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This is the Too Many Trees newsletter, where I share what I’ve been writing and reading in the realm of leadership and personal development. My executive coaching practice is centered around the idea that we are more effective in moving towards our goals when we become more conscious and intentional in focusing our time and attention, and learn how our unconscious patterns are holding us back. If you know somebody that could benefit from my perspective, please forward this to them or let them know they can set up a free intro chat with me.
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What will humans do in a post-AI world?
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I have had a couple conversations about AI this week where my perspective was surprising to others, so I wanted to more broadly share my thoughts to seed more possibilities about the future impact of AI.
Generative AI as it currently exists does very well at creating average output, allowing everybody to access the skill of a common practitioner in any field.
But what it doesn't do well is innovate, coming up with new possibilities, or connect, understanding a specific person well enough to create something just for them, not for a generic average human being.
Art is the intersection between human connection and innovation, because art is about creating connection between the artist and the audience via an artifact. That points me at art as where AI can support humanity, rather than humans supporting AIs.
I am defining art very broadly here, including content creation, business building, community building, even parenting. Anything that creates a connection between humans can be considered art.
Redirecting humanity from the current late-stage capitalist focus on productivity to sharing and creating art is optimistic, and we are a long way from such a possible future. There will be significant changes and disruptions necessary to manage that transition.
That’s why I wanted to share this possibility and get other people thinking about these questions: how do we build towards this future of sharing and art and community?
Read the longer essay with more examples and explanation on my blog.
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And now for the normal personal development content…
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LinkedIn: These are ideas that have helped my clients (or myself), and that I share via LinkedIn to help a wider audience, and archive here.
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I was on vacation last week, as we traveled to see the total eclipse near Austin, TX, and then devoted my writing time this week to the blog post above instead of LinkedIn, so no new LinkedIn posts!
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Besides the AI essays I linked to in my blog post, here's a few things I've been reading.
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- This GQ profile of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, by Zach Baron. While I own the first couple Nine Inch Nails albums from my college days, I haven't been following Reznor's career, so I found his journey to be fascinating, of expanding beyond dance music to working with Apple on a streaming service, writing film soundtracks with Finch, and now a company, With Teeth, that is doing film, TV, games, clothing and whatever they want to try. Definitely an example of an expansive definition of art!
- Anil Dash's essay “Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement is a reminder that distribution infrastructure and standards matter. When we are dependent on a particular platform for distribution for our art, whatever it is, we are at the mercy of that particular platform's algorithm. Because podcasting was initially difficult to monetize, it has held onto the open standards that built the web and old-school blogging. As we design for the future of art, let's preserve that sense of openness and possibility.
- I appreciated Brie Wolfson's Notes on "Taste" as a gathering of reflections on what taste is, exactly. I particularly liked this bit: "taste is something we can and should try to cultivate. Not because taste itself is a virtue, per se, but because I’ve found a taste-filled life to be a richer one. To pursue it is to appreciate ourselves, each other, and the stuff we’re surrounded by a whole lot more." In other words, taste and art are what makes our human lives worth living.
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Thanks for reading! See you in a couple weeks!
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Since we flew in and out of Houston, I couldn't resist going to the Houston Space Center to see rockets, including an actual Saturn V!
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