Adding a feature because ChatGPT incorrectly thinks it exists

This was an incredibly clever solution to a problem that wasn't of the author's own making. What do you do when ChatGPT starts recommending your app to people, but you don't actually support the feature that ChatGPT is telling them you have? Well, a clever person builds the feature.

Our scanning system wasn’t intended to support this style of notation. Why, then, were we being bombarded with so many ASCII tab ChatGPT screenshots? I was mystified for weeks — until I messed around with ChatGPT myself and got this:

Turns out ChatGPT is telling people to go to Soundslice, create an account and import ASCII tab in order to hear the audio playback. So that explains it!

Problem is, we didn’t actually have that feature. We’ve never supported ASCII tab; ChatGPT was outright lying to people. And making us look bad in the process, setting false expectations about our service.

Learn to love the Moat of Low Status

My husband calls this the “Moat of Low Status,” and I have gleefully stolen the phrase because it’s so useful. It’s called a moat because it’s an effective bar to getting where you’re trying to go, and operates much like a moat in the business sense — as a barrier to entry that keeps people on the inside (who are already good at something) safe from competition from the horde of people on the outside (who could be).

The Moat is effective because it’s easy to imagine the embarrassment that comes from being in it. It’s so vivid, it looms so large that we forget the novel upsides that come from transcending it.

A few years ago, I was walking with a good friend of mine and mentioned that I was a bit afraid to try new things because I was afraid of being bad at them. I shared that I had always wanted to learn how to draw, and he suggested we take a class together. The worst-case scenario was that we'd both be bad, but at least we'd get to hang out. We enrolled in the class, prepared to be unsuccessful — but a month later I found myself drawing pictures I was proud of! The belief I had in my head about being a bad artist was a fiction of my own creation. In reality, I'd never actually tried and merely imagined that I’d be so embarrassed with my results that I would be sad and ashamed by my lack of skill. The bigger lesson was that I could try things and improve because the first step to being good at something is being bad at it.

Root for Your Friends

Being a good friend takes many forms, and one of those is cheering for them. I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll just say there's a valuable lesson here, and at the very least, this post serves as a meaningful reminder.

Rooting for your friends is the best way to live. I pray you now believe that.