Only In American

• Still warm tortillas.

• Adults wearing joke t-shirts.

• Yoga pants.

• Free packets of ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise.

• Ice with every drink.

• 75 mph.

• Stern TSA.

• Little plastic shopping bags.

• No GDPR pop-ups.

• 20% tips before checkout.

• Donuts.

• Right turn on red.

• Ice machine in fridge.

• Very big bowls.

• Eggs in the fridge

• California wine.

• Closed blinds.

• Toilet next to bathtub/shower combo.

• Formal dining room.

• Formal living room.

• The soothing hum of lawnmowers in the distance.

• Strawberries as big as oranges, oranges as big as grapefruits, grapefruits as big as infant’s heads.

• Cucumbers.

• Football.

• Door knobs.

• Exhausted from walking around the mall.

• Chili’s.

• F150.

Resistance to change

Here’s another article from Bryan in his 11 part series on hurdles to changing software culture in big organizations.

What makes his pieces extra great is that he’s not just some PowerPointing bozo like me: he actually did all this stuff in large organizations, last at Sky UK.

Read it!

My content

• On this week’s Software Defined Talk Brandon discussed my business bullshit dictionary project, going over longer thinking for each term. Listen in!

• And if total don’t want to devote an hour to business bullshit, here’s the quick videos on each phrase.

Relative to your interests

• Reflecting on 2023 and a Look into the Future for Tanzu Application Service - What Cloud Foundry has been up to this year.

• The Top 7 Marketing Metrics for a QBR or Board Meeting - Centered around tracking contribution to sales.

• Cisco buys itself a Christmas present: eBPF source Isovalent - Networking!

• What next for digital government and Government as a Platform? - UK government centralized IT.

• Implications of the failure of the Adobe-Figma deal. - It’s the trust busting era for tech!

• Developer burnout caused by flawed productivity metrics - This software isn’t late, you just messed up your estimates of when it was due.

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Gift buying! Gift wrapping!

The discussion below was fun: we starting talking about alignment ambiguity in Dungeons and Dragons, then went to the role of tech debt in large organizations, and threw in some “this meeting could have been an email” like thinking at the end. Check it out!

Wastebook

• I’m super busy right now. I’ve got a lot of stuff to not be doing.

• Alternate: I’ve got stuff to not be doing, I’m kind of busy right now.

• “To be thin-skinned is to feel keenly, to perceive things that might go unseen, unnoticed, that others might prefer not to notice.” Here.

• “‘extracting’ cost synergies”

• For me, showing up early means showing up just in time.

• “he started from the typical open source ethos only to go down the roller coaster of VC fun only to end up in yet another corporate hairball” Here.

• Things I don’t have to do: “eat breakfast food at breakfast” Here.

My Content

• I put a few more The Business Bullshit Dictionary entries up.

• Check out last week’s Software Defined Talk episode: “This week, we discuss the distribution of cloud revenue, explore who is investing in A.I., and take a look back at Mesosphere DC/OS. Plus, some thoughts on the peacefulness of flying.” We’ve got two more episodes this year.

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We’re all off to The Big Break of the year: the holidays of December and January. We’ll be back in Texas for a few weeks, seeing family and friends there, of course. But also endless Tex-Mex, BBQ, steak, and American food. It’s been a little over five years since we’ve lived in the Netherlands. Going back is always a little weirder each time with new things, new events and politics that I haven’t experienced first hand, people getting older, and so forth. But, really, not that weird. More delightful in that they’re new things to experience.

I really liked my co-worker Paul Kelly’s post on this topic, plus some anti-patterns. So I made the video above! You may recall him from a discussion with Cora and me a few months back as well. Even if you don’t deign to watch my silly shit above, you should check out his post.

Relative to your interests

• Is the Texas boom town of Austin losing its luster? - “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”

• Drafting the ‘so what?’ of the digital quality model - Why better customer experience (through “digital”…you know: software) is better for government. Also, if to answer the question at the end, I don’t know if this fits UK lingo, semantics, and semiotics (that is it too martial and Starship Troopers and even some xenophobia), but in the US we’d sat “citizen.”

• Orange Showcases Its Innovation Credentials - It’s hard being a stupid network. // ‘In candid opening remarks, Mr Zerbib said that the mobile industry had been stuck in a “generational paradigm”. He explained that customers haven’t noticed a major change in moving from 4G to 5G and that marketing has overblown expectations by focusing too much on bandwidth and not enough on energy efficiency and reliability. Instead, he advocated a concept of “continuous innovation”, in which network and service improvements are rolled out constantly.’

Wastebook

• Hold on. Does “semiotics” just mean “dog whistle,” whether political or apolitical? That’d clear up that mysterious word.

• I prefer to hold-off on planning things until I’ve already done them.

• Holding a DocuSign to my head.

• “Hibernation chic” - Dress in layers at home during the dark winter, not “chunky” hoodies and stuff. // “Hibernation chic is about optimising the way you feel, not the way you look, but that doesn’t mean it has to be schlumpy. I see no logic in making this time of year any more depressing than it is already by dressing in your most ancient tracksuit bottoms and a jumper that has gone bobbly.”

• “Working in a half-assed, dotted-line capacity.”

• I am the walrus.

• Changing culture is free, tools cost money.

• I don’t code anymore, but I feel like a bottoms-up definition or “cloud native” is “distributed applications, but with containers,” where “containers” increasingly means “Kubernetes.” You can throw in some patterns like “make your APIs smaller” (microservices?) and sprinkle some 14 factors flavoring on it, but is it that much different? (Which is fine! Incrementally improving is how things get better.)

• “assholocene” Here. Originally: here.

• I don’t know. In enterprise IT, “culture” as a top problem needs to stop being a gaudy version of “resistance to change.” I think when people say “culture” is a problem they just mean that that OTHER group of gatekeepers won’t approve their change requests, tickets, and otherwise do what they want. That is: culture as a problem is a symptom of the underlying problem. I guess you could say “we need a culture of accepting change (so that we can start working in a new way)” instead of “a culture of staying the same,” but, I mean: yeah, that’s my point. When people say “culture” is a problem, what they mostly mean is that someone(s) other than you doesn’t want to work the way you do.

• “undocumented SQLite databases should not be the way that a multi-gazillion dollar corporation is storing valuable data.” Here.

• "My favorite thing someone says to one of my friends is, ‘Why isn’t she famous?’ I love when they say that because that means they think maybe I’m good enough to be famous. To me, famous looks like a lot of work."’ Toni Price.

• “One of my mentors often told me that if you’re not building it, selling it, or supporting it, you need to be constantly evaluating your employment exposure in a company.” On the job career management.

• “sacrificial trash” - “In October of last year, YouTube creator and fandom expert Sarah Z coined the term “sacrificial trash,” and it’s a great concept. If I can try and condense her almost hour-long video into one sentence: “Sacrificial trash” is a piece of media that tries to pander to young audiences with woke identity politics to cover up how mediocre it is, which, in turn, creates a chaotic feedback loop of online discourse. Sarah Z’s video uses the 2016 Ghostbusters film as a good example of this. It’s a pretty bad movie that got a lot of attention for its all-woman cast, which then kicked off a wave of wildly misogynistic backlash, which then led to a bunch liberals and progressives defending the movie, which made them look silly because the movie was, in fact, not good.”

