Creative human beings in a post AI world

Not long ago, young people were told: “Learn to code.” That’s not working so well now. The first wave of AI is destroying the workaday tech jobs—perhaps there’s some karma in that.

But it also makes sense. When Dr. Frankenstein makes the monster, he’s usually the first victim.

So forget coding, and develop the real skills that we need now—and they... See more

My take: what’s happening is the same thing that happens with every new revolutionary piece of technology—we stop exercising some mental muscles because the tool makes that particular task easier.

Think about it: GPS weakened our sense of direction, calculators slowed our mental math, and the internet made our memory lazier.

But no one says you’re an... See more

I once told my wife I was going out to buy an envelope:

“Oh,” she said, “well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?” And so, I pretended not to hear her. And went out to get an envelope because I have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.

I meet a lot... See more

Two useful AI tactics

Create a document, several pages long, that explains who you are. What sort of learner are you? Do you have degrees or expertise? What sort of change are you making, who works with you, what are your standards? How do you want to engage?

Periodically, upload the doc to the chat you’re having with an LLM. Let it know you’re... See more

The AI Branding Wars Have Begun

AI models are getting better — all of them. The gap between the top and 10th-best has been cut in half in a year, and the top two models are basically tied. 

Large language models are increasingly, and similarly competent because they are trained on largely the same datasets — the Common Crawl, a massive archive of... See more