Please, at the end, don't forget to  btxt.me.

Early experience with how others use Chatbots and other Generative AI (GenAi) tools indicates that soon we are in for a world of work whereby my bot emails or texts your bot and vice versa. These tools make it so easy to fire off a lengthy email without much thought, which will then inspire the recipient to do the same: send a long, and equally thoughtless email back.

You thought cc'ing was a curse; wait until you get bombarded by Copilot-generated emails from co-workers, friends and strangers. There literally is zero marginal cost & effort required for people to produce these, which is particularly annoying if you really want an answer or information from them.

This all became starkly clear to me when on 21 September 2023 Microsoft held an event in New York to provide us with an update on Copilot (see video).

In one of the segments they showed how a typical worker's day could start:

Let's say you're a marketer at a national chain of home improvement stores. You start your day with Copilot asking "what's hot in your inbox today". It does some thinking and gives you an overview of the most pressing items. Great, looks like the new store opening could use your attention. Let's dive in deeper there. Copilot gets to work combing through all your recent emails, meetings, even the ones you didn't attend, chats, and files to get you up to speed in moments.

Spoiler alert: this seemed impressive during the demo, but in real life, based on early users' experience, it really only does an OK job at creating suggestions for (responses to) emails. All the collating of disparate (tidbits of) information is still a long way off, it seems.

This brings to mind Peter Thiel's exhortation from 2013 when he lamented about the snail's pace and/or misdirected progress of technological advances:

We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.

And so it happens again. Despite the massive investments by Microsoft in OpenAI, and the amazing uses cases that have been found for it already, Copilot only manages to be a somewhat smarter email autoresponder.

Firstly, there is a growing concern that we have become overly reliant on email as the primary driver of our professional activities. Cal Newport, a prominent author and computer science professor, argues that this constant connectivity and reactivity to email leads to a hyperactive hive mind mentality, which can be detrimental to deep work and focused productivity. The potential outcome of Copilot is a perpetual loop of email exchanges between AI assistants, further exacerbating this issue.

Secondly, if individuals simply outsource their work to Copilot without leveraging GenAi to engage in higher-level cognitive tasks and value-adding activities, they risk becoming obsolete in their roles. While we are not opposed to GenAi (quite the opposite!), it is evident that Microsoft's current approach does not provide a clear path towards the future of work.

This is understandable, as Microsoft is attempting to integrate advanced technology into a productivity stack that originated in the 1990s. However, users would be better served by exploring various language models and chatbots to discover how GenAi technologies can enable them to accomplish tasks they cannot currently do or never have time for due to being bogged down by mundane responsibilities.

The goal should be to automate tasks as a means to free up time for more challenging and value-adding work, rather than simply aiming to do less work overall. By embracing this mindset, individuals can harness the power of GenAi to enhance their productivity and remain relevant in an evolving professional landscape.

You can feed any text into Brevitext.me - however long or 'garbled' - and it turns it into a short & concise message. It's tone is neutral, professional and respectful since users take this summary to email or message their counterparts, and despite the brevity of the message, it should impress the recipient.

The 'invention' of Brevitext was inspired by the work of Cal Newport, especially his book 'A World Without Email' in which he talks about Short-Message Protocols, explaining that "When deployed properly, these short-message policies implement efficient protocols that use email for the type of communication for which it’s best suited (quick and asynchronous), forcing people onto better mediums for everything else".

Brevitext.me is currently free to use via the GPT Store (as of Nov 2023), but may migrate to other platforms in the future, but still use the same URL.

Not everyone has time for long-form journalism and tweets typically don't do justice to the nuances of a story. Hence the need to share information within and across organisations via the 'briefing note', which we encapsulated into Breviloquence.com.

The Breviloquence.com approach is a communication method designed to deliver essential information quickly and effectively. This technique is grounded in understanding how modern audiences engage with content, emphasising the need for clarity and brevity. The methodology can be characterised by:

• Audience-centric
  Tailor content to what's new, interesting, or urgent for the reader.

• Attention-grabbing
  Use concise, concrete, and conversational headlines.

• Prioritise key information
  Start with the most important detail and explain its relevance.

• Conversational tone
  Write simply and directly, as if speaking over coffee.

• Scannable layout
  Use short paragraphs, bold text and bullets for easy scanning.

• Conciseness
  Communicate with as few words as possible to be clear and impactful.

Breviloquence.com is currently free to use via the GPT Store (as of Nov 2023), but may migrate to other platforms in the future, but still use the same URL.

