Hi, good morning —

 

I hope you had a great start to 2020. This year I will be sending a regular update to this list on topics of AI, future of work, creativity and innovation. Like a blog but through email (maybe blogmail).

 

With too many algorithms scarping and repacking links, content and social sharing I find email to be a wonderful medium.

 

 

The first link touches on this phenomena, a story at Harvard Business Review.

 

If social media can feel like a crowded airport terminal where everyone is allowed, but no one feels particularly excited to be there, digital campfires offer a more intimate oasis where smaller groups of people are excited to gather around shared interests

— https://hbr.org/2020/02/the-era-of-antisocial-social-media

 

I recommend following Sara Wilson’s work

 

 

 

AIANY Talk on AI
 

Last December I moderated a panel for AIA NY titled AI and Sensemaking: Human-Centered Design in the Age of Abundant Data we discussed questions of people, places and data, can sensemaking be automated and what 'do we wish we could measure?’.
 

The event video is linked here 

 

 

 

This year I will following the question if technology makes us more like everyone else, or more like ourselves. 

 

This is work that I am pursuing on multiple fronts, and you can follow along on a weekly email: http://eepurl.com/gPAlT1

 

 

 

I had the pleasure of spending some time with Sylvain labs this month – and was blown away by the culture, intellectual rigor and creativity.

 

 

 

 

I have been really enjoying 2bobs by David C.Baker and Blair Enns, it touches on a lot of very important questions of monetization of creativity, from a very experienced vantage point. Questions of value models, RFPs, positioning, and team roles. 

 

Productized Vs Customized is a great one to start with.

 

(I actually borrowed their doctor metaphor in the PDF coming below on questions of R&D strategy)

 

 

 

 

R&D is an important part of innovation work – it is the breaking of new ground (basic research), calculating of its timeliness and relevance (applied research) and then constructing an MVP (development). 

 

I was wondering if we might be getting to a saturation point in building things. With production becoming more accessible does building more, and more quickly just adds risk? At what point does strategy come in? 

 

Are we just giving people innovation based on their own diagnosis or are we taking a moment to think differently, and maybe model different futures before letting our clients take that risk?

 

Linked is a PDF primer to this topic, let’s talk if this is a need or of interest to you. I am happy to come in for a lunch and learn.

 

 

 

Thank you for reading, 

 

I hope to be speaking very soon.

 

Nitzan Hermon