Sometimes, you accidentally delete a paragraph of text and it’s not in the undo buffer for some reason. And most of those times, it’s good to think: I probably didn’t need that anyhow.
How shit actually works versus how you wish it worked
A discussion of messy dichotomies from the robot:
Thus spoke 🤖 :
Exploratory vs Normative — Quick Reference A compact reference for thinking about how a framework is operating: discovering reality vs prescribing order.
Exploratory vs Normative (academic, but precise)
Exploratory: investigates what exists in the real world; derives insight from practice Normative: asserts what should exist; defines correct structure and behavior Key question:
Exploratory → “What’s going on?
Even after 3 years of tuning ChatGPT to be my best dumb friend, I keep getting told to cut the shit with my rambling, e.g., recent faint praise from the robot for my attempt at re-stating an answer: “You’ve basically got it; the only thing to do now is sharpen the tool so it’s usable without sounding like a philosophy seminar.”
Scoping questions for business books
What type of organization is this book for? IBM or Facebook or OpenAI? Netflix or Warner Brothers? Mercedes or Tesla? Alaska or Belgium? Delta or SpaceX? HSBC or Square? Does this apply to management, employees, VCs, Wall Street investors, or customers? Feel free to pick multiple, but explain. Is this a playbook for how a PE firm can turn around a failing company, or a playbook for avoiding a PE firm turning around your company?
What you’re putting off now is not going to get any easier or less boring to do in the future. So, try to just do it now and gift yourself future self the lack of that bullshit.
20 years of business travel - you'll get there, or you won't
The first thing is, the travel industry changes very slowly. What changes most frequently is the interior decorating. The seats in planes, the plugs in hotel rooms, the signs in airports. Even these don’t change structurally, just in aesthetically.
The biggest change in 20 years has been Uber. I started traveling in 20051 which meant taxis. This was stressful. As a boy from Austin, taxis were not part of my life.
About 80% of the time, most made-up percentages of something studies have abandoned “80%” as the default majority number and are now using “70%” about 30% of the time.
“[N]ot everyone needs to like everything, which is the most important thing.” On art, but also life in general.
Relative to your interests on Thursday
Your aging brain stops being a people-please. But: “The same directness that would be called ‘no-nonsense’ in a man gets called ‘abrasive’ in a woman over 40.” “I had to teach a lesson on asparagus, an ingredient I couldn’t care less about but apparently was good for SEO.” Forrester’s highlights from re:Invent, including things that are not AI. “Artists are not using AI to make art. They use it as an ‘Admin Shield’ to handle invoices, emails, and code so they have more time for the actual creative act.