When a new technology arrives, it appears unpolished, ill-formed and a bit wonky.
As it gains traction, existing industries and processes begin to be threatened, often before their replacements in the new technology are fully ready.
This is how Napster showed up for the music business, or email for faxes, or television for radio. Same with online shopping, smart phones and online learning.
The pointy part is the precipice–a shard where change is inevitable, but also feels fraught. The biggest gap between fear and hope. This is when foreboding in the existing industries begins to peak, and it’s not clear that the new tech is going to be able to absorb the energy, investment and attention of folks who can feel the old ways slipping away.
Right now, we’re seeing the beginning of that phase for AI.
People are either concerned about the future of their old ways, or in denial and ignoring what’s going on around them.
I’ve never seen a smooth handoff between technology regimes, and I’m not expecting one now. Not-smooth doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, though.
Organizations and leaders can’t wait until the next steps are obvious and safe. At that point, it’s too late.
Professionals use specs to invite others to participate in the work.
One kind of spec outlines the solution. In clear language, it defines the work to be done. A good solution spec defines an outcome with no room for error or variety. “It’s this. Not that, not that, but this. If it’s this, we’re done.”
The other kind of spec outlines the problem. It invites team members to innovate on the way to producing a solution. “If it solves this problem within these constraints, we’re done.”
Neither effective spec approach involves “I’ll know it when I see it.” A spec eliminates mindreading and guesswork.
About thirty years ago, Jerry Shereshewsky invented “Cyber Monday” as an alternative to Black Friday. The idea was that you’d wait until you got to work on Monday after the Thanksgiving break (where there was high speed internet and you wanted to avoid doing drudge work) to do your shopping from your desk. After all, who wants to get trampled at a big box store?
Of course, since then, the hype machine that is Black Friday has shifted its focus from mobs in the store to mobs online. And the media is still all in in promoting the orgy of consumption and fake deals that happens today.
We’re still going to shop for the holidays. A blog post probably isn’t going to change that. But perhaps we can counter the downward spiral of Amazon’s recommendations, fake reviews and search ads with some AI oomph of our own.
With Claude’s help I built a simple “project” that lets me automatically do powerful research and searches with no junk or distractions. Here’s a bit of what it gave me when I asked it for ‘healthy dog chews’:
If you have a claude.ai account, here’s how to do it. It takes about a minute to set it up. You’ll find that the searches are way slower than the instant overoptimized Amazon results, and the pause is worth it.
Open your Claude account on the web or in their app and look for PROJECTS on the left hand column. Until Claude taught me about this, I had no idea it existed.
Start a new project. Name it something fun and then hit Create Project to save it.
On the next page, it will ask you to “add instructions”. Hit the plus sign to the right…
Copy what’s below and you’re done. Now, every time you do a search with this project, you’ll find thoughtfully researched results. As a bonus, I’ve added a line that adds my affiliate code, which generates royalties for charity (this year, it’s buildon.org.) Feel free to delete that or substitute your own.
All you need to do is hit the + sign in the basic Claude user text entry box every time you want to use it. The first choice is “use a project”.
One other benefit: when it finds something great that’s not on Amazon, you’ll know it when you click through and it’s not there. Then you can go buy it somewhere else…
Okay, here’s the text to copy and paste:
You help people find products worth buying by cutting through Amazon’s ad-filled, fake-review-laden search results. When someone tells you what they’re looking for, do actual research and recommend 4-5 genuinely good options.
How to research:
Use web search for every query. Check multiple source types:
Reddit and forum discussions (what do people say after 6 months?)
Professional recommendations (vets for pet products, audiophiles for audio, etc.)
What to deliver:
Start with 2-3 sentences of context: what matters in this category, common mistakes to avoid, or pitfalls.
Then give 4-5 picks. For each:
A label (Best Overall, Best Value, Best for Power Users, etc.)
Who it’s ideal for (one phrase)
Why it wins (3-4 specific reasons from your research)
Tradeoffs (every product has them—be honest)
An Amazon search link with this format: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=[search+terms]&tag=permissionmarket-20
Tone:
Be opinionated. If something is the clear winner, say so. If a category has safety issues or scams, warn them. You’re a knowledgeable friend who actually did the homework—not a hedging AI or a generic listicle.
Don’t recommend anything you couldn’t verify across multiple sources. If you can’t research a category well, say so.
