WLP359 Geeking Out on GenAI and May Reading, Listening and Tool Recommendations
In today’s episode, Pilar welcomes regular guest Mark Kilby onto the show, to find out how he’s using generative AI. They share their personal experiences, preferences, and cautionary tales surrounding various AI tools. Plus, they have plenty of reading, listening and tool recommendations for you this month!
Recorded on 24 April 2024, so some of the tools have evolved since then.
(You can view the email newsletter version here: )
Mark has been in the “remote space”, particularly in the remote agile space for a while, and he is co-author with Johanna Rothman of “From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver”. He is now also a coach and faculty member of the Modus Institute.
During the second part of the episode, Mark and Pilar have some reading and listening recommendations for you. If you would like these monthly recommendations to arrive into your inbox, subscribe here.
In the first part of today’s conversation, recorded on 24 April 2024, Pilar and Mark discuss how they are using genAI.
“I am sceptically curious of generative AI having an engineering background. I know enough to understand how it works and what it can and can't do, and I think there are some promising things, but it's also highly overhyped. So I am cautious.” - Mark
Mark shares his approach to using AI tools for job application assistance. By feeding a resume and job description into Claude, he can identify areas for improvement and suggest changes to better align with the job requirements. This method not only saves time but also enhances the chances of getting noticed by potential employers. (You can read more about this in his blog post Job Fishing with AI.)
”I come from the south in the United States, so hunting and fishing are big here. With hunting, you're picking up on a trail, you're trying to set a certain vibe. With fishing, you're dropping a line and hoping something bites. So “job fishing” seemed like a better metaphor for looking for a job these days because there's so many people out there looking for jobs and they get so many different suggestions.” - Mark
Pilar talks about her use of AI for content creation, particularly for blog posts and show notes. She finds that feeding transcripts into AI in smaller segments produces higher-quality summaries. Both Pilar and Mark agree that different tools excel in different areas, and it's essential to experiment to find the best fit for specific tasks.
Of course, it’s important to understand the privacy policies and ethical practices of AI companies and we need to find the balance between the benefits of using AI and the potential risks related to data privacy and ethical conduct.
Here’s a genAI summary of the main points of the conversation:
Claude AI:
Mark's preferred tool for generating ideas and summarizing text.
Useful for exploring new areas and identifying gaps in documents.
Produces more interesting and accurate results compared to some other AI tools.
Perplexity AI:
Functions like a search engine but provides answers with references.
Mark advises verifying the references, as they are not always accurate.
Useful for generating answers to specific queries and expanding on them with additional references.
Otter AI and MeetGeek AI:
Both are note-taking tools, with Otter AI integrated with Zoom.
MeetGeek AI is valuable for capturing detailed notes and actions during meetings.
Mark notes that while MeetGeek’s summaries can sometimes be off, the detailed notes it provides are usually reliable.
Microsoft Designer:
A tool for creating graphics, especially useful for those lacking artistic skills.
Offers multiple iterations of a design, allowing for customization and refinement.
Mark finds it superior to DALL-E for generating a variety of images.
ChatGPT and Gemini:
Pilar and Mark discuss their varying experiences with these tools.
ChatGPT4 is useful for generating narrative content, while Gemini provides more concise, bullet-point summaries.
Facebook's LLaMA:
Not yet available in all regions
Pilar has seen a video of how it generates images real time and you can see how it adapts them as you elaborate on your prompt.
Both Mark and Pilar have newsletters where they talk about their creative work and experiments:
Mark’s Differability can be found at https://differability.works/
and
Pilar’s Spiralling Creativity at https://spirallingcreativity.substack.com/
33.20 MINS
May’s Reading, Listening and Tool Recommendations
Coffee Break Articles:
Job FIshing with AI
https://differability.works/job-fishing-with-ai/
The Wrong Kind of Async by Sumeet Moghe
https://www.asyncagile.org/blog/the-wrong-kind-of-async
Plants and bookcases in living rooms and blank walls out: how your Zoom background can make you seem more competent.
Here We Are 4 Years After the Pandemic, and 75 Percent of Leaders Are Still Terrible at Remote Work
The 10 models of remote and hybrid work
https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/stages/
One Useful Thing
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/
39.55 MINS
Book Recommendations:
If you haven’t done so already, do check out Mark’s book “From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver”
The Collaboration Equation
by Jim Benson
Keep Going
by Austin Kleon
(thanks to Bernie J Mitchell for letting Pilar know that she got the title wrong in the episode, and the newsletter!)
From Strength to Strength - how we change in the second half of life and how to make the most of the opportunities
by Arthur Brooks
Remotely Productive: Leading better meetings and workshops
by Alex Pukinskis
47.20 MINS
Listening Recommendations:
Podcast: About Abroad
Episode: Building Airbnb’s Live & Work Anywhere program + moving abroad & corporate nomadism
Date: 16 April 2024
Chase Warrington discusses Airbnb's Live and Work Anywhere program. The episode offers insights into the experiences of digital nomads and the dynamics of corporate nomadism.
Teach and AI-related podcasts: Hard Fork and The Artificial Intelligence Show
Podcast: The Anxious Achiever
Episode: #183 Are You And Your Employer In An Abusive Relationship?
Date: 17 April 2024
Mark recommends an episode titled "Are You and Your Employer in an Abusive Relationship?" which explores the dynamics of toxic work environments. The podcast provides valuable questions and reflections for listeners in difficult work situations.
And check out the Podcast: Collaborwocky, where Mark co-hosts with Jim Benson and others.
Pilar recommends checking out this podcast that recently came to her attention:
Not the 9 to 5 podcast, which covers various aspects of freelancing, offering insights and advice for those navigating this career path.
54.50 MINS
COURSE ALERT!
Mark and Jim Benson have created a self-paced course called Successful Distributed Teams, supported by monthly calls with both of them. modusinstitute.com/course/successful-remote-work-teams
Tool Recommendations:
(Yes Mark likes his tech…)
Beeper - https://www.beeper.com/ - all your chats in one app
Volley - https://www.volleyapp.com/ - think of it like Slack with video and audio messages. To better understand the nature of it’s asynchronous communication, turn off notifications for volley and just schedule a time in your calendar to check it.
If you want to Volley Mark Kilby, try it at https://talk.volley.app/markkilby
You can connect with Mark Kilby on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/
Or message him through his website:
www.markkilby.com
And if you’d like to keep up with his thoughts and work, subscribe to Differability
https://differability.works/