Brain Food for Pioneering Spirits: A milestone episode — Marc, Stefan and Jürgen join Dr. Yasemin Yazan to look back over 40+ rooms on power and violence, reflect on an experiment in letting ChatGPT plan the entire series, and find out what overarching theme comes next…
Note: This session was recorded live in German as part of the Deep Talk Club, so the video above is German-language audio only. What follows is an English translation of the conversation, lightly edited for readability — the back-and-forth between the moderator and participants is preserved, but the original timestamps and speaker names have been left out.
A very good morning to you all. Today we have room 950, reflection and bringing things together, and I have a few things I’d like to bring in today. For one, I’m of course delighted that we get to celebrate our 950th episode here. So, before we get into the topic afterward, I’d like to share the link this morning for supporting the club. If you like what we’re doing here and want it to continue, we already have some costs involved, and we’ve decided that, since we don’t have the option of collecting donations here, we do have the option of offering caps. So I’d like to pin that link here — it’s really not about the caps themselves, but about the chance to support the club. You have the choice with the caps of 25 euros, 50 euros, or supporting the club with 100 euros. I’ve pinned the link for you, so if you’d like to order something, feel free. If you already have a cap, you can send me a message afterward, and I’ll gladly see if we can find something alternative for you that you don’t have yet, among the products, like books or similar, so we can swap it, so you definitely still get something out of it. Just an idea, since we’ve already had quite a few supporters in the past. So this is primarily about the thought behind it, and about supporting us financially in that sense too. I’d be very, very grateful for that.
I’m very, very proud that we’ve put together 950 episodes together, or rather, that we’re doing episode 950 today. So we’re now heading strongly toward 1000. I’m really happy about that. I’ve also brought along a small surprise for you, which I’ll announce toward the end of the room, around 9am or so. And then we have two aspects we want to cover today. First, reflection and bringing together the overarching theme — we’ve spent the last few days and weeks talking extensively about power and violence, and now it’s about looking together at what actually stuck, what the main insights were, maybe also irritations I had that got me thinking again — just looking at this together and bringing in different aspects, maybe with your support too, as a kind of memory aid, what did we actually cover, and which aspects do we want to revisit today to show the connections and derive a kind of summary for ourselves. I’d like to do that for a bit, until roughly 9:30. And then I’d like to add a second part — I’d already announced this, namely the fact that this time we used ChatGPT much more intensively than in the past, not just to generate ideas or suggest a few rooms, but really to more or less do the entire planning for power and violence, both with the room titles and the sub-headlines we chose for them. There were some smaller adjustments, but we’re talking maybe 5 to 10 percent, roughly speaking — really quite marginal, because we simply wanted to use this as a pilot, so to speak, to see how it’s received. With some of the questions, even I wasn’t entirely sure which direction it would go, and I thought, let’s just see what comes of it, and simply allow that, to see together what insights we can draw from it, and to what extent we can use this intensity going forward too, because of course it does mean quite significant time efficiency if we use technical tools for the room topics and design to some extent. And I’d like to look at that with you — how did you experience it? Did you like it? What did you like? What might have been better? And to derive a kind of summary from that too. And then, toward the end of the room, comes the little surprise I’ve brought along for you. So I’m really looking forward to getting into this exchange with you again today.
As every morning, you’re warmly invited to join in and exchange your various thoughts with me, first on reflecting and bringing together the past days and weeks. And we have a recording running in the background, as always, so anyone who joins automatically agrees that it will be published. We have three small room rules: a profile picture you can be recognized by, first and last name, and at least one sentence in your bio. Anyone who doesn’t want that for whatever reason, or can’t speak right now or similar, of course has the option to use the chat instead. And with that, I’ll mute myself for now and see who’d like to open this morning’s reflection and bring-together round with me. A very good morning, Ilan, welcome. Have you followed the last few days, can you contribute something on the topic?
