TrueLife is a story-driven documentary podcast that explores the invisible threads connecting us to each other, the world, and the mysteries of life. Every episode uncovers extraordinary journeys, human transformation, and the relationships that shape our stories.
Episode 1: “The Knight of the Sorrowful Algorithm”
THE DEFINITIVE VERSION
I’ve been reading Don Quixote.
Not because I’m trying to be smart or literary. But because I keep seeing… us. Right now. In this book from 1605.
Here’s the setup: There’s this guy - a gentleman, probably in his 50s, living in a village in Spain whose name Cervantes says he doesn’t care to remember. And this guy has a problem.
He reads too much.
Specifically, he reads chivalric romances. Knights rescuing maidens, fighting giants, going on noble quests. He reads them obsessively. Stays up all night. Sells off his land to buy more books.
His housekeeper is worried. His niece is worried.
And one day, Cervantes tells us, his brain literally dries up from reading too much fiction.
He can no longer tell what’s real and what’s a story.
So he makes a decision. A wild, insane decision.
He decides to BECOME a knight. To live as if the world of honor, justice, and noble quests is real - even though everyone around him knows it’s fantasy.
He puts on rusty armor, names his old horse Rocinante, invents a peasant girl and calls her his noble lady Dulcinea, and rides out to right wrongs and fight giants.
Everyone thinks he’s lost his mind.
And maybe he has.
But here’s what I can’t stop thinking about…
Don Quixote read so many stories that he couldn’t distinguish between what was real and what was fiction.
What are YOU reading right now about AI?
And I mean REALLY reading. Consuming. Scrolling through at 2am. Arguing about in group chats.
Let me guess some of the stories in your feed:
“I just got replaced by ChatGPT and here’s my 10-step plan to stay relevant”
“AGI is 2 years away and everything you know is about to be obsolete”
“AI will cure cancer, end poverty, and solve climate change”
“AI will eliminate 80% of jobs and society will collapse”
“Learn to code. No wait, don’t learn to code, AI does that now. Learn prompt engineering. No wait…”
“Embrace the disruption! Be grateful for the opportunity to reinvent yourself!”
And here’s the thing - some of these might be true.
Some are definitely bullshit.
Some are half-true. Some are marketing.
Some are panic.
Some are propaganda.
But we’re consuming ALL of them, all at once, contradicting each other, and our brains are trying to make sense of it.
Just like Don Quixote’s brain dried up from too many chivalric romances…
Our brains are drying up from too many AI narratives.
You know what I hear constantly?
Confusion.
Not about the technology itself. But about the STORIES.
“Is my job safe?
Is anyone’s job safe?
Should I be terrified?
Should I be excited?
Am I adapting fast enough?
Am I a Luddite if I’m skeptical?
Am I naive if I’m optimistic?”
We’re all Don Quixote now.
We’re reading so many stories we can’t see reality clearly anymore
But here’s what makes Don Quixote interesting.
He doesn’t go mad by accident.
He CHOOSES it.
Cervantes makes this clear. Don Quixote looks at the world around him - corrupt officials, meaningless bureaucracy, people just grinding through existence - and he says:
“No. I refuse to accept this as all there is.”
So he decides to live AS IF the world of honor, justice, and noble quests is real.
Even though it isn’t.
Even though everyone will mock him.
Even though he’ll look ridiculous.
He chooses delusion over accepting reality.
And I keep asking myself: Who are the Don Quixotes of the AI age?
Who’s looking at this world - where your worth is your productivity, where meaning comes from consumption, where oligarchs rig the game and tell you to “adapt or die” - and saying:
“No. I refuse.”
Is it the artist who keeps creating even though AI can generate “good enough” content for free?
Is it the worker who insists they’re a human being, not a “resource” to be optimized?
Is it the person who left their corporate job to do something meaningful - took the pay cut, everyone thought they were crazy?
Is it the 860 people I’ve talked to who are pursuing passion without credentials, without permission, without a profit motive?
Are these people delusional?
Or are they the sanest people in the room?
Because here’s what society tells us is “sane”:
∙ Accept that AI will replace jobs - adapt or perish
∙ Accept that meaning comes from what you buy, not what you do
∙ Accept that you’re not smart enough, not credentialed enough, not connected enough
∙ Accept that efficiency is god and your value is measured in productivity
∙ Accept that oligarchs rule and there’s nothing you can do about it
That’s “reality.” That’s “being reasonable.” That’s “growing up.”
But what if accepting that reality is the REAL madness?
Here’s something most people don’t know about Don Quixote.
At the end of the novel - and this is after 1,000 pages of adventures - Don Quixote gets “cured.”
His friends stage an intervention. They defeat him in battle. They force him to give up his quest.
And he does.
He comes home. He admits he was delusional. He renounces knight-errantry. He becomes “sane” again.
He sees reality clearly.
[Pause]
And then he immediately dies.
Not from injury. Not from old age.
He dies because the delusion was the only thing keeping him alive.
Cervantes’ message is crystal clear:
Sanity killed him.
The moment he accepted reality as it was - corrupt, meaningless, hopeless - his spirit died. And his body followed.
The “madness” - the insistence on meaning, on honor, on noble quests - that was what kept him breathing.
So here we are.
AI is real.
Job displacement is real.
The oligarchs consolidating power is real.
And the “sane” voices are telling you to accept it. Adapt. Upskill. Pivot. Find meaning elsewhere. Be realistic.
But I keep thinking about Don Quixote.
What if “being realistic” is death?
What if the only way to stay alive - spiritually, creatively, humanly alive - is to go a little mad?
To insist that your work should have meaning even when the algorithm says it doesn’t.
To tilt at windmills even when everyone says they’re just windmills.
To keep creating, organizing, demanding, building - even when the “realistic” people tell you it’s hopeless.
Don Quixote had a choice: Accept the corrupt, meaningless world as it is… or live as if honor and justice still matter, even if everyone thinks you’re insane.
We have the same choice.
The madness of delusion… or the madness of acceptance.
Which one lets you stay alive?
[Beat]
Next time: “Sancho Panza and the Gig Economy” - what happens when the everyman follows the madman because he’s been promised an island.