You are trained on the content of your life

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AI can do some amazing things, and I’m using it more and more frequently. However, it has a major limitation — it hasn’t lived your life.

Jay Acunzo worded this well in a blog post about his “Idea Impact Matrix” where he said:

AI is trained on internet content.

You are trained on the content of your life, and nobody else has access to that.

What you have to offer is unique from literally any other human that has ever lived. Your viewpoint on things has been shaped your entire life, and the perspective you have is slightly different than anyone else.

This is a big reason I spend so much time curating my notes in places like Obsidian (and now Tana). AI can surface a lot of great things, but those tools know about every book I’ve read, articles I’ve enjoyed, meetings with others, blog posts I’ve written — the more I put into it, the better the outcome will be.

I suspect AI will be able to replace that at some point, but that’s not very close yet. Even when it does, it’ll never be able to capture everything that has gone into shaping who I am today, and the same goes for you.

Nobody else has access to what you do, so use it well.

Don’t use AI for that

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There are a ton of great uses for AI, and more coming out every day. However, there are places that you can use AI that are likely not a smart move.

I’m not talking about using AI to cheat on your homework or for other nefarious purposes (though those are clearly bad too), but places where AI can cheat you out of your own efforts.

For me personally, I can think of three areas where AI could likely “help” me but I’m intentionally not using it.

Moving highlights

When I finish a book, the highlights are automatically available via Kindle. There are tools that can take your highlights and automatically move them into systems like Evernote or Obsidian. I choose not to.

For me, the act of copying each highlight and moving it over gives me a chance to reassess if I want to keep it, a chance to group similar highlights together, and a chance to link highlights in my notes to related topics. AI could do much of that work for me, but if I highlighted something with the intent to learn from it, doesn’t it make sense to touch it more often?

Adding content to Anki

Similar is adding new cards into Anki. There are tools to automate that, but why? I use Anki specifically to try to learn and remember new ideas, and the effort to create those cards is a great first step toward learning.

Lots of stuff on this blog

Generally speaking, AI can be a great help for bloggers. You can come up with ideas, write outlines, and even publish fully AI-written posts. In my case, though, those are all bad ideas.

I want to read more to find more ideas, which I often find by linking notes together. For the post itself, my time and effort to write and edit is precisely why I’m doing this at all. Using AI for any of that could be counter to my goals.

AI is awesome, and it’s becoming a bigger part of my life every day, but intentionally excluding it in certain areas seems like a smart thing to do.

The Sunday Summary: Social media is junk food, Google is a leapfrog, and expensive solutions are easy to build

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In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week.

Mon, November 18: Users with disabilities are visiting your website
Whether you know it or not, users with disabilities are visiting your website and you should be putting in the effort to properly serve them.

Tue, November 19: 2D versus 3D content in meetings
“2D content is usually simple, yes/no, or fact driven. 2D modes of communication can include texts, emails, printouts, online chats, and so on. Reports and presentation decks are also 2D. Conversely, 3D content has nuance, emotion, or the opportunity for creative thinking.”

Wed, November 20: Do you treat social media like junk food?
“When I use social media, it’s like your diet. I think some people just want the junk food diet version of it. And other of us like actually make an effort to use it as a way to make ourselves smarter or more informed about the world.”

Thu, November 21: Assumed execution
“If we worked in an environment of “assumed execution,” we’d need none of these. How much lighter our inboxes would be if we made an explicit pact with our email community to assume every email was delivered, read, and thoughtfully attended to.”

Fri, November 22: Using Google as a leapfrog
“I’m using Google to get me to a thing that I already know I want to go to; that’s the only thing I’m using search engines for now.”

Sat, November 23: Expensive solutions are the work of mediocrity
“Any designer can design a desk that will cost $5,000, but only the most highly skilled can design a good functional desk that will only cost $100.”

I hope you found some value in this. If you ever have questions, ideas, or disagreements regarding anything I write, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Expensive solutions are the work of mediocrity

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Doing less often requires doing more. The iPhone was far easier to use than other phones when it came out in 2007, but it took years to develop that kind of interface. Similar is the quote from Blaise Pascal that simply says “if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter“. Writing a long letter is easy, but boiling it down to its essence takes much more work.

