When I tell people that I've quit social media, I'm not being completely honest: I'm still on LinkedIn. For years, I made an exception for LinkedIn, because I considered it an outlier: a social media network that felt useful. And "felt" is the right word, because was it actually useful? It seemed like there was … Continue reading On letting go of LinkedIn
Category: Cultural Comment
On the best ideas in Mad Men appearing outside the office
The final seasons of Mad Men coincided with the beginning and end of my career in publishing. My final job in publishing—my first was "marketing" obscure books in the academic books division—was in the Dictionaries division at Oxford University Press, creating original web content—mainly blog posts—for the now-defunct Dictionaries website. When I first took the … Continue reading On the best ideas in Mad Men appearing outside the office
On Frank Lloyd Wright being the greatest architect (partly because people think so)
Chuck Klosterman is one of my favorite writers, partly because he's funny and fun to read, and partly because he offers unusual and unexpected perspectives on things I think I know. His book But What If We're Wrong? explores the destabilizing (but someone reasonable) premise that we are wrong about...well, maybe everything. One of these … Continue reading On Frank Lloyd Wright being the greatest architect (partly because people think so)
On art in hospitals
When I walk around a medical facility, the art is one of those things I now notice. That noticing has everything to do with a former colleague of mine, an interior designer, whose scope of work on projects sometimes included "the art package." "So...you get to pick the art?" "When they let me. A lot … Continue reading On art in hospitals
On the thoroughness of hospital staff
When our first kid was born, my experience in the hospital was a rush—I was anxious, exhausted, overstimulated. My attention span was short, and my short term memory was shot. Names of nurses and doctors? Forgotten. A play-by-play commentary later requested by family? Impossible. So I was delighted that the experience of accompanying my wife … Continue reading On the thoroughness of hospital staff
On not talking to the police
One of the more illuminating pieces I’ve read of late was from the New York Times opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo, who observed the criminal charges against Alec Baldwin relating to the death of a cinematographer on the set of the film Rust and had a simple takeaway: Don’t talk to the police. I won’t bother … Continue reading On not talking to the police
On using ChatGPT for A/E/C marketing, Part 2
Yesterday, I wrote about an important AI-related skill knowledge workers like me will need to develop in the next few years. Today, I’m writing not so much about a skill as a revelation. A big news story about ChatGPT has been the reaction of Google, with CEO Sundar Pinchai declaring a “code red” in response … Continue reading On using ChatGPT for A/E/C marketing, Part 2
On using ChatGPT for A/E/C marketing, Part 1
I recently wrote about needing to embrace ChapGPT (and/or its future competitors) as part of our future workplace. So I gave it a shot. And while the results weren't great, they were decent enough to confirm that there's an essential skill A/E/C marketers—and many other knowledge workers—will need to develop in the next few years: … Continue reading On using ChatGPT for A/E/C marketing, Part 1
On doom loop conversations
When I encountered the term "doom loop" in the Jim Collins book Good to Great, my brain filed the term away. And rather than apply it as intended—referring to a bad economic situation or aspect giving rise to another, then another, and so forth, in a "doom loop"—I started thinking about how certain conversations are … Continue reading On doom loop conversations
On ChatGPT as part of our future workplace
Over the past months, it's hard to think about the future of education and not consider how AI fits into it. K-12 teachers have fretted over whether homework is dead. College professors are worried the essay as assignment is a turn-of-the-century relic. ChatGPT (and its improved future versions and competitors) will generate essays, answers to … Continue reading On ChatGPT as part of our future workplace
Taylor Coe 