Good morning, Yasemin. I can’t contribute anything at all, but I wanted to check in with you — maybe you can explain it to me briefly. Yes, very gladly. We always have different overarching themes under which we open our rooms, and over the past days and weeks we’ve exchanged a lot on the topic of power and violence, opening up various subtopics under it. In total — let me just check — that was over 40 topics that we shaped as rooms under this overarching theme of power and violence. And today it’s about, so to speak, rounding things off, looking together at what stuck with us, what we took away from it above all. So what are the aspects we might revisit here in the sense of bringing things together, a summary, to derive the main insights we generated from it. Of course, it’s a bit harder for someone who wasn’t around for the topics over the past days and weeks to say something about it. I don’t know if you joined in between at some point and picked up bits of it, or not at all. Maybe I can say something. No, I regret that very much, sorry, we just had a call. I didn’t want to leave you sitting there all alone, and wanted to hear what it’s about, and wish you a very good morning. I’m sure a lot of other people will join soon.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much, that’s really sweet of you. So with that, the invitation goes out again, especially to those who were around over the past days and weeks, to really look together again at what our shared insights were that we drew from it. We can approach this gradually — it’s always the case that once some time has passed, it’s sometimes a bit hard to remember exactly. Let me open up a few topics we covered. First, as an initial approach, we talked about power and violence separately. Then we had topics like power and privilege, the aesthetics of power, the violence of words. We had power games and relationships, invisible violence — that was about, for example, recognizing and combating psychological violence. Or we had the power of mass media, cyberbullying, mobbing, we went in that direction too. We talked about gender, about uniforms, we picked that up in that context. Then it was about science in this context, upbringing. We had various expert talks, including power in the classroom, for example. Then we had an expert talk on violence in art, that too, as a reminder. We looked at the power of sports, but also aspects like physical violence beyond the obvious. We had the power of social media, violence against animals, power in the economy, violence in literature — I found that literature room particularly exciting too, by the way, I really hadn’t expected we’d gather so many wonderful things together there. Then the power of the music industry, violence in the environment, power and violence in politics, in religion, violence in video games, the psychology of power, violence against minorities — that also touched on discrimination and such — the power of technology. Then we had another expert talk on communication — the room was called nonviolent communication, institutional power, unconscious bias was a big topic, and then it went in the direction of empowerment and sovereignty, also as an expert talk, and then self-empowerment and self-efficacy, and yesterday we talked about the power of attractiveness. In between there were always the digital campfires. So it really was a colorful bouquet of topics that we brought in and exchanged views on. So I think there are definitely opportunities to look at this — not everyone will have been present for every topic, that’s not necessary either. Maybe you were just present in one room or another, where you say, something really stuck with me there, or I took away an impulse that had a lasting effect or something like that — then of course you also have the opportunity to bring in those sequences here, so we can look together at what all fits in there and what we can pick up on. In the chat, Jürgen’s just written that unfortunately he can only listen this morning, connection issues too. So let’s see. Otherwise we won’t have a shared reflection room today if nobody joins. So I really am hoping for your support here.
(Silence.) A very good morning, dear Stefan. Yes, good morning Yasemin, and good morning everyone here in the room. I’m actually on the go and have an appointment coming up soon, but I didn’t want to leave you sitting there alone on the anniversary episode either. Sometimes there are just days where a lot of people are busy, and that’s of course never nice when you want to celebrate an anniversary. So I thought, come on, pull over for a moment and take some time. And I have to admit, since I was on vacation for a few days and now have a project where we sometimes meet up quite early, I haven’t caught every room. I did tune in here and there, of course, and I think I even joined in once or twice myself. But I don’t think we need to go through every single situation one-to-one now. Generally, on the topic of power, I found it interesting to think about, on one hand, when do we experience the power of others, and on the other hand, of course, how do we ourselves handle power? So, to start really simply — say you’re a father or a mother and you have to start making, I’d say, several thousand decisions over the course of a day — then of course there’s that moment of the so-called “power word,” when something starts to go off the rails and you notice that if you don’t react somehow, whether toward your kids or your husband or wife. Those are the small stories. I think it’s always important to reflect within the family too, how am I exercising power? I have parenting authority, I have power over my kids, so to speak, maybe even over my marriage. And it’s always important there too to reflect on how I’m handling that power. Because that’s of course an interplay of many things — power is a very complex construct if you want to take it apart, with all the terminology and definitions involved. But actually, if we break it down to our everyday level, it’s that we, daily, whether we’re out in traffic, simply have the power to decide things, or to do things the way we want in that moment. If we’re sitting in HR, we have the same situation — we have the power over who, depending on whether we have to go through other authorities or not, we have the power and decide over careers, or even over the survival of a company. Am I bringing in the right people? Do I have the right instinct for it? Was I diverse enough there? What expectations did I bring in from my personal standpoint, and so on and so forth. So the topic of power is interesting, especially with all the power shifts happening through the war, in Ukraine too, or through all kinds of situations, separation of powers, and whatnot. It’s a very complex topic. Maybe you can take me by the hand a bit here too, Yasemin, and maybe pick out one topic or another where you’d say, that was actually an important highlight we should discuss again.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much for your support. You already brought in a lot of aspects that bring back a lot of memories for me too, and we can work our way through those together. So, when do we experience the power of others, you said as a starting point. In that context, of course, we also talked a lot — and this became clear in many rooms — about the positive and negative sides of power, opening up both sides, so to speak, the bright side and the dark side of power, because for many people the term power initially carries a negative connotation, but it isn’t inherently negative — in the sense of structures and so on, it can even be helpful in many places, and can definitely be used very positively and meaningfully. So making that side clear too. That naturally led to us talking a lot about dependencies too, again and again in the rooms — not a separate room, but where we kept touching on the dependencies that kept becoming apparent. And at the same time, as you said, how do I myself handle power, how do I deal with it. And here we saw that power has a whole lot to do with interaction too. That means I of course have an influence on it, and not only outwardly, but also with regard to my own self-empowerment inside myself, so to speak, so looking at that too. And the aspect you mentioned too, that it basically starts in the morning already, within the family — I find it especially important to underline this aspect again, because we also touched on it with responsibility. In this context, that would mean carrying a responsibility both for ourselves and for others. And I think that’s another really exciting aspect in this context. If you like, you can pick up on this yourself, or we can bring in Jürgen first to see what other aspects he’d like to add. Stefan, do you have any points you’d like to follow up on?