This is the idea that Ingvar Kamprad had while building the IKEA empire. He knew that quality and cost would be what set them apart (and it still does), but it’s hard to find the sweet spot between the two. Like the ideas above, designing high-quality affordable furniture is difficult. From Ingvar (via the Founders podcast):

“It is not all that difficult to reach set targets if you do not have to count the cost. Any designer can design a desk that will cost $5,000, but only the most highly skilled can design a good functional desk that will only cost $100.”

Taking it further, he added:

“Expensive solutions to any kind of problem are usually the work of mediocrity.”

“Expensive” is the tricky word here. You may purchase something for $100,000 that is worth every penny, yet a $300 item perhaps should have designed to only cost $100. This can apply to furniture, cars, clothing, websites, laptops and anything you can imagine.

If money is no object, design becomes simple. For the rest of us, breaking free of mediocrity is the way to meet that amazing place between high-quality and low cost.

Using Google as a leapfrog

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We all know that the nature of using Google is changing. Between people switching to using AI instead of traditional search, and Google keeping more users on their site, it’s all changing very quickly.

While listening to the annual “State of the Apps” episode of the Cortex podcast, the hosts shared some personal use cases that really stood out to me. Both of the hosts are using AI for the majority of their searches, and only defaulting to Google in certain cases. From the show:

Myke Hurley: “I’m just using Google as a leapfrog as a way to get to the thing that I already know exists.”

CGP Grey: “I’m using Google to get me to a thing that I already know I want to go to; that’s the only thing I’m using search engines for now.”

They debated the differences between various AI tools (they consider Claude to be better, but ChatGPT is often more useful), but they use those tools far more than they use Google.

Granted, they’re both on the extreme side of the innovation curve and most people aren’t there yet, but it’s certainly trending in that direction. As more people turn to AI for answers, getting your business found on the internet will be increasingly tricky to do.

Be “the” choice

The solution is to do exactly what Myke and Grey hinted at — make yourself the “thing that I know I want to go to“. If people are searching Google for businesses like yours, you have a chance to maybe show up. If they’re searching for you specifically by name, you’ve already won.

Be the choice.

Assumed execution

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I’ve shared a few times how the trust I have for my team can make my life so much easier. Specifically, if I email any of them with a task or question, I can just let it go and be confident that it will be taken care of (or that they’ll respond with follow-up questions, if needed). I don’t need tasks to check back in with them, which saves time and effort and is just awesome.

In Juliet Funt’s book “A Minute to Think“, she calls this idea “assumed execution”. She says:

If we worked in an environment of “assumed execution,” we’d need none of these. How much lighter our inboxes would be if we made an explicit pact with our email community to assume every email was delivered, read, and thoughtfully attended to. Let’s assume an even broader gesture of trust. Let’s say on the rare occasion when the ball got dropped, we’d reliably find out about it sooner or later and the price paid would be lower than we fear. If we could make this leap, we’d all reclaim hundreds of annual hours in needless reading and deleting. (However, many bosses enjoy and expect this kind of loop-closing, so get permission before altering this behavior.)

Of course, if I’m assuming execution on the part of others, I need to make sure to be reliable on my end as well. For me, the main key to that is inbox zero. While that applies primarily to email, I think all other inboxes count as well: text messages, LinkedIn messages, Slack messages, etc. Limiting your inboxes can help a lot, but for any that are available you’re responsible for being reliable. If not, the other party will lose trust in your ability to execute, and that’s a slippery slope.

Assumed execution isn’t an easy place to get to, but it’s a great place to be.

Do you treat social media like junk food?

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I shared last week about finding the “middle place” when it comes to social media usage, and a recent comment I heard on a podcast helped shape that a bit further.

While listening to a recent episode of Adam Grant’s WorkLife podcast, his guest Jay Van Bavel made this comparison of social media usage to junk food:

“When I use social media, it’s like your diet. I think some people just want the junk food diet version of it. And other of us like actually make an effort to use it as a way to make ourselves smarter or more informed about the world.”

It’s a solid analogy. The food that we feed ourselves directly affects our body, just like the media that we consume directly affects our thoughts. In both cases it’s fine to consume a bit of junk food from time to time, but if that is your primary sustenance you’re gonna have a bad time.

