Tag: writing

Value the Friction

Posted on by simongterry in future of work

Friction is an inevitable part of work. We grapple with constraints and challenges to invent new paths forward, to test our abilities and to learn with new skills. In an age of AI, it might be time to value the friction a little more. Sometimes the obstacle is the work.

Frictionless Solutions

The NY Times published a piece yesterday which was a critique of Open AI’s announcement that its AI had solved the Navier-Stokes problem in fluid dynamics, a mathematical problem that qualified as so hard it was one of the Millennium challenges. The opinion piece is sceptical of the value of this as yet unvalidated solution because it involves skipping all the hard grind of mathematics to get there, even if one overlooks the potential plagiarism concerns around the model’s work. Others have commented that scientific journals are now so flooded by quickly produced scientific papers that sifting them for real valuable scientific progress is becoming a challenge in itself. A frictionless race to outcomes risks losing the value of the journey.

This place is an impression
left by the friction-ridges
of a human battle.

Kiersten Bridger, Treaties and Monuments: The Whim of Ephemeral Contracts, or A War Department Map Looks like the Fingerprint of All My Relations

The Value of Friction

Much of human progress and invention is a consequence of a pursuit of other goals. We stumble across things as we try to solve the problems our goal puts in front of us. The list of everyday items that were invented as the Apollo Moon project sought to meet President Kennedy’s injunction to ‘put a man on the moon and bring him back’ within a decade is long. In many sense, this progress has had much greater and more enduring impact than grainy images of a flag set in moondust, as romantic as that destination may be. The astronauts themselves were focused on the challenges not the magical destination.

My God, I never thought of all this bringing peace and tranquillity to anyone. As far as I am concerned, this voyage is fraught with hazards ... and that is about as far as I have gotten in my thinking. Peace and tranquillity indeed; I wish I had time to digest that, and decide in my own mind whether it’s true or not; in the meantime, I am proprietor of this orbiting men’s room and there are other demands on my time.

Michael Collins, Apollo Astronaut after speaking to Richard Nixon

We don’t learn much in our comfort zone simply because we aren’t very challenged putting one step after the other. More concerningly our comfort tends to reduce the thinking and scrutiny that we might otherwise apply to our work. Work that comes easily can be mundane over time and far more prone to mistakes as our attention wavers. Being forced to reflect and change course when stumped is a critical moment that can enable a change of direction, a breakthrough or better yet a new collaboration. Often the best creations are when two people pursuing different goals discover the intersection of their challenges.

A common fallacy is to see the work we do as only measurable in outputs and outcomes. Management’s machine metaphor can tend to treat all human work as mechanics with inputs leading to outputs. Human work is rich not just because of its destinations. The process to get there builds capabilities, allows for human interaction and provides a rewarding sense of personal value. The grind of work and the challenges overcome often matters much more than the flag at the end of the race. We would be wise to remember this as work accelerates and becomes ever more overwhelming with AI.

Barring a catastrophe, the AI transformation will continue apace. We will not fail to take the advantages that AI offers us in acceleration of work. However, as we design our systems of work in the new world we would do well to remember that obstacles can be the work and that there is a lot to gain on the journey itself. Quick leaps to answers can lose us important parts of the process, especially if the outcomes are black boxes that do not contribute to human potential or capabilities.

...the shank fixing us
together in this world my mother could trust
only so long as everything was done right, only
when she didn't forget to check that I was buttoned up 
proper, buttoned up tight.

Sally Green, Shank

Tiny Experiments for Portfolio Life

Posted on by simongterry in future of work

I am asked often to provide advice on managing a portfolio career by people seeking to escape their corporate pasts. I have just read a book that I will happily recommend to anyone seeking to pursue a range of new interests. That book is Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff.

Le Cunff describes the process of her departure from a dream career at Google after a health event and how she began to explore the elements of.a new life in neuroscience. The book outlines a number of practical tools to aid the process of discovery and experimentation that sit at the heart of a portfolio career.

My Curiosity, the expatriate, has returned
Bright eyed she can be seen strolling
on this side of life again

Marie Luise Kaschnitz, My Curiosity (tr Lisel Mueller)

Le Cunff describes an Experimental Mindset as a combination of high ambition and high curiosity ( a classic two by two matrix). Le Cunff encourages stimulating curiosity with note taking on observations and then analysing those observations for patterns that generate questions and hypotheses as to the next steps. Those hypotheses become the foundations for commitments to actions over an extended period, which she calls PACTs. The PACT is a way to test your new interests in action and learn in the process. The PACT leads to the ability to experiment through trial and error over time to identify the positives, negatives and next steps. Those next steps are evaluated using Preserve, Pivot or Pause as choices.

Finally, Le Cunff describes the power of sharing your intention in networks and building communities to support your new goals. This last section of the book describes Working Out Loud perfectly without using that term.

I can heavily endorse Le Cunff’s book as I have been using my own variations of the approaches since 2013. Those practices have helped me discover new capabilities and passions. I have built opportunities and networks in which to put them to practice. Lastly, I have experienced the continuous learning and growth that comes from the experiemental mindset. My examples include:

  • A PACT to blog daily which was the genesis of this blog and allowed a forum to explore a range of diverse interests
  • Working Out Loud on what I was learning which dramatically expanded my networks and led to the connections with Change Agents Worldwide to take those connections globally and even the annual Working Out Loud weeks
  • My work in Digital Health which began from network connections and grew from curiosity and a focus on doing work together with interesting people
  • Drinking 100 cups of coffee with diverse people to learn more about a subject or extend networks in an area of interest
  • Various writing projects which I have structured as PACTs
  • My new project of engaging AI practitioners to hear their stories of the front lines of AI adoption, a much engaging and current way to learn best practices and far more insightful than listening to consultants or reading history.
  • My position on the Board of Bank First which was the result of a weak ties connection recommending me to a head hunter recruiting for the board. The former colleague knew of my interests in health care, education, digital and transformation from my working out loud.

If you are considering a portfolio career or in the process of building one, I can strongly recommend Tiny Experiments as a platform for your experimentation. Even better, if you do some research and wrap the practices described in the book in a range of other conversations we have had on this blog around Working Out Loud, the power of networks and the Start-up of You.

The graves of our misgivings we build to the end
As we end unfinished

Gary Soto, Towards It
Posted on by simongterry in Uncategorized

This light hearted essay from my school days resurfaced today. This essay reads many of like my current posts in format & style. An essay was conceived by Montaigne as a test or experiment of ideas. Today I write blogposts to experiment with ideas & to learn the art of writing. There weren’t blogs when I finished school, but essays like these were the experimental foundations for the writing in today’s posts.