I’d really like to say good morning to Jürgen first, and what I forgot at the start was to congratulate you on 950 episodes — I wanted to do that quickly before I forget again. That’s a great achievement. And I think this whole consistency, I really approach that very conscientiously. I know how much effort you put in so that we get, I’d say, really great topics prepared, and your moderation skills too, your human touch. I just wanted to say, I always feel very comfortable with you and I’m happy to see it continue, so congratulations again on that, and I’ll gladly hand the floor over to Jürgen to start.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much for the kind words, I’m happy about that. Jürgen. Good morning everyone in the room. I’ll work through my list quickly because I have severe connection problems, I keep having to drop in and out at the moment. Thanks, Stefan, for letting me go ahead. Point one, point two: congratulations, dear Yasemin, from me too — a treasure trove and cornucopia of appreciation for your achievements, which I’ve highlighted several times already and which I rate as exceptional. That’s the second point. And the third point — I’ll assume, so to speak, a mental connection with your transition from last time — for me, one of the really essential positions was that the term responsibility kept coming up again and again. And I think, no, please correct me if needed, I think it became very clear to me again that it’s really important, once more, to clearly define the substantive terminology, and to keep it apart in the course of discussion too. Because a transfer of responsibility, in most cases — and dear Stefan, I’ll take your example, especially within the family — also comes with a transfer of a position of power, hopefully in a positive sense, namely in the sense of taking on responsibility and standing up for all the consequences that result from my actions for others. That’s power, for me. Mind you, everything I say here is my own opinion, and what I took away, essentially, from all these topics. That’s a form of power for me, but it’s reinforced for me, with all these terms, to always look for the antagonist — alongside the negative, the positive. Not simply accepting negative connotations, but looking, and saying, if there’s something negative, there must be some counterbalance. I’m convinced of that duality. And that ran through most of the rooms for me, and became more or less obvious and transparent again and again. A conscious questioning, let me say it again, a checking, everything with doubt, in order to reach that substantive clarity that led, in 99% of cases — and it was, again, an example of a very respectful discussion, which I believe led all of us who took part to a valuable add-on and input. So thank you again, dear Yasemin, for this topic. And on the point of ChatGPT, I’d have a contribution too. Thank you for listening.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And in this context, something just occurred to me too, and it was really interesting — we actually had several situations, two I can explicitly remember, where something quite intense happened under the overarching theme of power and violence, once in the chat on stage, and also afterward in a personal message, which could itself be classified again under power and violence. And we picked up on those topics accordingly — we addressed both that chat exchange and the message I then brought in, the personal message I received, which I directed as a question to Dr. Mario Herger during the authors’ breakfast, asking how he would classify it and similar. I don’t know if you wanted to say something more about that, or add something here, before we move on into the second part of the room with ChatGPT. Stefan, Jürgen — of course it also depends on who among you caught which parts of it.
Yes, I think I actually missed that part. So, since Jürgen was on board more often over the past few weeks, I believe, I’d like to ask Jürgen if he can say something about it.
Yes, thank you, Stefan. I did catch that situation. Although I remember very well — I came into the room when the whole obvious flare-up had already happened, and looking back today I have to say, from a reduced level of knowledge, because I could only follow it based on a still rudimentary chat history, I took a position on it, and that brought and generated a learning effect for me, in that, in hindsight, I would have told myself, maybe I should have waited for one or two more statements first, because I was too much — and here we come back to another sub-area we’ve addressed several times — I fell victim, so to speak, to a certain conscious bias, in that, having grown used to hundreds of rooms where people meet and exchange views while respecting each other and tolerating opinions, I admittedly reacted too strongly in System 1, in the emotional realm, along the lines of, how can it be that someone lets loose like this on such a topic, and especially gets personal toward the moderator. That hit me personally. And on one hand, I have to say, we’ve covered this topic in various ways, and in a sense I’m also convinced that you have to allow yourself such an emotion. On the other hand, you have to keep the consequences of that in mind, whether some reflection, more knowledge of the background, might not have been more effective under the circumstances. That’s self-criticism, and it particularly references the most recent topics, which were unconscious bias. One of the essential, significant positions regarding unconscious bias is that we tend, in many situations, to accept unconsciously that we actually lack necessary information, and, for efficiency reasons, given the energy demands on our brain, let ourselves be led toward simple positions. That was also a very personal add-on I took away from those recent topics. Thank you.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And above all I found it great that these, let’s call them incidents in the interaction, happened exactly under this overarching theme of power and violence, so that we really had the opportunity to address that more intensively in various places. At some point, I remember, one of the room participants even asked whether that was planned, whether it was essentially someone who did that deliberately, so to speak, to create an opportunity to bring something like that up. No, it wasn’t staged or anything like that, it just happened. And I found this opportunity to address it all the more wonderful for that. And that’s why I see it as a gift too, to take even such situations and reframe them, so to speak, into processing them, into going into reflection, looking together at what’s actually happening here and how certain things can be categorized. And when Dr. Mario Herger was there — that was the case — it happened that, just a day before, well, the universe sometimes plays into your hands that way, that personal message arrived just a day before, which I could wonderfully bring in, to not just talk about certain things theoretically but really look, in practice so to speak, at what’s happening there, how do we deal with it, and to make that a topic accordingly — whereas in other rooms, if it hadn’t happened under power and violence, it certainly wouldn’t have been picked up by me in this form, in this intensity we sometimes gave it. And it’s definitely worth tuning back into those episodes, for anyone interested who wasn’t there — I think you can take away one thing or another from that for yourself too.
