from july

gpt-3 is still astonishing

had the same outcomes and I want to tell you all something very serious and personal

thread https://twitter.com/QasimMunye/status/1278750809094750211

at three years old my aunt was swinging me around by both arms

really loved spending time with this aunt and she was just trying to have fun she didn't mean to hurt me

but my left arm slipped

and my right arm came out of the socket

throwing a ball was painful for my entire childhood

opening cabinets was painful

moving heavy blankets off my body during the winter was painful

at sixteen driving stick shift was painful

have played drums since childhood and modified my technique because it was painful to hold my arm out for long periods

did an entire freshman jv varsity swim career in high school, endurance, 500m freestyle, 100m backstroke, medley, practices were painful

this had a big impact on me psychologically

couldn't develop muscle on dominant side, as a result of not being able to develop muscle, was weaker than all my peers at every grade in upper body strength

this came out in gym class in volleyball, dodgeball, basketball, baseball

it wasn't just being the weak kid, it was a matter of willpower

it was a mountain of willpower and pain and psychological resistance and failure

it was excruciating sessions in weight training environments in high school and not seeing any results whatsoever

yes, there were doctors

primary doctors, orthos, and, between age 12 and age 35

no less than 8 physical therapists

eight

this is not counting the four therapists at en masse high school physicals who stood around my body

told me that swimming shouldn't be possible

defiantly told them that it was possible, grew up in the ocean in a shore town, swam last year

at fifteen four physical therapists at once looked at my shoulder

moved it around

strength tested me

guy had called in all his colleagues

they cleared me

that was one of at least eight interactions with physical therapists over the years

endless excruciating band exercises and strength training exercises

long string of highly personal failures to overcome physical weakness

in 2018 this was my only focus

sole goal was fixing this

finally overcoming my limitations

willpower time

joined crossfit

squat 180+

deadlift 250+

pullups painful pushups painful overhead squat excruciating

25 sessions in

look in the mirror

mother of god

a giant ball of muscle around my left shoulder

i am become hermit crab

giant for, you know, scrawny kid

back to crossfit

talking to coaches

what is going on

"are you kidding go see an ortho"

"did, in high school, he said scar tissue and they offered to remove the scar tissue and said it might help, we didn't do it"

"that doesn't make any sense, go to another one"

got the team doctor for a minor league ball team

"pretty sure i know what territory we're in here but you are going for an mri with contrast dye"

got the mri back

"this is maybe the largest labrum tear i have seen in my entire career"

"what is a labrum"

"you have probably never relaxed your arm because it felt like it was going to fall off, you have learned all sorts of motion patterns, walking, everything, to accommodate — anyway, we do these surgeries in about an hour arthroscopically, tuesdays and thursdays"

had the surgery

building the muscle

overcoming the atrophy

no pain

was never a matter of willpower

was never something possible to overcome without surgery

32 year healing journey

32 years

the method to generate that text was to simply describe the situation in plain language without thinking too much about it, and click play only once, so this is the first and only run gpt-3 had on that text

no rephrasing, no clicking play until the right answer showed up