Jordan Davis

Here to make things happen for Columbus. Opinions my own.

[Sustainability at Ohio State @OhioStSustain]

Honored to host @SmartCbus Sustainability Leaders Group at the Ohio Union today! Networking, learning from peers & discussion of collaboration at #COP29 in Baku w/ @ohiostate faculty and students! Fun to have so many Buckeye alum sustainability practitioners back on campus!

[James Clear @JamesClear]

The beginner chases the right answers.

The master chases the right questions.

[Michael Eisenberg @mikeeisenberg]

Day #3 - Second Set of Thoughts on Unfolding Situation in Israel.

First, Noni, the son of my former entrepreneur and the former Minister of Science and Technology Izhar Shay, was killed late last night. Our hearts are broken for Izhar and his family and for other families that have been destroyed by barbaric Hamas murderers, rapists and kidnappers. May his and others’ memories be a blessing and give us strength to keep fighting for life, for liberty and for a safe homeland. In their death, these brave young people have commanded us to steadfastly pursue life.

In yesterday's post, I wrote "Israel is the most resilient and strongest civil society in the world. This is what gives life meaning. It tells you who Israel is. People committed to each other. We are our brothers' keeper.”

Today I want to tell you about Israel's civic society. For much of the last two days many people have been coordinating between massive civilian efforts and government. Hundreds of former soldiers ("Brothers in Arms") brought their jeeps and weapons to the South of Israel, coordinating over whatsapp groups and command centers they set up in the South of Israel, have bravely saved tens if not hundreds of families who were under fire by Hamas terrorists in the communities and Kibbutzes in a ten kilometer radius outside of Gaza.

Some of my entrepreneurs opened a forward command center to coordinate locating the people who were trapped, made sure the army said it was safe enough to enter and coordinated with brave jeep owners who went to rescue the families. One of our entrepreneurs has worked around the clock since early Saturday morning on his phone and laptop and literally saved tens of lives by identifying people trapped in their homes or left bleeding in fields, coordinating efforts to rescue them. Another built an app to enable civilians to reporting and confirm incidents and local needs.

You cannot find a flight back to Israel in the last two days because those Israelis who serve in reserve duty are rushing to get back. Ordinary people, reservists, are leaving their jobs, rushing to get back and fight for freedom. Fight for life. Fight for good. People have rented private planes from London and elsewhere to fly reservists back since most foreign airlines have cancelled all flights. As Tal Heinrich wrote, that is what happens “when duty calls” and there is no population that duty calls to more than Israelis and particularly former Israeli soldiers.

Tonight I went to visit one of my sons who is now at an army base waiting for instructions. When I arrived I could not believe my eyes: for as far as my eyes could see and more, there were cars parked on both sides of the road and on both sides of the center divide. When I asked my son whose cars they were, I learned it was reservists who had been called up, parked their cars on the road on Saturday and arrived at the base. We drove the length of the parked cars: It extended for four kilometers.

The scene outside the base was wild. It was 1045PM. There were restauranteurs who pitched tents, to serve food they brought for soldiers. It felt like every mother and sister in the country was walking in with cooked food. Endless numbers of of people walked around with aluminum tins filled with food. There were young girls in long skirts walking around handing out extra pairs of socks, towels, toiletries, Red Bull and other military supplies that they brought for our soldiers. As we prepared to leave, a flatbed truck pulled up with a massive amount more supplies (Picture below). These were all civilian volunteer efforts. Most of it organized over whatsapps and on Google forms and Sheets.

See the videos in the tweets below from Beer Sheba where Roni Flamer and Lev Echad (One Heart) volunteers are working through the night to get supplies for civilians affected by the barbarism and first responders in the cities and towns. Civilians bought ceramic vests for soldiers and first responders, headlamps, knee pads, drones and endless supplies of clothing, food, toiletries, bedding and more to those who have been chased from their homes and living in temporary shelter or other people’s homes. My 17 year old nephew is running a WhatsApp group of 1000 high school kids collecting food and toys for the families who have been forced from their homes. My son and son in law drove 6 hours today to pick up and deliver supplies to soldiers and first responders. My younger daughters and their friends joined WhatsApp groups for babysitters because so many men have been called up, school has been cancelled and mothers need help with kids. There are groups of doctors and nurses, people with jeeps and drones, software engineers that are building tools to report issues and verify information to reduce the fog of war, hell and uncertainty that many families are living through now since their loved ones are unaccounted for. Yesterday, the Shomer Hachadash received a request for people who know how to milk cows since those that run the barns have been called up. Teenagers are volunteering to milk cows over the coming days around the country because we need to keep the shelves stocked.

