RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸

Tune out the noise.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

Don't believe everything you think.

[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.

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

https://t.co/jM7uZAfnQO

[Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers]

The plow, the steam engine, electricity — all replaced muscle. AI replaces cognition. If you spend your day “reading lots of stuff and turning it into straight English,” well… so does the machine. The goal now is to learn from history and cushion the blow better than last time.

[Earth @earthcurated]

The Highlands of Scotland.

[Architecture & Tradition @archi_tradition]

Château d'Anjony, France 🇫🇷

[Architecture & Tradition @archi_tradition]

Mont Saint-Michel, France 🇫🇷

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

Much speech leads inevitably to silence. Better to hold fast to the void.

It is better to safeguard what you have within than to learn a great deal that so often goes nowhere.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@mkobach Silence

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@AdamSinger I’m clearly in the Luddite camp too. 1-pager for sure. Plus LinkedIn.

Wasn’t aware this a binary decision ...

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@PreetBharara Not Twitter.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@mkobach 1. Vertical Ag
2. Logistics (moving and storing stuff)

It’s not true that no-one is talking about these when billions flow into the sectors, but I think they’re interesting.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@RayDalio I don't even believe everything I think.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@WolfgangPuck @disneyplus Watching as I type and it is brilliant. Absolutely wonderful!

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@Brad_Plothow @VCBrags lol, that’s the truth

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@Brad_Plothow @VCBrags You just described (almost) every SF startup in the past decade.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@HarryStebbings Motor vehicles vis-à-vis maintenance service and parts.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@ThatEricAlper Still a highlight though.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@ThatEricAlper Other than when working in the music biz … several years ago, a chance New Year’s Eve encounter with Thomas Keller.

Was walking his market garden outside French Laundry, coffee in hand, look up, it’s Chef.

Said hello. I figured he’s busy with NYE prep and left it at that.

[RC 🇦🇺 🇺🇸 @robertcollings]

@SahilBloom Calling a pocket computer a phone.

Who wants a pocket computer? No-one.

Who needs a phone? Everyone.