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Writer's pictureElliot Washor

Elliot Washor's TGIF 10.11.2024

“Are you with me now” A J Ryder

 



Why now, more than ever, we ask, “Is it live or is it Memorex?”

 



What has AI taught me? Misinformation is information. It’s all information!

 

Yesterday, John Fischetti, a researcher who works with us on the IBPLC both in Australia and the US sent me and Andrea a 14-minute AI generated podcast that he “made.” John told AI to make a podcast of his book with two co-hosts discussing it in terms he specified. Well, it turns out that at first blush, I really could not tell one bit, if what I was listening to was real people or not. It sounded great. It made me remember the old Thermos joke, it keeps my coffee hot and my lemonade cold. How does it know? And how do I know? When I mentioned the Thermos joke to John, he got back to me with the reference, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” Yep, this AI stuff is made for folks who love to hear themselves. Is anyone else really listening? There’s lots to be said not just about what is said but how it is said and that’s where the performer comes into play. A review of Richard Sennet’s new book, The Performer – Art, Life, Politics sheds necessary light on the public theater where all our senses become involved in meaning making. AI step aside!

 

And now for something really different – A live performance!

 

Last night Anthonette and I attended one of the nerdiest meetings I’ve been to in a long time. We got invited to the Oceanic Engineering Society (OES), San Diego Chapter, jointly hosted by TMA (The Maritime Alliance), MTS (Marine Technology Society) and San Diego's IEEE WIE (Women In Engineering) Affinity Group. At the end of the invite it stated, “Oceaneers events are always inclusive and supportive” and it was. So, here were real people gathering to share information. They meet bi-weekly and at every meeting someone new keynotes. Then people get up to the mic and make announcements. This week the keynote was about underwater drones that find bombs and mines all over the world. Who knew? That was just one of the many interesting occupations that were brought to the attention of the group. And guess what? Many were looking for interns. As a matter of fact both our collective light bulbs went off thinking that this place is a goldmine for internships and we’ve got the students. In a matter of 10 minutes being there, José, one of the participants came over to me looking for an internship. We’re going to connect him.

 

There are stark differences between being in a room with people and being online looking up career interests and this reminder is coming from a group of engineers and scientists, people who know how to use technology but, in this case, they can tell the difference between live and Memorex.  

 

 

“Take care what you do ‘cause It all comes back again.”  John Hall

 

Next week, I’ll be up in New Hampshire with Den and the TYBO’s for a retreat up at his cabin in the woods. I started preparing for it by reviewing an old chapter we did together called: The Long Haul :  A Spoken History of The Met High School and Big Picture Learning’s Scale-Up.

 

We put this one together by recording a conversation between the two of us and transcribing it almost word for word (if, you know what I mean). There’s lots of really good material in here but what struck me is that if I had to do it again, I would tell a very different story. What actually happened at the Met and BPL surely happened but the 10 years since writing it changed my story. Hmmm? I’m thinking hard about that one and what I come up with is a line that describes Monet’s art – “Simplifying in the interest of intensifying.” Here are some of the subheads in the chapter:

 

“On Your Mark…Get Set…Go!” Taking Bold Strides

We Were Not Bold Alone

Building Endurance…Starting Slow and Small

Going Against the Grain

Building a School Culture from Day One

Facing and Embracing the Challenges of Scaling Up

Limits of a Network: Everything is Local

This process also is part of me getting ready to do BP 101 – A history of BPL at the BPL Leadership Summit. I’ve been playing around with lots of things to make it really interactive. More to come…



I’m also getting ready for a keynote next week at the Teaching with Small Boats Alliance (TWSBA). Joe Youcha is the Executive Director of this non-profit and he, Scott Boldt and I crafted a white paper for getting youth involved in the maritime trades both at sea and on land. This is yet another reason why I went to that Oceanic Engineering Society meeting. Also, it aligns well with How Do Todays High Schoolers Fare As They Enter Adulthood? – View the data , a report that came out this week where ASA’s policy director Julie Lammer’s had lots to say about policies that should be in place and are reflected in our Harbor Freight Fellows practice.


 

“I think we don’t give young people enough credit for what they can do,” Lammers said. “One of the challenges that we always see when we talk to employers is that, you know, ‘The stuff we’re doing is way too sophisticated for a 16- or 17-year-old.’ But young people do tend to step up and are able to do a lot of basic skills that we would expect an entry-level employee to be able to do, when we give them the opportunity to do so.”

 

Our white paper for the Maritime Trades reflects Julie’s quote and is directly correlated to our work in HFF’s Explorer, Fellow and the 311 programs, all part of B-Unbound where we involve interested students from middle school on and make sure they have the ‘know what’, ‘know how’ and ‘know who’ so their goals of getting to where they want to go doesn’t wane. This is a new way forward through new forms.

 

Final thought:

"When the information network promises to eliminate any reason to travel or to touch something palpable other than a keyboard or a mouse, we search all the more intensely for the personal and the tactile." Ralph Caplan


Thoughts and prayers going out to our friends dealing with the aftermath of the hurricanes.

 

Be Well!

 

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