My AI Glitch: Seven Arms, Six Legs, and the Myth of Perfect Multitasking

Imagine this creature in action: seven arms flailing like a caffeinated octopus, each one tackling a different task. One’s typing a work email, another’s folding laundry, a third’s meal-prepping, two are doomscrolling X, one’s watering a plant, and the seventh is just… gesturing wildly, begging for a nap. The six legs? They’re wobbling under the weight of it all, trying to balance career, relationships, and the vague expectation to “have your life together” by 30. Sound familiar? It’s me, it’s you, it’s every woman I know—and probably a few men, too.

This AI glitch hits so close to home because it captures the impossible standards we’re all chasing. Society expects us to be superhuman multitaskers: nail the 9-to-5 (or 8-to-8), keep the house Pinterest-worthy, stay fit, be emotionally intelligent, volunteer for that committee, and maybe whip up a viral recipe while we’re at it. Women, especially, get hit hard with this. We’re supposed to be caregivers, career queens, and self-care gurus—all at once, with a smile and flawless hair. And when we inevitably drop a ball (or seven), we’re taught to feel like we’ve failed. Spoiler: the game is rigged.

My ADHD brain makes this chaos feel even more vivid. It’s like my mind is that seven-armed figure, spinning through a dozen half-finished thoughts while my three legs trip over deadlines and forgotten grocery lists. But this isn’t just about me—it’s about all of us, neurodivergent or not, trying to live up to a myth of perfection that doesn’t exist.

Now, here’s the fun part: is this AI image really a glitch, or did the AI learn to reflect our reality? Think about it. AI is trained on human data—our posts, our stories, our endless to-do lists. Maybe it saw us juggling all these roles and thought, “Yup, seven arms and three legs sounds about right.” Maybe it’s not a bug but a feature, a cheeky nod to the chaos we’ve normalized. I mean, if we’re all out here acting like we can do ten things at once, no wonder the AI spit out a figure that looks like it’s auditioning for a circus.

This glitchy image is my new mascot. It’s not a mistake—it’s a reminder that we’re allowed to be messy, to reach for too much and wobble in the process. Those seven arms? They’re proof we’re trying, even when the world’s expectations are heavier than a Monday morning inbox. Those three legs? They’re carrying us forward, uneven and imperfect, but still moving. We’re not failing when we can’t do it all—we’re daring to show up in a system that asks for the impossible.

So here’s to my AI’s seven-armed, three-legged masterpiece—and to all of us out here juggling our own glorious chaos. Next time you feel like you’re falling short, remember: you’re not a glitch. You’re a work of art, painted by a world that’s still learning what “enough” really means.