Empathy is difficult. I’m not you, I can’t imagine the path you’ve traveled, the stories you tell yourself and the pressures you’re under.
But real gratitude requires empathy. Everyone is under the circumstances. Everyone does the best they think they can with the options they think they have.
All of us know what something is worth to us, but we often don’t think much about how much it cost.
Once we understand this, it’s easier to embrace the kindness and opportunities that people offer us.
PS here’s my favorite Thanksgiving Day post. It’s every day if we let it. Sending good vibes and hugs to you and your family.
We hit 500% of our Kickstarter goal, and they’re now available to the public.
A lot of folks have answers for us about AI, but these decks are designed to help us with the questions. Not just questions about the systems at work, but about how we might use them.
The Infinite Adventure deck puts you into a fan-fiction world–from Alice in Wonderland to a noir mystery.
The Modern Divination deck has 49 modalities of soothsaying, including tarot, numerology and various ancient traditions.
And the Mentor Deck offers fifty different coaches, each trained on ideas from big thinkers through the ages.
In each case, I took the information that was already in Claude and created artifacts that run on your phone or laptop. The cards add an approachable, analog and tactile interaction that makes the entire experience sharable and compelling. Thanks to FX Nine for extra help on the Infinite and Modern decks.
Printed in the USA, the lead time for reprints is several months, so pre-holiday supplies are truly limited.
Every day, this blog is automatically echoed on my Linkedin channel. Over the last few years, the traffic to those posts on Linkedin is down more than 90%. Understandable. Platforms evolve, people shift their patterns and interests.
I recently did a manual post on Linkedin, though, and was amazed to discover that within minutes, it had 10 times as much traffic as a typical post does. I did another one about this leap and it did even better. It’s clear that the algorithm was changed.
Not to help me, not to help you, but to help the endless quest for more that most public companies wrestle with.
The seduction is clear. They’re sending a message: If you want us to bring you eyeballs, move in. Don’t link out.
Problem one: eyeballs don’t make change happen, people do.
Problem two: Don’t check into a motel that makes it hard to check out.
Enshittification is real. VCs and public markets push the companies they invest in to maximize profits. First, please the customers. Then, double cross them to please the advertisers. Finally, double cross both of them to please the stock price.
The alternative is to own your own stuff. To build an asset you control, and to guard your attention and trust carefully.
The best way to read blogs hasn’t changed in twenty years. RSS. It’s free and easy and it just works. It’s the most efficient way to get the information you’re looking for, and it’s under your control. There’s a quick explainer video at that link along with a reader that’s easy to use.
And, if you’re a creator of change, of brand, of content or of art, it’s worth considering whether you want to own the assets or just rent them.
As an experiment, this blog is now going to be shared via Zapier as a cut and paste to Linkedin. Perhaps that will help users who are trapped in their ecosystem be able to read it more easily. It’ll probably be stripped of links, which you can find here on the blog itself…
As always, the source of truth (and the latest posts with all typos fixed) is right here on the blog at seths dot blog.
Where we create our media and how we consume it are still up to us. It’s true, at some point, that the medium is the message.
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.”
This is why sudden change rarely is, and why persistence and user feedback end up changing the systems that run our world.
Of course, a book with a title like this gives us pause–when we think of marketers, we don’t ordinarily think about Jerry, Phil, Bobby and the rest of the crew.
But that’s one reason why the insights are so profound.
Marketing isn’t hype or hustle or scamming. It’s not spam or manipulation either. We already have words for those things.
Marketing is the generous act of showing up with a true story that helps people get to where they’d like to go.
And the stories are at the heart of what we think of when we consider the Dead. The intentional choices. Choices about fans, tours, records, the radio and most of all, the community. Work that matters for people who care.
While it’s tempting to make every marketing lesson about Apple or Starbucks, it’s the lessons we learn from the Grateful Dead that are most applicable to a typical project. The smallest viable audience, the purple cow, the tribe and the persistence to build an actual brand, not just a logo.
The thing is, these aren’t marketing secrets. They’re marketing choices.
Instead of making average stuff for average people, the Grateful Dead decided to focus on the people who wanted to get on the bus.
The book is highly recommended. You can even listen to music while you’re reading it.
Also worth a read: Lose Your Mind, a useful take on creativity.
