Analogue eats digital

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

Almost 100 years ago, the richest man on the planet said, “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.” John D. Rockefeller knew that people skills were the most valuable. They remain so.

In the age of AI, great people skills help future-proof our careers. They help us get selected at interviews, receive pay increases, and retain our jobs when there are lay-offs. Colleagues want to collaborate with us when we display warmth and empathy.

We need to know how to optimize AI for our jobs: it is a foundational competency. People skills remain an elite competency. This is where analogue eats digital.

A sample of what I read in the past week:

None were persuasive. All had sections that could be described as confusing and lacking substance. All had relied too much on AI.

LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are valuable to conduct research and construct the order within documents. But they have a sameness to their syntax and grammar. Sentences can read as sing-song. As saccharine.

Your authentic voice is better when you want to connect. You can have an LLM mimic your authentic style which can be good. Excellent is using authentic words, written by you, and matched to the needs of your audience.

When we write, we have an opportunity to think hard. This leads to clarity in what we believe. We can use this clarity to persuade others and focus our actions. It leads to productivity.

Over-relying on LLMs to write for us, denies us thinking opportunities. We are then ill-equipped to persuade others or act with conviction because we have not done the foundational work.

The Japanese term shinrin-yoku means forest bath. It is the practice of immersing yourself in a forest using all 5 senses. It involves sitting or walking without being rushed.

Forest bathing reduces fight or flight responses. It stills a racing mind. We can achieve a similar effect with a slow walk on a beach, beside a river, or in a park

Wang Chuanfu (1966 — ) was born in Anhui Province, China, to a family of farmers. He studied a masters degree in chemistry and was a researcher at the Beijing Nonferrous Research Institute. In 1995, Wang founded BYD with a small team and limited capital. BYD began as a rechargeable battery company before acquiring a struggling automaker that was renamed BYD Auto. In 2008, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired a significant stake in the business. Wang has since led BYD to become one of the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturers.

Some of his wisdom: