Research as a Life Skill

I have been working on a few projects recently for the day job, writing, and marketing that have involved the dreaded R word… research.  Now for me, that is said with a laugh. I enjoy finding out new things, and I don’t particularly mind wading into the morass of internet links and even (gasp!) heading to the library to check out a book or two on my topic of interest.  But with the recent hubbub over AI, it has come to my attention that not everyone—including the AI—knows the (apparently) top secret skill that makes research work: source evaluation.

Discernment in the Age of AI

Discerning which source should be trusted, which to filter, what lens to filter it through, and which source to flush straight down the toilet isn’t something I realized that I had been taught. But thinking critically about WHO is telling the story comes with the territory for an author.  And it turns out that when AI swarms all over the web to look for information, it finds doors shut that I can walk right through.

Associated Press?  Washington Post? I have no problems accessing those sites.  If it’s behind a paywall, I can pay or be gifted an article.  But the AI has been electronically blocked with code on the website to keep it from crawling into it and essentially stealing writers’ work.  Which is cool, but… it also means that the AI looks for answers in less reputable locations.  Locations that may want to sell you something, may be false, or may want to sway your viewpoint.  When I choose my source material, I know what I’m walking into, but when AI presents me with “the answer” to my question, it presents it as fact-checked and valid.  The AI presents its answers as trustworthy, while using sources that shouldn’t be trusted at all.

Researching AI

In case you haven’t guessed, one of my recent areas of research has been AI and what it can, can’t, and SHOULDN’T do.  It’s got some fantastic data crunching capabilities, but in research and discernment, it’s not something that you should trust as far as you can kick it.  There are ways to mitigate these problems—adding specific guidelines to your settings when using an AI agent can make it list what is fact, what is hypothesis, and what is being inferred.  But that doesn’t get around the initial source problem. Knowing (and citing) sources shouldn’t be something that is a struggle for a service that’s supposed to provide answers, but AI finds that very basic premise to be difficult.  In fact, the next time it pops up a little link next to a “fact” you should think of that link more as a “learn more” and not a citation (because it isn’t).

So what about my other research?

Sumo, Whiskey, Facebook Ads, Meta Andromeda, and last but not least… left over Halloween Candy.  The last one is more experimental in nature.  Not a lot of reading involved, but I have discovered that Nerd Gummies are actually better than original Nerds.  It’s like they’ve invented a vehicle to transport the Nerds instead of dropping all over the floor.

Sumo… I have learned that it is fairly common for retired Sumo wrestlers to go into care industries and particularly common for them to open small soup restaurants.  This is mostly due to the fact that as they rise through the ranks and are training they are tasked with acting as a valet for more advanced wrestlers and therefore their non-sumo skills are mostly in caring for people.

Whiskey… There have been multiple whiskey scandals throughout history including one in the 1870s that involved bribing the Department of Revenue officials to avoid taxes and also helped re-elect Ulysses S. Grant.

Facebook Ads… Since I have been experimenting with Facebook ads and looking into how they function, the algorithm has decided that I need to know how to make ads.  I must! It’s imperative!  Buy this course! Use these 5 types of ads for Black Friday – white board, sticky note, customer experience, pain point, low-fi viral! Most of these things just don’t apply to books, but the peer pressure of so many talking heads yelling at me still worked because I did create a video based on their tips.  Admittedly, it was mostly for my own entertainment, but… please enjoy this “words on a white board” concept ad.

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Bethany Maines is an award-winning author, graphic designer, and sixth-degree black belt, who brings a fierce sense of adventure—and humor—to everything she does, from world travel for the snacks to Cerberus cosplay and baking for the plot. Bethany is the Mystery Writers of America Northwest Chapter Treasurer, the co-runner of The Stiletto Gang blog, new host of The OtherWorlds podcast, and writes under the names Bethany Maines and Sirena Corbeau. Learn more at: bethanymaines.com