Career advice for the pre-AI era looked like this: Work as creatively and productively as you can. Solve not just the problem put in front of you but the broader problems it reveals. Learn to use the most modern tools that can help you do your work. Carefully check your work; assume there are errors,…
AI is an average writer. It creates clear but boring prose. Average writers aren’t very good teachers or editors. So here’s how I see it. If you are an excellent writer, you can use AI to do better research, draft ideas, test out different ways of writing, and get feedback. You can then use your…
If you follow this space regularly, you know I’m driving around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick this week. For the most part, I find that Canadians do things at least as well as what I’m used to in the U.S. — usually better. And the road signage is remarkably similar, down to the type used…
Airbnb gets a lot of snark these days for people’s perceptions of the extra things they are supposed to do. They go in thinking they are getting a bargain, and then find themselves doing the host’s housework. If this is you, you are using it wrong. How to evaluate an Airbnb stay I am in…
I had a dream last night. I was presenting to a group of people at Forrester, the company where I worked for 20 years — and then left to go freelance for the last ten years. The presentation went really well. I couldn’t tell you now what I was presenting on — dreams are like…
What happens when people demand something illegal? We find a way to make it legal and compensate those whose content was stolen. That’s what’s about to happen with AI. We’ve seen this over and over with digital innovations. Napster made electronic access to all music possible — but violated the rights of musicians and record…
The best part about being on vacation is waking up and realizing you don’t know what day it is — and it doesn’t matter.
Do you spot patterns? Or do you seek to escape them? Some people spend their lives observing and then categorizing and classifying the thing they see. They are the generalizers. They advance human knowledge by creating tools with broad applicability. A new generalized insight can be a breakthrough. I am a generalizer. I love to…
What make a great idea? In my view, an idea that matters is one that makes an impact on the world. There are of course the once-in-a-generation ideas that transform everyone’s thinking, like evolution, the discovery of DNA, the World Wide Web, or civil rights. But I’m thinking just a little bit smaller — probably…