Welcome to another edition of Idea Surplus Disorder.
In this week's newsletter, why we shouldn't stop doing things just because machines can do them too, how to substitute discussion for decks in decision-making 1:1s, why big projects always go over-budget, what theater directors can teach us about facilitation, and whether your AI hallucinates for the same reason we dream.
Plus, a mix of fun finds, inspiring quotes, and a question about all the things you measure that maybe you shouldn't.
As always, I'm Matt Homann, and I'm glad you're here!
My Favorite Find:
I read hundreds of blogs and dozens of newsletters every week, and I always find more ideas than I can share. My favorite this week is an essay from L. M. Sacasas, titled "Do Not Resign From Life" that pushes back on the inevitability of AI disruption:
If we are focused on the question of human exceptionalism and we stake our sense of dignity or our experience of purpose on assumptions rooted in the idea that we are special as a species because we can do x, y, or z, then, naturally, we put ourselves in existential jeopardy when we discover that something else in the world, a machine no less, can similarly perform x, y, and z.
But this seems misguided. We’ve made machines that can fly faster and farther than the swallow-tailed kite, but in no way does it follow that the kite should cease from its flight or that it is somehow diminished because of the advent of flying machines. That there is something else in the world that flies tells us nothing about whether the kite ought to fly. Of course it should fly because the point of flying for the kite is not to somehow demonstrate its uniqueness. It is blessedly free from such forms of existential angst, the experience of which might be the thing that does distinguish us as a species!
Why should this mean that I ought not to think for myself and with others? Why should I cease from inhabiting the playground of language because a machine can pretend to play in it as well? Why should I abandon the exercise of judgment or the pursuit of knowledge? We must pursue these things not because the dignity of our humanity is on the line, but because our joy is.
A Few More Things Worth Your Time:
We’ve got a once-in-the-history-of-our-species opportunity here.
It used to be that our only competitors were made of carbon. Now some of our competitors are made out of silicon. New competition should make us better at competing—this is our chance to be more thoughtful about writing than we’ve ever been before. No system can optimize for everything, so what are our minds optimized for, and how can I double down on that? How can I go even deeper into the territory where the machines fear to tread, territories that I only notice because they’re treacherous for machines?
I love former Procter & Gamble's CEO A.G. Lafley's process for his 1:1 with his senior leaders (I've lost the link):
Presidents would submit their slide decks two weeks before the strategy review. Lafley would read the materials and issue a short list of questions that he wanted to discuss at the meeting. He emphasized that he wanted a discussion, not a presentation. Presidents were allowed to bring only three more pieces of paper-charts, graphs, notes-to the review.
Why do large projects always go over budget?
First, for a variety of political and psychological reasons, humankind nowadays is really bad at giant undertakings. Though some kinds of projects are particularly likely to go bad, and some places seem to have a harder time building them than do others, the problem is, in fact, global, and it affects digital infrastructure as well as bridges, tunnels, subways, airports, and buildings.
Second, improvement in this difficult realm is imperative. Squandering a fortune on complex initiatives that in many cases fail to deliver promised benefits is bad for human welfare, to say nothing of the careers of those who lead them.
[Finally], it’s common to adopt wildly optimistic cost projections for big projects in order to overcome opposition; once things get going, everyone will feel that they’re in too deep to turn back. This approach leads to poor execution, massive overspending, scandal, and a loss of credibility. Better to face costs honestly up front and plan with exquisite care before doing anything drastic. The longer the building portion takes, the more time for something unexpectedly bad to happen.
Directing a play sounds a lot like great facilitation:
A director is meant to create an environment in which a potentially disparate group of people can come together to make a singular event. My job is to enable actors and designers to express themselves as individually as possible, while inspiring them to do so along a route that I have already chosen for the group as a whole. Managing a broad coalition that still has a distinct vision as its aim may seem like a contradiction, but it is also a goal.
Maybe your AI hallucinates because it is their way to dream:
Hallucinations are the price a mind pays for creativity. Our own minds hallucinate every night in a manner very similar to LLM hallucinations – with the same weird logic and detailed absurdity found in our dreams. Our ingenuity depends on our mind’s ability to churn out novel and unconventional notions. At night we relax our consciousness and let the hallucinations run free. We dream in part to maintain the visual cortex area against becoming occupied by other encroaching brain functions. But during the day we tame our naturally active hallucinations with our waking consciousness, forcing reality on to our speculations. We have multiple levels of oversight, constraining our dreamtime while we are awake. We have not got rid of hallucinations; we merely submerge them to manage them.
I agree with 95% of these rage-inducing tech problems. These are the ones that drive me the craziest:
- Do not make me scan a QR code and go through an 11-step account activation process just to park my car for seven minutes.
- Please, please stop asking me to verify my humanity by clicking on tiny motorcycles.
- Don’t make me check in online six separate times for every doctor’s appointment when we both know I’m going to have to answer the same questions when I get there.
- Don’t make me scan a QR code to read a menu, or maybe ban QR codes in general.
- Since you don’t respect my opinion anyway, quit pestering me to fill out a survey after every single consumer experience.
This Week's Question:
This week's question builds on a familiar maxim: "What gets measured gets managed." Most of us think this is a good thing, but the fuller version includes a warning we tend to drop: even when it's pointless to measure and manage it.
Most teams track measures nobody questions anymore: hours, revenue, utilization, etc. Each one started for a reason, and then it just kept going. Some are still earning their keep while others are quietly shaping how people behave in ways no one intended.
So here's the exercise. Make a list of everything you measure. Then walk down the list and ask, for each one:
- What does this measure make people do – and what "bad" behavior is this quietly rewarding?
- What does it cost us (in time, systems, or impact on our culture) to produce this number?
- What are we afraid would happen if we stopped?
- How does tracking this number serve our best clients?
Random Things for Smart People
- IdeaBrowser: find your next startup idea in minutes
- All the Star Wars lightsabers
- The Illuminated Windows of NYC
- Chat with Talkie, a "vintage" LLM from the 1930s only trained on data from that era
- The 100 greatest bird names of all time.
- How the heck do traffic lights work? Related: Mechanical Pencils
Words of Wisdom
For every poem you write, God gives you one line, and you supply the rest. – Paul Valéry
Everybody needs at least one person in the world to see them, to see who they are in their deepest greatness. – YY Jacobson
The quality of your attention determines the quality of other people’s thinking. – Nancy Kleine
In every successful organization is the seed of its own complacency. – Peter Drucker
Without self-belief nothing can be accomplished. With it, nothing is impossible. – Felix Denis
Our identity is the most precious thing we own. It is our lifetime’s work. – Will Storr