Humans In The Loop

Back in the old days of ‘slow traditional culture’ there were plenty of conversations, music in the parlor and even daydreams about dating. But we didn’t count those. The real stuff was the solid stuff, the informal didn’t truly matter.

And now we live in a time where the previously informal is easy to measure.

But just because it’s measured doesn’t... See more

To be lost is to be human

Feeling lost is a fundamental part of the human experience, a feeling that traces back to the dawn of history.

Agreeableness is not the same as agreeing. In fact, they have little in common. Finding someone who’s only job is to agree with everything that is said is easy. On the other hand, agreeableness is the skill of having a contrary position and being pleasant about it. It’s the hard work of bringing professional work to people who expected something... See more

People worried about AI taking their jobs and taking control are competing with a myth. Instead, people should train themselves to be better humans even as they develop better AI. People are still in control, but they need to use that control wisely, ethically and carefully.

In a pair of experiments, Alison Fragale and I found that self-promotion only paid off when the audience was distracted enough to remember the information but forget the source. Otherwise, they saw right through it. If you were that great, you wouldn’t need to boast about your greatness.

For a long time, it was “you’re welcome.” This indicates that you put in some effort and you’re willing to do it again on request.

Recently “no problem” has become more common. This implies that the effort could have been a huge hassle, but this time, it was okay.

For people who are choosing to do the work of hospitality and connection, though, the... See more

What if instead of setting quantitative goals, I focused on how I wanted to feel on the other side? 

In the case of my OneNote course, I wanted to end each day feeling productive, proud, and confident that I’d covered each lesson extensively. 

The change was immediate. Some days, I felt especially creative and filmed ten videos in a row. On other... See more

“With technology advancing so much, and humans needing to learn how to collaborate with technology to get their work done, the skillset we need more and more to collaborate are the power skills,”