WEBVTT

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Hey, it's Mukundan from Data and AI with Mukundan.

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Welcome to another episode. So today's episode,

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I just want to talk about how I turned a midnight

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craving into a moment of reflection. And I used

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GPT -4 for this. So if you've not been here before,

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Data and AI with Mukundan is a show where we

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explore how technology can connect us back to

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ourselves. So today's story actually starts with

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Taco Bell. You know, the one that gives us the

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runs in the morning. And more specifically this

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episode, I wanted to actually see how an experience

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of me ordering on Taco Bell has changed how I

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order in the future. So this particular one.

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revolves around me standing in front of my fridge

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for the third time that week. And not because

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my week starts on a Thursday of the previous

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week. It doesn't even start on Sunday. It started

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on Monday. Monday was my first day. Went to the

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fridge at midnight. Tuesday, went to the fridge

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at midnight. Wednesday, this is the Wednesday

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that I did go back again and yes that was my

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third time and i'm it's not because i'm you know

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i was hungry or something i was just searching

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and i don't even mean for food it's i don't know

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what i was searching uh at that time i didn't

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know at least so so this particular you know

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wednesday midnight it was 12 19 a .m and i had

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already deleted the doordash app and doordash

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for those of you who are not familiar it's a

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food delivery app basically delivers food to

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your home and this app can be super addictive

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if you are someone who likes to binge eat a lot

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at really odd times and i i was that person um

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and i think i'm still improving it's most days

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i may still browse it but that's where this app

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comes into play And I think this is something

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which can really help us go address what we feel.

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And so anyway, just coming back to the app here,

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my fingers knew exactly where to go in Google

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Chrome because I don't have the DoorDash app,

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but I do know how to access it in my Google Chrome.

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And I'm already signed in. I'm already signed

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into the app on Google Chrome. So all I have

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to do is just... Just click on D and dot app

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appears, right? And it knows my recommendations.

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It knows that I like McDonald's, that I like

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Taco Bell. It knows that I like the one pizza

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place that didn't even deliver past midnight.

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And on that night, just like others before that,

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I wasn't hungry. Like I said, I was just anxious,

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restless. and lonely and lonely because it's

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been i felt like it was a long week and you know

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just dealing through these problems at work um

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by myself it was it was a lot to deal with i

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didn't feel like i was communicating enough at

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that time and um yeah so i felt like it did affect

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me i was stress eating is what you know there's

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a term for that Or most people like to call it

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binge eating, right? On that night, however,

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something clicked. So what I did, instead of

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placing an order, I opened my laptop. And I wrote

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a small app. One that would do what I wasn't

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doing for myself. It was going to ask me what

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I was really feeling. Think of this as no calorie

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counting, no judgment. It's going to be just

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a space, like a place where you can come and

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vent. It's a place where I could type something

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like, I just want to inhale fries. I can inhale

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the Coke right now. And not even diet Coke or

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Coke Zero, just regular Coke. And the bot would

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reflect, maybe it's not hunger. Maybe it's your

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body asking for comfort. And, you know, it will

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also tell you what else could you do to soothe

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yourself tonight. And it used GPT -4 to detect

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emotion. It logged my craving and most importantly,

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it reflected it back with kindness. So every

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entry was like a mirror, not one that pointed

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out the flaws. It was just one that asked, what

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are you actually needing right now? And here's

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the wild part. The more I used it, the less food

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I needed to avoid my feelings. Because I started

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spotting some patterns. The cravings which I

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had, they peaked after I avoided hard conversations.

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And so what I mentioned earlier, that I was not

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communicating enough. so kind of going in my

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in my own shell um so that was something i felt

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like um my cravings increased after that i was

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not even communicating with myself that was the

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biggest problem and i was just like avoiding

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my feelings right you need to have hard conversations

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with yourself when you are feeling certain things

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and i wasn't doing that these cravings they dropped

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on nights when i journaled so when i started

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journaling these cravings they started reducing

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and they spiked on days i felt ignored or overstimulated

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now it's been a few weeks since i've developed

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this app and i've started using it so just wanted

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to see how this would work and just like that

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what started as a snack deflector became a truth

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finder and here's the thing i wasn't trying to

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build a food dairy i ended up becoming i mean

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building a therapist that i could talk to without

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shame i didn't become a therapist but the app

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did the app became my therapist it just listened

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and that's what a therapy is like i mean the

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therapist is supposed to listen um they don't

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offer too much advice i don't know i've never

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been to therapy but um I think that's what it

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is. But anyway, so I wasn't trying to build that

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food dairy. It's just that I ended up building

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a therapist that I could talk to without any

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shame, right? And eventually I just turned to

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the same concept, turned the same concept into

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a full -fledged dashboard. So which is having

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a check -in tab, a journal view, and a CSV that

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you can download and... Look for trends. And

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I even made a custom GPT inside ChatGPT, which

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is like craving confidant, right? So this is

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someone you can message it from your phone, like

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it's a friend who listens. Not one who fixes

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you, but one who just hears you, right? So if

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you're like me, and if you ever stood in front

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of a fridge at midnight, not because you were

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hungry, But because you are hoping to feel something,

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maybe what you need isn't another app to block

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bad food. Maybe what you need is just a way to

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hear what your body's been whispering underneath

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those cravings. Build it, talk to it, reflect

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with it. And if you want the code of how I did

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it, I'm going to link in the show notes of how

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I've done it. There's also going to be a mini

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course of how you can do it step by step. that's

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going to come up soon on mysubstack .com on mysubstack

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website and the website will be linked in the

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show notes so just keep watching the website

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for a new subscribe to my website I will post

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like a little mini course which will help you

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build this app by yourself as well if the blog

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is not clear the blog is actually on medium .com

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and you need a medium .com membership to access

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the blog but anyway this isn't just about the

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food It's about learning to listen when the world

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gets too loud. So, you know, thanks for joining

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me. And like I said, you can find the full code,

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the screenshots, and build guide for the Midnight

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Cravings companion in the show notes. And next

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time you're about to order Taco Bell, maybe just

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talk to yourself first. Because I did and it's

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helping. So I think that's something you can

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do as well. So if you like this, subscribe to

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my podcast, Data and AI with Mukundan. And keep

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watching for the latest shows. Thanks again for

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tuning in. Until next time.