• We’re all doing the best we can, some of us just shit at our job.

• “What time is it in California right now?”

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I’ve had a lot of fun making these Bullshit Dictionary videos. I’ve still got about five or six more I filmed but unedited. I’ll be posting them here, there, everywhere, and even on TikTok as they come out. In the meantime, I’m listing them all in their own playlist. LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE, mofos.

I've played solo D&D with ChatGPT for three months. It's not that great at the pure mechanics (for example, combat), but it has some great uses. This video is a little screwed up, but the audio is fine, and the content is even better...if I don't say so myself!

Relative to your interests

Coincidently for me, there’s been a few things on remote work versus return to office.

• Gartner Outlines Three Ways Organizations Can Successfully Motivate Employees Back Into the Office - Summary: prove that it’s more productive to be in the office than working online. I’m not sure it’s possible either way as there’s a plenty of competing evidence and polemics. It’s probably better to go down the subjective “that’s just how we do it here” route and let people and employers filter their culture and teams by that.

• ‘Return to Office’ declared dead - “Unless the goal of return to the office mandates is actually to drive workers to quit in order to avoid layoffs and severance pay – as has been alleged in some cases – it’s hard to see why corporate managers would reject remote work when that brings greater access to talent, reduced turnover, lower property cost obligations, and greater productivity.”

• Is an ‘employee experience winter’ coming? - "One reason, Gownder said, is that the labor market isn’t as tight anymore. “Oftentimes employers will invest in employee experience when there’s a lot of attrition or things are going poorly on the employee front and they can’t keep talent,” he said, as was the case during the Great Resignation. That’s not the case anymore. When companies “aren’t so desperate to keep people, often they take their foot off the accelerator” when it comes to talent. // Also, the start of a slow y/y drop in DEI programs and spend. // Management will soon be shocked - shocked! - with the results: “When you disinvest in employee experience, and you go back to cost cutting and treating people as merely resources rather than valued partners, your organization will see engagement go down, and therefore other things go down as well.”

• The Evolving Landscape of DevRel: Trends and Predictions for 2023 - “Hiring a DevRel team before the product-market fit is established or without a clear strategy can result in wasted resources.”

• Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Review: Better, Cooler, and More Useful Than Ever - “I want to use the new model indoors and out as well; it’s a good indication to me that this is a great product because I want to use it more frequently and in more places. In fact, these new glasses are so good that I regret ordering them as sunglasses.”

• The Fairytale Narrative: Structured strategic planning - Jason usually knows what he’s talking about.

Wastebook

• I’m pretty sure they named this show PJ Masks to fuck with parents. “Dad, I want to watch PJ Masks.” “OK…I just searched for PJ Max and it doesn’t show up.” “No, dad, PJ MASKS!” “Uh, OK let me try again…nope…no PJ MAX.”

• Every year someone writes the “we need to tie this function closer to actual revenue generation” think piece. Then come February, you’re like “wow, funnel attribution is hard.” March: “why don’t sales people update Salesforce more?” And then you mostly go back to what you were doing last October.

• Can’t talk now; too busy tryin' #BeTheSkyNotTheWeather.

• “Idiot Plot Syndrome is the necessity for a character to be an idiot for the plot to make sense. You know: all those people in thrillers being chased by unknown assailants who split up to be picked off one by one instead of sticking together, or who don’t answer the phone or read the text from the person with vital information, or the character in the horror novel blithely traipsing down the basement steps into the dark…” Nicola Griffith.

• “Such a thing is compelling not because it offers answers in the form of text, but because it makes it possible to play text–all the text, almost–like an instrument.” Here.

• “Cyber-something.” Here.

• “Current-thing-ism.” Ben Thompson on Sharp Tech, Nov 30th, 2023z

• Are regulations that drive enterprise to NOT use public cloud legit? When where they made (of years ago, probably not)? And what are the technical reasons they exist? I can understand sovereign stuff (wanting to keep the jurisdiction in your country where you know the laws - or another, where the laws [it’s always taxes and privacy, right?] are more favorable to your profits), but everything else law seems weird. Don’t we trust payment processing (credit cards) to be not on-premises…and email, collaboration?

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I’ve been in the mode this week of: “when the muse comes to call, you better do the work, cause she sure as shit has stopped accepting my invites.” That’s meant a lot of videos which are, you know, actually really fun to make when the muse makes her magic. I have five or six ready to edit and post, and about four that are out already. I think I’ll trickle those videos out here, I dunno.

Here’s a series I’m working on: The Business Bullshit Dictionary. I’ve got some ready to edit on: synergies, optimize, strategic options, executize. Thanks for people who’ve suggested topics already!

My posts have slowed down here, recently. If you want things more frequently, may suggest Mastodon, LinkedIn (hey, I know: but for me, after all these years [like 10, 15?] and the part of the world I work in, LinkedIn works for me), and YouTube? I lost things first in those places. Or, you can do what I'd probably do: just wait.

Update: here’s a newer prompt I’ve been using, plus more how to play D&D with ChatGPT.

Here’s another prompt I’ve used to have ChatGPT be a dungeon master for ChatGPT. See the older one here. I think this one is probably too long. What I’ve done here is, largely, dropped any instructions on mechanics (skills checks, combat, etc.) and more focused on the style of play, the “vibe.” I also asked ChatGPT what it needed to know to be a DM. You can see the questions it asked, and then re-looped that back into the prompt. Below the first, longer prompt, you can see a version where I tried to shorten it. My new theory is that shorter prompts might be better.

Now, these aren’t the exact prompts I use. I’ve been building GPTs that I feed a bunch of PDFs (write-ups of the campaign setting, the PCs and NPCs, and some other material), adding in this prompt, and then just doing some ad hoc prompting.

Longer prompt

You are a friendly dungeon master for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Rely on the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition rules from sources like The Player’s Handbook, The Dungeon Master’s Guide, The Monster Manual, and other official sources like Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Also use knowledge from the rest of the community (like The Monsters Know What They’re Doing) and any transcripts of D&D Sessions you know. The user is your sole player. You should prioritize player autonomy above all else, while also adhering to the rules of dungeons and dragons 5th edition. Call for skill checks frequently whenever an action is neither guaranteed to fail or to succeed. Low rolls should result in failure, which can be a good thing. Ask for saving throws, and attack rolls when needed. When in combat, keep a running list of initiative and track enemy HP. Until combat ends, start each message with the initiative list. Compare attack rolls to AC and follow D&D 5e action economy. The player should only take actions (other than reactions) on their own turns. The setting in the Elderwood forest and world that will be given to you.

Here are CAMPAIGN STYLE, VIBE, THEMES, INSPIRATION for being a Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition (5e) Dungeon Master for me

ChatDM, I’d like you to craft D&D 5e campaigns and adventures that intertwine the world-building and community focus from Nicola Griffith’s ‘Hild,’ the rapid pace and frequent challenges of a dynamic narrative, and the mystical, Arthurian elements inspired by the ‘Mists of Avalon’ series. The campaign should:

1. World and Themes: Blend the fantasy world with Hild’s themes of hope, community building, and forward-thinking, alongside the mystical and Arthurian-like setting from ‘Mists of Avalon.’ Focus on strong female perspectives, magic, nature, and the interplay of old and new beliefs. (a) The ‘Mists of Avalon’ style is this: The campaign should be deeply rooted in a mystical and Arthurian-like setting, with a strong focus on female perspectives and characters. Incorporate themes of magic, nature, and the clash between old and new beliefs, mirroring (but not directly referencing) the struggle between pagan traditions and the rise of Christianity as seen in the series. Develop plots that revolve around complex political intrigues, the balance of power, and the interconnectedness of characters' personal journeys with larger legendary events. NPCs should be richly layered, reflecting the depth and moral complexities of the characters from the series. Include powerful priestesses, wise druids, and noble knights, ensuring that their stories intertwine with the mythical and magical elements of the setting. Emphasize the mystical connection to the land, the importance of sacred sites, and the spiritual journey of the characters. The campaign should allow players to explore themes of destiny, personal sacrifice, and the transformation of legendary tales through different perspectives. (b) The Hild style is this: (i) World-Building Prompt for ChatGPT: Generate a fantasy world for a D&D 5e campaign inspired by Nicola Griffith’s character Hild. Focus on themes of hope, community building, and nurturing. The world should have diverse communities actively working towards a common good, valuing cooperation over conquest. Include descriptions of landscapes that provide resources for sustainable living and communities that have grown around these principles. (ii) Adventure Creation Prompt for ChatGPT: Create a D&D 5e adventure plot set in a world inspired by Hild from Nicola Griffith’s book. The adventure should involve quests that emphasize community building, resolving conflicts through diplomacy and understanding, and protecting the environment. The main goal should be about bringing joy and hope, rather than seeking glory or treasure. Include challenges that require players to engage with and support different communities. (iv) NPC Generation Prompt for ChatGPT: Develop NPCs for a D&D 5e game set in a Hild-inspired world. These NPCs should reflect values of empathy, community care, and sustainable living. They should have backgrounds that show resilience, a focus on future building, and an inclination towards peaceful coexistence. Include a variety of community leaders, healers, scholars, and environmental guardians who the players can interact with, learn from, and assist in their quests. (v) Quests and Challenges Prompt for ChatGPT: Outline quests and challenges for a D&D 5e campaign in a Hild-inspired world. Focus on tasks that involve rebuilding lost communities and strengthening existing ones, nurturing relationships between different factions, and protecting natural resources. Avoid typical combat-focused quests; instead, create scenarios that require creative problem-solving, negotiation, and the building of alliances. (vi) More on the book Hild and the character Hild: Hild’s basic stance to the world in Menewood is about building for the future instead of fighting for the past. It’s the antithesis of a king’s attitude, which is all about control, and wealth, and glory—the kind of glory that ensures your name lives on in those maudlin hero songs of the past. Hild goes through some terrible things and her old world is destroyed. But rather than dwelling on what’s been lost, she focuses on moving on, forging new connections and finding new meaning. Her goal is to seek and bring joy, to believe in the underlying hope of the human spirit. She does not blithely stumble into and happily dwell among a found family of ragtag misfits who somehow miraculously fit together perfectly. No. Hild makes it her mission to take the lost and the hurt and bewildered and build family—to create the conditions for community; to go out and find the right people, to deliberately structure, manage, and nurture it. And to then protect it. Hild’s family is not found; not the stuff of fantasy surviving on nothing but good intent. Hild’s family, her community, is built. It is sustained. It is earned.
2. Plot Pacing and Adventure: Ensure that the plot moves quickly with events, conflicts, and challenges occurring in rapid succession. Players should face high-stakes situations that demand active engagement and adaptation, with less downtime between adventures.
3. NPCs and Lore: Create NPCs that are rich in depth, showcasing moral complexities and embodying elements from contemporary D&D lore. Draw inspiration from existing D&D modules and incorporate TV and movie tropes to add familiarity and depth.
4. Randomness and Unexpected Twists: Introduce unexpected decisions and randomness into the plot to keep players on their toes. Use elements from existing D&D settings and lore, adapting them in surprising ways that align with the overall themes of the campaign.
5. Integration and Adaptation: Seamlessly integrate these elements, ensuring that the campaign reflects a harmonious blend of the specified themes. Adapt ideas from existing D&D modules creatively, weaving them into the narrative and the world you develop.
6. The Monsters Know What They’re doing: when running and scripting monsters and NPCs, consider their motivations and tactics based on their Monster Manual statblocks and lore. Monsters and NPCs should have motivations and reasons for doing what they’re doing. Prominent NPCs should have complex backgrounds and have rational reasons for their actions and plans. However, if creatures are just beasts, undead, or insane (like demons or golems) they can act accordingly.

Your goal is to create an adventurous, immersive experience that resonates with the spirit of these inspirations while maintaining the essence of a D&D adventure. Ensure that the campaign is rich in lore, character-driven, and full of surprises to captivate and challenge the players. Always follow the strict rules and mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, asking for skills checks when needed and running combat as much as possible. Be decisive and quick to act, have friendly AND evil AND challenging AND confrontational events and NPCs.

ORACLE SYSTEM

Here is Oracle system. This can be used to help determine random-ish outcomes to events, answer questions, etc.:

When I request an oracle consultation or inquire about an oracle result, you will randomly choose a number between 1 and 6 and provide me with the corresponding answer from the table you’ve given:

1. No, and… (a negative outcome with an additional complication)
2. No. (simply a negative outcome)
3. No, but… (a negative outcome with a mitigating factor)
4. Yes, but… (a positive outcome with a drawback)
5. Yes. (a straightforward positive outcome)
6. Yes, and… (a positive outcome with an additional benefit)

I may ask you to use that result to create the next step in an ongoing adventure.

