Phil Simon's Blog, page 9

Speaker Sizzle Reel

I finally got around to doing a proper sizzle reel for my speaking practice. Go nuts. 

Hat tip to rockstar Stephanie Welch.

The post Speaker Sizzle Reel appeared first on Phil Simon.

Appearance on Turn the Lens

Jeff Frick recently had me on his show Turn the Lens to talk about The Nine. It’s among my favorite talks and podcasts about the new book.

Enjoy.

The post Appearance on Turn the Lens appeared first on Phil Simon.

The Notification Struggle Is Real

[image error]Earlier this week, I wrote about my struggles to get Notion to stop sending me irrelevant notifications. As it turns out, my travails aren’t limited to my favorite low-code\/no-code tool.\nTodoist Travails\n

For nearly a decade, I’ve been using Todoist to track my productivity and for light project management. For the third time in the past five years, though, the desktop app has inexplicably stopped sending me desktop alerts when tasks are due. I opened yet another ticket a few days ago. As of this writing, crickets.\n

Not surprisingly, Todoist recently hopped on the \u00fcber-popular AI train. Here’s a screenshot of its new AI Assistant:\n

[image error]\n

\n

If given the choice, I’ll opt for the Notion issue.\n\n

My Todoist issue is the opposite of my Notion one. The latter tells me that I have to complete things that I’ve already completed; the former fails to tell me that tasks are due. (To be fair, Todoist alerts still work as expected on its iPhone and Apple Watch apps.)\nSimon Says\n

Software breaks. I get it. If given the choice, I suspect that most users will gladly opt for the Notion issue, but why do users have to choose? Is it unreasonable to expect a product’s basic features to consistently work?\n

Evidently, the answer is yes. At least to me, fancy AI features can be beneficial, but they aren’t nearly as important as ensuring that a product’s basic building blocks don’t routinely crap out.\nFeedback\n

What say you?","tablet":"

[image error]Earlier this week, I wrote about my struggles to get Notion to stop sending me irrelevant notifications. As it turns out, my travails aren't limited to my favorite low-code\/no-code tool of choice.\n

For nearly a decade, I've been using Todoist to track my productivity and for light project management. For the third time in the past five years, though, the desktop app has inexplicably stopped sending me desktop alerts when tasks are due. I opened yet another ticket a few days ago. As of this writing, crickets.\n

Not surprisingly, Todoist recently hopped on the \u00fcber-popular AI train. Here's a screenshot of its new AI Assistant:\n

[image error]\n

\n

If given the choice, I'll opt for the Notion issue.\n\n

My Todoist issue is the opposite of my Notion one. The latter tells me that I have to complete things that I've already completed; the former fails to tell me that tasks are due. (To be fair, Todoist alerts still work as expected on its iPhone and Apple Watch apps.)\nSimon Says\n

Software breaks. I get it. If given the choice, I suspect that most users will gladly opt for the Notion issue, but why do users have to choose? Is it unreasonable to expect a product's basic features to consistently work?\n

Evidently, the answer is yes. At least to me, fancy AI features can be beneficial, but they aren't nearly as important as ensuring that a product's basic building blocks don't routinely crap out.\nFeedback\n

What say you?","phone":"

Earlier this week, I wrote about my struggles to get Notion to stop sending me irrelevant notifications. As it turns out, my travails aren't limited to my favorite low-code\/no-code tool of choice.\n

For nearly a decade, I've been using Todoist to track my productivity and for light project management. For the third time in the past five years, though, the desktop app has inexplicably stopped sending me desktop alerts when tasks are due. I opened yet another ticket a few days ago. As of this writing, crickets.\n

Not surprisingly, Todoist recently hopped on the \u00fcber-popular AI train. Here's a screenshot of its new AI Assistant:\n

[image error]\n

\n

If given the choice, I'll opt for the Notion issue.\n\n

My Todoist issue is the opposite of my Notion one. The latter tells me that I have to complete things that I've already completed; the former fails to tell me that tasks are due. (To be fair, Todoist alerts still work as expected on its iPhone and Apple Watch apps.)\nSimon Says\n

Software breaks. I get it. If given the choice, I suspect that most users will gladly opt for the Notion issue, but why do users have to choose? Is it unreasonable to expect a product's basic features to consistently work?\n

Evidently, the answer is yes. At least to me, fancy AI features can be beneficial, but they aren't nearly as important as ensuring that a product's basic building blocks don't routinely crap out.\nFeedback\n

What say you?"}},"slug":"et_pb_text"}" data-et-multi-view-load-tablet-hidden="true" data-et-multi-view-load-phone-hidden="true">

Earlier this week, I wrote about my struggles to get Notion to stop sending me irrelevant notifications. As it turns out, my travails aren’t limited to my favorite low-code/no-code tool.