2D versus 3D content in meetings

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One eye-opening insight from Juliet Funt’s book “A Minute to Think” was her concept of 2D versus 3D content when it comes to communication. More specifically, she shared the problems that arise when we mix the two up and use the wrong form of communication for the type of content that we need to share or discuss. From the book:

“2D content is usually simple, yes/no, or fact driven. 2D modes of communication can include texts, emails, printouts, online chats, and so on. Reports and presentation decks are also 2D. Conversely, 3D content has nuance, emotion, or the opportunity for creative thinking. In 3D communication we exchange critical cues through our tone, pace, and gestures. We discuss ideas, ask complex questions, and connect interpersonally. 3D modes of communication require a live element—a phone call, meeting, video chat, or face-to-face conversation. Shared voice memos and recorded video exchanges can sometimes blur these lines, but the 2D vs. 3D distinction should guide you most of the time.”

The problems arise when you share 2D content in a meeting or you try to share 3D content via email. The results are easy to see coming:

“Share 3D content in a 2D medium and you compromise richness. Share 2D content in a 3D medium and you waste time. Your goal is to match the message with the medium.”

Finally, there is the challenge of mixed content. What if the discussion requires a bit of 2D and a bit of 3D? You could put it all in the meeting, but if you can push the 2D content to the edges it can be a win for everyone. Lastly, from Juliet again:

“2D vs. 3D awareness can reduce attendance on both sides of the meeting process. Collecting 2D information before a meeting can remove someone who would have only been invited to rattle off facts or data. On the flip side, publishing 2D open-source notes after the meeting helps us realize we have two choices in our communications: invite or inform. The availability of open-source notes also greatly relaxes the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) of those not chosen to attend, or maybe even changes it to our kind of FOMO (Finally Obtaining More Oxygen).”

I love her new definition of FOMO. The book talks a lot about our need for more white space in our lives (or “Oxygen”, in this case), and this new way of looking at meetings can be a helpful way to win back just a bit more of it.

Users with disabilities are visiting your website

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It’s getting increasingly difficult to track how users are finding your website, but there is one thing I can guarantee — users with disabilities are visiting your site, and you should be prepared to serve them accordingly.

I was talking with a (now former) client a few years ago, urging her to do more work to make her website more accessible. Her response was sad and ignorant, saying:

“I am all about helping the disabled maneuver through a website, but that is not my audience. The people I attract are not disabled.”

To be honest, I’m not sure exactly what she meant by that, but she was clearly mistaken. Not only are 10-15% of all internet users disabled to some degree, we all have other issues from time to time that make accessibility on a website even more important.

It’s essential to know your audience and serve them well, and ignoring this aspect of your audience can be a little rude, short-sighted, and expensive if you ever get sued.

Don’t question whether or not users with disabilities are visiting your website. They are, so put in the effort to serve them properly.

The Sunday Summary: Compasses versus maps, the middle place, and the six-week delusion

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In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week.

Mon, November 11: Blameless Portmortems
The key to a solid postmortem, and to leading a solid team, is to focus on the core issues and not lay blame on humans. If something went wrong, what really was the cause?

Tue, November 12: Using Sectograph to visualize my day
A new tool I’ve found to help me track my commitments throughout the day.

Wed, November 13: Strategy is a compass, not a map
“Strategy is a philosophy of becoming. It is your way of thinking about who you seek to serve and the change you seek to make. Strategy is a compass, it’s not a map. When the world changes, your strategy might not.”

Thu, November 14: Finding the “middle place”
Regarding social media, “we need to find the middle place. Some way to take little compartmentalized sips in our social channels but not lose ourselves in the process.”

Fri, November 15: The Six-Week Delusion
This week is busy. Next week is busy. But six weeks from now? Sure, I’ve got plenty of time!

Sat, November 16: Shut up and sing
The people that most often post things like “shut up and sing” usually have that wedged between various political opinions of their own that they’re sharing. They have a small audience of a few friends, and they choose to spend that engagement on political commentary. What do you think would happen if they became far more popular? I highly doubt they’d “shut up and sing”.

I hope you found some value in this. If you ever have questions, ideas, or disagreements regarding anything I write, please don’t hesitate to reach out.