Humane AiPin and Tap wireless keyboard (right) in front of a Starbucks cup on a wooden table. Behind the cup is a bag, slightly open. Further back are baskets with product to be sold.

“I think it’s worth calling out the BS and pointing people in the right direction.”

Stealing that line from a recent conversation as we are getting set to increase activity with some local partners and am looking across the scope of what is happening to the space of technology operations.

About AI/ML:

Nothing about current AI/ML tech leads a belief that it’s the right thing, yet. And yet, even though we are pressing the AiPin into use alongside doing our own research. There’s a shape of being able to work better that many can and should adopt. But, only DeepSeek actually seems to be approach a type of structure mimicking the “focused expertise” we do innately. Really good thread expressing that on Twitter/X here.

Still don’t see any value in certifications around AI/ML. Are there folks becoming knowledgeable enough with some of the wrappers/transformers to help folks forward? Yes. In fact, there’s a positive case to be made for improving operational effectiveness with such tools (for example, our partner is starting this session). But, not to call it AI/ML… until folks are building and/or auditing models (ahem, data scientists and lawyers/paralegals), then it’s not quite something we’d deem certified. It’s tool knowledge, and applied experiments.

We are doing the same (have you noticed that Avanceé doesn’t recommend AI/ML anything).

About Websites and Social

The push away from Twitter/X by many folks continue. We have been on @Micro.Blog since the beginning of this effort because there’s something smart about the “post once, syndicate everywhere philosophy.” We are on quite a few networks - on purpose. There’s a shape of being available which might become more challenging. Authentication and authenticity come along with this. Doesn’t mean everyone needs to own a website, but there’s some good wisdom all should heed:

  • purchase your name/pseudonym as a domain; URL and email at the very least
  • if you like your socials, or like to speak/be seen, you should have your own blog
  • back up your stuff with a/several external drives which do not get connected to the Internet
  • purchase an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with battery backup if you work from home and connect to core device(s) and cable modem/router
  • pay attention to VPNs (whether free or paid, look at how they implement that service and secure it and your connections)
  • use masked emails and email forwarding where you can
  • get on board with passkeys (and if not, get your passwords into a password manager asap)

Problem-Focused versus/and People-Focused

The nature of work is that we come from various perspectives to do a thing and be compensated for it. Either we are problem-focused or we are people-focused. Be mindful of each of these aims. The outputs are similar, the outcomes are vastly different.

For those who are problem focused, your “next” isn’t about solving the problem and keeping the customer around. Your next is mitigation and visibility. If your customer or product isn’t mitigating the problem (at its core) or making visible the things which are under control, then you are causing more problems.

For those who are people-focused, your next isn’t retention or relationships, it is maturity and agility. While it might come across a bit transcendentalist, there is a capability people ought to have esteemed or corrected such that their agency affords them more flexibility to govern their responses to outcomes. Where can you find, imprint, and then get out of the way? That’s how you focus on people (for now at least).

Wrapping Up

These are just a few considerations being taken upon by Avanceé. Doesn’t mean we agree with every premise or position, only that we pay attention to what encourages and threatens our current times. Whether you care to play with the tools or methods is up to you. We are here to help you take sustainable steps forward so that you can (re)engineer the present and setup a desired future. If you need help seeing this more clearly for you/your org, get in touch and let’s take this forward.