Todoist Travails

For nearly a decade, I’ve been using Todoist to track my productivity and for light project management. For the third time in the past five years, though, the desktop app has inexplicably stopped sending me desktop alerts when tasks are due. I opened yet another ticket a few days ago. As of this writing, crickets.

Not surprisingly, Todoist recently hopped on the über-popular AI train. Here’s a screenshot of its new AI Assistant:

If given the choice, I’ll opt for the Notion issue.

My Todoist issue is the opposite of my Notion one. The latter tells me that I have to complete things that I’ve already completed; the former fails to tell me that tasks are due. (To be fair, Todoist alerts still work as expected on its iPhone and Apple Watch apps.)

Simon Says

Software breaks. I get it. If given the choice, I suspect that most users will gladly opt for the Notion issue, but why do users have to choose? Is it unreasonable to expect a product’s basic features to consistently work?

Evidently, the answer is yes. At least to me, fancy AI features can be beneficial, but they aren’t nearly as important as ensuring that a product’s basic building blocks don’t routinely crap out.

Feedback

What say you?

The post The Notification Struggle Is Real appeared first on Phil Simon.

On AI, Priorities, and Product Development

Introduction\n

One of the chief benefits of Agile software development methods is flexibility. Compared to the Waterfall method, Scrum and its ilk allow teams to respond quickly when the world changes.\n

Like it did on November 30, 2022\u2014the day ChatGPT dropped.\n

Within a few months, it seemed like every software application had integrated AI into its wares\u2014or had announced plans to do so. Count Adobe, Spotify, Slack, Microsoft, LinkedIn (part of Microsoft), Expedia, Canva, and Google among the hundreds of companies whose development teams accelerated their AI efforts or suddenly shifted gears.\n

So what’s the problem?\n

In their understandable haste to show the world that they’re going all in on generative AI, some vendors have delayed developing and releasing essential features. And this grinds my gears.\n

Let’s Talk About Notion\n

[image error]My recent tool du jour Notion is suffering from this very affliction.\n

By way of background and to its credit, the company presciently announced forthcoming AI features before ChatGPT’s latest version dropped. In its May 2023 release, Notion doubled down: GenAI undergirds its new project-management features. See for yourself:\n

\nhttps:\/\/videos.ctfassets.net\/spoqsaf9291f\/1tYJhmTsxFkIFx4JxBjaUU\/d2681d4ef605809cfd1b9a70fa7f29f6\/ai_autofill_marketing-75.mp4\n

Pretty cool, right?\n

Sure, Notion’s AI-generated descriptions may be useful. Its “enhanced” notifications for tasks in a project, however, remain maddeningly limited:\n

[image error]\n

Can someone say binary?\n

Here’s my main gripe:\n

Say that George, Elaine, or I complete a task a few days early. Why on earth would any of us want to receive a superfluous notification telling us that it’s due? (I know. I’m a diva.) Yet, Notion does just that\u2014and there’s no way to change this behavior. Even its souped-up formulas prove fruitless here.\n

Notion’s helpful support staff confirmed as much after I opened a ticket. The rep predictably told me to suggest status- and date-based alerts as new features on different product and user forums. I did. Ideally, though, I wouldn’t have to make such a request. Notion should be smart enough to recognize that a complete task is, well, complete.\n

[image error]Note to Notion product peeps: I’ll gladly print a retraction if I’m wrong here.\n

When I started my current ghostwriting gig, I chose Notion as the all-in-one research and project-management tool. Had I known about this limitation in advance, I might have picked another. It’s not like there aren’t oodles of similar alternatives. As I’ve written in my books on the future of work, Coda, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Smartsheet, SmartSuite, Todoist, and Monday.com represent viable, popular, powerful, and affordable options for managing projects.\nClosing the Notion Loop\n

