Hello there! I hope you had a good Valentine's Day. I had planned to take my wife out for some Japanese food, but I forgot to make a reservation and ended up having to wait in line for 30 minutes. Despite this, my wife still enjoyed the experience as it had been a while since we went out, but I feel like I could have done better. Which brings me to today's topic! But first...

Weekly Inventory Check:

During the past week, life has been challenging for people residing in Turkey and Syria. Even if you or some of them are not directly affected, many are still feeling the impact. If you happen to know anyone from Turkey or Syria, it would be beneficial to let them know that you're available to support them in any way possible. During difficult times like these, supporting one another becomes critical.

Automation & Value of Effort

I strongly dislike manual work and am driven to automate tasks as much as possible. I believe in the maxim that developers are inherently lazy and will spend extensive time coding to ensure minimal need for intervention later. However, not everyone recognizes the value that automation can bring to the table. While some may value effort over output, I find that a streamlined system that reduces the need for manual input allows me to focus on more meaningful work. Nonetheless, I have observed that my approach can be met with confusion and a lack of appreciation for the effort put into creating an efficient system, especially when some tasks can now be accomplished with the click of a button.

We are entering a new era of work that allows us to focus on more meaningful tasks. By automating routine tasks, we can use our mental energy to think creatively and provide valuable solutions to our organizations. With the advent of AI, we now have access to innovative tools such as ChatGPT, Sembly, and Dall-e, which can take care of tasks like creating presentations, editing and writing, or transcribing meeting minutes. This is likely the direction that the future of work will take, where the emphasis is on the quality of the solutions, we provide rather than the hours we put into them. In the future, the stress will be on valuing quality work over the amount of time spent on a task.

Do you agree or disagree? Shoot me an email. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Want More?

The saying "Garbage in, Garbage out" highlights the importance of having a good system in place before implementing automation. While automation can be useful, AI will only compound existing problems if the underlying system is flawed.

If you are interested in learning more, there is a paper available on the Future of Knowledge Work with Automation.

Read of the Week

I came across a book titled "A World Without Work: Technology, Automation and How We Should Respond." The book discusses the impact of AI on work and how we must prepare for a future with technological unemployment. I am excited to dive into this interesting read.

Thoughts to Leave you With

I believe that automation will not replace all types of work in the near future. Instead, work will become more human-centered as AI and automation take over routine tasks. Ultimately, it is humans who consume the products, so it is important to have people who understand the needs of customers involved in the product creation process. This demonstrates that mental attributes such as empathy and problem-solving skills will become more valuable than hard skills like coding, presentation building, and writing.