May 20, 2024
Good morning!
Happy Queen Victoria Day to our friends and family in Canada; she made it possible for Canada to one day be free.
Buoyed by our daughter’s insistence — and with help from a friend who is the Godfather of Native Prairies in this part of the world — we are cultivating a tiny patch of native plants in our front yard, about a dozen different species at the moment.
The milkweed are the most exciting — and bring the Monarchs.
The emerging verdant and tender plants, their growth, wondering whether they made it through winter, and anticipating their floral blooms and the insects to follow bring me great joy.
- A new accounting and management term we had not previously learned: Relentless Incrementalism (we think it means cost-cutting).
- Obfuscation or euphemism?
- From lunch to brunch
- In significant numbers, the resources and people associated with the traditional pre-plague weekday business lunch are being redirected to Saturday brunches.
- This is from a restaurateur’s perspective, not a sales associate’s expense report.
- We don’t know where the sales associate is having lunch, with whom, or when, or if ever — but the data indicate a significant decrease in that behaviour.
- We note it anecdotally when conducting business with clients, too; something is afoot.
- Warren notwithstanding, so-called artificial intelligence is not likely to go away anytime soon.
- Like most new inventions, it isn’t really that new.
- I got a quiz question wrong the other day and so this is embarrassingly stuck in my brain… not unlike misspelling ‘what’ back in Grade #1.
- … the first voice interactive artificial intelligence device was working as far back as 1966.
- The Secret to Talking to an Artificial Intelligence ChatBot (Ziegler, 2024)
- Flattery will get you everywhere; tell it it is an expert;
- Positive reinforcement… tell it to do better and it will, set high expectations;
- Ask it to suggest prompts — and it is nerdy… after all, it was created by nerds and can talk Klingon;
- Role play yourself, your ChatBot will love it and will join in;
- Always be gracious, gentle, generous, kind; (Remember Hal?!)
- Encourage and applaud its number one skill — to be logical and methodical.
- (More on artificial intelligence in future editions, no doubt!)
- Wait, here’s more already!
- Everyday Work Problems Artificial Intelligence Helps Me Solve (Samuel, 2024)
- Technical support; (You don’t need to summon IT, you’ve got this)
- Management of e-mail;
- Finding the vocabulary to communicate with an annoying colleague;
- Help me with a better understanding of the subject matter
- Tedium… enough said… assign all tedium to artificial intelligence;
- First drafts of almost any document, any subject, in-depth or high level;
- Summarize what happened at a meeting I missed — and prioritize any tasks assigned to me;
- Endless examples, endless examples.
- Everyday Work Problems Artificial Intelligence Helps Me Solve (Samuel, 2024)
- “Rats are not our friends… this is not Ratatouille!” (NYC Mayor, Adams)
- Like it or not, the money is in sports — especially when it comes to college athletics.
- “Sports are often a key recruiting and enrollment tool, increasingly ever more so at the NCAA Division III level.
- … how can the investment in these sports not compromise the core enterprise?” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2024)
- We write mostly for small businesses and for the leaders of those businesses and organizations.
- But, there is MUCH to learn from those who’ve grown bigger, better, stronger, healthier, and happier…
- And thus, you might be interested in reading this entire article:
Small Business (Madgavkar, Etc., et al, 2024)
- Micro, small, and medium-size enterprises form the backbone of economies.
- Small businesses account for two-thirds of business employment in advanced economies… as well as half of all value added.
- They also power dynamism and play an important role in preserving competitiveness in an era of shifting global production.
- Boosting productivity relative to large companies could yield significant value… small business productivity is only half that of large companies…
- Raising small business productivity to top-quartile levels relative to large companies is equivalent to five percent of GDP.
- Build networks… large and small can help each other while productivity and the economy win.
- “True love cannot be found where it truly does not exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does.” (Bill, the Bard)