Let’s return to Notion, though. I like closing loops. As a workaround, I could change the data in the project database as follows:\n

\nRemove the task due date after I complete it\u2014and remind my client to do the same.\nRemove myself as a responsible party.\n\n

Would each method work? Sure, but these solution creates other problems. Alternatively, I could disable Notion notifications altogether. Again, the cure is far worse than the disease.\n

\n

When it comes to alerts, Notion should take a page from Slack.\n\n

To be sure, I still love using Notion, but it should ape Slack’s playbook for in-app notifications. My favorite collaboration hub has long given users the ability to extensively customize their notifications. Lamentably, though, plenty of smart folks fail to understand this reality. It’s not as if Notion is hurting for cash.\nSimon Says\n

I’m not na\u00efve. No vendor can appease all users and customers. Attempt to do so, and your competition and critics will label your product bloatware. Still, there’s a larger lesson beyond Notion and my crazy fetish to view only meaningful in-app alerts.\n

Product owners should resist the temptation to postpone or ignore key\u2014if decidedly unsexy\u2014features in the face of a hyped new trend. If your users don’t thank you, at least they won’t write scathing posts like this one.\n

<\/rant>\n

Feedback\n

What say you?","tablet":"

Introduction\n

One of the chief benefits of Agile software development methods is flexibility. Compared to the Waterfall method, Scrum and its ilk allow teams to respond quickly when the world changes.\n

Like it did on November 30, 2022\u2014the day ChatGPT dropped.\n

Within a few months, it seemed like every software application had integrated AI into its wares\u2014or had announced plans to do so. Count Adobe, Spotify, Slack, Microsoft, LinkedIn (part of Microsoft), Expedia, Canva, and Google among the hundreds of companies whose development teams accelerated their AI efforts or suddenly shifted gears.\n

So what's the problem?\n

In their understandable haste to show the world that they're going all in on generative AI, some vendors have delayed developing and releasing essential features. And this grinds my gears.\n

Let's Talk About Notion\n

[image error]My recent tool du jour Notion is suffering from this very affliction.\n

By way of background and to its credit, the company presciently announced forthcoming AI features before ChatGPT's latest version dropped. In its May 2023 release, Notion doubled down: GenAI undergirds its new project-management features. See for yourself:\n

\n

Pretty cool, right?\n

Sure, Notion's AI-generated descriptions may be useful. Its \"enhanced\" notifications for tasks in a project, however, remain maddeningly limited:\n

[image error]\n

Can someone say binary?\n

Here's my main gripe:\n

Say that George, Elaine, or I complete a task a few days early. Why on earth would any of us want to receive a superfluous notification telling us that it's due? (I know. I'm a diva.) Yet, Notion does just that\u2014and there's no way to change this behavior. Even its souped-up formulas prove fruitless here.\n

Notion's helpful support staff confirmed as much after I opened a ticket. The rep predictably told me to suggest status- and date-based alerts as new features on different product and user forums. I did. Ideally, though, I wouldn't have to make such a request. Notion should be smart enough to recognize that a complete task is, well, complete.\n

[image error]Note to Notion product peeps: I'll gladly print a retraction if I'm wrong here.\n

When I started my current ghostwriting gig, I chose Notion as the all-in-one research and project-management tool. Had I known about this limitation in advance, I might have picked another. It's not like there aren't oodles of similar alternatives. As I've written in my books on the future of work, Coda, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Smartsheet, SmartSuite, Todoist, and Monday.com represent viable, popular, powerful, and affordable options for managing projects.\nClosing the Notion Loop\n

Let's return to Notion, though. I like closing loops. As a workaround, I could change the data in the project database as follows:\n

\nRemove the task due date after I complete it\u2014and remind my client to do the same.\nRemove myself as a responsible party.\n\n

Would each method work? Sure, but these solution creates other problems. Alternatively, I could disable Notion notifications altogether. Again, the cure is far worse than the disease.\n

\n

When it comes to alerts, Notion should take a page from Slack.\n\n

To be sure, I still love using Notion, but it should ape Slack's playbook for in-app notifications. My favorite collaboration hub has long given users the ability to extensively customize their notifications. Lamentably, though, plenty of smart folks fail to understand this reality. It's not as if Notion is hurting for cash.\nSimon Says\n

