Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Friendship, Human Goodness, Innovation, Insight, Perspective, Technology
Moore’s law – created by Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel – states that computer power will double every two years at the same cost.
Since he said this in the later 60’s, he’s been proven right, but having listened to a professor of computer engineering on the radio last night, it appears it’s coming to an end.
The reason I am saying this is because to prove his point, the Professor said 3 things that have blown my mind.
1. The iPhone has 4 billion transistors in it. FOUR BILLION.
2. There are now more transistors in the World than their are leaves on all the trees across the entire planet.
3. Some transistors are so small – separated by a distance of just 14 nanometres (nm) – that they are invisible. And when I say invisible, I mean it because they are smaller than the wavelengths of light human eyes and microscopes use.
What I loved about the talk the Professor gave wasn’t just his ability to articulate the incredible journey of innovation that the tech industry has been on for almost 50 years … nor was it his view that this rate of innovation was going to be impossible to maintain given the micro scale the industry is already operating at … it was that he felt this obsession with precision was stopping craftsmanship to flourish.
Now I must admit, my initial view was getting 4 billion transistors into an iPhone would be the ultimate demonstration of craftsmanship, but no … this Professor was saying that in our quest to automate our lives, we are doing it at the expense of celebrating and expanding human skills.
For him, craftsmanship is when a human manufactures a product by hand … they use dedicated human reasoning to work out the kinks during production to make a high-quality, functioning piece.
These pieces attract and inspire those around them, attracting more people to both value the products and want to create the products, helping humanity both evolve and appreciate what we are capable of creating and becoming.
Now of course we could say computers have done a similar thing, but this Professor was saying ‘perfect precision’ was overshadowing ‘human precision’ and while there will always be a need for technology to do heavy lifting for us, humanity is at its best when it is can satisfy and appreciate what we as a species can do and right now, we are outsourcing that to technology.
It’s an interesting argument – especially when you think of what so much of this new era of tech is being used to do from a human interaction perspective – but ultimately I believe the argument is that if we don’t get back to teaching tech what to value, then tech will start teaching us.
It already is.
In their quest to get AI accepted in households, many companies are building applications to cater for the lowest common denominator of needs. The low hanging fruit, as it were. Now that would be fine if they then evolved their offering, but as this is a fierce, commercial race, I am pretty sure most companies will end up focusing on trying to automate as many simple tasks as possible in a bid to show their ‘usefulness’ which means over time, they are educating us to value speed over quality, convenience over experiences, virtual over reality and information over understanding.
Some might think that is OK, but as Andy said in a comment a few weeks ago, the implication are frightening …
“The fucked thing about all this tech assistance isnt that its making us lazy, its that its making us selfish and dismissing anyone or anything that doesnt do what we want immediately. The arts are going to be fucked over by this shit till people work it out and by then it will be too late or they just wont care.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love tech.
I love what it does and I love what it has allowed us to do.
And it goes without saying I love that it has helped me satisfy my love of gadgetry.
But if this is all at the cost of humanities appreciation of humanity, that’s quite a price to pay which is why if the end of Moore’s law means we get to teach values to tech rather than have tech teach us our values, then I for one am all for it.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Differentiation, Entertainment, Insight
I know this is late but then everything on this blog is late, but I absolutely love what Heathrow Airport did on 4th May.
I love it for many reasons.
But the main one is they did it right.
Sure, you could argue what they did was to hijack the day and gain some extra publicity … and I’m sure that was part of their motivation … but what I really like about it is how they went for the highest common denominator, not the lowest.
While the board features names most people will understand – R2D2, Wookie, Death Star, Han Solo, Leia – they have also used elements that only the true Star Wars nerd will get … like the name of the planets, the measurement of time and the weather conditions.
What this means is that not only will they get ‘mass appeal and coverage’, they will also make the hardcore nerds feel good about it … feel they’re dealing with an organisation that really gets them rather than just pretends to.
In a World where marketing is too often expressed as a constant stream of generalised noise … those who show their authenticity through actions and behaviour will win big every time, because as we saw in our America In The Raw study, the future of brand differentiation is going to be less about unique product attributes and more about demonstrating how you truly understand your audience.
Or said another way, resonance not [pretend] relevance.
So well done Heathrow, you deserve to be in a galaxy far far ahead of your competitors.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Business, Comment, Communication Strategy, Corporate Evil, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Egovertising, Food For Thought, Honesty, Point Of View
Anyone who has ever read this blog would know the last thing I’m about is thought leadership.
Maybe thought rambling, but not thought leadership.
However a company recently reached out to me about that very subject.
Not to hear my perspective on a particular subject, but to offer to tell me my perspective on a particular subject.
Is this AI on a whole new level?
No, it’s a company who apparently doesn’t like small talk and wants to get straight-to-the-point about offering me the chance to have them write an opinion piece for me and then get it published.
Not my actual opinion, I should add … but one they know they can shove in any random magazine because they’re desperate for content and get me to pay them for the privilege.
Oh, they drop some great magazine names.
Fast Company. Forbes. Tech Crunch.
But we all know the reality is 99% of the articles will be in stuff like the West Bridgford Gazette and the Illawarra Mercury.
I would love to know how many of these things they do?
How many ‘thought leaders’ are actually thought outsourcers?
And I guess I will because I’ve written to them to say ‘this looks amazing, please can you give me more information’, even though the reality is I already feel enough of an imposter without paying these bastards to rub it in.
After all the sickening birthday posts of last week, I thought I’d ease you into this weeks rubbish. Unfortunately, it’s with something else sweet … but not as vomit inducing. [Unless eaten in huge quantities]
While other industries have made their products more expensive … or charged the same price for a smaller product … donuts have got better value for money.
Better.
So every time you shove one in your gob, you’re literally eating ‘value for money’.
If that doesn’t make your Monday a bit brighter, I don’t know what will.
You’re welcome.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Comment, Creativity, Empathy, Honesty, Insight, Planners, Point Of View
One of the things I am continually amazed at, is how few people know how to listen.
By that I don’t mean they’re not hearing the conversation, they’re just taking it all on face value.
The older I get, the more I have realised professional conversations are like icebergs.
What’s actually being said is often under the surface … clues, hints, admissions.
As someone once told me, people speak in words that are often designed to protect themselves rather than reveal themselves – and yet, if you listen really carefully – you can sense what is trying to be said … what they want you to really ask.
Police interrogators get this more than anyone.
Their ability to listen – and read visual cues – is what helps them solve their cases … whether that’s people who don’t want to be committed of a crime or people who are finding it hard to admit a crime has happened.
Subtext is everywhere.
It’s part of the reason I loved living and working in China, because everything had meaning.
To be quite honest, the easiest way to separate the people who appreciated Chinese culture and those who pretended to was to test their ability to read the invisible conversation that was going on during the conversation.
That or if they continually mentioned Confucius.
The ability to listen – and visually focus – is an incredible skill.
It lets you ask better questions.
It lets you discuss subject matters others may be finding hard to open up about.
It lets you judge situations through the context of the other parties body language.
It’s something rarely talked about in planning when – in many ways – it is the embodiment of planning, however it is also very easy to get trapped into.
Where you think nothing said is the truth.
Because if you think that way you’re doubley doomed – not just because there’s no way you can understand what someone is trying to communicate if you don’t listen to what they’re saying, but because the temptation would be to invent the subtext you want it to be and then you’re going to be in an even worse position than if you just took everything on face value.
As author Margaret Millar once said, “Don’t be one of those people who get so obsessed with what is being said between the lines that you don’t read the lines”.