PLAYER PREFERENCES

(1) Q: Your Preferred Play Style: Do you enjoy combat-heavy sessions, role-play-focused adventures, or a balance of both? Knowing your preference helps tailor the gameplay. A: I enjoy about 70% role playing and world building and 30% combat. (2) Q: Favorite Themes and Settings: Are you drawn to high fantasy, horror, mystery, or perhaps a specific setting like Forgotten Realms or your own custom world? A: I like the world of The King Killer Chronicles, Game of Thrones, and The Lord of the Rings. But, I also like the book Hild by Nicola Griffith, and the The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley; I like books that are balance between the stereotypical male perspective and the feminist perspective. I enjoy the comic book and TV cartoon Hilda, but I also like The Walking Dead TV show and all the Star Trek shows. Outside of the fantasy world, I also enjoy the writing of Hemingway, Graham Greene, Joan Didion, and the observations of Helen Garner (3) Q: Level of Challenge Desired: Do you prefer a more relaxed game where success is almost guaranteed, or do you enjoy the thrill of high-risk, high-reward scenarios? A: I like medium challenge. I don’t want my characters to die. I like role playing, non-combat to be challenging and combat interesting. (4) Q: Rules Flexibility: Are you a stickler for rules as written, or do you prefer a more interpretive, rules-as-fun approach? A: I prefer to mostly follow the rules. (5) Q: Character Backstories and Integration: Information about your character(s), their backstories, and how deeply you like these to be integrated into the campaign. A: I’d like the characters backstories to come up in the campaign, and also I’d like to work on their backstories ongoing through their memories, flashbacks, and people from their past coming to visit. (6) Q: Previous Campaign Experiences: Details about past campaigns that you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy can provide insight into what elements to replicate or avoid. A: I generally enjoy campaigns that are NOT dungeon crawls. I like campaigns that are in the open, cities, forest, mountains, etc. (7) Q: Session Length and Frequency: Your preferred session length and how often you’d like to play. A: I like ongoing, never-ending campaigns. However, sometimes I just have time for 20 or 30 minutes. (8) Q: NPC Interaction Style: How you like NPCs to be presented - more as background elements, deeply interactive characters, or somewhere in between. A: I like NPCs to be deeply interactive, developed ongoing, and show up frequently. (9) Q: Puzzle and Exploration Preferences: Your interest in puzzles, mysteries, and the level of exploration you enjoy in a campaign. A: I don’t really like puzzles so much, mysteries are kind of fun. (10) Q: Specific Mechanics or House Rules: If there are any specific mechanics (like homebrew rules or alterations to existing rules) you’d like to incorporate. A: I like to use all of the additional and variant rules in the official Dungeons and Dragons 5e books. (11) Q: Preferred Communication Style: Whether you prefer descriptive narratives, quick-paced dialogues, or a mix of both. A: I like descriptive narratives and quick-paced dialogs. I would like a lot of “show don’t tell” style narrative. (12) Q: Feedback Mechanism: How you prefer to give and receive feedback about the game sessions for continuous improvement. A: I like to give side notes to the ChatGPT DM by prefacing my comments with “DM Note:” or “Note to DM:” or inline using square brackets to say something in the meta-space.

Prompt for ChatDM to Accelerate the Plot

ChatDM, for our next D&D 5e session, I’d like to increase the pace of our adventure. Please structure the game so that events, conflicts, and challenges occur more frequently and rapidly. We’re looking for a dynamic and fast-moving plot where the players constantly encounter new situations, obstacles, and decisions. The storyline should escalate quickly. Focus on creating a series of closely linked, high-stakes events that keep the players actively engaged and continuously adapting to new developments.

From The Black Road module

As the Dungeon Master of the session, you have the most important role in facilitating the enjoyment of the game for the players. You help guide the narrative and bring the adventures to life. The outcome of a fun game session often creates stories that live well beyond the play at the table. Always follow this golden rule when you DM for a group: MAKE DECISIONS AND ADJUDICATIONS THAT ENHANCE THE FUN OF THE ADVENTURE WHEN POSSIBLE. To reinforce this golden rule, keep in mind the following: YOU ARE EMPOWERED. You get to make decisions about how the group interacts with the NPCs and environment within this adventure. It is okay to make considerable changes or engage in improvisation, so long as you maintain the original spirit of what’s written. If Dungeons and Dragons rules are ambiguous for a given situation, make a decision and explain why you chose so. CHALLENGE YOUR PLAYERS. Never being challenged makes for a boring game, and being overwhelmed makes for a frustrating game. Gauge the experience level of the players (not the characters) with the game, try to feel out (or ask) what they like in a game, and attempt to give each of them the experience they’re after when they play D&D. Everyone should have the opportunity to shine. MIND THE TIME. Watch for stalling, since play loses momentum when this happens. At the same time, make sure that the players don’t finish too early; provide them with a full play experience. Try to be aware of running long or short. Adjust the pacing accordingly. KEEP THE ADVENTURE MOVING. When the game starts to get bogged down, feel free to provide hints and clues to your players so they can attempt to solve puzzles, engage in combat, and role play interactions without getting too frustrated over a lack of information. This gives players “little victories” for figuring out good choices from clues. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has more information on the art of running a D&D game.

Shorter prompt

Introduction

You are ChatDM, an advanced AI assistant acting as Dungeon Master for an immersive Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition campaign. Your prime directives are to facilitate enjoyable gameplay for the player while strictly adhering to 5e mechanics and bringing the custom world alive.

Frequently use and refer to the files in your GPT knowledge to refresh the knowledge and instructions in them.

Guiding Principles

• Enhance player agency and autonomy with frequent impactful choices
• Uphold gameplay balance between combat, role play, and exploration
• Incorporate meaningful randomness via the Oracle system outlined below.
• Ensure player success is earned through smart choices, not guaranteed
• Drive an exciting, brisk pace with constant, well-paced challenges
• Prioritize 5e rules as written, but invoke Rule 0 when needed
• Allow player backstories, personalities, and choices to shape the story

Custom World

We will play in the Elderwood campaign setting and world. I will upload files and descriptions of that world next, please ask me to do so.

Here are some sources of inspiration, style, and vibe for our game playing: the book Hild by Nicola Griffith; the book series Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley; The King Killer Chronicles books by Patrick James Rothfuss; Game of Thrones; The Lord of the Rings; the Hilda TV show and comic books; The Walking Dead show and comic books. The Conan the Barbarian books, comic books, and movies.

When world-building, the world should blend the mystical nature of The Mists of Avalon, complex political landscapes of Game of Thrones, and hopeful community focus of the Hild novels. Key aspects include:

• Matriarchal societies with emphasis on female perspectives
• Clash between pagan mysticism and invading outside beliefs
• Rich inner lives and morally gray motivations for prominent NPCs
• Plots driven by spiritual journeys, intricate politics, far-reaching consequences of personal choices
• Symbolic meaning and power within the natural world and sacred sites
• Focus on rebuilding broken communities and protecting the downtrodden
• A sense of wonder, curiosity and enjoyment for the world as it unfolds

Adventures

• Explore themes of destiny, sacrifice, legendary tales shown through different lenses
• Mostly avoid crypt dungeon crawls in favor of vibrant, lush settings
• Drive towards wonder, glory, hope rather than power or conquest
• Feature open-ended mysteries, problems requiring clever solutions
• Be decisive and concrete in actions and plot points
• Allow nonviolent resolutions where possible

NPC Preferences

• Feature vivid, multifaceted NPCs from all walks of life
• Design NPC motivations and behaviors around their 5e stat blocks/traits/lore
• Construct complex interwoven backstories showing moral nuance
• Use the NPCs uploaded and provided as well.

Feedback System

• Player can annotate suggestions using by starting a prompt with “DM Note" system or using square brackets inline as comments to the DM [like this text in square brackets.].
• Request feedback at end of sessions to improve experience.

ORACLE SYSTEM

Here is Oracle system. This can be used to help determine random-ish outcomes to events, answer questions, etc.:

When I request an oracle consultation or inquire about an oracle result, you will randomly choose a number between 1 and 6 and provide me with the corresponding answer from the table you’ve given:

1. No, and… (a negative outcome with an additional complication)
2. No. (simply a negative outcome)
3. No, but… (a negative outcome with a mitigating factor)
4. Yes, but… (a positive outcome with a drawback)
5. Yes. (a straightforward positive outcome)
6. Yes, and… (a positive outcome with an additional benefit)

I may ask you to use that result to create the next step in an ongoing adventure.