I'm not na\u00efve. No vendor can appease all users and customers. Attempt to do so, and your competition and critics will label your product bloatware. Still, there's a larger lesson beyond Notion and my crazy fetish to view only meaningful in-app alerts.\n

Product owners should resist the temptation to postpone or ignore key\u2014if decidedly unsexy\u2014features in the face of a hyped new trend. If your users don't thank you, at least they won't write scathing posts like this one.\n

\n

Feedback\n

What say you?","phone":"

Introduction\n

One of the chief benefits of Agile software development methods is flexibility. Compared to the Waterfall method, Scrum and its ilk allow teams to respond quickly when the world changes.\n

Like it did on November 30, 2022\u2014the day ChatGPT dropped.\n

Within a few months, it seemed like every software application had integrated AI into its wares\u2014or had announced plans to do so. Count Adobe, Spotify, Slack, Microsoft, LinkedIn (part of Microsoft), Expedia, Canva, and Google among the hundreds of companies whose development teams accelerated their AI efforts or suddenly shifted gears.\n

So what's the problem?\n

In their understandable haste to show the world that they're going all in on generative AI, some vendors have delayed developing and releasing essential features. And this grinds my gears.\n

Let's Talk About Notion\n

My recent tool du jour Notion is suffering from this very affliction.\n

By way of background and to its credit, the company presciently announced forthcoming AI features before ChatGPT's latest version dropped. In its May 2023 release, Notion doubled down: GenAI undergirds its new project-management features. See for yourself:\n

\n

Pretty cool, right?\n

Sure, Notion's AI-generated descriptions may be useful. Its \"enhanced\" notifications for tasks in a project, however, remain maddeningly limited:\n

[image error]\n

Can someone say binary?\n

Here's my main gripe:\n

Say that George, Elaine, or I complete a task a few days early. Why on earth would any of us want to receive a superfluous notification telling us that it's due? (I know. I'm a diva.) Yet, Notion does just that\u2014and there's no way to change this behavior. Even its souped-up formulas prove fruitless here.\n

Notion's helpful support staff confirmed as much after I opened a ticket. The rep predictably told me to suggest status- and date-based alerts as new features on different product and user forums. I did. Ideally, though, I wouldn't have to make such a request. Notion should be smart enough to recognize that a complete task is, well, complete.\n

Note to Notion product peeps: I'll gladly print a retraction if I'm wrong here.\n

When I started my current ghostwriting gig, I chose Notion as the all-in-one research and project-management tool. Had I known about this limitation in advance, I might have picked another. It's not like there aren't oodles of similar alternatives. As I've written in my books on the future of work, Coda, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Smartsheet, SmartSuite, Todoist, and Monday.com represent viable, popular, powerful, and affordable options for managing projects.\nClosing the Notion Loop\n

Let's return to Notion, though. I like closing loops. As a workaround, I could change the data in the project database as follows:\n

\nRemove the task due date after I complete it\u2014and remind my client to do the same.\nRemove myself as a responsible party.\n\n

Would each method work? Sure, but these solution creates other problems. Alternatively, I could disable Notion notifications altogether. Again, the cure is far worse than the disease.\n

\n

When it comes to alerts, Notion should take a page from Slack.\n\n

To be sure, I still love using Notion, but it should ape Slack's playbook for in-app notifications. My favorite collaboration hub has long given users the ability to extensively customize their notifications. Lamentably, though, plenty of smart folks fail to understand this reality. It's not as if Notion is hurting for cash.\nSimon Says\n

I'm not na\u00efve. No vendor can appease all users and customers. Attempt to do so, and your competition and critics will label your product bloatware. Still, there's a larger lesson beyond Notion and my crazy fetish to view only meaningful in-app alerts.\n

Product owners should resist the temptation to postpone or ignore key\u2014if decidedly unsexy\u2014features in the face of a hyped new trend. If your users don't thank you, at least they won't write scathing posts like this one.\n

\n

Feedback\n

What say you?"}},"slug":"et_pb_text"}" data-et-multi-view-load-tablet-hidden="true" data-et-multi-view-load-phone-hidden="true">

Introduction

One of the chief benefits of Agile software development methods is flexibility. Compared to the Waterfall method, Scrum and its ilk allow teams to respond quickly when the world changes.

