"Someone will have to teach people how to use the new and changing systems in a way that spans a multigenerational workforce." I'm doing this right now and it's rewarding and challenging. I'm running a cohort teaching a small group of international development consultants how to become AI enabled. Several are retired and teaching them AI also involves much more basic computer navigation ("ok type Claude.ai in the navigation bar. No not there. Up. Left. Other left...")
Rewarding and challenging sounds accurate! I’ve worked with lots of folks on increasing their digital fluency and it highlights how much”working knowledge” most modern platforms take for granted with regard to their users/potential users.
Substack, for example, has many, many redundant nav options, inconsistent taxonomies, and non-intuitive command hierarchies that seem to bog down new folks.
I wonder if the cap on exponential content will be a return to focus on excellence?
Instead of only using the tools to create volume, which I also do at times, but still with quality!, I'm thinking the smarter long-term play is craftsmanship.
As for the rest, yikes, who the fuck knows. Economic transformations always wreck some and elevate others. Given the 4000 years of human history, pretty sure we'll follow that same fucked-up pattern of allowing many to starve and others to feed themselves to bursting.
I also keep thinking of my college international relations profession when discussing Thucydides (which I loved reading). He kept banging on about "hubris" as the reason Athens went to war in the first place and then went on to lose it.
I see a LOT of hubris in the AI industry. Never seems to end well.
I'm all in for a return to focusing on excellence. There seems to be more and more chatter around the growing distance between slop and stuff of quality.
As for your sighting of hubris in the AI industry...
I love this post! Thank you so much for getting the brain juices expanding.
AI has definitely been on my mind for many of the reasons you've talked about.
I'm curious...moving towards a "this software will do it for me" do you think this raises our expectations and complacency? Will it also raise our laziness in learning?
It’s anyone’s guess, really. I can see a scenario where our expectations outpace our ability to use the tools necessary to create them, yes.
I also see a scenario where AI advancement bends to meet that demand — where AI itself starts to facilitate tailored coaching and training to the user.
Right now, AI is confined by our capacity to direct it. If we don’t know what’s possible, we can’t get there; even with its assistance. It’s generative within the boundaries we’ve set for it.
"Someone will have to teach people how to use the new and changing systems in a way that spans a multigenerational workforce." I'm doing this right now and it's rewarding and challenging. I'm running a cohort teaching a small group of international development consultants how to become AI enabled. Several are retired and teaching them AI also involves much more basic computer navigation ("ok type Claude.ai in the navigation bar. No not there. Up. Left. Other left...")
Rewarding and challenging sounds accurate! I’ve worked with lots of folks on increasing their digital fluency and it highlights how much”working knowledge” most modern platforms take for granted with regard to their users/potential users.
Substack, for example, has many, many redundant nav options, inconsistent taxonomies, and non-intuitive command hierarchies that seem to bog down new folks.
I wonder if the cap on exponential content will be a return to focus on excellence?
Instead of only using the tools to create volume, which I also do at times, but still with quality!, I'm thinking the smarter long-term play is craftsmanship.
As for the rest, yikes, who the fuck knows. Economic transformations always wreck some and elevate others. Given the 4000 years of human history, pretty sure we'll follow that same fucked-up pattern of allowing many to starve and others to feed themselves to bursting.
I also keep thinking of my college international relations profession when discussing Thucydides (which I loved reading). He kept banging on about "hubris" as the reason Athens went to war in the first place and then went on to lose it.
I see a LOT of hubris in the AI industry. Never seems to end well.
I'm all in for a return to focusing on excellence. There seems to be more and more chatter around the growing distance between slop and stuff of quality.
As for your sighting of hubris in the AI industry...
No, no it doesn't ever seem to end well, does it?
I love this post! Thank you so much for getting the brain juices expanding.
AI has definitely been on my mind for many of the reasons you've talked about.
I'm curious...moving towards a "this software will do it for me" do you think this raises our expectations and complacency? Will it also raise our laziness in learning?
Maybe some questions for another post.
Keep up the good work mate.
Love this question! And thanks for reading!
It’s anyone’s guess, really. I can see a scenario where our expectations outpace our ability to use the tools necessary to create them, yes.
I also see a scenario where AI advancement bends to meet that demand — where AI itself starts to facilitate tailored coaching and training to the user.
Right now, AI is confined by our capacity to direct it. If we don’t know what’s possible, we can’t get there; even with its assistance. It’s generative within the boundaries we’ve set for it.