An experiment with AI and BARD chat about How To Set Goals

The following is my trial use of the artificial intelligence tool from Google called Bard. No doubt you too are getting many plugs in your inbox for this and Bing's tool as well as other such as Chat GPT this year. They are content generators for conversation, email, assignments (such as homework) and I was curious how they perform and what value it might have for me.  I started with a rough draft of this blog post about goal setting and compared it to the results from Bard on "how to set goals".  The Bard generated results are in black below followed by my editing, add ins and clarifications noted in orange and the commentary I planned.

Here are some tips on how to set goals:

1. Think about what you want to achieve. Goals are suppose to help us improve, change, start stop, fix, correct or alter something.  So what needs to happen?  For me, I want to ride to DC on my bike. This will require being fit enough to ride 50-70 miles multiple days in a row, be competent fixing my bike when I'm in remote places, be able to pack and have appropriate gear and carry my own supplies.  I've never done this before. Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start to set specific goals.
2. Make your goals SMART. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant (I say realistic - of course they're relevant...you chose them, of course they are a reach that's why they're called goals...but realistic is my chosen "R" word.  Realistic means...do people do "this thing", or if you're Elon Musk...is there equipment that can be developed to make this happen even if it's not known now, or being done yet? Do people have the capacity to run 10 meters in under 8 seconds? Physiologically unlikely, but at some point someone took the leap that under 9:85 seconds was worth training for and finally the "T" in SMART...time-bound. This means that your goals should be clear, measurable, achievable, relevant to your values, and have a deadline.
3. Create an action plan. Break them down in to pieces.  I need to start riding my bike more often, I need to take a bike safety course, I need to do some small group rides with people who ride a lot more than me, I need to do longer local rides carrying my bike bags etc. How are you going to achieve your goals? What steps do you need to take? Break your goals down into smaller, more manageable steps.
4. Consider (very carefully) would a partner help you on this trek?  What you do not want is someone who is not invested in the same thing derailing your goals or supporting your wavering confidence.  Choose wisely or not at all someone who will support you in stages or completion of the gaol.  if it is an athletic endeavor like a marathon there are many charitable groups who will support your training in exchange for you fundraising for them.  The MS Society is well known for their fantastic 150 mile supported bike rides around the country and numerous other groups do Team in Training type programs.  I have done 2 MS 150 mile bike rides in the past and that 
5. Celebrate your successes. As you achieve your goals, celebrate your successes! This will help you to stay motivated and keep moving forward. This is a fantastic idea I had not included in my outline and is really a great and critical step while doing the hard work toward that challenging goal. 

Here are some additional tips for setting goals:

• Be realistic about your goals. Don't set yourself up for failure by setting goals that are too ambitious.
• Be flexible. Things don't always go according to plan, so be prepared to adjust your goals as needed.
• Don't give up. There will be times when you want to give up, but don't! Keep going and you will eventually achieve your goals.

Setting goals can be a daunting task, but it's worth it. When you set goals and achieve them, you feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. You also become more confident and capable. So what are you waiting for? Start setting goals today!

In summary goal setting is about achieving something for work, pleasure, personal development or as the Stoics would say "for the opportunity to grow and improve".  Iron sharpens iron, right?  The Stoics go further with Seneca saying "we treat the body rigorously so it will not be disobedient to the mind" meaning that discipline of doing physically challenging things strengthens us philosophically as well as physiologically. (The Daily Stoic blog: "Difficult things are good for you")

MY REVIEW of BARD: Much of this summary repeats themes and contains filler. This is a simple search with a non complex or detailed AI generated solution.  The 4th of my points about goals setting was not included in the BARD summary so be prepared for your knowledge at times to be deeper than what is sourced, as well as vice versa obviously.  Overall, my experiment with AI reaffirms that you should have your own understanding of your point of view or the assignment at hand; some idea about what that content might include; a willingness to be surprised by new concepts (but the ability to properly fact check) and expect repetition since the information is sourced from collectives of information.  Newer questions and concepts may not have much information, and validity of data must be assessed.  I don't think this is a good tool for novices because they may not have the aptitude to recognize inaccurate information. It was a time saver for my simple topic.  Overall this piece took almost 45 minutes less to format, edit, design and post. That likely would be much longer if the topic was complex due to more detailed fact checking.  But for simple themes this is a tempting assistant for me trying to keep up with content to post.  Again a knock on AI is that less sophisticated minds may not know what, how, or that they should fact check the results. While advanced AI tools may improve accuracy with better algorithm remember this tool is designed to "present a human like text response" to a prompt - it is not designed to pull sources like a search engine.