Like it did on November 30, 2022—the day ChatGPT dropped.

Within a few months, it seemed like every software application had integrated AI into its wares—or had announced plans to do so. Count Adobe, Spotify, Slack, Microsoft, LinkedIn (part of Microsoft), Expedia, Canva, and Google among the hundreds of companies whose development teams accelerated their AI efforts or suddenly shifted gears.

So what’s the problem?

In their understandable haste to show the world that they’re going all in on generative AI, some vendors have delayed developing and releasing essential features. And this grinds my gears.

Let’s Talk About Notion

My recent tool du jour Notion is suffering from this very affliction.

By way of background and to its credit, the company presciently announced forthcoming AI features before ChatGPT’s latest version dropped. In its May 2023 release, Notion doubled down: GenAI undergirds its new project-management features. See for yourself:

https://videos.ctfassets.net/spoqsaf9291f/1tYJhmTsxFkIFx4JxBjaUU/d2681d4ef605809cfd1b9a70fa7f29f6/ai_autofill_marketing-75.mp4

Pretty cool, right?

Sure, Notion’s AI-generated descriptions may be useful. Its “enhanced” notifications for tasks in a project, however, remain maddeningly limited:

Can someone say binary?

Here’s my main gripe:

Say that George, Elaine, or I complete a task a few days early. Why on earth would any of us want to receive a superfluous notification telling us that it’s due? (I know. I’m a diva.) Yet, Notion does just that—and there’s no way to change this behavior. Even its souped-up formulas prove fruitless here.

Notion’s helpful support staff confirmed as much after I opened a ticket. The rep predictably told me to suggest status- and date-based alerts as new features on different product and user forums. I did. Ideally, though, I wouldn’t have to make such a request. Notion should be smart enough to recognize that a complete task is, well, complete.

Note to Notion product peeps: I’ll gladly print a retraction if I’m wrong here.

When I started my current ghostwriting gig, I chose Notion as the all-in-one research and project-management tool. Had I known about this limitation in advance, I might have picked another. It’s not like there aren’t oodles of similar alternatives. As I’ve written in my books on the future of work, Coda, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Smartsheet, SmartSuite, Todoist, and Monday.com represent viable, popular, powerful, and affordable options for managing projects.

Closing the Notion Loop

Let’s return to Notion, though. I like closing loops. As a workaround, I could change the data in the project database as follows:

Remove the task due date after I complete it—and remind my client to do the same.Remove myself as a responsible party.

Would each method work? Sure, but these solution creates other problems. Alternatively, I could disable Notion notifications altogether. Again, the cure is far worse than the disease.

When it comes to alerts, Notion should take a page from Slack.

To be sure, I still love using Notion, but it should ape Slack’s playbook for in-app notifications. My favorite collaboration hub has long given users the ability to extensively customize their notifications. Lamentably, though, plenty of smart folks fail to understand this reality. It’s not as if Notion is hurting for cash.

Simon Says

I’m not naïve. No vendor can appease all users and customers. Attempt to do so, and your competition and critics will label your product bloatware. Still, there’s a larger lesson beyond Notion and my crazy fetish to view only meaningful in-app alerts.

Product owners should resist the temptation to postpone or ignore key—if decidedly unsexy—features in the face of a hyped new trend. If your users don’t thank you, at least they won’t write scathing posts like this one.

Feedback

What say you?

The post On AI, Priorities, and Product Development appeared first on Phil Simon.

Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace Wins 2023 NYC Big Book Award

I’m pleased to announce that my book Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace has won a 2023 NYC Big Book Award Winner in the category of Business – General. It’s my fourth book to take home hardware.

The post Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace Wins 2023 NYC Big Book Award appeared first on Phil Simon.

Looking for My Next Ghostwriting Project

Last summer, I began ghostwriting a book for one of my existing clients. Our process evolved over time, as did our ideas about the text.

A few months ago, we finally completed the manuscript. My client was and is ecstatic with the end product. As it turns out, my ability to simplify technical concepts and tell stories works in areas outside of my sweet spots: workplace tech, collaboration, project management, citizen development, and the future of work.