Yes, great, thank you so much. I really find it very, very exciting, everything we’ve brought in here in this reflection and coming-together, from these various parts. It’s not about revisiting everything in this closing round, but really pulling out this essence for ourselves to some extent. So I think this is great. I’d already announced earlier that we’ve also planned a second part. With that, I’d like to round off the reflection and bringing-together for the overarching theme of power and violence at this point and move into this second part, namely to draw a kind of summary about using ChatGPT. For those who maybe only joined the room later, a quick recap: we’ve used ChatGPT in the past too, to get a few ideas for room topics and such under the overarching theme. This time we started a kind of pilot, also in the sense of time efficiency, especially to see how far we could actually let ChatGPT not just make suggestions, but essentially write down the entire structure for several weeks, including the sub-headlines, meaning the questions we always attach underneath. And then also to say, sort this dramaturgically too, so it fits together somehow, so it doesn’t just run in a completely wild jumble. And we did make adjustments, but really, really marginal ones — I’d say roughly between 5 and 10 percent. Even in places where I might have said, hmm, I don’t know what you could cover under this topic, let’s just see what comes of it, and simply allowing that, against the backdrop of just trying it out, rather than always dictating the framework myself — well, the framework was of course set by the overarching theme, but just saying, well, there’s also a system or tool we can use accordingly, let’s see how that goes. And I’ve mentioned pointedly from the start that this was the case, and that we’d reflect on it at the end too. So I’m simply curious now, regardless of whether you were present throughout or only occasionally, in the rooms under power and violence — what was your impression, when you read the room topics or the questions attached to them, and then maybe also considering how the room actually went, how it developed — how would you rate that? What struck you? And of course the goal of this reflection is to see to what extent it makes sense to use ChatGPT for room planning going forward, in the same form or differently, once an overarching theme is set. Maybe let’s start with Jürgen, since Jürgen had already announced earlier that he’d brought something on this topic too. Jürgen.
Yes, thank you, dear Yasemin. All in all, I found this approach, and the selection of topics, and above all the diversity of topics generated through it, outstanding. And I can understand that to some extent — admittedly I wasn’t present in every room, unfortunately. But once I took in the information that ChatGPT was behind it, I did what I often do and built myself a mind map, tracking the topics. And yesterday, once I knew there’d be a summing-up, I looked at it and critically questioned myself on the terminology, checking myself along the lines of, would I have arrived at this diversity of angles to discuss the topic? And I have to say clearly, never ever. So I think it’s a very valuable form of support. We’ve had this topic often, using AI — AI, so to speak — that it’s not a cure-all and needs to be critically questioned too. But at the end of the day, I’d consider this experiment a success. And allow me one more remark, a critical one — on some topics, I would have wished for more discipline from participants, and I include those who take part via chat here, regarding staying on topic and on the subheading, because I think, if you let it pass in review, and now, with my mind map, I can trace this very well — the essential, connecting thread we kept having, and this was managed excellently by you, dear Yasemin, was the management of complexity. And as I always say, positive, negative — ChatGPT, all in all, a successful experiment. The negative side, of course, and you have to see this, is that we opened up an enormous complexity in this context, not only under the overarching theme, but also again and again under the respective specifications. But on the whole, I found it absolutely great. Thank you for listening.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. Stefan, would you like to add something here directly?
Yes, well, generally I find that GPT, or generally GPT as an engine or as an AI, is definitely a great sparring partner for preparing things. And I still prefer that we discuss things as a team, and that, so to speak, the experience or the idea, the inspiration, but that comes from everywhere. So I’m always pro-AI in that sense, where it makes sense. I have the good fortune of being able to test a lot of AIs professionally too, and I have to say that, while a lot of them are interesting overall, in the sense, let’s say, for highly professional practice they don’t always have quite that level. But we’re still at the beginning too. And I think you can always look at how these processes actually unfold — definitely very exciting. On the topic of GPT and the Deep Talk Club regarding headlines or generally the choice of topics — I found it very good. But I also know that you certainly, in one instance or another, I believe you mentioned this at the start too, that you nudged it a bit, brought in your own experience, or incorporated it. And I think, as a baseline, you should just try this out in projects — it’s not only a lot of fun, but you can really work with a lot of situations too. I also think it’s worth it — I don’t even know if it’s 24 dollars or so — I also think it’s worth using the paid version for a few months. I mean, we do that anyway now, in the sense that we can unlock all the plugins. And if you use things like OpenTable, Wolfram, or other plugins, you can really do things like Prompt Perfect and so on. You can put together really, really great things with that. And generally, when I look at the topic list — because I looked at that again, what topics were selected — I went onto your website and got an overview again. I do think it’s a successful experiment overall. The only thing I’d suggest as food for thought is that it could be a bit more involving here, a bit more interactive. Because I think a lot of people don’t really care, in a sense, whether it was created with ChatGPT or not — I don’t think that really interests people at the end of the day. But if you tell the story behind it, or involve people, it might become a bit more exciting.
