Excellent essay. Here's a weird, adjacent idea on the artist thread: embed products/services with deeper meaning.
AI can mimic humans, but may never(?) have an intrinsic sense of fulfillment or purpose. It can't create from a place of "earned meaning," such as lived stakes, real tradeoffs, contradictions/paradoxes that humans have to carry.
Art example: AI can write a story about death, but only a human can wrestle w/ human mortality and create from that space
Product example: build a service that carries human story and POV; e.g. earned origin story, meaning embedded in component parts, even counter-trends as the point
It's the same impulse as buying local, buying from the influencer you trust, or choosing brands that reflect your values. As the "slop" grows, that type of discernment on the human/meaning level, the need for it, I believe will only grow.
What a great essay. I think you are observing the same changes I have noticed. No matter where the AI revolution will take us, Influence, Judgement and Taste stay relevant.
I do like also the depth you provide to improve these skills. I became curious, how hard is it these days to find mentors? Especially if one is starting out? I believe the lack of in-person encounters must also subsequently affect the people's network size. And while LinkedIn network is a nice vanity number, it is not necessarily the people who are there if you need them.
Appreciate the kind words! I still think that the number one rule of networking is to just try to do great work and share it / get feedback on it / collaborate on it with talented people. It certainly helps to be in person, but it’s not the only way.
And it seems that Substack is becoming a better community for this than LinkedIn :)
Great read ! I wrote something recently that could be a companion to this piece. I think the idea of builder pods are great until you realize it is not possible to hire for an all inclusive "engineer" or you don't want to "commoditize" your design or product thinking. Perhaps hiring for an archetype works in that scenario - an engineer with a strong design sense who could be supplemented with tools or a PM with strong engineering background who could be offered design help. Craft ultimately remains cannonical.
Excellent essay. Here's a weird, adjacent idea on the artist thread: embed products/services with deeper meaning.
AI can mimic humans, but may never(?) have an intrinsic sense of fulfillment or purpose. It can't create from a place of "earned meaning," such as lived stakes, real tradeoffs, contradictions/paradoxes that humans have to carry.
Art example: AI can write a story about death, but only a human can wrestle w/ human mortality and create from that space
Product example: build a service that carries human story and POV; e.g. earned origin story, meaning embedded in component parts, even counter-trends as the point
It's the same impulse as buying local, buying from the influencer you trust, or choosing brands that reflect your values. As the "slop" grows, that type of discernment on the human/meaning level, the need for it, I believe will only grow.
Very interesting thread to follow. Humans want to connect with, feel like, and act like humans.
What a great essay. I think you are observing the same changes I have noticed. No matter where the AI revolution will take us, Influence, Judgement and Taste stay relevant.
I do like also the depth you provide to improve these skills. I became curious, how hard is it these days to find mentors? Especially if one is starting out? I believe the lack of in-person encounters must also subsequently affect the people's network size. And while LinkedIn network is a nice vanity number, it is not necessarily the people who are there if you need them.
Appreciate the kind words! I still think that the number one rule of networking is to just try to do great work and share it / get feedback on it / collaborate on it with talented people. It certainly helps to be in person, but it’s not the only way.
And it seems that Substack is becoming a better community for this than LinkedIn :)
Great read ! I wrote something recently that could be a companion to this piece. I think the idea of builder pods are great until you realize it is not possible to hire for an all inclusive "engineer" or you don't want to "commoditize" your design or product thinking. Perhaps hiring for an archetype works in that scenario - an engineer with a strong design sense who could be supplemented with tools or a PM with strong engineering background who could be offered design help. Craft ultimately remains cannonical.
https://open.substack.com/pub/swesubbs/p/the-craft-remains-cannonical?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=be9g6
I love the phrase "craft remains canonical". Thank you for sharing!
Glad it resonated! Please give the article - craft remains canonical a read, would love your thoughts !
This is fantastic. Loved the point about the best brand and product marketers still being around long after performance marketers are gone.
As a former performance marketer and terrible brand marketer, I think I'm allowed to make this point :)