Ben McCormack

Catholic dad. Customer Experience in Tech. Georgia Tech MBA.

Need to get in touch? See contact info on my website. Replies via Twitter may be slow.

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

The Customers, Etc. newsletter is one year old and has a new home. Browse the archive and subscribe here:

https://t.co/nA6W8XrpMX

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

It's a jungle out there, and I outta know

[𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙪𝙚𝙧 @steveniebauer]

I started a little hat company based on the old PC abandonware games we played as kids on our parent's PC: https://t.co/3pMTXfV0Qu.

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Do want to hear my favorite troubleshooting story? It involves lots of reverse engineering, ancient MySQL databases, even more ancient VBA code, and a concept called "Banker's Rounding".

Also: Abductive Reasoning. Not deductive. Not inductive. Abductive.

https://t.co/7i1Vu5djPN

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Productivity apps track everything, so why bother with manually writing an update?

That's the focus of this week's Customers, Etc. newsletter:

https://t.co/SMokGDULfa

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Hear hear!

[Patrick McKenzie @patio11]

“Writing is hard!”

Then I don’t know do a TikTok video.

“TikTok is hard!”

Find one of those viral videos about making a pizza. Repeat it, shot for literal shot, with whatever the workflow in your industry is. Heck you can do that in duet mode if you need to.

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Looking back on what I've written in 2023, a few themes stand out:

- Retreat
- ChatGPT & AI
- Systems thinking
- Customer experience

If you've been a reader of Customers, Etc., what post from 2023 resonated the most with you?

https://t.co/OqVuaiU2qv

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

A few sundry thoughts on being sick, travel, and friends:

https://t.co/kdqZaNgbr6

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

I *think* this SNL skit, "Airplane baby", from last weekend explains why Sophia and I saw two guys carrying airplane seats on the streets of New York last Friday when we were walking between Rockefeller Center and Central Park.

https://t.co/8yBW3Ww1GM

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

I don’t think she remembers her first visit

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Visited the old Fog Creek HQ with Sophia today

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Ever thought solving 'easy' customer queries would free up a lot of your team's time?

Dive into my latest post to uncover why these 'easy ones' might not be the burden we think and how AI in customer support really impacts a team's efficiency.

https://t.co/0qTVoPkIvi

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@lkonsko 👏👏👏

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@AndrewJDavison Ah yes, that's a thing. Check out PEP 8, the style guide for Python code: https://t.co/GsDi2KA5o4

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@rsobers Rob that's amazing! Congratulations to Everett!!!

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@shanselman @poppastring 100%! Couldn’t miss it. I was like “did they really quote that?” Perfect.

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@BranMacMuffin @shanselman Welp, I *was* going to update my post but I'm getting a weird error from @substack that says "Post out of date".

I didn't realize these things could expire. 🤷‍♂️

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

You have to watch this video from @shanselman.

1. He does an outstanding job demystifying AI
2. He’s a masterful teacher

Just watch the first 10 minutes. It's incredible.

https://t.co/QJyYirO6dN

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@BranMacMuffin @shanselman *That's* what it was called. You're exactly right. I remember him talking about it forever ago. I'll edit my post with a link to ZoomIt. https://t.co/jHKa1UkNOm

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

Part of the value of writing things on the internet is that you can refer back to them when trying to explain nuanced concepts.

Twice this week I was in conversation with colleagues and I was able to tee up a topic and follow it up with "I've explored this in depth here."

[Ben McCormack @bmccormack]

@shanselman Wow, you made my day. It means a lot that you took the time to reply, but perhaps even more so that you took the time to read what I wrote. Like you said, I too wonder sometimes if anyone's paying attention.

[Scott Hanselman 🌮 @shanselman]

It makes me so happy is that Ben *got it.* Some #DevRel talks are just someone vibing on stage. But @poppastring and I put a MASSIVE amount of work into this talk. From demos, to the T-shirt that I wore, it was all curated. This is a great analysis of how my team works. #Copilot