Reading Michael Panerella's Why Digital Transformation Is More About People Than Technology in Forbes got me thinking. Its a great post and I loved this quote:
At its core, NASA’s innovation strategy is not about technology, which many people think is the core aspect of innovation. Rather, NASA’s innovation strategy is centered on generating new ideas via unconventional thinking.
In the era of the Apple II, back in 1984, technology was a fascinating transforming puzzle. Diving into Lotus 1-2-3 and DB1 for my M&M/Mars sales territory, I got raised eyebrows, and my boss commented, "Isn't that just a game?" or "Isn't that clerical work?" I didn't care because something shifted in my brain amidst the haze of those early digital days. Technology transformed me, not the other way around.
Suddenly, numbers weren't just numbers. They waltzed across grids, and with a hard-won graphics card, they transformed into stories I could grasp. Growing up dyslexic in 1960s Texas felt like being an alien. The world around me didn't quite know how to handle my unique wiring, often treating it like a contagious ailment. But I wasn't written off, thanks to my mother's fierce advocacy.
To blend in, I turned to sports and embraced my mother's "Work harder" mantra. My memories are filled with tutors, flashcards, summer schools, and relentless weekend sessions, all in pursuing things most kids my age took for granted - reading, writing, and arithmetic.
But here's the thing: creativity thrives in the gaps, in the spaces where conventional methods fail. My struggle with traditional learning opened up those gaps, forcing me to think in unconventional ways. When reading felt like navigating a minefield, I learned to listen to the story to visualize it. Flashcards, the "tech" of my youth, were my bridge to this world of visualization. Reading? It's still a challenge. But today's tech? It's a universe away from those rudimentary flashcards, and I'm here for the journey.
Great writers like Malcolm Gladwell make reading a fun game I enjoy. Gladwell, echoing lessons my mother instilled in me, taught me:
The Myth of the Free Lunch - Gladwell's notion of the 10,000-hour rule resonates with my mother's "There's no shortcut to success." As I write, I can see Elizabeth Martin, my mother, with her hands on her hips, insisting I put the football down and return to my flash cards. It's a dance of dedication, persistence, and relentless effort. Even after logging those hours, the journey doesn't end. In this digital age, pausing means falling behind. My daily writing ritual, clocking in at nearly 900,000 Grammarly words, speaks to this. And even if AI and ChatGPT assists with half of that, the essence remains: there's no free creative lunch. And no artist I know wants one since most look forward to the struggle, to "cleaning their brains," to quote the Talking Heads.
The Power of Curiosity - Through Gladwell's lens, everything has a story, a pulse. If something appears mundane, it's not the subject but the narrative that needs work. Whether he's diving into the intricacies of bombsights or the age-old tale of David and Goliath, Gladwell captivates. When my words fall flat, it's a nudge to dig deeper, pivot, and view the world askew. While I've always had to approach life from a different angle, it's easy to get trapped in the illusion of knowing. But the magic happens once I shed that facade and let curiosity and Brené Brown's vulnerability take the wheel.
The Art of Storytelling - There's an old saying: "Facts inform, but stories transform." Stories resonate with me, perhaps because of my early struggles with reading, but more so because stories are the heartbeat of humanity. While tools like ChatGPT are invaluable, weaving a tale rich in layers and emotions is the frontier I explore.
In essence, between Gladwell's insights and my mother's wisdom lies purpose, curiosity, and the timeless power of stories.
I used AI to craft the new WTE About Page. Yet, it reminds me of how my father approached golf. Duncan Smith, my dad, saw golf much like I view writing: a daily ritual, with weekends holding a special allure, free from the humdrum of making a living (Greenwich was a great place to grow up, but cheap not so much).
No masterpiece, be it words or art, magically crafts itself. At least not today. And while I might use the brilliance of artificial intelligence, nothing I put my name on will ever be a direct output from a chatbot. It's the Gladwellian principle: stories devoid of human touch are just words. OpenAI's marvel, the generative AI, has become a part of my daily toolkit, reshaping my perspective.
My Apple II, the gateway drug, helped me see the world differently, and now, ChatGPT is revolutionizing my content creation. Over recent insightful lunches with IBM SEO wizard Phil Buckley and Moon-Audo founder Nichole Baird, I shared my newfound vision of content as modular blocks, akin to Legos, seamlessly connected by natural language processing. With his sharp memory, Phil said, "We walked this path a decade ago," and he was right.
He's spot on, as always. But today, there's a game-changer in the mix: ChatGPT. While I use it to represent the AI evolution, it's the embodiment of turning the once-impossible into the now-achievable, like reading a thousand words from an alien dyslexic.
How do you think we transform and become different, better, and smarter? Does technology transform us or the other way around? martin (at) wte.net Martin Wescott Smith (on LinkedIn) 919.360.1224