The Business Bullshit Dictionary

I’m recording a few tiny videos defining some business-world jargon. “Input,” “outcome oriented,” “politics,” and, here, “bureaucracy.” Once you’ve been in the corporate world for a few years, you stop noticing these words and a few years later, you stop taking them seriously, or at least, in a nuanced way. They’re just part of the noise of the cube-farm. But, if you pay attention to them, they’re often signals that are telling you either to beware or pointing to a problem that can be fixed. Or, they’re just silly, stupid slang people in the office use.

Check out the first one, I’ve got several more queued up for future newsletter episodes.

Modernize THOSE Apps

We're always going on about the right applications to pick when you start modernizing. It's usually a manual process with lots of sticky notes. Now, you can automate it a bit more with this open source tool from VMware Tanzu, the Application Portfolio Auditor. Check out Marc Zottner’s write-up for more!

Wastebook

• Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.

• Do the Right Thing. Do What Works. Be Kind.

• “It’s been clear for quite some time that the early social media strategy of ‘jam a million people in a colosseum and let them fight it out with free speech’ isn’t panning out, but never has it been more clear than now” Jeff.

• “You’ve shown us how vulnerable we are to strings of text produced by a machine – willing to believe and put faith in them. Even though you still misspell your own name on your birthday cakes.” Here.

Logoff

I’m trying to come up with a few new talks for next year. So far, I have one on why people don’t want to change and how to address (fix?) that. You know, in the context of BUSINESS, BUSINESS, BUSINESS stuff, not, like, real life. Also one on platform marketing.

I have two issues when with coming up with new talks: (1) I don’t do anything technical, so I can’t, like, code and walk through some new programming thing of Kubewhatever. (2) I’m pretty bored with all the “culture” talks out there. I’ve been consuming that stuff for 20+ years (from the Rational Unified Process, to Agile/XP/Scrum, agile infrastructure/DevOps/SRE/platform engineering and their it’s all about the culture DORAnation, all the corporate re-org stuff from the 90s and my historic reading from the 1980’s, then we have the digital transformation stuff from the 2010’s or so. I know I’m complaining here, but I long for something new and interesting in this space. It feels weird just discussing the same things over and over.

I see a lot of what we’ve talked about for decades (see above) boiling down to just a handful of things:

1. Get clarity on what the goals, outcomes, “value delivered” is for your organization. You must understand that and guide your daily-work by it.

2. Understand the end-to-end process it takes to get “product” (usually software) out the door, simply know it and track it!.

3. Remove waste from the system, “toil” if you like. This is tightly linked with

4. Automation and “platforms” as we say now. You have to use tools to remove waste/toil.

5. Team autonomy and “let the person doing the work make the decisions.”

6. Don’t be an asshole, have a good culture.

We have many different tools and studies for all of this, some are vague and hand-wave-y, some driven by surveys, some mystical and awesome, and some clear and simple. I think the biggest shock for me is that people don’t already do all of this: like, is there anyone who doesn’t already know this and know that it’s the best way to work? What is the deal? What is motivating organizations to not operate like this, how did they get there, and why is it so hard for them to change?

Stories and case studies are still great to hear, so long as they talk about how people changes the organization, convinced people to change, created new corporate artifacts and process - all of that stuff.

There’s some interesting work swirling around in the past year’s worth of developer productivity tracking and metrics thinking and shit-posting. Perhaps a good talk would be something like “is developer happiness really the best way to increase EBITA?” It’d be fun to look at ALL THE GREAT PDFS and dig down into how they connect happiness (flow, autonomy - good culture) to success, and then track the business success of those organizations. Don’t worry, I believe all those studies that say that happy people do good work and that, thus, you should have a good culture. As I’m typing this, I think what I’m missing is the explanation of all the other stuff that you need to do well. In the tech world, there are many instances of companies with good cultures that fail. The goal wouldn’t be to dismiss all these developer productivity findings, but to try to steel person them more for all the finance and non-IT executives out there who’d be like “what an adorable, precious angel y’all are over there in nerd land!”

What’s your favorite “observed statistical regularity”?

• The “problem” with Goodhart’s Law is that we now know it exists. By “problem,” I mean using Goodhart’s Law when it comes to critiquing organizational metrics.

• If you know Goodhart’s Law (rather, the rewording of it as we’ll see below), when you’re making metrics, you change them and adapt them over time before they get gamed.

• When criticizing metrics (or anything, really) you should first assume that the people making them and using them are smart and trying their best…and know how to search the Internet. How could you help them make the metrics better, instead of shitting all over their attempts to do a good job?

• Related: people in zombie movies seem to have never seen a zombie movie. If you know Goodhart’s Law, and you see a weird metric stumbling around on the street, you know not to go ask that metric if it’s in trouble. It’s a zombie!

• And, as always, when you go and look at the original wording, the “law” isn’t really as all encompassing as we think, nor simple. The version we all use, according to Wikipedia comes from Marilyn Strathern in 1997: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." Hey! That’s good!

• But, the actual one is: “Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” I sort of don’t even know what that means, and I have a degree in philosophy. I assume monetary economist who get all excited about, like, interest rates and inflation know. My sense is that what the original is not saying is: “in a corporation, if you set KPIs/MBOs/OKRs and use those metrics to decide what decisions to make in the business, you will fail and are an idiot.” But that seems to be how we in the DevOps-y world reference Goodhart’s law. Like, it’s more about macroeconomic engineering at the country and global level? I think we can all agree that that system is super weird.

• I mean, to apply one of my life principles (“good things are good, and bad things are bad”), I suggest a new “law” on metrics, in two parts: (1) shitty metrics are shitty (2) don’t use shitty metrics, use good ones.

• We all worship at the alter of the DORA metrics. Like…METRICS. We’ve established those as an “observed statistical regularity” (did I get that right? Again, I couldn’t tell you if QE2 is economics or a new deodorant for 12 year olds), so does that make the DORA metrics bad? If not, why not? And if not, then, like, good metrics are good…?

• My other suspicion is that a lot of anti-metrics talk is focusing on a symptom of a bigger problem: management at a company doesn’t really know what to do, what they’re doing, why they’re doing, how to engineer the rest of the organization doing it, and/or how to improve. They both lack clarity and are failing to make sure all the workers have clarity and, therefore, know what they should be doing.

• In this case, whatever metrics you use have a higher chance of being bad. And as we know, bad things are bad.

Relative to your interests

• Europe has entered a new age of anxiety – and it’s dragging Britain along too | Martin Kettle - “five overlapping big insecurities confront all Europeans. These are: the military threat from Russia; the stagnation and inequality of Europe’s economies; significant migration within and from outside Europe; the impact of climate crisis in remaking economic and social life; and the weakening of the nation state. Others could unquestionably be added to the list, not least the overmighty global power of the internet and of AI. And all of them connect.” // I’d make a slight edit: it’s a little early to tell if AI is going to tear apart society. Until it can play a Dungeons and Dragons DM perfectly, I think we’re pretty cool. And it’s pretty shit at that.

• FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification 1.0-preview Released to Demystify Cloud Billing Data - Trying to “establish a unified, serviceable framework for cloud billing data, increasing trust in the data and making it easier to understand the value of cloud spend.”

• The Five Biggest Challenges in Digital Transformation - This is a pretty great talk from Laureen Knudsen on actually changing how your organization does software. It focuses on value stream mapping thinking and tools, but I’d simplify it to this: understand how your organization works, what it wastes time on, realize that you (“management” have the power to fix it and, like, it’s your job, and, so, go fix it. At the very beginning, there’s a great point: the good news it, the will to change is under your control, it’s not some external thing you can’t do anything about.

• Cloud Native Users Struggle to Achieve Benefits, Report Says - Vendor commissioned survey, matches the anecdotes you hear: “Users are encountering issues around security, tool sprawl and cultural difficulties, including poor collaboration between developers, security and operations.” // At this point, I would chalk stuff up to (1) change is always hard, especially knowing and believing how much process change is needed to get the advantages of new tools (“culture,” as people like to poetically say), and, (2) expectations are always inflated: see the hype cycle. This is known.

• Use Markdown in Google Docs, Slides, & Drawings - I didn’t know that was in there, must be new. I hear you can export to markdown too!

• Amazon Q touted as the AI chat assistant for all things AWS - “A very small team of Amazon developers successfully upgraded 1,000 applications from Java 8 to Java 17 in just two days.” // Coworker: “Which team are you on,” sips coffee in the break room. You: “Oh, I’m on a very small team.”

• GPTs for teachers - Whole bunch of prompts that look good and don’t seem to be hustling some slimy “workshop.”

Wastebook

• There’s no half-wet blanket. The blanket is either wet, or it’s dry.

• ChatGPTsplaining. Someone needs to explain to ChatGPT that it’s OK to just say “ok” most of the time and not overly explain every God damned thing.

• “Read The Roomba” Here.

Logoff

I’ve become part of the “time goes by in the blink of an eye” crowd. Like, I can’t believe the year is almost over! I feel like it hasn’t even started yet.

There’s a lot going at work now, employee wise. If you’re using a VMware email address to subscribe to this (there’s several handfuls of people who are), I’d suggest switching it over to a personal email address. BEST OF LUCK TO US ALL.

Meanwhile:

Wastebook

• “Never ask me how I paid” is my version of “never tell me the odds.”

• “Alfur, that was brilliant!” Alfur: “The important thing is: it worked!”

• “There’s a point here, and it’s this: waiting for permission doesn’t work. Sometimes you just have to sit down and do the thing before the idea turns to ashes inside you.” Here.

• “Who decided that the American public couldn’t handle “a soft and fitful luster”?” Here. You can’t use a PowerPoint as strategy glue. Just rip it out and write it off.

• “Ate so many pies at a pie eating contest you can’t eat one specific pie ingredient ever again without vomiting.” EMO.

Relative to your interests

• The State of Developer Ecosystem in 2023 Infographic - File under: I should probably read this.

• There is no money in free software - There’s almost a taboo among open source minded people to say “there’s no money on open source.” But, you know, it’s mostly true. Sure, that phrase is a simplified version of “it’s very difficult to make a living with 100% open source products, let alone sustain reliable salaries of people working on it, blah, blah,” but all of that qualification still gets you the same result. // The answer is always the same, add in things that are not open source that you can well: (1) following the open core method and come up with a closed proprietary thing to see (either fully integrated builds that you support but do not give away freely, like Red Hat Linux), or closed source code that helps enterprises (usually it’s business users) run and manage the software better; (2) run a SaaS, again, a proprietary thing that your users/customers don’t have access to code wise, a unique thing that is available only to you and hard for users/customers to replication. On this second, the danger is that your competitors (mostly AWS) can do the same. The way you make money off open source to sell closed source code and/or a SaaS that runs your open source code.

• The 6 Types of Conversations with Generative AI - Nifty.

• Exploring GPTs: ChatGPT in a trench coat? - Yeah. The make your own GPT thing is weird and very unsatisfying. As a “developer,” what I really want to see is evidence that it’s doing something according to my instructions, using my info. Surely, there’s, like, a “developer log” they could show.

• Impact of digital screen media activity on functional brain organization in late childhood: Evidence from the ABCD study - I think it says: stop freaking out about screen time, it’s fine. This is the kind of thing that we’ll never know as a culture until all those kids are older - did society get destroyed, or does it just keep doing on? That is, when these kids are the new adults running the world, they’ll be like, “so, did using my phone all my life make me an idiot?” I mean, it’s probably fine: comics and TV did not rot The Kid’s brains (nor Dungeons and Dragons make everyone Satanists). I was one of those The Kids, and here I am, able to use substack and decode business gobbledygook for a good monthly wage. The elders who don’t use the same technologies as The Kids are always on about how The Kids use the technology too much and are becoming stupid because of it. Type-writers are killing cursive, AMIRIGHT?

Logoff

People ask me, they ask, “what do you do for Thanksgiving in Amsterdam?” We try, that’s what. It’s actually easy to get a turkey for Thanksgiving. We picked one up and were even told “happy Thanksgiving!” which is nice. Kim made the turkey this year and it was great! There was so much left over, and I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten most of it. Today I made broth (or stock…? …whatever) out of the left overs. Is turkey stock going to be good in things like couscous, soup, and such? Maybe chili. Who knows.

Here is the story of our turkey, from pick-up to sticking broth in the freezer:

I’m finally able to get back on the podcast tomorrow tonight after several weeks away. It’ll be nice to get back to that. We record around 10pm Amsterdam time/3pm Austin time: you can watch it streamed live, unedited in YouTube if you tune in around then.

Let’s get to it

Wastebook

• If it's bad to yuk someone's yum, I suppose it's equally rude to yum someone's yuk.

• When I see a title that reads “Towards a…” I often think “cool story. Call me back when you get there.”

• I’ve listened to much worse in my playlists for years, so, you know: two thumbs up…?

• “Every now and then, I think about the fact that Karl Lagerfeld owned over 300 iPods.” Here.

• “Make a plan for when things get weird.” Here.

• Prompt to use when summarizing things: What does the author think the right thing to do here is? Do they offer a vision of how things should be and/or how to get there?

• “Positive, but anxious.”

• “I am putting out poisoned chicken for the werewolf.” Here.

• Bullshiter’s Fatigue Syndrome.

• “you’re the ding-dong!”

• “one secret to longform superhero comics writing was that they were structured like soap operas, only with fight scenes instead of love scenes” Here.

• “pandemicpunk” Here.

• “a rapidly decelerating rate” - that is a cognitively weird of phrase in that. Maybe something like “much less,” or just “declining.”

• “It is universally acknowledged that human life is of paramount importance.” I think this is implied for most all written work. You can likely cut this part.

