We can’t fly. Not like a bird. We ride.
AI can’t think (at this time). Not like us. It just does what we incentivize it to do.
Let’s worry less about capabilities and more about incentives.
Daily one-pagers about AI, leadership, technology, and being human.
johnmaconline
I'm writing to think, learn, and remember in public. I'll be here everyday.
Harder to Kill
When it’s not going right or actually goes bad, you have two options:
- Recede. It’s not my fault. It’s the system’s fault. It’s not my thing. I wasn’t meant to. I can’t. I’m too old. I’m too young. Pick one that resonates with you.
- Get harder to kill.
Receding might be the right approach.
Getting harder to kill is always the right approach.
Maybe AI Isn’t That Important
[100% ChatGPT-created article below]
—
AI is everywhere. It’s automating tasks, generating content, and changing industries. It’s easy to feel like if you’re not using it, you’re falling behind.
But let’s zoom out.
AI won’t change what it means to be human. It won’t replace the feeling of a deep conversation, the warmth of a hug, or the trust built over years. It won’t make your morning coffee taste better, or turn a walk in the woods into something more profound. AI can write a love letter, but it won’t feel love. It can compose music, but it won’t dance to it.
The things that truly define life—joy, struggle, curiosity, relationships—aren’t about efficiency. They’re about presence. AI can optimize your schedule, but it won’t sit with your friend through a hard time. It can analyze data, but it won’t take a leap of faith.
Yes, AI is a tool, and a powerful one. But it’s not the thing. What matters most—kindness, courage, creativity, connection—is still up to us.
Maybe AI isn’t that important after all.
What will you do today that only a human can do?
—
[Me again]
I’ll just leave that there. What do you think? How important is it?
If Everybody’s Doing It
I’ve been on LinkedIn quite a bit over the last several months.
One thing that has struck me is the sheer volume of “obviously AI-generated” content. That goes for posts, articles, and direct messages. I assume it’s also happening with the job application and resume-tailoring tools.
I use AI to do those things as well, as I’ve discussed here often. It’s a paradigm-altering tool as an idea generator, editor, and research assistant.
But, the copy/paste approach has created a sameness on the platform. A ubiquitous vanilla foreground. Post content and structure. Article content and structure. The direct messages I receive all look and sound the same.
AI is a powerful tool, but it’s not a replacement for you.
Your personality. Your weirdness. Your voice. Your perspective.
If everybody’s doing it, does that mean you should be?
What AI Wants
It’s easy to anthropomorphize AI. It really seems like a person on the other end of that channel.
Lots of people writing about AI talk about what it thinks and what it wants. Depending on how you define thinking, you can argue it thinks.
But for sure it doesn’t want.
It’s incentivized. It works towards those incentives based on the parameters and data it’s been given. But it doesn’t want anything. To want means to have desires, goals, or a will. AI doesn’t wake up and decide that it doesn’t want to work towards its incentives. It doesn’t wonder. It doesn’t think about its purpose. It doesn’t feel meaning.
AI isn’t plotting to take over the world, nor is it striving to be your best friend. AI might, however, be mis-incentivized. And if that happens, then, yes, we may have some problems.
Instead of asking or even thinking about what AI wants, the real question is: What do we want?
It’s up to us to figure that out.
The Human Algorithm
Machines and AI are built for algorithms. They calculate faster, analyze better, and don’t get tired.
Algorithms follow rules. Actually, algorithms are rules.
Humans are built to break the rules.
The machine finds the most efficient path. Humans explore. The machine forges ahead relentlessly. Humans take a break and contemplate. The machine does what its been programmed to do. The human does what it wants to do.
Let the machines do what they do best.
Let the humans be more human.
The Levers
Each of us has levers. Maybe you call yours buttons. Or checkboxes.
When you’re looking to make a purchase, hire a service, or bring on a new team member, you’re hoping it, or they pull the right levers.
Will this pull the right levers?
If you’re building a product, developing a service, or interviewing for jobs, all you have to do is pull the right levers.
But first, you have to uncover them.
The Arc of Expertise
I was an expert in calculus in college. But not today.
I was not an expert in software development in college. But I am today.
I was an expert in engineering product development 20 years ago. I still am today but in a different way. I probably won’t be 20 years from now.
All expertise follows an arc. It’s a moving target. You can gain expertise, and you can lose it. But you can also gain it and keep it.
Just because someone was doesn’t mean they are. And just because they weren’t doesn’t mean they aren’t.
It’s about finding where they are on the arc.
Standing Outside
From one perspective, standing outside is the sad position.
It’s the moment in the RomCom where the character we’re rooting for spots the love interest in the cafe with someone else — laughing, smiling, very happy. They’ve likely been showered with slush by a passing vehicle or are walking home stunned from having just been laid off. And then this debacle spotted from across the street through the cafe window.
It’s also the middle schooler who doesn’t get picked. Maybe it’s for the team, or maybe it’s a birthday party. They found out by the hushing and roaming eyes of the group as they approached from down the hall. They know that posture.
But also…
Standing outside provides another perspective. If you’re not on the team or part of the story, you can see things that the inside people can’t or don’t want to.
From that perspective, standing outside is the useful position.
If you find yourself standing outside, or maybe you have stepped outside on purpose, this is your chance to see things without bias, innovate on solutions without bias, and work to affect change without bias.
No matter where you stand, you can be important if you engage.
4 Times Not to Use AI
I talk a lot here about how to use AI. Why you should learn about it and how to use it. Why it’s not scary. Why, instead, it’s the key to your future as a worker.
But here are 4 times you shouldn’t use AI (these are taken directly from Ethan Mollick’s One Useful Thing newsletter with some editorial comments from me):
- When you need to know, learn, and deeply understand something. AI can (and should) be a helper for you here, but for you to deeply learn something, you have to do the work, reading, and thinking yourself. You can use AI to help you learn the mechanics of reading the sheet music, but you’ll never be able to play the piano without sitting at the keyboard yourself.
- When high accuracy is required. AI errors and hallucinations can be difficult to spot, especially if you’re not an expert on the topic. AI really looks like it knows what its talking about. But you should treat it a bit like the blowhard know-it-all neighbor down the street. He’s often right, but he’d rather make shit up than admit he doesn’t know. And there’s always some backstory that makes it plausible.
- When the struggle for true creative knowledge is required. Current AI is generative only in the sense that it can discover patterns and create new patterns from all of the knowledge it has. But what about new knowledge? If all AI knew about the rainbow was OYGBI (instead of ROYGBIV), then it could never generate the R or the V or any intermediary that requires those. The struggle is required for the discovery of R and V.
- When AI is bad at something. Yes, AI stinks at some particular tasks or situations. For example, it sucks at sarcasm. Just think of it as being on the spectrum.
AI is great and you’re gonna need to use it, but it’s not great at everything.