Please, at the end, don't forget to  btxt.me.

Early experience with how others use Chatbots and other Generative AI (GenAi) tools indicates that soon we are in for a world of work whereby my bot emails or texts your bot and vice versa. These tools make it so easy to fire off a lengthy email without much thought, which will then inspire the recipient to do the same: send a long, and equally thoughtless email back.

You thought cc'ing was a curse; wait until you get bombarded by Copilot-generated emails from co-workers, friends and strangers. There literally is zero marginal cost & effort required for people to produce these, which is particularly annoying if you really want an answer or information from them.

This all became starkly clear to me when on 21 September 2023 Microsoft held an event in New York to provide us with an update on Copilot (see video).

In one of the segments they showed how a typical worker's day could start:

Let's say you're a marketer at a national chain of home improvement stores. You start your day with Copilot asking "what's hot in your inbox today". It does some thinking and gives you an overview of the most pressing items. Great, looks like the new store opening could use your attention. Let's dive in deeper there. Copilot gets to work combing through all your recent emails, meetings, even the ones you didn't attend, chats, and files to get you up to speed in moments.

Spoiler alert: this seemed impressive during the demo, but in real life, based on early users' experience, it really only does an OK job at creating suggestions for (responses to) emails. All the collating of disparate (tidbits of) information is still a long way off, it seems.

This brings to mind Peter Thiel's exhortation from 2013 when he lamented about the snail's pace and/or misdirected progress of technological advances:

We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.

And so it happens again. Despite the massive investments by Microsoft in OpenAI, and the amazing uses cases that have been found for it already, Copilot only manages to be a somewhat smarter email autoresponder.

Firstly, there is a growing concern that we have become overly reliant on email as the primary driver of our professional activities. Cal Newport, a prominent author and computer science professor, argues that this constant connectivity and reactivity to email leads to a hyperactive hive mind mentality, which can be detrimental to deep work and focused productivity. The potential outcome of Copilot is a perpetual loop of email exchanges between AI assistants, further exacerbating this issue.

Secondly, if individuals simply outsource their work to Copilot without leveraging GenAi to engage in higher-level cognitive tasks and value-adding activities, they risk becoming obsolete in their roles. While we are not opposed to GenAi (quite the opposite!), it is evident that Microsoft's current approach does not provide a clear path towards the future of work.

This is understandable, as Microsoft is attempting to integrate advanced technology into a productivity stack that originated in the 1990s. However, users would be better served by exploring various language models and chatbots to discover how GenAi technologies can enable them to accomplish tasks they cannot currently do or never have time for due to being bogged down by mundane responsibilities.

The goal should be to automate tasks as a means to free up time for more challenging and value-adding work, rather than simply aiming to do less work overall. By embracing this mindset, individuals can harness the power of GenAi to enhance their productivity and remain relevant in an evolving professional landscape.

You can feed any text into Brevitext.me - however long or 'garbled' - and it turns it into a short & concise message. It's tone is neutral, professional and respectful since users take this summary to email or message their counterparts, and despite the brevity of the message, it should impress the recipient.

The 'invention' of Brevitext was inspired by the work of Cal Newport, especially his book 'A World Without Email' in which he talks about Short-Message Protocols, explaining that "When deployed properly, these short-message policies implement efficient protocols that use email for the type of communication for which it’s best suited (quick and asynchronous), forcing people onto better mediums for everything else".

Brevitext.me is currently free to use via the GPT Store (as of Nov 2023), but may migrate to other platforms in the future, but still use the same URL.

Not everyone has time for long-form journalism and tweets typically don't do justice to the nuances of a story. Hence the need to share information within and across organisations via the 'briefing note', which we encapsulated into Breviloquence.com.

The Breviloquence.com approach is a communication method designed to deliver essential information quickly and effectively. This technique is grounded in understanding how modern audiences engage with content, emphasising the need for clarity and brevity. The methodology can be characterised by:

• Audience-centric
  Tailor content to what's new, interesting, or urgent for the reader.

• Attention-grabbing
  Use concise, concrete, and conversational headlines.

• Prioritise key information
  Start with the most important detail and explain its relevance.

• Conversational tone
  Write simply and directly, as if speaking over coffee.

• Scannable layout
  Use short paragraphs, bold text and bullets for easy scanning.

• Conciseness
  Communicate with as few words as possible to be clear and impactful.

Breviloquence.com is currently free to use via the GPT Store (as of Nov 2023), but may migrate to other platforms in the future, but still use the same URL.