Nick Hewlett

May the four winds blow you safely home

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@dvesean Man, dunno who wants that job in June in Vegas?!

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@4CPcomics We live in a time of cult hysteria.
It won't go on forever me thinks.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@ClueHeywood 100%
Like living in 2004 again for a night to see those guys kill Dreams and Whipping Post.
TTB are just killer.
And a beautiful day at the track.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@DVERandy Killer set and killer day

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@JoshLipnik Can't speak to the others, but Duluth is a pretty cool town

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@JoshYohe_PGH You can feel the energy with the young crew.
This is a team that's easy to support.
#LetsGoPens

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@joeybagovdonuts Harmonists

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@joeybagovdonuts Hills

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@DonMiami3 Me thinks China is going to have strong feelings about this situation real soon.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@penguins Ya I'm gonna need an answer to the hot dog question.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@TracketPacer Couldn't agree more
CCNA is still a great place to start. Understand the fundamentals. Grow from there.
Under L1, L2, L3+... Work in the real world, and set a direction from there.
With regard to further Cisco certs, ymmv
For my part, I think Cisco has lost their way.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

Impeach and remove.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@SVG__Collection Obscured By Clouds - Pink Floyd

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@CurtisWenis Apparently, you work with humorless cyborg AI beings. Sorry to hear

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@ClueHeywood You gotta look for a "Widespread Panic" in lane 1 me thinks.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

This. All of this.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@ClueHeywood Worst men's toilet seems like a serious claim.... I mean there is some serious competition in the Quarter.

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@HawkEmDownChris Barry

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@TheExtremeMusi1 This is one of those questions where the real question should be,,,who needs to choose!!

[Nick Hewlett @pghnick]

@TheExtremeMusi1 Yes.