I took me a long time to warm up to AI at work. But the ability to move conversation to the center of the experience (plus a consistent context) have resulted in the single biggest paradigm shift of my career. Let me back up... I have a longtime love/hate relationship with AI. Joanna Maciejewska's famous… Continue reading All of a sudden, AI is helping me do my job better… much better
A buddy in the UK posted this picture with the message: My Outlook AI-generated theme today. Where does the river go to beyond the bridge, or is this just a flooded road? Thinking that it might be funny, I asked another AI (Claude) to tell me the story of this picture. The resulting story was so… Continue reading The folly and the power of AI
Have you been writing a book for years, or even decades? I've discovered the true value of AI art and a life hack to get you unstuck with your book. Let me explain. I have a love/hate relationship with AI art. Some days, it seems designed to populate the Internet with uncanny valley seven-fingered nightmare-inducing… Continue reading That book you’ve been meaning to write
Picture it: A veteran's hospital, 1978. I learned inclusive language in 5 minutes. It was fun. Picture it: A corporate inclusivity seminar, this year. I was confused into silence. Not fun. I'm not here to "bash the woke". I don't mistrust the hearts of those who want to be allies for others. And yet, our… Continue reading Inclusive language, 1978 vs. today
There are days when it'd be nice to listen to an audiobook to help me do my job better. Well, I would listen to business books but I can’t stay awake through an entire chapter. I’m sure some business books are good and all, but as C. S. Lewis would say, they tend to be… Continue reading Business books are mostly dead
If you've read the Chronicles of Narnia, you probably remember the Narrator's voice. The Narrator does far more than tell a story — he or she walks you through the adventures scene by scene. The Narrator is emotionally present and his or her personality permeates the entire story. The Narrator often speaks directly to the… Continue reading Is Polly Plummer the Narrator of the Narnia Books?
Star Wars 8, The Last Jedi was my least favorite film in the series. Windows 8 was my least favorite version of Windows. Yet upon further reflection, I truly appreciate them both. Here's why. I'm not sure how the brain's filing system is supposed to work but mine stores objects in semi-random buckets organized by… Continue reading Star Wars 8 and Windows 8 | In defense of magnificent failures
I don't have many pet peeves but the ones I have are big and hairy with scary teeth. One such peeve, for example, is the phrase sinfully delicious. Variations of these sadly misguided words have filled shows and commercials for years: This dessert is so good... it's sinful. Pththth. I'm no theologian but I am… Continue reading ‘Sinfully delicious’?
Did you ever go looking for a favorite movie quote online — a quote that's already become part of your family lexicon — only to find that nobody else quotes it?! Oy. Friends and family and workmates latch onto certain movie quotes that may or may not capture popular attention. "I'm the king of the… Continue reading What is quotable (to you)?
Sadly, I was raised in a generation where men were expected not to cry, including at the movies. Okay, technically, boys were allowed to cry at exactly two movies: Old Yeller and Brian's Song. I never saw Brian's Song but boy I did cry at Old Yeller. I remember sitting in the back seat of… Continue reading Crying at the movies
My phone doesn't take a week to boot it. My TV doesn't crash when I mute it. I miss ASCII text, and my floppy drive. I wish VIC-20 was still alive... - Three Dead Trolls (Every OS Sucks, 2000) I love technology. Yet there is a strangely intangible quality that is lacking in almost every… Continue reading Blog | The Desilu Factor
Most of the time, we want our machines to be smart. Like when I put popcorn in the microwave for 23 minutes. “Duh, kitchen machine… you KNOW what I meant!” But other times, we want machines to simply do what we ask. “Hey phone machine… stop auto-correcting my friends with non-Anglo names into food items!”… Continue reading Blog | The one AI setting we really need
The Elements of Simple 