Work Anxiety and AI | When Confidence Outruns Understanding

Why AI Answers Can Feel Risky

0:21 SPEAKER_01: This great story teaches us something about being human. I'm Cheryl Parris and this is Work Stress Anxiety. Together let's borrow a little wisdom from a story to help us navigate a very modern world.

0:45 SPEAKER_00: So it's 2.14 pm. You send something that looks rather good, clear, well organized, all the right words in apparently the right places. Then someone asks you to explain one part of it. Nothing hostile, just a perfectly reasonable question, and you find yourself wanting to reopen the conversation with AI before you answer. That's little moment is what I want to explore today. Because there can be a difference between having an answer available and understanding it well enough to make it your own. And when you're already working hard to appear capable, confident, that difference can feel uncomfortable.

1:48 SPEAKER_00: I'm Cheryl Parris and this is Work Stress Anxiety. Now before we go any further, a little thank you to a listener in Bredston, I think that's how you spell it, Derbyshire, who listened to the episode Burnout Recovery, Work Stress and Burnout Prevention Strategies for Women. Thank you for spending some of your time with me. Wherever this episode finds you today, I hope it gives you something useful to take into your own work in life.

Using AI For Checklists And Output

2:32 SPEAKER_00: Now I use AI. I think most people in business now use AI. You know, with the podcast, there are lots of repetitive tasks, things that need doing again and then again, and then rather inconsiderately again, and it's like consistency. I also know that following everything through isn't always the part that comes most naturally for me. So I like a loose checklist, enough structure to help me keep um keep track of things without feeling as though I've um do you know what I mean? I've got I've got an apparently officious manager to supervise my whole afternoon.

3:27 SPEAKER_00: You know, for me, AI helps me create those checklists. You know, I like the physical ticking, you know, that happens when you tick something off with a pen or a pencil. Um, that little action matters, it helps me feel as if I've done something. There's that visible mark where something was waiting to be done, uh, and that's a useful way for me to use um that tool. But what I've also noticed something that sounds obvious until you start relying on it. And AI is not for me. And I say that with love in my heart because it can help me organize a process, it can suggest wording, but I still, for me, I need to decide whether that wording means what I meant, whether it fits the conversation or whether it really does belong there.

4:32 SPEAKER_00: Because people are complicated. We can want a change, but we're frightened of what that change might cost us. We can value security and freedom and find that they're pulling us in completely different directions. We can begin a conversation convinced of it, of something, then hear ourselves think out loud and realise we no longer agree with our opening sentence, which is inconvenient if you're hoping to put the whole person neatly into a box. Now, don't get me wrong, AI can offer possibilities about those contradictions, but I still have to listen to the person in front of me, check my understanding, and be willing to change it and be corrected.

5:32 SPEAKER_00: You know, a beautifully organized answer doesn't remove that responsibility. And that distinction has made me think about something I think is much, much wider. When is a tool supporting our thinking? And when are we accepting its answer before we've done in our thinking to understand it?

Jane’s Email And The Hidden Gap

6:00 SPEAKER_00: So I want you to picture Jane at work, right? She's just fired off that email. She has something to prepare, limited times, and several other things waiting for her attention. AI helps her produce a clear explanation. She reads it, it seems sensible, it sounds professional, so far, useful, right? But imagine that later someone asks how the explanation applies to a slightly different situation or scenario. Now she needs more than the original words. Right? She needs to be able to understand the reasoning behind what she said, and perhaps that's where she notices a gap.

6:50 SPEAKER_00: The words look good, the work looks finished, her understanding is still catching up. That is the gap I'm talking about. When I use the phrase requisite learning gap, I'm talking about the diff the distance, right, between the answer you have and the understanding you need for what you're doing. And it's a way of naming the problem. It's not a diagnosis, and it certainly isn't a verdict on Jane's intelligence. You know, if you recognize yourself here, I want you to notice how quickly the criticism can arrive.

7:40 SPEAKER_00: I should have known this. I've made myself look more capable than I am. What if someone asks another question? Yeah, suddenly a useful piece of assistance has become something you feel you have to conceal or defend.

Speed Culture And Quiet Self Doubt

7:59 SPEAKER_00: But look at the conditions around you. If your workplace rewards speed, polished output and immediate answers while allowing very little time for learning, those pressures do matter. You didn't invent them, and a personal learning exercise cannot repair unreasonable expectations that people may have. Still, whether I say it within that reality, it can help to distinguish between getting a task completed and developing the understanding that task may require. Something completely something completed is exactly what you need.

8:53 SPEAKER_00: I don't need every repetitive podcast task to become some educational thing. Sometimes I need a checklist and the satisfaction of ticking the thing off. The question for me becomes more importantly, when am I going to rely on an explanation, make a decision from it, or pass it on to someone else? What do I need to understand well enough to take responsibility for it?

Sat Nav Lessons About Real Understanding

9:29 SPEAKER_00: It's a bit like the sat nav. Do you remember when the sat uh sat satnavs came out, right? And they still do to a certain extent, right? They can they guide you to um what is supposedly the right address. That's useful. You don't have to memorize every road or constantly. Do you remember when we used to have to pull over at the side of the road and get the A to Z out and try and work out where we were and if we were on the right road and all that. But the thing is, arriving at the address doesn't necessarily mean you know how to get through the city faster, does it?

