I'm writing to think, learn, and remember in public. I'll be here everyday.
We have two kinds of AI trolls.
The first are humans trolling AI. These aren’t dangerous. An AI doesn’t care if it gets trolled.
The second is AI trolling humans. These are dangerous. Humans care about getting trolled.
Let’s think about this as we continue to weave AI into everything we do as humans.
Everybody wants to belong.
It’s one of the most powerful human emotions. If you can make someone feel that they belong, that’s a win.
This is just a reminder.
We have a love/hate relationship with deadlines.
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the available time. For example, if you schedule a 60-minute meeting, you’ll talk for 60 minutes, even if 15 would have been enough.
So common-sense efficiency dictates scheduling the meeting for 15 minutes. You should start doing that, by the way.
The same can be true for schedules. If you give someone a week to finish a half-day task, they will take the full week. Are they working on it the whole time? Of course not. They probably started 4 hours before it was due.
So should you have put today as the deadline rather than next week?
A deadline helps. It puts a box around it. It takes away one of the variables. It says, “here’s where we need this.”
But also, it can cause panic, shoddy work, and demotivation. I’m not gonna get it done, so what’s the point?
That’s the deadline paradox.
The proper deadline walks that line. And “proper” has little to do with reality.
Proper deadlines do not have to correspond with or be described as realistic, nor do they have to build in the proper time for this, that, and the other thing that also needs to get done. Proper deadlines are not comfortable.
Proper deadlines motivate. It’s that simple.
Growing your human team still matters.
In fact, in today’s world of AI teams augmenting human teams, it might even matter more as personnel budgets split between humans and tokens. Each person on the team matters more. And they must not only interface with other humans, but also the robots. That’s a new skill set we humans need.
As you grow your team, it’s still important to remember that hiring is not dating. You’re looking for those who will make a difference and add something that doesn’t exist today, not necessarily those you want to take to lunch.
As you talk with candidates, ask them about AI. Ask them about their experiences with it, their philosophy about it, and their ideas about how to best use it. The “I don’t like it,” “I don’t use it,” or “I’m just as good as it” all indicate a certain core philosophy. That’s a fine personal philosophy, but does it align with your professional team’s mission?
Today, growing your human team also means growing your AI team. Hire accordingly.
Software releases have version numbers.
It’s how we know, both internally and externally, what this thing is that we just unleashed. “We” is many different people:
The version number usually looks something like 12.3.14.
We call that last number, 14 in this case, the microversion. Seems small. Seems like no big deal. 14 probably isn’t much different than 13.
Could be true.
But also, it could be thousands of hours of effort.
Sometimes what looks like the smallest of the hurdles turns out to be the biggest of the mountains.
“What are we doing here?”
A good question to ask in both a geographical and operational situation.
What are we doing here? Meaning physically here.
How did we get here? Do we know where we are? Is this where we want to be? Where are we going?
What are we doing here? Meaning operationally here.
Why are we doing this? Is this going to help? Should we be doing it? What are we doing next?
Keep asking the basic questions. Maybe not all the time, but definitely sometimes.
If you don’t like or don’t know the answers, it might be time to plot a course to a different here.
I know it when I see it.
So do you. But what is it in the age of generative AI?
Spoiler alert: It doesn’t mean handmade. Or live. Or no tech.
It does, however, take insight. And creativity. And emotion. And perspective.
Art is still the same as it ever was.
You know it when you see it.
The job has a title and role description. Maybe even KPI’s.
That’s the job.
But that’s not all there is to your job. Your job also requires curiosity, caring, effort, responsibility, creativity, and generosity.
No title, role description, or KPI can describe or measure them.
Only you can do your job.
Do you know how your phone works?
Do you know how GPS works?
Do you know how Netflix works?
Not how to make it work. Not generally speaking. Not at some basic level.
Do you know the details? The circuitry, the RF signals, the semiconductor devices, the software. The weeds. Do you know how all of these actually work?
I don’t. Not all of it. And I’ve spent a good portion of my career working on various technologies in these applications.
This stuff seems like magic. Even to professionals in the field. But it’s not.
Which brings us to AI.
Your phone, GPS, and Netflix are complex, but deterministic. There is a definitive answer to “how does this work?” If you spent enough time and had enough capacity, you could theoretically, at least, figure it all out. If you did the same thing two times in a row with identical conditions, you’d get the same output. You can predict it.
AI doesn’t do that.
AI is a mystery, even to those who build it. Sure, they understand what they built and why it acts the way it does, and how to point it in the right direction. But they can’t predict the specific outcomes.
AI is real magic.
All of reality is augmented.
Even if you’re not wearing Meta glasses. Your perspective, personal experiences, and biology augment your reality.
Others might see it similarly, but not exactly the same.
That’s good news. Your augmented reality allows you to explore. To walk down roads others might not even see. To unearth questions and answers that only your perspective can.
Once you find that road, question, or answer, you can show others who see it similarly. Seeing it similarly doesn’t mean agreement. It means they understand what you’re seeing. They see it (once you show them). They might disagree. Even vehemently.
That’s OK. That’s where productive creative tension lives. That’s where leaning into the tension can produce better.
For those that can’t or won’t see it, there is little point in continuing. Disagreement lives there also, but not productively. That tension probably can’t be resolved.
Trust your augmented reality. Find those who see it similarly. Lean into the creative tension.
