New York City's Decline: Work From Anywhere, Enjoy The Pot

The only green New York City needs is in its parks, not in its pipes.

Executive Brief:

• The smell of marijuana is ubiquitous in New York City, and Mayor Eric Adams' support for the burgeoning marijuana industry is a mistake, according to Jason De Sena Trennert.
• Encouraging behavior that is antithetical to family and capital formation is not the way to save cities.
• Ignoring quality-of-life issues could drive people out of the city and cause economic disaster.

"Given that New York City’s economy depends on four million commuters and remote work is increasingly feasible, ignoring quality-of-life issues could cause economic disaster by driving people out of the city. That would be unfortunate for a town that prides itself on being the center of global finance."

Look to Detroit and see your future, without the "Devil's Lettuce"

New York considers itself the center of the financial world - but in a world scrambling away from the center of everything - office center, shopping center, data center - what is left to attract people to 'Bite the Big Apple, Don't Mind the Maggots"?  Apparently, Tumble Weed.

I'm not saying that the aroma of good bud is keeping workers away from the office - I'm just observing another dimension in the work from anywhere world.  Lots of people in New York City are sampling the Emerald Triangle instead of Starbucks on their way into the cube farms of "Metropolis".

Jus sayin...

Technology and enlightenment have magnified all that is best and everything that is repugnant in business, city living, all levels of politics, and relationships.

Is the advent of more liberal laws simply one more reason to flee or is it a result of the work-from-anywhere movement and evacuated urban areas?  

New York City will always be 'something'. Just not sure what. 

AI Kills Everything - March 2023

My List of what AI and the Illumination of Working from Anywhere Will
Kill -

How Your Personality Determines If You Can Work Remotely

Matching personality traits to hybrid work arrangements can optimize employee performance, resulting in a win-win for all involved.

Article in Psychology Today, How Your Personality Determines If You Can Work Remotely

Summary:

1. Many employees excel in hybrid or fully remote work settings, while others struggle to work effectively outside the office, even with the same home office arrangements.
2. Personality differences are an important driver of performance differences in remote work settings, frustrating managers who end up developing mistrust of employee productivity.
3. Matching hybrid work arrangements to relevant personality traits can optimize employee performance, resulting in a win-win for everyone involved.

Impressions:

The first thoughts through my mind were, "Great.  Another psyco-bable, piece from the lofty, high faluting, intelligentia.

I was mostly correct. The article is one of many attempting to explain how the corporate world continues on the status quo, central command, and control model:

1. Separate and Isolate
2. Frighten
3. Provide refuge

This article clearly falls in the "Separate and Isolate" category.  Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is through music:

"...secret destroyers hold you out to the flames..."

Enjoy this GPT-Assisted piece:

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Salesforce Goes on a Diet: Slimming Down Teams for a Fitter, More Profitable Future

Who knew software companies could have beach bodies too?

Quick:

Salesforce, the pioneer of cloud-based business software, is shifting its focus to increasing profitability. The company is taking steps to reduce costs and improve efficiency by streamlining sales teams, integrating acquired companies, and relying more on self-serve tools to bring in new customers. 

Translation, layoffs, and reduced expense accounts.

The shift towards greater efficiency and profitability represents a significant departure from Salesforce's previous focus on big marketing spending and a flood-the-zone approach to interacting with customers. 

What Color is Your Loofa? - The Seven Colors of Asking (Prompting) Intelligently

Swimming in AI

A plethora of pleasures

Journey to the edge

Bing, ChatGPT, Watson...whatever. Like the days of Beta v VHS, there will be a standard, one day.  For now, it's time to swim within all the options, the lake of AI - feeding on what each has to offer.  

One Day there will be only one or two standard AI offerings, indeed, soon we'll have the option of employing our individual, unique, and personalized AI - like a Toy.  But for now, let's enjoy the plethora of pleasures through discovery.

The first step is learning how to ask; which is just as important as 'what' to ask. We interface with AI with more than questions, we use 'prompts'. 

In AI, a prompt is an input given to a language model to generate text, providing context and direction for the output, and its use has become a topic of ethical concern.

The World According to Greg. AI: You Need to Act Now

I'm not sure my colleagues or contemporaries understand the gravity of what has happened and what is happening right now - not in three, 10, or 20 years from now. This very second.

AI eliminates spreadsheets, SEO, Websites, A/R clerks, CFOs, and middlemen - and dealers are middlemen.

In the last TWO WEEKS, I have noticed the number of ChatGPT connectors growing from a dozen to HUNDREDS.  

San Fransisco, that poop-on-the-sidewalk nirvana is even reporting an increase in VC events, growth in the number of residents, and more bootstrap companies - all in AI.

Seriously - whatever you thought you knew about AI in the copier industry forget.  That's not AI, that was rote, spreadsheet mechanics.

And forget about worrying over OEMs, their new machines, huge ink buckets,  or the annual numbers - they don't get it either.

Pay attention to the first OEM to tell you they've engaged AI to handle customer service calls.  DIRECTLY WITH THE CUSTOMER.  

AI eliminates spreadsheets, SEO, Websites, A/R clerks, CFOs, and middlemen - and dealers are middlemen.

If you think your future does not include AI, you are wrong.  

What should you do?

Learn ChatGPT.  Get a team together and figure out what it is, and how it can be used to increase sales, reduce costs and grow profits - for you, your clients, and your prospects.

Not today.  Yesterday.

The Risks of Using Chat-Based AI Systems: A Cautionary Tale

"...by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open..." - M. Shelly

There are always challenges with new technology; it's been this way since the loom and since WordPerfect eliminated the typewriter.  So cautionary stories about ChatGPT and AI, in general, are bound to happen for three basic reasons:

• Mystery - knowing about AI is far from knowing AI and the public barely knows AI.
• Motion - this movement is traversing quicker than any other tech advance, ever.
• Pre-programmed - we've been watching robots taking over the world since Mary Shelly unleashed the monster.  Fear of AI is almost at the DNA level.

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