10:13 SPEAKER_00: You might have followed every instruction that the satin gave you without noticing which roads connected, whether you cross the river, whether there's an alternative route. You know, getting there and knowing the way are different achievements. And you can achieve lots of stuff, yeah, through sat nav, but you can also appreciate the help and still recognize the difference. And that's what I'm talking about, that difference, you know. And if you're going to be travelling through those streets again, perhaps it becomes worth paying attention to a few landmarks because that's what we used to do.

10:59 SPEAKER_00: That's how I remember when I lived in London, I was able to cycle through, you know, South West London, West London, into North London, because I would just I'd have a vague idea of which you know direction I was heading in, but I would, you know, go down dead ends and just learn different ways of getting from A to B. Now that's the distinction I want us to keep. You can use AI and learn. That's right, you can use AI and still learn. You can ask it to question your reasoning, offer an example, or help you explore something you haven't understood.

11:53 SPEAKER_00: But if you accept the finished explanation and move straight on, you may have missed a really important opportunity to work through it yourself. And there is something about that, that working through that to me is so valuable, but still so important in this modern age of technology. The moment when you stop and think, hang on, that part doesn't make sense. Then you try another example, you connect to it in a completely different way. You change your mind, you get neurons firing. Confusion isn't automatically useful, right?

12:41 SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that, but no one needs to struggle endlessly to prove that they deserve an answer. Sometimes a clearer explanation is exactly what's needed. And I use the word confusion there because I understand that in order to learn anything, you you kind of go through that that stage of confusion. And I appreciate that. But let's put it this way uncertainty doesn't have to mean you're failing either. It can help you notice the question you still need to ask. You know, we've been so lucky. I've recently welcomed a little boy into my family.

13:27 SPEAKER_00: He's only a few days old, and it has made me think about how much there is to encounter when everything is still new. Can you imagine a newborn, the sounds, the smells, the touch, the experience of being in the world? There's something beautiful, truly beautiful in that. And it reminds me how much I value our capacity as human beings to experience something, respond to it, and gradually then make sense of it. You know, even the words that I am uttering right now, they're just symbols. You know, that we had to learn what the meaning of them were and how to utter them.

14:19 SPEAKER_00: And it's especially, I think, when your curiosity might be what helps us understand things. Why do I say all this?

A 90 Second Test Of Clarity

14:29 SPEAKER_00: Because here's one small experiment I would like you to consider trying. I want you to choose one short AI-generated explanation that matters to something that you're working on. You know, something manageable, maybe a paragraph or so, right? Nothing too, too big. You don't need to start with an in, you know, an in-timely strategy document, right? Let's not ruin your lunch break here, okay? I want you to read it and then look away from the screen. Give yourself about 90 seconds if that feels useful.

15:06 SPEAKER_00: There's no need to be precise with the time here. And in your own words, I want you to be able to explain what you think it means. Then see whether you can think of one example, and if you can, one situation where the explanation may not fit. That's all. You're exploring what you understand and where you still have a question. Nobody is going to be marking it. You don't need to hesitate, you don't need to start again, just use your ordinary words. And if it feels a bit fuzzy, that's okay. Just locate the fuzzy part, that's okay, and just breathe that in.

15:56 SPEAKER_00: You know, perhaps you understand the main idea but can't see how it applies to your work. Perhaps a word sounds familiar, but you're not actually sure what it meant, and that's okay. Or perhaps you can repeat the recommendation, but you don't yet understand why it was recommended. Each of those gives you something specific to go to next. And you can reopen the explanation with a clearer question, check a reliable source, or speak to someone with the relevant experience. And if speaking it out aloud doesn't suit you for the moment that you're in, a few rough notes will do.

16:41 SPEAKER_00: The purpose here is to make a little room for you and your own thinking. You know, this isn't a definitive test of what you know. You know, one difficult attempt at explaining something doesn't establish that you haven't learnt it, nor does a fluent explanation prove that the original information is correct. The whole idea with this exercise is to help you notice a part of you wanting to explore more carefully. And for Jane, that could mean a different response to the moment of uncertainty. Instead of treating it as evidence that she's somehow fraudulent, she might recognize a piece, particular piece of understanding that she hasn't actually developed yet.

17:38 SPEAKER_00: Something specific enough to work on. You know, you are allowed to use support. You are also allowed to take the time to understand something you're going to rely on. Those two things can occupy the same space and belong to you together. You know, for today, I want you to think about the sat nav because in a another episode we're going to I'm you know, we're going to explore how to use AI as a thinking partner and include ways of keeping your own questions and judgments involved. Yes, going back to the sat nav, I think it it can help you reach your destination as it as it still does, and you can choose whether it matters to notice a little more of the route today.

Progress At Your Own Pace

18:35 SPEAKER_00: Take one useful explanation, look away from the screen, and gently explore what you can explain in your own words. Let the uncertain part give you another question. And remember, every step you take, no matter how small, is a step towards a brighter and more balanced future. Trust your journey and remember, progress is progress no matter the pace.

19:15 SPEAKER_01: Now, finish your coffee, take a breath, and remember progress is progress no matter the pace. Until next time, bye for now.