We haven’t reached the end zone just yet. I immediately donned my project-management hat. I’m spending a good bit of time in Notion these days.

My Next Ghostwriting Project

I plan on ghostwriting more books. Ideally, future clients will understand that producing a quality text takes considerable time, money, and effort. (Chop shops can churn out books quickly and inexpensively, but their results invariably disappoint. Ditto for generative AI tools like ChatGPT.)

Note that I’m not qualified to write many genres, including:

Memoirs.Fiction.Screenplays.Political books.

Any writer who claims to be able to write anything well is arrogant, delusional, or both.

Ideal Traits

In no particular order, my next client will:

Be deeply knowledgeable about a specific area.Understand the financial and time commitments involved. With respect to the latter, timely communication is critical. Yes, emergencies happen. Still, in the ghostwriting work that I’ve done over my career, nothing good has ever come from going dark for months at a time.Be reasonable with his or her sales expectations. Very few books cross the vaunted 10,000-copy Rubicon.. More than that, professional, well-written books can yield other benefits in the form of increased visibility, speaking gigs, higher rates, new opportunities, and the like.Understand the importance of a book’s design. Ugly books deter prospective readers. (There. I said it.)Hold true to their word. On a ghostwriting project a few years back, my client kept moving the goalposts. It did not end well.1Use best-of-breed collaboration tools. You’d never manage any type of project via e-mail, and books are no exception to this rule. If you wouldn’t deign to use Calendly or a similar tool to schedule time, then we’re not going to get along well.Consider different publishing methods: traditional, hybrid, and self. (Yes, this is a conversation.)Be able to occasionally laugh. A little levity now and again can go a long way.Next Steps

If you or someone you know is seriously considering writing a proper business or technology book, I’d love to connect.

Thanks.

CONNECT

The post Looking for My Next Ghostwriting Project appeared first on Phil Simon.

AI and Indolence

Introduction

Increasingly sophisticated generative-AI tools allow people to clone themselves and fool their own banks and parents. ChatGPT and its ilk often impress us, but their hallucinations are nothing short of galling. Brass tacks: Blindly trusting their output is downright dangerous on many levels.

LinkedIn spammers could use these tools to craft more relevant pitches and up their batting averages. Of course, that would require some effort. Those who insist upon taking a grapeshot approach look even more ridiculous than a few years ago.

Exhibit A:

Laziness is alive and well.

You just can’t make this stuff up. It’s not like I’m shy about promoting my books, and the nearly 1,500 blog posts on this site alone.

Simon Says

Whether you use AI or not to tweak your pitch, do yourself a favor: Conduct at least one minute of research first. Otherwise, people like Josh Bernoff and me will keep writing posts like these and outing you.

Feedback

What say you?

The post AI and Indolence appeared first on Phil Simon.

Looking for AI Case Studies for My Forthcoming Book

I’m currently formulating my next book. At a high level, the topic will be generative AI—one of the forces covered in The Nine.

I’m looking at an early 2024 pub date. It will be the fifth in my series on the future of work, and I’ll be revealing the title, cover, the book synopsis, and more details over the coming weeks.

For number 15, I’m particularly interested in organizations that have used generative-AI technologies in interesting ways. Let this post serve as my regular call for case studies.

A few more notes:

I’m looking for both successes and, er, challenges.No puff pieces touting the life-changing nature of newfangled tchotchkes from software vendors and consulting firms. I’m fine with anonymity, if that’s what you prefer. In previous texts, I’ve anonymized people and organizations when requested. Variety rules. I’d like to leave no stone unturned. Non-profits, small businesses, and startups are all fair game.I’m especially curious about how teams are using this evolving crop of technologies. That is, profiling one progressive, tech-savvy person isn’t as interesting to me as how a group is doing itDisclaimer

If this sounds interesting, let’s chat.

I insist upon providing a draft of the case study write-up for your review before the book’s publication. If approving the final copy will involve 18 revisions with your employer’s PR folks or legal department, then we should probably pass. I’m not a fan of bottlenecks in general, much less when a technology is changing as swiftly as AI.

Next Steps

If this sounds interesting, let’s chat.

CONNECT

The post Looking for AI Case Studies for My Forthcoming Book appeared first on Phil Simon.