What exactly do you mean by “telling the story behind it”? Yes, I just asked myself that too, what exactly I mean by that. No, I think it’s more the keyword. So first of all, I think it’s good, that was the first point. Secondly, I think you should always see it as a basis, or as an extended form of exchange, as an additional source of information, that an AI, of course, always depends on the prompts too. So the results — you have to master that, you have to get a bit into it. But that’s also a lot of fun, I have to say, because you can get really great results out of it. So insofar, that enthusiasm we always notice with you when it comes to AI — you’re always pro-AI, always trying things out, understanding it as part of our development, and being able to make use of all the advantages, but also keeping the fun in it. Those are the aspects you always convey, and that’s my line on AI too. I know I’ve gone on a bit long, but what I actually mean is, maybe look at including the audience a bit more. The story behind it means maybe explaining a little how it came about — what did I input, which plugin did I use and so on, without going too far into detail, but just enough to explain how it came to be. I think that would be a kind of mini-story about the AI that could be a bit more exciting and involving. That’s what I mean.
I see. Thank you so much. And you touched on two aspects there too — the pro version, which of course also plays a role for anyone who wants to use it more intensively for themselves. From my view, it’s really an absolutely good investment to get the pro version, because it lets you do quite different things, not just qualitatively content-wise, but, as Stefan already said, the plugin connections and so on that you can use, the extensions that become possible through it. So it really makes sense to look at that more closely. When you said that, Stefan, I thought, well, maybe at some point we should do a room on that, and exchange views together on what plugins there actually are that we’ve had experience with, that we find good, or similar. I think that could be very, very helpful and interesting too, to spark curiosity, on one hand, and for those who already use and apply it, to pick up on certain plugins and try them out very specifically. So there’s a lot of variety here too. Of course we then have the topics, and the second point you brought up is how the prompts are worded, and that of course ultimately plays a role in the result too. So I thought, ah, that was indirectly, so to speak, a compliment back at me too, because if it landed well with the room topics and sub-headlines, then our prompting worked pretty well there too. Because the better the inputs we make, the higher quality the answers ChatGPT delivers in return. So really working very precisely here too, looking at how things are phrased, and these insights you just brought up might be quite interesting too. What we actually did, regardless of what we input or so, was, on one hand, we made sure we had topic suggestions generated, then, from that list of topic suggestions, right in the first step we had topics we didn’t like thrown out. So first checking whether the topics actually fit. Then only in a second step, so to speak, having the sub-headlines worked out, and then doing another counter-check, and then also checking the order again. So that was more in the direction of quality assurance, so to speak, that we carried out. And then we always have the room, the first approach, when we start with a new overarching theme. And there — we’d already done this before — we did it in this context too, checking which terms come up, so also a kind of counter-check, not just as a first approach in the sense of “let’s slowly arrive at the topic,” but at the same time using that to then check, derived from that, whether the planned room topics cover all the relevant topics that came up during this first approach, from our point of view, or whether there’s still a need to look at additional topics, additional rooms with topic focuses that should be added, and then supplementing those. And we did that in this case too, and accordingly, for example, you noticed we then added, for example, the unconscious bias topic — that was really requested, we explicitly included it. Then in the meantime — these are the two that come to mind spontaneously, there were probably even more, but these two are still present for me — we also had the power and education room, where we said, we’ll do that in connection with the digital campfire. And one of the reasons I didn’t want to just tack that on at the end, so to speak, was because I really wanted the 950th episode to round off with reflection and bringing-together at 950 too, because I also just thought it was nice that this 950th episode would find its place here with reflection and bringing-together, with the different topics we covered today too, and that we wouldn’t be stuck in the middle of some topic during the episode. So, that’s maybe a bit of background information. And yes, do you have anything to add, Stefan, Jürgen, before we continue? Maybe, do we want this to continue this way in the future?
Exactly, yes, Stefan. Well, I still don’t think it’s wrong to use it as an additional tool. I definitely find it exciting. I think, as I said, only if this is made the topic here, how it came about and so on, then I’d find it quite nice if, in between, we also go a bit into practice. Because I think a lot of people always just assume that this can only be applied to one business area or another. I think private life is enriched quite a bit through GPT too, in terms of being able to plan entire trips — there are now a lot of providers, and the tourism industry was actually very quick on that front. The connections to the big portals are definitely there, meaning I can plan my perfect trip with it. But I can also use, say, OpenTable when it comes to a romantic restaurant, or a hearty steakhouse, or a vegan setting. I can also find things through intelligent systems that I might not have known about before. And of course a lot of organizational situations too — I can do time management, meaning I can tell GPT, say, what does my daily routine look like? And then, as always, you assign the AI a role, and you can keep refining the prompts. So there are really, really great additional things you can do, where you can achieve fantastic results that I think everyone will be surprised by, how diverse it can be, how enriching it can be, and how much fun it is in the end too.
