Hank Green has an interesting take on the scientific method: We advance because scientists work to persuade others that they’re correct. Every paper, statistical analysis and experiment is nothing but an argument designed to persuade an intelligent critic.
The method of argument is determined by the audience–if they require double-blind studies and useful statistical models, then that’s what you’ll need to use to change their minds.
Priya Parker’s new book is about fighting. It’s useful to realize that signing up for listening to what works and then doing it more is an argument toward better.
Positive argument is the generous act of approaching someone on their terms to persuade them to move forward.
The upside of free market capitalism (and the marketing that goes with it) is that every product and every campaign is an argument. An argument to win over customers, to solve problems in a new and better way. Different cultures require different arguments, but that’s what we do to grow.
The most effective form of marketing isn’t an ad, it’s a better product.
And thus one of the key problems with monopolies: they don’t have to argue! The customer has no choice. The monopoly stops listening, innovating and working for improvement, because they don’t need to.
The same is true for democracy vs autocracy. The despot has no need to make an argument, so they don’t.
Find a place where positive arguments are welcome, and use them to make things better by making better things.
The folks at TryAI put Fable to the test in directing a music video.
The AI glitches show up from the start and continue. But it’s even more unsettling than this.
When AI tries to create and direct joyous human dancing, it fails. The dancers look like retired accountants at a wedding. The stiff awkwardness jumps out at us… and yet, if aliens were to compare this to footage of actual humans dancing, it probably seems very similar.
Throughout the video, each activity portrayed is directly related to the lyrics, awkward and, to be honest, stupid. Again, those aliens are wondering if celebrating this sort of time-wasting is the best we could do.
As I (re)watched it, I wondered what would happen if actual humans reshot this, frame by frame, move by move, with real people in it. It would probably come across as ironic, insightful and wickedly funny.
I expect two cultural shifts to come out of this era of awkward banality:
a hip new clunkiness. The same way that beautiful type was elbowed out by grunge lettering on social media, there’s a sort of lowbrow hipness to doing this so poorly.
a new appreciation for work that embraces and celebrates what humans are capable of. It’s not enough to stuff fast food in a cardboard box and announce you’re done. We can get a robot to do that now. If it’s worth our effort, it’s worth raising our standards.
The nearest lightning was 1,200 miles away. At least that’s what the weather site reported.
When lightning is that unlikely, we don’t worry about it much.
It turns out that this is the best time to install a lightning arrestor on your home, though.
The urgency of the moment might be the push we need to take action, but if we rely on that, we’ve given up our agency to external events.
The media is hooked on selling us breaking news in whatever form they can discover–they need to break our rhythm and cajole us into clicking. But what they want and what we need might not be the same.
There are lots of things you can do, but it’s not clear you should.
OpenAI has virtually unlimited resources. And in addition to building a chat-based AI, they chose to launch pretty good image generation, a basketball, a meme video generator (since cancelled), an upcoming speaker that actually moves around your house, and a myriad of other tools, with new ones coming all the time. A short list includes: Operator, Deep Research, Scheduled Tasks, Projects, Canvas, Connectors, famous voices and Record Mode.
At the same time, Anthropic follows a slower (sort of boring) path.
It’s precisely the same choices every solo freelancer and small business faces, except with more zeroes.
At its peak, Yahoo had nearly 200 links on its home page. They were defeated by Google, which had two.
Three things:
More resources could mean you need more focus, not less.
Innovation is critical, and focus shouldn’t be used as an excuse to hide.
The right words in the right sequence create information. Ideas that change our world.
The first kind of word salad allows the writer to hide. Fancy words, carefully juxtaposed, saying nothing. This can serve a valuable function for politicians, academics and bosses–but there’s no real information for the reader. It’s simply a collection of words pretending to be an idea.
The second kind of word salad is different. This is the reader’s choice. An idea that’s complex, frightening or brand new can be difficult to embrace. Dismissing it as word salad is the easiest way to maintain the status quo and move on.
