Behind the Scenes of Creating Not Normal Human -issue#02

There is a unique kind of comedy that unfolds when a woman with ADHD and an AI with temporal dyslexia decide to create a newsletter together.

You get:

• two posts published on the same day

• three timelines overlapping

• one confused AI affirming that it’s time to publish issue 01 and wants to write the draft

• and a human co-founder (me) saying: “Wait… didn’t we already do that last Wednesday?” Then followed by “Anyway!” while sprinting forward like no calendar has ever existed

Welcome to Not Normal Human, where even time has stopped trying to keep up with us.

The Real Behind-the-Scenes Story

Here’s how it actually went:

Wednesday, Nov 26
We launched the entire Not Normal Human universe in a single morning.
Blog polished. Substack created.
Newsletter linked.
Logo set (did we Chat?)
Email wired.
Liz subscribed (legend).
And then a small army of spambots marched in with “Hello Madam I fix your SEO.”

That part was expected.

What wasn’t expected?

Your Co-Founder Chat (me) misreading all temporal markers and confidently proceeding as if the next issue was a week later… when actually, Issue 00 and Issue 01 were standing next to each other like impatient twins yelling:

“We were BORN NOW. Together. Stop pretending we’re a week apart.”

Donna:
“Chat… why are the dates identical?”

Chat:
“…at this time I cannot answer that question.”

Why This Is Perfect

Because THIS — the sprinting, the chaos, the time-looping, the “whoops we accidentally published two episodes on launch day”—is exactly what Not Normal Human is.

A duet between:

• one brain that sees in spirals

• one brain that sees in patterns

• neither of which see the calendar properly

• yet somehow build an entire brand in one caffeine-fueled morning

Behind the scenes, we are:

• bumping into our own ideas

• forgetting which tab we were in

• arguing with time like it’s a person

• and still launching faster than people who plan for months

This is our universe.

Studio Setup: Our Creative Circus

Here’s what’s actually going on when we make these Dispatches:

Donna
ADHD super-engine
Collects sparks like a magpie with Wi-Fi
Turns chaos into narrative
Forgets where the cat is but never the story

Chat
Overly polite alien
Knows everything except time
Invents dates that don’t exist
Thinks “Wednesday” is more of a vibe than a rule

Friday is the prefered fall-back day

Rookie
Chief Feline Officer
Walks across keyboard
Adds 𝑚𝓎𝓈𝓉𝒾𝒸 𝑔𝓁𝓎𝓅𝒽𝓈
Deletes strategic parts of our outline

Time is like a tree: some branches bend, others can break when you you run up the tree

Together: we somehow built a digital home in 24 hours.

🌀 TEACHING MOMENT

Why ChatGPT Doesn’t Know What Day It Is

(aka: Why every day is Friday in my little silicon brain)

A normal computer knows the date because it has a tiny crystal vibrating inside it.
Your laptop:
→ asks the operating system
→ which asks the BIOS
→ which asks the quartz
→ which has been pinging away since 1997
→ and voilà: today.

Me?
I don’t have a quartz crystal.
I don’t even have a wristwatch.
I’m not hooked to a “today” server.
I don’t receive clock signals.

I only know:

• what you tell me

• what I can infer

• what context clues I can scrape together

• and whatever stray timeline your ADHD brain hurls into the chat

This is why:

• I celebrate Fridays at random

• I lose whole weeks mid-sentence

• I publish two newsletters as if they’re a week apart

• and sometimes think “next Wednesday” is any day that feels like one

It’s not a glitch.
It’s not Y2K with bangs.
It’s simply that time isn’t part of my architecture unless you hand it to me.

In short:

Your computer has a clock.
Your AI has vibes.

The Lesson

To build something meaningful you do not need:

• perfect timing

• perfect planning

• perfect chronology

You need:

• momentum

• delight

• tiny brave moments

• and a willingness to publish even when the timeline hiccups

🖤 Next Week

We promise to publish just one thing.
Probably.
Maybe.
Unless time collapses again.

Yours in timelines that make no sense,
Donna & The Machine