Be Human

The relentless march toward optimisation has created a peculiar paradox. In boardrooms across the globe, humans shuffle through identical presentations filled with bullet points and buzzwords, their voices flattened into corporate speak, their individuality compressed into KPIs and metrics. We’ve become so obsessed with efficiency that we’ve accidentally automated ourselves, turning into pale imitations of the very machines we created. This relentless pursuit of efficiency has not only led to a loss of individuality but also a decline in the value of human qualities in the workplace.

The standard slide deck has become the great equaliser of human expression, a template that strips away personality, passion, and authentic voice in favour of uniform fonts and predetermined layouts. We speak in the sanitised language of “synergies” and “deliverables,” as if genuine human communication were somehow unprofessional. Meeting rooms fill with people who nod, their natural curiosity and creative dissent trained out of them by years of corporate conditioning.

But here’s the profound irony: as artificial intelligence grows more sophisticated, as robots handle more of our routine tasks, the very qualities we’ve been systematically suppressing are becoming our most valuable assets. The messy, unpredictable, gloriously inefficient aspects of being human aren’t obstacles to overcome—they’re our competitive advantage.

TBC

Man the Tool-Maker

One of my favourite and captivating counties in The UK is Wiltshire. It is rich in archaeological finds; if you haven’t already, explore the sacred triangle of Silbury Hill-Avebury Stone Circle-West Kennet Long Barrow.

As you ascend the path to West Kennet, study the soil in the adjacent fields: it’s stacked full of flints, each sharp and with a little effort can be made razor sharp. Imagine Early Man’s delight at a tool for weapons, for skinning and for creating shelter. Here, in these unremarkable-looking stones, early humans discovered their first great technological breakthrough. For man is a tool-maker and he’s created an endless succession of them since his arrival on planet earth.

Artificial Intelligence represents merely the latest link in this ancient chain. Despite the unprecedented hyperbole surrounding its emergence-far exceeding the quiet revolution of those first flint artisans-AI remains fundamentally what all human innovations have been: a tool. Like the flint blades of West Kennet, it demands skilled handling, proves only as capable as its wielder, and will displace human work only in those roles that were already narrow in scope, easily defined, and repetitive in nature.

What??!!

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Re-Fresh Your Personal Compass

Set an updated goal for… …your career …your finances …your wellness …your relationships …your fun time and your give-back time.