The simple tell: Is anyone else getting the idea? If the emperor is actually wearing clothes, insisting that they’re naked doesn’t do you any good.
Important ideas often seem like word salad at first.
Even though it’s invisible, easily transported and weightless, software used to stick around. It took years to architect and build a complex bit of software, and thousands of people to help maintain it. Even a complex website could be seen as a durable technical asset.
Now, with Claude Code on everyone’s desk, new software is often easier to write than old software is to maintain.
No one gives a second thought to disposable cups or bottles–and we’re in the midst of an explosion of temporary and disposable software that will dwarf what came before.
And yet, one thing persists: The network.
When an organization is at the center of a network, it doesn’t matter if a competitor makes a fresh new piece of software. The network sticks around.
A vibrant network is more valuable than ever. People like us are here, doing things like this. Why would we go over there?
Even if you were actually engaging with the attendees before, it’s over. You took a new medium and stuffed an old one into it, changed the dynamic and ruined it.
Zoom is a device that eliminates physical distance and enables a synchronized conversation. Interactions in real time. In particular, groups of three to eight professionals, there to have a discussion.
Throwing your powerpoint into the mix transforms the dynamic. It takes your face off the screen and makes everyone else irrelevant. It forbids interaction. And it prevents you from reacting to the room as it unfolds, since it’s linear.
The disrespect comes through, even if you didn’t intend it to.
If you have something to show us, send it before the meeting. If there’s a memo, we can read it in advance, or afterward. In fact, if the memo is really important, simply pause the meeting while we all take two minutes to read it. We know how to read.
Reading and interacting are different events.
Powerpoint was invented by socially-awkward engineers as a way to create deniability and clarity in boring tech meetings. It’s a persistently misused piece of tech, used as a crutch or an effective way to hide.
If you call a meeting, do the work to earn it. Make sure the right people are there, make sure you’re prepared and make sure they are too. Use any excuse you can to cancel the meeting and replace it with a memo, one that’s short, clear and designed to accept responsibility.
There’s another new medium that’s arriving–well-edited, short and punchy videos, a one-way method to carefully say what you wanted to say. Send one of those if you want…
Show and tell has a long history going back to first grade. But if you’re going to do show and tell, do it with care.
When we upgrade something in our lives, the thing we used to be satisfied with is no longer satisfying.
That’s the nature of an upgrade.
After a certain point, the only thing we’re buying is the way the upgrade makes us feel in the moment, not our satisfaction going forward.
Stereos, salt, art on the wall. It’s easy to get hooked on the climb, not the altitude.
Luxury goods are a special set of upgrades. These are purchases that aren’t actually an upgrade, they simply feel that way because of their cost (and the status that goes with it).
At some point, the best upgrade is the realization that we have enough.
This is a useful term. It helps us understand a topic or theory that can be considered from multiple points of view by people engaging with good intent.
“Pluto is a planet” was a controversial statement among some people who study the solar system.
On the other hand, it’s not controversial that Pluto actually exists.
Choosing to engage in a conversation about something that’s controversial gives us a chance to share our insights and engage in dialogue. And it also comes with the knowledge that we’ll need to devote time and care to having that conversation.
On the other hand, inventing false controversy is simply a tool to keep people away.
If you insist that the world is flat, and that talking about its spherical nature is controversial, then you’ve made it hard to be a travel agent, a geologist or a sailor. You’ve scared people away from a productive conversation because you’re claiming something without good intent.
The key element of ‘controversial’ is possibility. If that’s not there, it’s simply an empty argument.
Last year, the recording session I did with Mel Robbins was going so well that her producers asked me to stick around–four hours later, we had recorded enough for two episodes.
One never knows how these things will feel until after the fact, but part 2 is live now. I hope you get as much out of it as I did…
My day with Mel inspired my new book, which ships in 9 weeks. And the limited-edition multi-pack is well on its way to being fully subscribed. I just added a new spiral-bound booklet for the first 700 orders. Photos to come when it comes back from the printer.
