Make or buy?

If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to set up a little machine shop to make your own pens. That’s pretty obvious. Should the smoothie shop make its own almond milk? It’s pretty clear that Starbucks should have a team of architects, lawyers…

The illusion of concern

When organizations reach scale, digital interactions belie our expectation that someone in charge actually gives a damn. Once there’s math to do, the CFO does the math. It quickly reveals that no, the search engine shouldn’t bother having a customer support team. That UPS or Fedex should simply hang up on you if your package…

Problems and the clover

Systemic and existential problems dance their way through three circles: If it’s not solvable, we’ll pretend it’s not a problem. If the cultural cost of solving the problem is too high, we’ll pretend there’s no solution. People don’t spend a lot of time planning for death because there’s no solution to it and the social…

How Healthcare Businesses are Using Automation

Healthcare businesses use AI and automation to provide a better experience for their customers, patients, and care providers. The healthcare industry has been through one of its busiest and most challenging periods, leaving healthcare professionals and companies burnt out. With automation and AI, healthcare businesses are streamlining processes, reducing the workload for their team, and…

I Asked ChatGPT to Write 5 Types of Sick Day Emails to Send to My Boss — Here’s What I Got

In 2023, I decided to run a half marathon. As any long-distance runner would do, I found a training plan and set out to crush some practice miles. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans, right? My body failed me, and I fractured my hip. Which, unfortunately, resulted in me needing to…

Trading trust

The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two takeways from this: The first is that focused and persistent propaganda is able to shift public opinion about institutions they don’t have direct interaction with. The more important one is this: Many companies, particularly tech ones, are deliberately trading…