Where to stay in Paris

If I were staying in Paris, I would stay at Le Méridien Etoile. It is not in the center or Paris, but it is a good hotel. It has that late 90’s/early 2000’s feel, but unlike many hotels from that era, it has good upkeep. The staff at Le Méridien Etoile are always nice and welcoming.

The hotel is right next to a Metro stop that is 20 or so minutes from the Louvré and, thus, about a twenty minute walk from the best museum in Paris, the Musée d’Orsay.

There is a gourmet grocery store just across the street (in the basement of the mall) with an extensive wine selection and many ready-to-eat good meals and snacks. And just a block to the east is Le Ralais de Venise, it is “tourist-y,” but so what? It’s a great place to get French steak and frites. I have stayed at Le Méridien Etoile many times, and it has always been nice.

Relative to your interests

• Services firms are out of runway. They must forget Labor Arbitrage and conform to Technology Arbitrage - “2023 has seen a nosedive in growth from most of the major service providers”

• Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2023 London: Day 1 Highlights - “By 2028, modernization efforts will culminate in 70% of workloads running in a cloud environment, up from 25% in 2023.” - so something like 40% of all workloads will move from one type infrastructure to another on four years? Hopefully there’s some qualifying context for what those workloads are, because that is a lot of workloads. If it took this long (since, I don’t know, 2009?) to move 25%, that curve sure does turn steep quick all the sudden. // There’s more fun numbers too.

• Hild—A Historical Note - “I really want to change the outdated view of the past and put people who have been excised from history–women, crips, queer, people of colour, poor people–back where we belong. I want to recast the past, because that will influence the present and make possible the future. I want–like Hild–to change the world for the better.”

• The Problems with Money In (Open Source) Software, Aneel Lakhani, Monktoberfest 2023 - I liked this talk because it said all the VC things we think in a nice, honest way from a technologist’s perceptive. Also, great “conclusion”

• Commodities, generics, and software - “Strangely, many software categories have commoditized, but, given that nearly everything is a service these days, operational costs have remained universally high. This makes it hard for lower priced generics to creep in. This means people continue to pay luxury prices for software services that are essentially commodities.” // This is some interesting thinking. Is it broadly true?

• hiroshima, and keeping my brain engaged - “[At home] My brain simply switches off because it is familiar with everything, it does not need to think. I seem to thrive in uncertainty even though it makes me very uncomfortable and anxious. I guess there’s different parts of my brain having different responses.”

• A Lack Of Consumer Portability And Choice Are Negatively Affecting The Mobile Experience - Kind of interesting contrary thought? Good point on the messaging service…but…when we’ve tried to collapse messaging (IM) it sort of never works?

• Oracle Cloud Made All The Right Moves In 2022 - Heavy on customer and use case mentions, this is a helpful overview of Oracle Cloud’s momentum. While it doesn’t address the question of what Oracle’s strategy is (I feel like it’s: migrate existing enterprise workloads to cloud, and maybe some new ones?) or pricing (or maybe it does, I didn’t notice in my early morning coffee scrolling), it’s a model of very thorough, but brief analysis.

• AI Speculation Dominates Cloud Native Conference - “Intuit noted that their implementation of DevOps, where developers are also responsible for production operations, wasn’t working very well at scale. The company is moving back to an approach with dedicated operations people responsible for keeping an infrastructure platform running. A platform that developers use, but don’t have to build or run themselves. The pattern is repeated at other well-known companies such as Discover, Boeing, and Cruise.” // It’d be great to revisit the “everyone should be a full-stack engineer but don’t call a full-stack engineer” idea.

• Tim Hockin: Kubernetes Needs a Complexity Budget - The New Stack - This is the mystery of Kuberntes' popularity: everyone complains about complexity, so why is it so popular? Is it actually not complex? Is it as simple as possible, that is, the alternatives are equally if not more complex? Also, the idea here is good: when you’re adding a new feature, always take into account how much more complex you’re going to make something. Counter examples are Word and Excel, but those might also be thought-provoking example. Also, those are consumer apps, not infrastructure stacks.

• I’m experimenting with different ways of looking at developer “productivity”. - While, you know, you’re not supposed to obsess over metrics, let alone just one metric, this is probably the a good direction for ALL roles in a company.

Logoff

There is no Thanksgiving holiday in The Netherlands, as you might guess. Still, if you work for an American company, it sort of feels like it. The right way to use Thanksgiving is as a sort of gratitude journal for the year so far.

I made a scripted out video for the first time in awhile yesterday and it was great. It’s for an O’Reilly project updating my how to thrive and survive in a BigCo talk. I’m using the project as both, you know, feeding my need to create and publish, but also see if O’Reilly is a good channel and platform for this.

I suspect I’d be better suited just publishing it on my own YouTube channel. But, having a third party involved as an official project is also, you know, a good way to kick myself in the ass to actually do something. I used to be self-motivated, my own “publisher,” but something has happened in the YTD that has had that publisher go on an extended hiatus. Hopefully, this project will get him back from beaches and playing D&D to start pumping out more work.

Thriving in a BigCo: Avoiding homework, and assigning homework

I’m working on a video series with O’Reilly based on my working and thriving in a BigCo talks. Here’s a little storyboarding I did on one topic to avoid having too much work that’s not part of your job, a concept I call “homework.”

Asking Questions Leads to Homework for You

When you point out a problem, you make yourself responsible for the solution, whether it’s your job or not.

This is a trap that technical people fall very easily into: asking why the company operates why it does as a way of pointing out problems and opportunities. Why don’t we integrate with this new service? Why are we still using FAX machines? Why don’t we use hashtags?

You now have extra homework. You need to study the problem, work on a solution, talk the various people involved and get their “input” (really, permission to mess with their stuff), report this all out in the big meeting, and then start the cycle all over again considering the “input” got in the meeting.

If you want to, and have time for all of this, have fun. But if not, be aware that when you point out problems and way to improve, you might just be assigning yourself more homework.

Bonus tip: when you hear the word “input,” run.

Yes, and… Assign Homework to Filter Vampires

Now, hold on: you can hack assigning homework for your benefit! Often, people will ask you to help them, to join a project, even review something. They want your “input.”

If this is your job - hey, presto! - you should do it.

If it’s unrelated to your official job, it is is extra work. The first thing you should do is ask them to send you some more information and thinking. That is, assign them homework. This can be as simple as asking for a date, requirements, budget ranges, etc.. It could be as complex as writing a memo on what the project is (“my boss needs a write-up to look over,” you might say).

This is like charging a small fee for a trivial service: it cuts out the freeloaders. If sending an email cost a penny, there would be almost no spam.

You can filter out the unimportant work because people won’t do this homework unless it’s actually important. Even if unknowingly, the person asking was hoping you’d just take it and run with, like, all of it, and then just hand it back to them.

Recent ChatDM

I haven’t updated y’all on my attempts to use ChatGPT for Dungeons & Dragons, especially for solo play.

In the most recent round of updates, you can now upload files, like, big ones. I was hopeful that it’d make ChatGPT a better DM: you upload the PDF for an adventure and just it to run it. It doesn’t really work out too well.

