is part of the beginner’s mindset approach - we don’t know what we don’t know, so we give it a go and hope for the best. This will likely fail in one big or small way, and we’ll have to try again. And again. And again. And if we keep coming back with beginner’s mindset, we can instead focus on the possibilities of what we might be able to do, not on the limitations of what we have yet been able to do.
