Business, Tech, Consulting, Analytics

  Nobody wants to be called “a jack of all trades, a master of none.” But perhaps AI turns that old saw on its head. Here’s an example to show how AI has changed how we approach learning and skill acquisition. I spent the last few years learning the R statistical/programming language and used it for occasional analytics projects. With the dramatic rise in machine learning algorithms, Python seems to have become table stakes for anyone doing serious analytics. So here we go again … another stinkin’ language to learn. But to my surprise -- I only needed a day or so to learn what I need. I have friends, Mr. Chat, Ms. Perplexity, and Dr. Claude, who sit on the edge of their virtual seats, just waiting for me to give them work. Why learn loops, advanced charts and graphs, statistics, and all the rest when AI will do the work for me? Sure, they make mistakes but even then, I can feed the error messages back to them and wind up with some slick code on the other end. So, a day’s worth of...

Last week I gave an all-day lecture to accounting/internal audit students at Louisiana State University. The topic was AI. It was more discussion and conversation than lecture; no one in the room, including me, had any idea what’s really going to happen in the next five years. Note: the students are bright; I’m borrowing a few of their ideas here.  As we talked about near term AI related work/life changes – self coding computers, legal contract reviews, push button financial analysis, big pharma type discoveries – I thought of the TV show A Gentleman in Moscow , portraying a fictional Count Rostov, imprisoned for life in a hotel after the Russian revolution. As an aristocrat, he is out of favor with the commissars; a modestly revolutionary poem he wrote earlier saved him from execution.  In his new world, nearly everything was turned upside down – culture, technology, learning, human relations. His choice: adapt or die.   The students probably aren’t going to be thre...

  Lately, I’ve been using ChatGPT, the new AI tool, to do some things for me, such as writing code, creating Excel formulas, and writing ad copy for a book. I could do any of these chores without ChatGPT, but here’s the thing – using the AI is soooo much faster than the alternative. With AI, you have to know enough to ask the question (intelligent prompts), sniff out wrong answers/instructions, and then apply the answer. What you don’t have to be is an expert. In other words, the 2020s is the age of just knowing enough to think of what you’d like and ask the AI to “make it so.” Here's a short guide to navigate the new world: Think of what you want: Sound elementary? We’re so used to the Google search bar that it takes a moment to switch gears. “Give me three recipes for snow ice cream and a couple of jokes about it for publishing in a kids magazine. Use the style of Rodney Dangerfield.” Make ChatGPT do the work! State the obvious: When you are asking for things, make sure you expli...

  Stay positive. We hear this from teachers, friends, partners, bosses, and doctors. I’m guessing even godfather Don Corleone said it once to his lieutenants.   And there’s a reason for this hackneyed advice—99% of the time it works and works well. I hate working with a negative, irritating sour puss and I’m pretty sure you do to.   Now let’s talk about the 1%. Not the wealthy 1%. The 1% of the time you should be critical and harsh in your thinking. Once a year or maybe twice a year, clear your schedule for a hyper critical day where all the stops are pulled out and skeptical/suspicious/unkind thoughts are allowed. Why? Because most of us are basically good people and are uncomfortable with highly critical thoughts. Much of this is subconscious, which is why you need to designate a day for extremely critical, even unpleasant thinking. It takes that to root out mistakes, bad decisions, excessive trust in people, organizations, and businesses.   You have to get up an...

I was reading a Time magazine article (May 10, 2021) by Edward Felsenthal, Time's editor-in-chief. He was talking about the strategic direction of the magazine towards a more proactive approach to shape the world to be a better place. That sounds great, don't you think? How could one argue with that?  Here's what he said at the end of the article [emphasis mine]: "Our aspiration is tor TIME, in our company and in our coverage, to be among the ranks of businesses that drive positive action. When I started at TIME in 2013 , our mission was often described as “ explaining the world .” Today , we see it somewhat differently—it’s about telling stories about the people and ideas that shape the world, in hopes of doing our part to improve it . "   But look closely and you'll see two levels of news filtering. Filter #1: In 2013, Time was filtering all the hundreds of thousands or million of events happening in the world to find the few topics of most interest to the...

Lysol, Condoms, and Unexpected Consequences #1: Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Lysol owner Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC expects the surge in sales. The company believes the general trend to more cleanliness is likely to outlast the corona virus outbreak. #2: Reckitt's Durex brand, which mainly sells condoms, reported a modest decrease in sales.   Possible consequences Of course, cleanliness is a good thing, like salt. Take a salt deprived person, add a dash to his diet, and his health improves. Next day adds two dashes, better still. You can see where this is going -- eventually there will be a day when his health starts declining with more salt and if you keep going, he'll die.   Excessive cleanliness is not quite that drastic, but it can happen.  Evidence is growing(1) that without reasonable exposure to germs, children are more likely to develop allergies and even auto-immune diseases. Will this generation of children, the "Lysol...