Yes, absolutely, thank you so much. Jürgen, do you have anything to add? Well, quite spontaneously I have to say, in anticipation of your next overarching theme, I’ll approach it this way — beforehand, without the support of ChatGPT, I’ll try to build up a range of topics myself in my own head, and I’m curious how that turns out compared to if you keep doing it the way I hope you will, with ChatGPT’s support, in terms of diversity, complexity, terminology that you’ll bring to our new overarching theme. That’s, for me, a very successful starting point, and it’s a nice addition now. Thank you.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And that raises a question for me — we’ve heard again and again that you keep a mind map in the background that you build and write on. That makes us curious, Jürgen. So I’m thinking, in the meantime we’ve also built up a knowledge base, and maybe we’d have the opportunity here to include these mind maps in some form, displayed somehow, or similar. Maybe we should think about that — that just occurred to me now, when you mentioned the mind map again and pulled it up, the thought crossed my mind, maybe we should think again about what possibilities there might be, provided you’re okay with that, Jürgen, how we could do something with it.
Yes, gladly, I’m open to that anytime, and I’m available for all sorts of things in that regard, and I’ll gladly support you as much as I can. Yes, great, thank you so much, and I’ll gladly come back to you on that, we can talk about it then, and maybe put our heads together to think about what would make sense here, without it meaning too much extra work or anything like that. And overall we’ve always been striving in Deep Talk to make everything as efficient as possible, so to speak, as little effort as possible while still achieving a lot of results. I think that’s working out pretty well, and I find that great too. So thank you, thank you so much, to all of you too, on that note. 950 episodes weren’t created alone, but with your support too, especially the support that happens here every morning, above all from the people who don’t just “only” listen but also join with spoken contributions, to open up this reflection room at all. And that at least one person can always be found — I think we only had one “incident” where we actually had to close the room, if I remember correctly. Otherwise, over 950 episodes, we’ve always managed to open a reflection room, because at least one person was always found, no matter the topic, to come up on stage and get into the exchange, to simply look together at where things go. Of course your contributions in the chat are also very, very valuable, and I’m very grateful for that too. But the prerequisite was always to say, at least one person on stage, because otherwise it becomes a monologue, and that’s not the intention of these rooms, so to speak. We’ve always managed that well. And that only succeeds through this interplay, this interplay where participants and moderator go hand in hand and support each other, pitch in, and so on. That’s why I brought you this link today too — I already mentioned it at the start — anyone who’d like to support Deep Talk can gladly do so by simply ordering a Deep Talk cap. Anyone who already has a cap can still order one and send me a quick message — then we’ll happily see about getting you something alternative instead, like a book you don’t have yet, or similar, from me. It’s really about the idea of supporting the club here, because of course we have ongoing costs in the background too. We have people, manpower, who work on various things, doing preparations, implementation, all of that with the podcast and so on. We have technical tools that are used, which also cost money. So I’m happy whenever we can use the opportunity in between to place that. I mentioned earlier that I’ve also brought along a little surprise — I’ll place that toward the end accordingly, so it’s best to stick around until the end too. I just have to keep an eye on the time, because it involves a system switch that has to happen accordingly, which is why I can’t place it earlier. It’s definitely worth sticking around, just a quick heads-up, I’ll mention it again shortly.
Then I’d like to give Marc the chance to speak too and bring him in, before I place the surprise and the next overarching theme. Marc. Yes, I’d like to briefly share something with you. Yesterday, when I went to the post office, I thought a lot about this room, and then Star Wars came to mind — I’m sure many of you know Star Wars, and I won’t compare myself to Master Yoda, but Master Yoda always said, “may the force be with you,” and after we’ve done so many rooms on the topic of power now, it kept becoming clear to me — if the power is with me, then I’m a victim, then I’m just hoping the power is with me. But I’ve decided for myself, the power is in me, and I just have to discover it. And if we discover and use the power within us, then a lot of things don’t seem so bad anymore, because then we’re no longer victims but move into an active role. Dear Yasemin, thank you so much for your rooms, and to close, I’d also like to add something — Jürgen briefly mentioned this too, it happens to me too — you often have topics here with subtopics, and I noticed yesterday, the topic was actually, if I frame it that way, how does attractiveness manifest in everyday life? How does attractiveness behave in everyday life, what consequences does it have? And then it happens very, very easily that we, including me, spend three-quarters of an hour talking about what attractiveness is, rather than how it manifests from everyday life. And I’d wish, and you actually do this too, that the moderator has the ability to say, this is our topic, stay on topic, or, now I’m drifting off. But that drift happens to me too, because I’m driven by emotions as well. And then, of course, it can happen very, very quickly that in a room we either only talk about school or drift off-topic a bit. And otherwise, well, that’s my contribution for today. Thank you for the reflection, happy to be here with you, wish you all a great day. And thank you, dear Yasemin. The hand-raise signals were off, so I finally had the chance to share this with you and contribute. Thank you so much.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And with the drifting off too, that’s an important aspect you raise. And here it’s important, from my perspective, as the moderator, to differentiate what kind of drift it actually is. Take the example you just gave from yesterday — I think it’s important there, even if it initially sounds like, well, we actually wanted to talk about something else — we’ve said again and again how important it is to have clarity regarding terminology. That’s why I think it’s important and correct, in this context, to first talk about what attractiveness even is, before building the bridge to how it actually manifests in everyday life, because otherwise we might end up talking about completely different things. But I’m completely with you — sometimes there are days where drifting happens, and then it’s important to keep pulling things back to the topic and saying, yes, but let’s look at this. And it’s important there to stay on topic and pull things back accordingly, and to set the guardrails appropriately.
