Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #165
Reading Careless People
If you’re not familiar with the recent book, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, by Sarah Wynn-Williams, it is her account of working on public policy at Facebook for several years in the 2010s.
She shares details of how decisions were made, by whom, at Facebook, in those years, and while I don’t want to spoil it, I think we all know by now that calling the people who ran, and continue to run, Facebook “careless” is putting it extremely mildly.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. For each issue, I will share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and key insights into privacy, security, and legal technology.
You can learn more about me here: Mike McBride Online.
I recommend reading it because we are in an era where all tech companies want to follow in their footsteps. (See the story below about Perplexity using a browser to do some creepy hyper-targeting of ads, for example.)
Reading it also reminded me of the blog post I was inspired to write about four years ago:
Culture is Defined by the Worst Behavior Tolerated.
At Facebook, what they said about the company and its goals was a lie. Externally, they were trying to connect the world. Internally, they would do anything to grow the platform and their wealth. Each push to do something unethical made the next one easier to take. Each ignored problem made the next one easier to ignore.
Facebook has been at the center of some pretty horrible events. No one set out to do that.
It is what happens when you don’t care enough to set the bar and allow some people to continue lowering it.
Careers and the Workplace
I know many people are still searching, and perhaps this can help:
Also, if it’s time for some reinvention - From Courtroom to Code: How I Reinvented My Career (And You Can Too).
Linked - How to avoid sleepwalking into irrelevance in the age of AI
I'm unsure how many tech jobs will be displaced by AI. Part of me doubts that GenAI tools are capable of doing all the work, but I also know that CEOs don't necessarily care as long as it's good enough and cheaper than hiring human beings. (Which it might be right now.)
The important thing, however, is that the skills Irina recommends are the same skills we need to develop to deal with change, and our industry is constantly changing.
Seth titled this post “Simple and Painless Productivity,” but I think it’s a list of ways to avoid wasting your coworker’s time.
Linked - Uncertainty Kills Morale: How to Maintain Motivation Now
For many managers, you may be in luck because all of that uncertainty makes your employees want to stick with something stable. Assuming, of course, that the situation in your workplace is stable.
If it's not, and you're adding to their uncertainty? Look out.
Research shows that status is not a zero-sum game; elevating someone else also increases your status. - Elevate others to elevate yourself. When was the last time you gave a coworker the credit they were due?
An essential part of networking:
Artificial Intelligence
Quick Thought - It costs how much to say please and thank you to ChatGPT?
I wonder how much it costs to generate all those action figures, and "what does ChatGPT know about me" posts on LinkedIn?
They want to treat privacy the same way Facebook and Google have for years. And the US government will let them. - Perplexity wants to collect data on everything users do online for 'hyper personalized' ads.
Which is why this is the nightmare scenario - An Employee Just Uploaded Sensitive Data to a Consumer AI Tool – Now What?
Linked - CIOs recalibrate IT agendas to make room for rising AI spend
I probably haven't been thinking enough about how the budget for AI might come at the cost of several other IT projects and what that might mean in terms of old, insecure, and inefficient technology not being replaced.
The first in a series from Niki Black - 10 Practical Ways for Legal Professionals to Start Using Generative AI Today.
Training and Development
He says to embrace ambiguity, and I agree - Future of Learning?
I was a panelist on a recent ILTA webinar where I responded to a question about what kinds of training and learning methods we should try in the future with a simple:
“All of them.”
Embrace experimentation because there’s no “right” way to do talent development, and different groups will respond to various methods. Also, embrace failure, because some of your experiments will flop.
If you’re a member of ILTA, you can watch the replay here.
Mental Health in the Workplace
An important reminder about the danger of hustle culture:
Related - Unmeasured: Part 0 - More ain't better
Young workers have spoken:
Finally, let’s not forget this - Understanding the emotional impact of losing your job.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
The simple reason is that without security, there is no IT operation, but there is more to it. - Why IT Security and IT Operations Are Converging (+ What It Means for Your Business)
Collaboration and a familiarity with the effective use of AI are nearly table stakes. = Midsized Law Firms Increasingly See AI and Interconnected Technology as Critical for Future Success, New Survey Finds
That’s all, folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put into sharing this with you each week.