Hice mi primer negocio a los 7 y creé mi primera empresa a los 32. Estudié ingeniería del software y gestión de proyectos. He trabajado en desarrollo, UX, QA y gestión, en tecnología, consultoría, banca, logística y automoción, en Madrid, Zaragoza, Paris y Munich.
“Half of you in ten years will be selling computers at Jump” (a popular computer store chain in the 90s). A university professor told me this in my first year of Computer Engineering.
“Include a passport photo when you fill out the form. That way, when you become famous inventors and appear in the news, I’ll remember that I taught you.” Another university professor told me this just two days later.
Teaching is not only about transmitting knowledge. It is also (perhaps mostly?) about igniting the desire to learn.
Yesterday in the negotiation course, the teacher simulated a telephone conversation, making the typical earphone gesture with her hand. Thumb and little finger extended, 🤙 one next to the ear, the other next to the mouth. I realized that there are no phones like 📞 anymore, they are all 📱, and therefore this gesture makes no sense for many people. And I started thinking about which other gestures will disappear or become barely explainable vestiges in a few decades. Some classics:
.- The 3 and a half inch diskette 💾 to save (which avoided being replaced by the 💿rw and the USB)
.- The input 📥 and output 📤 trays where PHYSICALLY letters and documents were left waiting for the delivery person to come and collect and leave the mail.
.- The only reason why we still know that the ✉️ is to send a new email is because the administration still sends us fines by mail.
.- How long has it been since you took a photo with a 📸?
.- Will the 🛒 survive when we all order for them to bring us the shopping at home?
.- Do you still have a 📆 desk calendar on your desk?
Sailors, beware! Times are changing. But some things survive changes because they help us communicate, understand each other, and are common.
Will coding still be a human activity? Without a doubt. But don’t expect to keep painting with your hands now that we’ve invented the brush and paintbrush.
Let’s go back to school. From the age of four, we were taught how to write. Write an essay about your vacation. Describe a person in your family. Write a Christmas story.
With those exercises, we learned how to write. Then, some of us became professional writers, with our own style.
Now all those essays, vacations, portrait of your Aunt Asunta, and the story… they will be done, whether we like it or not, by AI.
Is writing still a human activity? That’s not the interesting question. The answer is “without a doubt”.
Some interesting questions are:
What do we call “writing”?
What do we qualify as “human”?
How do we adjust human education for writing now that we have AI?
Now:
Replace writing with “coding”.
Replace the essays about vacations, Aunt Asunta, and the Christmas story with all those repetitive and messy lines of code you’ve been writing, reading, and debugging.
The world is changing quickly. And I must adapt my work methods to take advantage of it in effectiveness and efficiency.
It was 1996 and in the engineering school labs we worked with those 386 with a floppy disk and no connection to anywhere except the serial line. When you were writing a paper and you had to write π, or @ or ~… you had it clear unless someone reminded you “ah! … it’s ALT + 126” and things like that.
With the arrival of the internet, the fastest way to write π is to go to the search engine and type “Pi” and copy and paste the letter from the first search result.
Who do I value more? The one who spends a few minutes finding the correct key combination or the one who solves the problem effectively and efficiently?
I must keep in mind that between the ages of 4 and 24 we have been hardcoded to choose the first option by default (you have to memorize things, copying is bad).
But it no longer makes sense.
The answers, which are already available, are not important, but getting the questions right.
The world is changing quickly. And I must adapt my work methods to take advantage of it in effectiveness and efficiency. In how many things?
New Year’s concert from Vienna, through Eurovision on January, 1st, it’s been a long-standing tradition for years.
Best qualities from New Year’s concert:
Good chance for getting closer to classic music
Not so much to see on TV on that day
Must-see scenarios (besides the Golden Hall in the Musikverein, both the documentaries and the ballet is recorded on great settings)
A top-orchestra conducted by a world-class conductor
Good way to deal with last night’s hangover
You could say that other concerts can provide this or similar experience any other time of the year.
Orchestra, people in attendance, conductor, pieces, everything varies and everything keeps the same
The right reason why the Newyear’s concert is a must-see is because it provides a shoot on optimism and energy. The rithm and the power in all those marches and polkas, sets the best starting point for a season of working. Twelve months all full with days, and the waltzes and the ballet, shows us the beauty and harmony that can be reached by a good teamwork, training and effort.
Beauty on the dance and the stage
New Year’s Concert sets the bar to our work and at the same time it gives us courage, optimism and eagerness to face the challenges in the next twelve months. For being better than our past-year’s self.
Have a good New Year, full of challenges, changes and effort.
Hint: A powerful combination to impulse best work. We understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could […] As a person with more power than the people who work for you, It is your fault […] assuming goodwill is not only more productive. Trust pays. Bonus track: On the magical power of establishing goals and deadlines. A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most ass-kicking form. It’s a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path.
Industry 1.0 brought efficient ways to transform and take advantage of energy. Steam engines transformed fire into motion and open all new kind of doors to all new ways of working.
[…]discordances were so numerous that I exclaimed, “I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam,” to which Herschel replied, “It is quite possible.” – Babbage (1839)
Industry 2.0 reduced the need for craftmanship. Division of labor and the assembly line, and Frederick Taylor happened to be much more effective for making repeatable goods.
Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black – H.Ford (1922)
Industry 3.0 brought more independent machines working altogether, and let people the job of controlling, adjusting and fixing the systems.
Industry 4.0 is about machines talking to machines and machines creating new machines. We, the people, are displaced one step beyond since systems control themselves and each other.
I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen. – HAL (2001)
Industry 1.0 and 2.0 created the need for a big mass movement from craftmen and field labourers into big factories. These workers stopped developing a craft, stopped dealing with people, and started doing repetitive, carefully detailed tasks.
However Industry 3.0 and 4.0 reversed this trend, drastically reducing the need for people in the factories and creating some new kinds of craftpeople; computer programmers and software developers.
A hint. They’re not coming back. In the following decades we are not going to deal with cogs and nuts anymore. Being a compliant worker is not going to be an advantage since machines can be more compliant than any of us.
Our place will be, once again, on people dealing with people.
Related:
The computer, the network and the economy (Seth): ” When a pre-employed person says, “I don’t know how to code and I’m not interested in selling,” we need to pause for a moment and think about what we built school for. When he continues, “I don’t really have anything interesting to say, and I’m not committed to making a particular change in the world, but I’m pretty good at following instructions,” we’re on the edge of a seismic shift in our culture. And not a positive one. “
The Toyota Way (Liker):“After all, one of the major components that Ohno believed Toyota needed to master was continuous flow and the best example of that at the time was Ford’s moving assembly line. Henry Ford had broken the tradition of craft production by devising a new mass production paradigm to fill the needs of the early 20th century. A key enabler of mass production´s success was the development of precision machine tools and interchangeable parts”
Soy Adolfo González, llevo veinte años consolidando equipos, criando proyectos y creando productos 