ChatGPT

January 23, 2023

Good morning! Here at Without A Vision Consultancy we never tire of being grateful for YOU. Happy New Year! Were you at DAVOS 2023?  How was it?  No snow we heard. From 62 to 64?!?  The French are aghast… and who wouldn’t be? Has Hal returned to haunt and harass us?

Enter ChatGPT forever into our society — like the COVIDs — sparking a new worldwide debate.

And we thought we would never survive Wikipedia!

• This just in:  The U.S. lags behind, but sales of electric vehicles globally are now ten percent (10%) of total vehicles sold.
• Looking for a way to improve or to enhance your strategic-level visioning?
  • Consider involving some children whose imaginations have not yet been stymied in the same ways as many adults.
• Another joiner on the Surge and Purge approach:  None other than the Googles.
• Numerology is fascinating, imaginative, instructive, thought-provoking, and fun.
  • And, as a friend and colleague used to say about numbers:  “The facts are ascertainable.”
  • At a point in time about a year ago, Elon Musk reportedly had net assets valued at approximately one-fourth (1/4) of a trillion (U.S. $) dollars.
  • Elon has now lost more than half of that, and some French guy has taken the worldwide lead.
    • BTW, when they rank these billionaires do they consider the oligarchs, the Sheiks, Putin, Despots, the Cartel, royals, people who own whole countries?
    • I suspect not, so, as almost always, the data are flawed, but still fun.
  • Consider this:  IF, one year ago, Elon had decided to be both generous and magnanimous (he was going to lose over half of it anyway!), he could have retired 1/120 (.834%) of the United States debt all by himself, the so-called national debt.
  • Big IF, but then please consider, if there were 119 other people with similar assets and proclivities, the 120 of them together could have us burning the mortgage.
  • Problem solved with JUST 120 humans involved.
  • Heck, keep a billion each and find a 121st person…
  • A new start, a new beginning, with just 121 humans making it happen..
  • Good to know that Jeff, Bill, Warren, and others are holding steady at about $100 billion each — so at that rate it would take 300 humans of their capacity, approximately.
  • But, you get the idea… It is all about context and relativism and scale and perspective — and, as always, the math.
  • Adjusting for CPI (inflation) the United States debt right now is about identical to where it was at the end of the War Between the States in 1865.
• What is your go/ no go threshold for winter driving?
  • If a zero-visibility blizzard and/or skating rink ice equal a one (1 = worst), and sunshine, above-zero (F) temperature, and completely dry roads equal a ten (10 = best) on a continuum, what is your tolerance?
  • What increases your tolerance?  What decreases it?  When must you drive/ travel — even in a one?
  • What road/ travel conditions equal two (2) through nine (9) for you?
• A pendulum swings, that’s what it does.  If you get into the physics of it, its path is predictable.
  • If outside forces act on a pendulum, its path will change, but it will still swing and eventually return to a predictable pattern — or not.
  • Why then, are the paparazzi media poised to pounce with hyperbole?
• “Not only is the majority of training (education) in today’s companies ineffective, but the purpose, timing, and content of training (education) is flawed.
  • Want to see eyes glaze over quicker than you can finish this sentence?
  • Mandate that busy employees attend a training (learning) session…”  (Glaveski)
  • Companies spend in the neighborhood of $400,000,000,000 annually on in-service (aka, learning, education, development).
  • 75% of managers reported being dissatisfied with the in-service;
  • 70% of employees report needing/ wanting more of the right kinds of in-service;
  • Only 12% of employees report a direct connection to education received and the application of it to their job;
  • About 25% of employees believe an in-service experience improved job performance and productivity.”  (Glaveski)
    • Four (4) key takeaways of what organizations get wrong:
    1. Learning for the wrong reasons;
    2. Learning at the wrong time (remember that old saying about necessity?);
    3. Learning the wrong things;
    4. What is learned is quickly forgotten — because it isn’t used and/or reinforced.”  (Caplan)
• And, this from our friends at McKinsey, who WERE at DAVOS:

1. Global disruption isn’t slowing down…
2. No region is an island…
3. To achieve net-zero carbon, leaders must balance resilience and transition…
4. Inclusion is helping companies to tap underserved markets, giving them a competitive edge…
5. The space economy has vast potential to change the world (and, we would suppose, space itself?).  (Francis, Pactwood, Etc., et al.)

“Maybe love shouldn’t be such hard work.”  (Zellweger in Jerry Maguire, 1996)

Rivers never go in reverse… so, try to live (and work) like a river. forget your past and focus on your future.  (Unknown)

“I’m irrationally optimistic.”  (Brooks on 2023)

“Flexibility is here to stay.”  (Sinek on the future of work for 2023)
“I’m an expert at listening — but I sucked at listening when it came to my family and friends.”  (Sinek)
(From M.I.T. Sloan, 2022) –“…When inaccurate or wrong information is repeated, an illusion of truth occurs.  People believe repeated information to be true — even when it is not.”

“It is startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are, ‘We are number two’!”  (Sedaris)