Building The Machine 23: Re-Joining The Conversation
I started blogging in March 2006. It's time to experiment once again.
⚙️ Thanks for being here. I am Eric Friedman and I share my thoughts about Building The Machine: those that are creating flywheels to make companies grow. This is a collection of what I am writing, reading, and thinking. I hope you enjoy it.
Re-Joining The Conversation ✍️
Good soundtrack and reference image for this post
Sparked by a recent creative streak I was struggling to post on my Wordpress blog.
Self hosted and fully managed, I was wrestling with post formatting and theme settings. I realized that I needed to let go of the construct that has housed much of my writing for almost 20 (!!!) years of writing, and go with the flow.
The flow has taken writers and readers to Substack. You are reading this here conveniently on mobile, web, or email because of this foundation.
I think the act of writing and having a conversation online is more important than maintaining the backend of a blog so focusing on that above all else.
When I revisited my first post in March 2006(!) I said:
By pro actively joining the conversation “late”? it is my goal to generate ideas, garner conversation, and spark interest in the [I write about]
Wild to think about my apprehension to writing in 2006 that you could not “break into blogging” because it was too late.
It is a little scary to think about publishing on another platform that is not completely owned and under my control, but a good reminder to myself and others from just a few weeks after I launched in a post called Less is More about upcoming changes to MSNBC:
Re-thinking your strategy and changing everything does not have to be as scary as it seems if you can look at the proposed changes and say, “Wow, this makes sense. We should have thought of this sooner.”
So here I go again, joining the conversation.
What I am reading 📖
1️⃣
reflects on the challenge of educating his kids in a rapidly changing world, exploring how to foster curiosity, creativity, and resilience in a system designed for predictability. This was a great read for someone like me with kids and the upcoming world they are entering with AI from a learning perspective.2️⃣
provides a clear and approachable explanation of how ChatGPT works, breaking down the complexities of machine learning and language models into digestible concepts for non-experts. His guide focuses on demystifying the technology behind AI chatbots, emphasizing the probabilistic nature of their responses and how they relate to different sets of symbols.🔗 ChatGPT Explained for Normies
3️⃣
Has a great breakdown on what happened with SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) and why it collapsed. What is so interesting to me is that these time capsule articles are a great read, and inform and shape what happens next in banking (for better or worse!)🔗 The Demise of Silicon Valley Bank
4️⃣ This NYTimes Article from 2023 delves into something I have been thinking about a lot - where have all our online friends gone? Maybe it is because we are in “return to office” mode but I remember have a lot more catch-ups happen a few years back but not anymore. We are back to “lets grab coffee” which seems like a bigger lift these days. Despite loving to get together with people, it doesn’t happen as much anymore.
🔗 Where did all your zoom friends go? (NYTimes link)
Tools I use 🛠️
I have been using Granola AI for calls lately which transcribes and takes notes for calls locally, meaning no shady AI bot joining your calls with you, and lets you summarize notes and ask questions of the transcript. Its incredible to use and helped me follow up with clients and my team (and myself) on what needs to happen next. I am big fan of having an agenda for calls and going back through notes is a great way to accomplish that.
Celebrate your wins 🏆
Continuing to blog for 20 years 😅 (have a win? let me know and Ill post it)
Nice post