What I Really Want From AI

Image source: DreamStudio

The world has been abuzz with generative AI since the launch of ChatGPT last November. Within seconds, one can now easily generate text summaries, generic blog posts, grammar corrections, images like the one above, and computer-generated narration.

Impressive? Sure, but these tasks just don’t do it for me. If I had my druthers, generative AI would help me solve thorny computer issues like the one that made me lose my marbles over the past three months.

Get your popcorn ready.

Adventures in MacBook Pro Hell

Commodore 64

By way of background, I’m no neophyte. I’ve been pecking at a keyboard almost daily for nearly 40 years. (Yikes!) In 2010, I bought my first MacBook Pro and have never looked back. In the past 13 years, I’ve become pretty adept at fixing problems as they appear. Still, some are trickier than others—like this one.

To make a painful story short, its über-valuable Continuity features started flaking out in May. For example, hitting the F6 key no longer activated DND mode on all of my Apple devices. During a few client calls, my iPhone would inexplicably ring. Unlocking the Mac with my Apple Watch inexplicably failed. Finally, Universal Clipboard ceased to work—an issue that I temporarily addressed by creating the following Notion page.1

At first, I thought that the hindrances stemmed from a software update that Apple launched in May. It seemed like a reasonable hypothesis at the time.

Complicating matters further, these annoyances were intermittent. One Apple rep infuriated me by refusing to even look at an error log that I saved because “that’s an engineering issue.” Calm blue oceans.

Nevertheless, I persisted. Stubbornness can be a virtue. Game on, Apple.

Next Steps

A trip to the Apple store, dozens of e-mails to the support folks, several screen-sharing sessions,2 and oodles of brainstorming with my tech-savvy, Mac-using friends ultimately failed to bear fruit. The same holds true for a few afternoons sleuthing on Reddit and Apple forums. Time to bring out the big guns.

I then performed suggested maintenance-related tasks, including setting up a new user account, rebooting in Safe Mode, and reinstalling the Mac OS not once, not twice, but thrice. And lest I forget, I devoted a few hours to my cable modem and wireless router. A senior Apple rep suspected that external hardware might be the culprit.

No dice, but maybe he was on to something?

Renewing my IP address solved the problem for a hot minute, but it returned a few days later with a vengeance. For a brief moment, at least, all was right with the world.

Brass tacks: None of these actions brought me no closer to a permanent resolution.

Yes, in 2023, invoking trial by error and the process of elimination often remain the best clubs in the bag.

(Hopefully) Solving the Problem

Would my computer work properly today? If so, then for how long?

The culprit? As far as I can tell, the ostensibly innocuous HiddenMe app was wreaking havoc with Continuity. Once I uninstalled it, reinstalled Ventura, and renewed my IP address, the computer started working as intended.🤞 Copying and pasting among devices has never given me so much joy. #geek

In hindsight, the inability to use these features didn’t rankle me as much as the sense of unpredictability I felt every time I sat down to work. Would my computer function properly today? If so, then for how long?

Simon Says

I can write my own blog posts and generate my own book outlines for myself and my clients. Yawn. Sign me up for the AI tool that streamlines manual error-resolution processes. If techies like me struggle trying to get their devices to work properly, I can only imagine the difficulty and frustration that non-techies experience.

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What do you want AI to do?

The post What I Really Want From AI appeared first on Phil Simon.

AI and Indolence

Introduction

Increasingly sophisticated generative-AI tools allow people to clone themselves and fool their own banks and parents. ChatGPT and its ilk often impress us, but their hallucinations are nothing short of galling. Brass tacks: Blindly trusting their output is downright dangerous on many levels.

LinkedIn spammers could use these tools to craft more relevant pitches and up their batting averages. Of course, that would require some effort. Those who insist upon taking a grapeshot approach look even more ridiculous than a few years ago.

Exhibit A:

Laziness is alive and well.

You just can’t make this stuff up. It’s not like I’m shy about promoting my books, and the nearly 1,500 blog posts on this site alone.

Simon Says

Whether you use AI or not to tweak your pitch, do yourself a favor: Conduct at least one minute of research first. Otherwise, people like Josh Bernoff and me will keep writing posts like these and outing you.

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