Transcription as a service

It helps to talk it out.

When you’re writing a first draft, processing an emotional experience, thinking about a tough problem at work, trying to make a decision.

The thoughts and feelings are ineffable inside of you.

It’s a process to draw them out into spacetime.

You can write, but longhand and typing are slower than your rate of thought. Also, the blank page is daunting.

It’s much easier to just start talking.

The problem is you can’t remember what you’ve said.

And that’s where transcription comes in.

How I started using transcription

I started using transcription for writing.

At first, I would record the audio, then play it back and type out what I heard. Lots of pausing and rewinding.

Then I discovered there were softwares that could do the recording and transcribing at the same time.

For a while, I used the speech-to-text feature built into the text messaging app on my phone. I wrote an entire book using this method.

Now I use Otter.

Use cases

The fundamental use case is quickly and easily getting your thoughts and feelings into words.

This is obviously helpful for writing. I can finish a first draft 10x faster with transcription versus typing.

I realized there were more use cases when I started to use transcription for personal journaling.

Journaling is good for emotional processing, increased self-awareness, creative expression, goal setting, and overall improved mental health.

In my experience, the benefits of journaling are even greater when you journal by speaking aloud. Perhaps because you feel more heard (even if just by yourself).

These are some of the use cases I have in mind for speech-to-text transcription:

• Writing

• Idea generation

• Problem solving

• Decision making

• Journaling

• Catharsis

• Self-guided “therapy” (disclaimer: not medical advice, please consult a professional)

Existing transcription solutions

This blog post by Zapier has a great breakdown of the available transcription services.

There are basically three categories:

• Human

• AI / software

• Human + AI / software

In the past, human scribes were the only option for transcription.

Now, AI and other softwares provide completely automated transcription.

But the technology still makes mistakes:

• Mishearing: often a result of poor audio quality or slurred speech

• Omissions: missing certain words or phrases

• Incorrect word choices: confusing homonyms or mistaking proper names for common words

• Lack of context: lacking the prior knowledge to make the correct word choices

• Punctuation errors: omitting punctuation or choosing the wrong punctuation mark

• Formatting errors: inconsistent spacing or incorrect capitalization

The most accurate transcription services use a combination of humans and technology. For example, this is the copy on the TranscribeMe website:

We deliver the most accurate transcriptions at competitive rates due to a combination of the latest in AI, paired with our trained & experienced transcriber network.

My guess is that the bulk of the transcribing is done by the AI technology, and then human transcribers review the AI-generated transcripts to fix errors.

Shortfalls of existing solutions

With normal transcription, it’s just you talking. You say what you say and the service converts your speech to text.

I’m thinking of a few areas where a transcription service could go above and beyond:

• Asking questions: when you pause and don’t know what to say next

• Prompting: other than questions, e.g., encouraging, suggesting

• Reminding: bringing up something you said before

• Pointing out inconsistencies: identifying contradictions with what you said before

• Making you feel heard: like you’re talking to another human

Converting your speech into text saves you time. It allows you to write with your voice, rather than longhand or typing.

But it’s still only your intelligence that’s coming up with the words.

I think the transcription service can do more, to the extent that the interaction would be more like a conversation.

It can help to have a consciousness other than your own that is analyzing what you’re saying and providing another perspective.

Someone else asking you questions would be particularly helpful. It’s like a reverse AI chatbot. Instead of the human prompting the AI to get answers from the AI’s knowledge and analysis of a huge dataset of text. The AI would ask the human questions to further explore the human’s consciousness, guiding the human deeper into their exploration of their own mind.

Possible overlap with therapy

I’ve written more about this here:

How to use speech-to-text transcription for self-guided therapy

And here:

Can you be your own therapist?

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. Please consult a professional.

Idea for a supplemented transcription service

Let’s start with human transcription: someone listens to what you say and writes it down.

Now imagine that the scribe interacts with you: asking questions, prompting, reminding, pointing out inconsistencies, identifying contradictions with what you said before, making you feel heard.

The human scribe can’t interact with you and take notes at the same time, so they use a software to record and transcribe the audio of your conversation.

After the conversation, the same human scribe is the one who edits the transcript. They have context from the conversation. They could even add additional notes and comments.

Then the human scribe sends the edited transcript to the speaker.

Outline of minimum viable product

• Schedule a 30-minute meeting via Calendly

• Some things we can discuss on the call:

  • Writing a first draft

  • Thinking through a problem

  • Making a decision

  • Getting feedback on something

  • Strategizing and coming up with a plan

• Before the call, fill out a form to answer these questions:

  • Why did you schedule this call?

  • What would you like to discuss on our call?

  • What are you hoping to achieve from this call?

• Speaker can assign roles to the transciber:

  • Only listen

  • Listen and ask questions

  • Listen, ask questions, and give advice

• Call will be on Google Meet or Zoom

• Use Otter to transcribe the audio during the call

• After the call, edit the transcript for omissions, incorrect word choices, punctuation errors, formatting errors, spelling, and grammar (no changes to the originally spoken words)

• Send transcript via Google Docs or Notion to allow for continued conversation via commenting

• The cost will be $50 per 30-minute call

Why I think people will find this valuable

People want to be heard, but they also want to be engaged with, to have what they share analyzed to an extent, but without judgment, with the objective light of pure consciousness shining back on them.

I think there’s immense value in getting your thoughts out of your head.

When you see your thoughts written down as words, you process them differently.

I’ve done this several times with people where I listen to them and take a note of exactly what they said and then read it back to them and they’re like, “Woah, I said that?”

Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re thinking or feeling until you write it down.

And this is all in addition to the baseline value of making the leap from the mental and emotional contents trapped inside of you to words written down. Many struggle to make that leap, but transcription makes it quicker and easier.

Related posts

How to use speech-to-text transcription for self-guided therapy

Can you be your own therapist?

Speech-to-text transcription as a method for creative writing

I don't know what I feel until I write it down (and then I still don't)

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE

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