Exactly. Wonderful, thank you so much. Then I’d like to check in parallel whether our system switch, so to speak, has gone through successfully, and provided it worked, I’ve brought a link along for you today. I mentioned recently that a new e-book was published, and to mark our 950th episode, I’ve brought along this link for you today. Today you can get this e-book on Amazon, if you download it, completely free of charge. That means anyone who hasn’t gotten it yet and is interested gets it today, on the occasion of the 950th episode, as a gift from me, so to speak. It’s about the compatibility of NLP formats in online coaching. I think that’s quite interesting for anyone working as a coach or consultant, for example, just to look at how you can use NLP formats in online coaching. But it’s also very interesting for people who generally make that switch, so to speak, in some meeting context or similar, from offline to online, because I think it also nicely demonstrates that it’s not a one-to-one transfer, that it actually requires checking which formats can actually be transferred and which can’t, and under what circumstances. And that it’s not, as was often done in the past or is still sometimes done, that you just transfer that offline one-on-one meeting into online and then wonder why, or feel like it doesn’t work quite as wonderfully, but rather realize it’s just not the same thing. You can absolutely design online rooms to be at least as effective and efficient and whatever else, and as rich an experience, as offline, in real-world encounters, but you might need the right tools accordingly, the right elements you deploy, and I think that’s a really nice example of it. That was a master’s thesis I’d written as part of a training program, and I decided to just make it accessible, and anyone who’d like to take the opportunity can simply download it for free today via the link.
Exactly, so you’re warmly invited, and I hope you enjoy it. And with that, I’d like to move into announcing what we’ll be doing next. I picked this up from Jürgen a few weeks ago — it kept coming up that we should talk about the topic of thinking at some point. And then various combinations came up too. In the end, it turned into reflection, thinking, and acting. And due to the complexity — and that’s where ChatGPT struggles a bit more too — I decided we’ll break the topic down. We’ll start next with reflection, meaning we’ll look at the individual building blocks first as overarching themes on their own. We’ll start with reflection, continue with thinking, and then afterward with acting, in order to then look at the combination again. But because we’ll have already looked at the individual strands more closely, we won’t need to spend as much time on the combination, so to speak, and can work through it in a very bundled, focused, and, I think, more effectively targeted way, without getting lost in the complexity. And now I’m just curious — Stefan, Jürgen, maybe you’d like to say something about it. What do you think of that?
Yes, very briefly, I think it’s good. I’d be curious — you said ChatGPT struggles with that — maybe we could also design prompts together that make it easier. But generally I find the topic very exciting, very good. I think we should all think a bit more, to some extent. I think a lot of people here in the room, that’s why many join these rooms, do that anyway. But I think we could resolve a lot more conflicts if we thought a bit more, or also generally knew — it’s one thing to think, but also how do I apply that. I think that’s of course a very complex topic, but I think it’s great. I think it would also be important here, maybe not to start directly with the big — I’d say the topic already has a certain weight to it — maybe find a somewhat simpler entry point first, so there’s a basis for discussion to start with.
Yes, wonderful, thank you so much. And I think this three-part breakdown will also help to reduce the complexity to begin with. It’s not about ChatGPT not delivering the topics, but then we’d have various topics, meaning the complexity increases. And that’s what Jürgen was also getting at earlier, to look at things more concretely here too. And that’s why I think it’s quite good to steer here and say, okay, let’s make sure we keep the complexity manageable here too. Accordingly, I’ve actually decided at this point to say, we’ll break it down. We’ll do reflection first, then thinking, then acting. And yes, now I’m curious what Jürgen has to say too.
Heartfelt thanks for this topic, dear Yasemin, from my side. It will certainly be an extremely interesting matter, just like many topics before it. And I’d be curious, if you’re willing to share, what timeframe you’ve planned for this overarching theme.
Yes, very gladly. So for now we’ve planned — the guideline was, plan for two weeks plus the authors’ breakfasts, or digital campfires, which are always scheduled for Sundays. And with that it usually ends up being a bit more than two weeks, since the authors’ breakfasts get added in too. But we also do a first approach here again, and following that first approach comes the review again. And then we always have a kind of buffer, so to speak, for additional rooms based on topics that pop up, where we say, we’d like to include that too, opening up additional rooms. So I’d estimate we’ll spend roughly three weeks on the topic of reflection overall, including digital campfires and authors’ breakfasts, and likewise roughly the same order of magnitude for thinking and for acting. I assume it’ll generally move within that range. And after that we’ll move into bringing it all together — I don’t know yet how long that will take, we’ll just see how that develops and get a feel for how much time we’ll need for that too.