This tells a larger story, one I have written about in some of my books. Governments have 20th century operating systems. Citizens have 21st century operating systems. Governments run at the rate of the pony express and maybe Windows 95. Civilians and business today run agile and much much faster. Civic self organization is power and prosperity. It is also Joie de Vivre. Governments inability to address many of our challenges is because their OS is outdated. However, in many countries, civilian society is apathetic. Not in Israel. We are a mobilized and vibrant civic society. If you followed the Judicial reform process and protests, you saw it (on both sides) in spades and now it is on full display at war time. Ministers and Ministries, Secretaries and government offices are struggling globally.

Winning 21st century countries will be defined by civic involvement, civilian populations mobilized for good, motivated to create a better society, triggered to empower their fellow through fast advancing technology and human empathy. Civilian armies that bring people together to fight shoulder to shoulder to protect the ideals and people that are dear to us are critical for esprit de corps, for binding society and inspiring calls to action. It can be very messy but it is meaningful and more impactful. It is a significant and meaningful change. This means that much activity traditionally the purview of government will become more distributed. Centralization is crumbling in many ways. Agility and motivated civilians are winning. Those societies with motivated and activist populations, those that value life and are willing to sacrifice for it, will win over the next decades. Those societies with a will to live, to contribute, to build a better future for children and grandchildren will do whatever it takes. Israel has those essential components and we are motivated. With God's help, a motivated inspiring population and an incredibly strong and resilient civil society, we will win and beat back the barbarians at our gates and in some of your streets and then we will get back to building a better 21st century society.

[Nuseir Yassin @nasdaily]

Personal Thoughts:
(not for everyone, feel free to skip)

For the longest time, I struggled with my identity.

A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf.

Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word “Israel” and call themselves “Palestinian” only.

But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me.

So I decided to mix the two and become a “Palestinian-Israeli”

I thought this term reflected who I was.
Palestinian first. Israeli second.

But after recent events, I started to think.
And think.
And think.
And then my thoughts turned to anger.

I realized that if Israel were to be “invaded” like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets.

900 Israelis died so far. More than 40 of them are Arabs. Killed by other Arabs. And even 2 Thai people died too.

And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government.

Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish:

Israel.

That’s where all my family lives. That’s where I grew up. That’s the country I want to see continue to exist so I can exist.

Palestine should exist too as an independent state. And I hope to see the country thrive and become less extreme and more prosperous. I love Palestine and have invested in Palestine.

But it’s not my home.

So from today forward,
I view myself as an “Israeli-Palestinian”.

Israeli first.
Palestinian second.

Sometimes it takes a shock like this to see so clearly.

[Elizabeth Laraki @elizlaraki]

In 2006, I was 1 of 4 designers on Google Search.

For 20 years, every search engine has copied Google.

Now ChatGPT, Bard + Claude look like Google's offspring - "better” search engines.

But last week signaled we're on the brink of a design revolution.

ChatGPT unveiled incredible new features.

These could give us the opportunity to completely shift how we interface with AI.

Here's the full story:

–––

When I was a designer on Google Search, all major search engines looked the same – Google, Yahoo, MSN Bing.

Google was the market leader with a heavily optimized UI that supported billions of dollars in ad revenue.

Naturally, it became THE way to show search results.

Its success made it illogical for Google to consider big UI changes.

And any changes they did make were just mirrored by everyone else.

So 20 years later, we’ve only seen incremental changes to search engine UIs.

–––

Today, we have consumer-ready LLMs (Large Language Models) freshly in our hands.

As consumer products, these are in their infancy.

We’re very early in understanding their capabilities and defining how people interact with them.

These are uncharted waters.

And yet ChatGPT, Bard, Claude etc. all chose a text-based input box — just like Google’s search box — as the core interface.

Why?

The input box is simple, versatile, and familiar.

- It’s simple to understand → you type your questions into the box.

- It’s versatile → the box can handle all sorts of questions/queries.

- The paradigm is super familiar → people immediately know how to use it.

Because of this, LLMs have essentially become “a better Google.”

–––

But last week’s ChatGPT announcements thrust open the doors to new possibilities.

ChatGPT is now multi-modal — it can see, hear, and speak.

These are the recent announcements from @OpenAI :

Voice: https://t.co/hAeXxBTH9l

Photos: https://t.co/X3QbLnwT1V

The example of ChatGPT explaining how to lower a bike seat was incredible.

But, it could be so much better!

The video showed you'll have to post multiple new photos to keep adding new information and to progress the conversation.

It was still a linear conversation centered around the text box.

But what if we rethought the interface to center around the image?

What if ChatGPT supported both images AND voice simultaneously?

