I’ve spent more than a decade helping people communicate more clearly, confidently, and effectively at work. I believe in real-world practice over perfection, intention over auto-pilot, and choosing curiosity over shame. You won’t find lectures here — just relatable content, big ideas, and encouragement to try something new.
Did AI Write This?
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🌱 Welcome to the 28th issue of the Knockout Your Sunday Scaries Newsletter, an every-other-week newsletter by me, Kristy Olinger, with a focus on workplace communication and self-development. I’m glad you’re here. Was this forwarded to you? Get yours: Subscribe here Hi Reader, I accidentally let AI write my entire newsletter about working asynchronously. It started so innocently. I thought of the topic the way I usually do, through actual work experiences. Mid-draft I was having a bit of writer’s block so I asked Chat GPT “Can you give me some ideas for what to include in this newsletter?” Wow did AI deliver. I got a working title, a structure of sub-sections, something it called “Your POV / Signature Take” and more. I used that structure to write and then fed those paragraphs back into the machine and asked it to improve on them… and it did. It really did. The sentences felt more powerful. More polished. I used most of what Chat GPT came up with and hit ‘publish’. I immediately felt icky 🤮 and then something weird happened... The newsletter was a complete flop. Not to brag or anything, but a lot of people reply to my newsletter. Either commenting online, sending me dms or email, or even bringing it up to me in real life. It’s one of my favorite things about having a newsletter. The AI newsletter got no reaction. Not a single comment or message. Upon reflection I know exactly why. It wasn’t authentically mine. It read like every other blog post you encounter. Generic. Boring. The Takeaway: The moral of this story isn’t that you shouldn’t use GenAI. It’s that you shouldn’t use GenAI mindlessly. If I had been using my critical thinking skills I would have seen that the end product had strayed from the imperfect but relatable style that has been my signature for over 6 years. GenAI has tons of value and practical applications. But this experience was a great lesson and reminder of the importance of knowing what you’re about and being that thing. This newsletter has always been designed to give a small nugget of insight that you can take into your work-week to make it better. My hope is to have done just that today… especially since I wrote every single word myself. 📚 What I’m reading: The Housemaid, by Freida McFadden Devoured in a weekend. Thriller with a solid twist. Worth the hype. ✉️ Hit Reply and let me know if you have a book recommendation. #readersareleaders Thanks for reading. ❤️ Have a great two weeks. Stay Curious, Kristy Was this email helpful? Forward it to someone who you think will also enjoy it. |
Kristy Olinger
I’ve spent more than a decade helping people communicate more clearly, confidently, and effectively at work. I believe in real-world practice over perfection, intention over auto-pilot, and choosing curiosity over shame. You won’t find lectures here — just relatable content, big ideas, and encouragement to try something new.
read this on the web 🌱 Welcome to the 27th issue of the Knockout Your Sunday Scaries Newsletter, an every-other-week newsletter by me, Kristy Olinger, with a focus on workplace communication and self-development. I’m glad you’re here. Was this forwarded to you? Get yours: Subscribe here Hi Reader, Earlier this month we talked about the fact that nobody reads your emails. So it may surprise you that today’s recommendation is to lean into tools like email and chat to get more done. Working...
Dear Reader, Last week I was lucky enough to see Jane Fonda in conversation with Manny Yekutiel at the Castro Theatre. For those of you not familiar with San Francisco, the Castro neighborhood is synonymous with gay culture and the Castro Theatre is one of the oldest operating theaters in the nation which the neighborhood centers around. It was the first day of PRIDE Month and there was a great energy in the air. The night started with The Queens of the Castro, a group that brings drag to...