Would you like to say something more about that, Jürgen? Do you find it good? Seems so. Yes, I find it exceedingly good. Just the timeframe alone, besides the grouping, the meta-level you mentioned for this topic — and maybe, well, we already have a reflection room right at the very start, generating even another meta-level above that. This timeframe, I think, is extremely fitting for the overall topic. Thanks again for this topic in general.
Yes, great, thank you so much. Maybe, to close, just briefly before I wrap things up completely, a reminder — I’ve put the link in the chat again for the caps, for your support. So anyone who likes this, who’s here regularly, please support the club. It’s really about supporting the club, so we can cover the expenses we have, the team working actively in the background, for the various pages, the knowledge base, the podcasts, and so on. All of that has to and can be carried, we already cover a lot ourselves, but we’re of course also grateful for any support that comes from outside. It’s not about the caps, it’s about the support behind it. So feel free to order a cap, whatever fits your budget — 25, 50, or 100 euros are the options. Anyone who already has a cap can send a message, and we’ll gladly see about providing you with something else instead, so you get something out of it too. And I’ve now shared the link in the chat, so you have the chance to click on it and open the page, or take a screenshot for later, you can also do that after the room. Then, to mark today’s 950th episode, which we’re celebrating together, I’ve also made an e-book available. Via this link on Amazon, you have the chance to download it now, for free, for a limited time. For anyone interested in the topic of compatibility of NLP formats in online coaching, just download it and enjoy it whenever later. I’d be happy if it also gives you a few impulses to take along.
And yes, we’ve announced that we’ll continue with reflection, thinking, and acting. And as always, I’d like to round off today’s room with a proper closing round too. How about it, Stefan and Jürgen? Would you like to underline anything special from today’s room? We covered various threads today. Stefan?
Yes, well, generally we of course had various different elements today, but that’s how it should be for the anniversary episode, or in a format where you can rightly say, let’s wrap this topic up and move to the next. So let me just add one more sentence on the topic of power. I’d already said at the start that you always have to be aware, or can make yourself aware, of how you yourself handle the topic of power. Abuse of power is a topic too. I think you should avoid exercising power through fear and intimidation in any way, and generally be clear about how I can exercise power, how I can exercise responsibility, for the family, for society, for everything connected to my work. That you think clearly about whether you yourself might be the one who could improve something there. The really important thing, and we’ve had this often with various topics, is the word self-reflection. You always have to reflect on yourself, and please, regularly, and gladly also get outside opinions on it, to check whether you’re handling this topic well, or whether there are things you should improve. And at the same time, of course, if this happens to you, if you’re not looking at it from your own position, how you yourself handle power, but rather when power in some way, negative or positive, becomes apparent to you, that you also find a way to deal with that. I mean, often we’re powerless, in the truest sense of the word. Then sometimes we just have to put up with it, but there are also many things we can contribute to improving. So, all in all, a very important, great topic, with a lot of great literature available too, many e-books and so on. So it’s nice that we’re wrapping this up in this sense and turning to new topics, and thank you for that first.
Wonderful, thank you so much. Jürgen? I’ll happily pick up on what Stefan just said. I remember, dear Yasemin, an exchange in a specific room on power, I don’t remember which one anymore, where we arrived at the conclusion that this topic of power, and power and violence, will keep occupying us again and again. And I think that’s exactly the case with the next topic too, reflection, thinking, acting, because in the connection between these three terms and stages, or however you want to call it, for me — and I’m getting ahead of myself here — it actually results in the meta-meta-level, so to speak, toward our being, and the equipping of our being with power. Because — and this is my opinion — whoever masters, or “masters” is too strong a word, but internalizes this triad, that there’s a connection between reflection, thinking, and action, empowers themselves. And there we are again, back at today’s, for me never-concluded, topic of power. Thank you all, and have a good day.
Yes, wonderful, and not only that, but in addition, to round things off completely, we’re also back at self-efficacy, and with that, at the aspect of education too. I had to add that on top, because this bridge to education keeps being really, really important here too, and keeps coming up. So I’m absolutely thrilled. Yes, thank you, thank you so much for your wonderful contributions from various perspectives and sides. I think it was a wonderful room to round off the 950th episode together, and to start tomorrow with the first approach to the topic of reflection as our overarching theme, followed by thinking as the next overarching theme, then acting. We’ll first treat each of them as an individual overarching theme, roughly three weeks each, in order to then bring together and present the connection between reflection, thinking, and acting, and look at it as a whole. So I’m looking forward to that, please join tomorrow to bring in the first impulses, so that, based on that, we can also review the room planning already in place, to see whether we’ve considered everything, or whether certain relevant aspects still need to be picked up tomorrow that haven’t been considered yet, so we can address those accordingly too. I’m looking forward to it. See you tomorrow, ciao, ciao!