Could we end up with a more immersive experience?

–––

How else could interacting with LLMs mimic IRL conversations?

Could we (or the AI) pinch to zoom or rotate the image?

Could we interact in real time with video?

What new possibilities open up with context being preserved over time?

–––

There is so much energy and excitement around what AI can do.

But we are limiting the potential by assuming the conversation box is the best interface.

Right now, designers have the chance to create truly novel interactions and bust through the 20+ year old search UI paradigm.

The ideas above are just to illustrate some potential options.

But they are also intended to spark a flame.

Now is the opportunity to be creative and explore divergent UIs.

What are the craziest, coolest, most creative UI ideas we can unleash?

LFG 🚀

[Tyler Buchanan @Tylerjoelb]

If true, Ohio Republicans really reinstated a defunct August election (that cost the state millions) just to have the race basically called within 25 minutes of polls closing

Would be a striking rebuke from the Ohio citizenry

[Aadit Sheth @aaditsh]

McKinsey released their 76-page long report on generative AI.

They say AI will automate 30% of work hours by 2030.

Here are 5 most important things you need to know:

[Columbus City Council @cbuscitycouncil]

As our city grows, we need to encourage the adoption of additional modes of transportation. This is why Council President @SG_Hardin and Councilmember @lourdesforcbus announced a pilot program that will make e-bikes more affordable to qualifying residents: https://t.co/XrK4k4qncI

[Tyler Buchanan @Tylerjoelb]

Greetings from Franklinton Cycle Works, where Columbus is announcing details of local e-bike incentive program

Background here...more info TKTK in Axios Columbus newsletter:

https://t.co/cmi0xS33Ep

[Jordan Davis @JDLead]

@olivercameron @Cruise @kvogt @danielkan @voyage Amazing journey! I've loved following you and cheering you ok from a far! Good luck with what's next. Onward and upward!

[Romeen Sheth @RomeenSheth]

With the crisis averted, you really have to tip your hat to the government. In 3 days they went end to end on resolving a massive private sector crisis.

The urgency on tech Twitter this weekend was warranted, but the repeated insinuation that the government is dumb, slow and filled with untalented people was not.

I went to law school with many of these people and they are hands down some of the smartest people I know.

Hopefully a silver lining of this crisis is we start to give each other more benefit of the doubt and have patience.

We are more alike than we are different.

[Jennifer Keesmaat @jen_keesmaat]

People hate the idea of car-free cities, until they live in one. Car-centric city design is so tightly interwoven with how many of us live, that the idea of living without a car is unimaginable. But anyone who tries it, in the right conditions, loves it.
https://t.co/BGcDW59s4B

[Jennifer Keesmaat @jen_keesmaat]

Choices.

What will it be, Toronto?

[Jordan Davis @JDLead]

@TWStarr @midwest_house @sxsw @_W__J__A_ @CreateColumbus @jayclouse @TheTimFulton @falondonohue Such a great trip! Thanks for the throwback!

[Coby @Cobylefko]

The city of the future isn't about taller buildings, wider highways, & monumental architectural statements.

The city of the future is more like the city of the past. It's highly walkable, interconnected, community focused, & sustainable. Most importantly, it puts people first!

[SciTech DiploHub @SciTechDiploHub]

🏙️ Join us today at @SmartCityexpo | #SCEWC22 Going Further Together Through Collaboration

With @mercecrosas, @martagalceran, @JeffSMerritt, @TomSnyderRIoT, Jordan Davis (@SmartCbus) & our CEO, @alexisroig.

🟢 Congress Area, Green Room | 13:45 PM

[James Clear @JamesClear]

Build small habits. Make big plans.

1) Keep your daily actions small. Strive to get 1% better every day.
2) Keep your daily mindset big. Think about how you can play a bigger game.

Start small, but never dream small.

[David Zipper @DavidZipper]

A driver going 50-70 mph veers into a bike lane, killing a person riding an e-scooter.

Do city officials respond by protecting the bike lane? Implementing a road diet?

Nope. They banned e-scooter use after 11p. #victimblaming

https://t.co/a1u3rQt4Y4

[MORPC @MORPC]

Join in raising awareness, recognizing the incredible work being done in our community to close the digital divide, and celebrating Digital Inclusion Week 2022! (Oct 3-7)
Visit: https://t.co/IzuHD01J2u to learn more.
#DIW22

[Rachel Cohen Booth @rcobooth]

Schools are open, Covid rules are lifted, more workers are going to the office. But our country's childcare system never recovered.

I wrote about the pandemic's toll on the industry, and hopes for childcare reform after being cut from reconciliation https://t.co/hvG1hkIEjE