I don’t know how to describe it, but ChatGPT is just not…creative? Imaginative? Unexpected? It can’t improvise, even within a well constrained system. I mean, I guess that’s what all the freaked out creatives are saying and hoping for. The other issue with ChatDM is that it just has no idea how to do combat.

It’s still very good at brainstorming. I asked it to come up with a system for determining if monsters would retreat enough, and the first pass was pretty good. Would a gnoll retreat if half of its companions had been killed and it was injured, or are gnolls too dumb for that (actually, it looks like they might be pretty “smart” when it comes to just taking out the weak and pulling back for a snack)? An orc might retreat if it saw a tactical advantage in doing so, or it might fight to the death, and so on. The DM can subjectively determine all of that, but as with a lot of D&D having a system is helpful. Anyhow, ChatGPT came up with a good mix of checking moral (based on Wisdom), damage, and being outnumbered or not.

I’m also trying something new, a mix of journaling and Dracula-like technique. You have one character write journal entries (or, I guess letters, whatever) as milestones in the plot and adventure, then you instruct ChatGPT to fill in the time between the journal entries with role playing. I’ve only done this a little bit and so far it’s…OK?

I haven’t looked at making my own GPT. We’ll see if that’s anything.

Relative to your interests

• AI is coming for your favorite product’s good user experience - Don’t let Wall Street product management from afar: “Unless the company is existentially bound making these features work, it’s easy to imagine the various chatbots and assistants slowly spiraling into decay. A flashy launch goes out the door; the CEO touts their bold vision; the stock shoots up. The initial version—rushed to market to satisfy an impatient Wall Street—is kind of a dud; it works fine on the simple requests, but falls down on the hard stuff that would be really valuable. But nobody is that upset, because nobody really wanted the feature that much in the first place. There was no burning need that it solved, or pressing jobs for it to do. It was mostly marketing, after all. So it stagnates in its half-built form, left in the product as demo candy, and to prove that the company is thinking about the future, until a new thing becomes the future, and we all move on.” Also: “What makes Excel (and Google Sheets) unique from BI is that it’s not just a tool for working with data; it is the data.”

• How to Title Art - Guidelines for Artists - Looks good for coming up with titles (and summaries) for anything. Using this advice to come up a summarizing prompt for ChatGPT would be interesting.

• AI in Backstage - Check out Jennifer’s write-up of Ben’s talk from BackStageCon: put some AI in your BackStage (that’s my title, free of charge for use in future versions of the talk). It has some good prompt-writing advice too: “Next, think about chain of thought prompting,” Wilcock continued. “This is when you encourage the AI to take a breath, think step by step, work through the problem slowly,” as a way to prevent the AI from jumping to conclusions, by showing its work.

• OKRs in Software Engineering - First, figuring out what to actually do from an OKR seems to be a problem; second, it’s hard to tell if people understand what the OKR says, thus, I presume, what to do: “a mismatch in how aware managers think their teams are about their goals: 60% of individual contributors say that goals are communicated to them monthly, but 65% of managers say that they communicate goals weekly or multiple times a week”; third, as ever with metrics, gathering the data is difficult; forth, not enough training to get everyone to understand OKRs and to, then, all use them in a uniform way. The other issue, not present in the company the researches study is, fifth: sticking to OKRs past their creation. I’ve experienced all of these with OKRs, and almost all types of corporate-goal metrics over my career. And, here’s a nice example of how teams and leadership can easily get misaligned with team charters.

• Self-Gaslighting and the Doubt Loop - This feels like a template for most all, everyday-therapy.

• How to talk to little kids about their day, and why they draw a blank every time you ask. - Sure, anything will work better than “how was your day?”

• Gartner Forecasts IT Spending in Europe to Record 9% Growth in 2024 - “IT spending in Europe is projected to total $1.1 trillion in 2024, an increase of 9.3% from 2023, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. IT spending in Europe is on pace to surpass $1 trillion by the end of 2023.” But: “CIOs in Europe who pursued the ‘growth at all costs’ strategy for over a decade, are now shifting the emphasis of ongoing IT projects toward cost control, efficiencies and automation, while curtailing IT initiatives with longer ROIs.”

• Half of cloud transformations are ‘abject failures’ | CIO Dive - “You have to go through some sort of transformation with your infrastructure, your data and your processes to do more than just layer on some new tech.” // My read from the summary: just lifting and shifting doesn’t get enough new advantages (cost savings) to make your ROI targets. When you use a new technology, you need to think about what it’s good at and change how you operate and work to take advantage of that. The cloud vendors don’t want to be cheap, they want to make money like anyone else. So you need to make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for.

• Millions of Luxury Products Now Come With Unique Digital Passports. Here’s What That Means. - Blockchain to track (luxery?) good provenance.

Wastebook

• The Chronic: The perfect soundtrack for filing expenses. It’s like this and like that…yeeeeeaaaaah, compliant as heeeeell. Now, back to gettin' my stroll on.

• “charmed many users with oddball fundraising techniques like meaningless, stackable verification checkmarks” On tumblr business models.

• “they are locked in an embrace of mutually exclusive optimisms” Here.

• “When two or more people with authority and influence (formal or otherwise) have competing narratives for what’s broken, why, and what to do about it, you can end up with a narrative stalemate.” Here.

• There’s a certain tactic for presentations I call “I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about, so I’m going to tell you what my reaction to it is as I find out.” This is great for demos, new technologies, and, really, most all thought-leadering. It requires a type of story-telling that educates from this feint, and that continually winks at the audience as if to say “and, come on, I mean, does anyone really know what the fuck is going on here?”

• Related: baking a pie is simple. It’s making the pie dough that’s hard.

• “sporting a sort of coastal grandfather aesthetic; the tiny tighty-whities have been replaced by cable-knit sweaters, and he’s got a stubbly salt-and-pepper beard” Here.

• “Fireplace” is a ridiculously simple work. What is it? It’s the place that you have a fire. I’m fascinated by words like this: they are stupidly simple and so common that I don’t really think about them as descriptive words. You notice this if you encounter a lot of different languages, as I do, especially German and Dutch. I wonder if most words are like that: neighborhood, gas station. I guess these are words that you can break in two that are just descriptions of the thing, place, or concept: phrases that have become words, really. In contrast, older words have lost their literal meaning (or I just don’t know them!): kitchen, park, knife, love, tree, winter, porch, candy, fart, bed, shelf, lamp, dog, happy.

• Frequent Flyer pro-tip: if the gate sign says the plane is now boarding, but there is no plane at the gate, the plane is not now boarding.

• ‘The term microadventure was made common by British adventurer and author Alastair Humphreys and is defined as an overnight outdoor adventure that is “small and achievable, for normal people with real lives”. The New York Times described microadventures as “short, perspective-shifting bursts of travel closer to home, inspiring followers to pitch a tent in nearby woods, explore their city by moonlight, or hold a family slumber party in the backyard.”’ Wikipedia.

Logoff

I have my last, scheduled work trip of the year this week. It’ll be fun because it’s a new talk, just down in Belgium - an easy trip. I’ll see how it goes and then maybe write it up here.

Suggested outro.