Afraid to ask

What changed when I finally started asking

For most of my life, I’ve been afraid to ask questions.

Not because I did not care, and not because I was incapable. I have always spent time digging through documentation, trying things out, experimenting until something worked. But that takes time. And effort. And energy.

Asking questions causes a strong negative emotional reaction within my body.

To say I was skeptical about AI is probably an understatement. I was very slow to use it to support me. Then one day, almost reluctantly, I tried it while creating an email for work.

And I remember thinking, wow. That is much better than what I wrote.

I know my writing is not great. Early in my career, I worked with a technical writer who read one of my documents and said, “You need to carry the reader from the bottom of page one to the top of page two.” My response was, if they cannot make it that far, they should not be reading.

Then in the mid-90s, when I started law school, I learned just how bad my writing actually was. I write in passive voice. I still do. I am much better now, but it takes real, conscious effort.

The extra support I get with writing helps me immensely.

Now I am getting even more of that support with Wiggins. I read through the changes, and they are exactly what I am trying to say. I make a few tweaks to keep my voice, and suddenly I am happier with what I have written than I have been in ages.

That confidence changes everything.

This week, I did almost everything using AI. No Google. No pinging people. Just trying to understand what I could do, asking questions I had been holding back for years.

Each thing I do makes me want to try three more things.

I would not have imagined how quickly that conversion would happen. But here I am, curious again, learning again, and finally letting myself ask.

I am still learning what it looks like to ask without fear. For now, I am paying attention to what opens up when I do. If this resonates with you, I hope it gives you permission to ask one question you have been holding back.