I’ve been spending time thinking about things which don’t relate directly to personal technology and artificial intelligence. Regardless, connected themes pop up in unexpected places like a weed in a freshly mulched garden bed.

Yes, I’ve been in the garden lately, too. a lot.

Here’s a few top of mind thoughts which I hope serve to enliven and invigorate like a cool, refreshing spoonful of sorbet.

Newsrooms & AI

The NorthEast Association of Communication Executives invited me to speak at its annual conference last week. No, I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow conference recap, but one speaker provoked an idea.

Teresa Hanafin, a long-time newsletter editor with The Boston Globe and Boston.com, stood out with her cutting wit and acerbic slice-of-life hot takes. Her comments sparkled near the end of a long, information dense day.

During her comments, she shared her journey from working an assistant managing editor at The Boston Globe in the early days of the internet. At that time, newspapers struggled to figure out what to do with the world wide web. Many ink-stained veterans looked down their noses at the upstart punks on web teams.

Journalists then worked on “dumb terminals;” a monochrome video display hard-wired to the company server room. Personal computers were just coming onto the scene, though, so Hanafin had two of them installed in The Boston Globe newsroom. She encouraged reporters to spend time with the computers and to become familiar with them because she realized how they might change the work and the entire world.

Just like PCs then, Hanafin’s story called to mind how many are reluctant to use artificial intelligence now. What Hanafin did for her team with PCs relates directly into how smart managers think about generative AI today.

Forward-looking managers exhort their teams to use AI, to see how they can remove drudgery and improve brainstorming and efficiency. They know that to resist the rising tide of technological change is at best foolhardy and at worst perilous.

Curious about where to begin, either as a manager or a front-line employee, I can help you with that. Let’s get on a quick 30-minute call and talk through how you can get started today.

Turn Back the Clock on Google Search

Because you’re probably still using Google for your online searches – even though Google is evil – you have seen the proliferation of AI overviews, knowledge panels, ads, and other clutter. But thanks to a tip in today’s Recommendo newsletter, there’s a simple way to turn back the clock and just see search results instead of all the folderol Google shoves in front of you:

By adding “udm=14” to your Google search URL, you can strip away all the AI summaries, knowledge panels, and ads that clutter the results. This doesn’t improve the actual search results, but it provides a cleaner, distraction-free interface reminiscent of Google’s early days. You can set this up as a custom search engine in most browsers, making it your default search experience. Or you can just go here….

How different are the results? You be the judge based on these two searches:

1. “Philadelphia Phillies”
2. With “&udm=14” added to the search url

While I’ve switched to the Brave browser and its own tracker-free online search on my personal tech, I’m definitely switching to straightforward search on the work computer next week.

Watch for more about Brave soon. I’ve been meaning to explain why and how I switched, what’s been great and what I’ve missed.

How does your garden grow?

Mine is shaping up thanks to a ton of rain here, oodles of mulch, time in the fresh air, and AI.

To help me plan this weekend’s trip to the greenhouses for new plants, I leaned on an audio session with ChatGPT which began with this simple prompt, “Good morning, I need some help planting a garden.”

By the end of the conversation, I had a list of seven perennials focused on native varieties, quantities, approximate prices per plant, and a total budget range. Instead of spending time searching, I got what I needed in a format I could use so I could spend time on other things.

This week looks like another weather washout with more rainy days on tap. On the bright side, the new bed is planted and I’m looking forward to seeing the new plants flourish this season.

This is just one example of the many ways you could leverage AI today. Remember, if you haven’t started yet, schedule time with me and you’ll be on your way in no time.