Digital Dilemma, Human Archives

Longing for an Old Connection

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In recent months I’ve been seriously considering a landline. I thought I would never miss those old, clunky rotary dial phones. Although lately they’ve come back on my radar. Here are some of the reasons why my thinking changed.

First of all, rotary dial phones don’t need to be charged. If the electricity goes out, the landline can still work. Secondly, the rotary phone doesn’t move. It’s always in the same location. This is convenient if something happens and I need to have a phone right away. Maybe some people always keep their smartphone close to them, but I find at home I’m often leaving it in one room or the other. Then I’m scrambling to find it when I have to do something. A lot of women’s clothes don’t have pockets, so this is another reason I sometimes don’t carry my phone around at home.

A landline is ideal for out-of-town visitors who may not have the capability to dial out. This way, nobody has to worry about roaming charges or awkward cell connections. The landline is local and available for anybody to use. This is especially important if there is an emergency. Emergencies are a prime motivation behind a landline. It’s one number to reach the household. And the landline is fairly reliable, easy to use, and doesn’t require a plug or batteries.

I guess this is what sometimes happens with new things that become extreme, or take on a life of their own. As people have become more self-absorbed and myopic with their personal smart phones, some of us start to have a longing for a more communal experience. Sure, this also comes with a lot of challenges. The rotary phone, for example, needed to be shared with several people. There was little expectation for privacy. Everybody knew who was calling for whom. If there was more than one phone in the house, somebody, such as a sibling, could pick up the other receiver and secretly listen in.

Even more annoyingly, you had to go to the phone! You couldn’t carry it around with you and talk anywhere and everywhere. Rotary phones kept you tethered to the base. Cordless phones were better, but often had a limited range. Mobile phones allow you to be reached everywhere, but maybe sometimes it’s best to connect through a central spot.

Human Archives

Sisterhood

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Last weekend I experienced something new musically. It was a fusion of Western and Indian classical music. Called “Meri Sakhi Ki Avaaz (My Sister’s Voice)” by Reena Esmail, it featured a classically trained Western singer and a classically trained Indian singer. The piece symbolizes the power of sisterhood beyond the limits of family relations.

For twenty glorious minutes I felt myself transported someplace new. Hearing the two cultures bounce off each other I had an appreciation of the different styles. Western music, with its structure, matched the more freely flowing tonality of the Indian singer. And yet, they were able to come together in harmonious ways, sharing and exchanging phrases and rhythms. Towards the end, it’s hard to tell where one line begins and ends. Both both singers have absorbed pieces of the other.

With all the miserable things happening in the world, tensions rising between countries, a maniac running the United States, and bizarre weather patterns, I found this a powerful antidote. Sometimes I find myself caught up in the ways technology makes a mess of things. The list stretches to include misinformation, viral disinformation, and cyber bullying. Then there’s the ever present threat of AI’s ever expanding uses in new and terrible ways. But on the flip side, technology made it possible to record and post this piece of music, without which, it may not have been discovered where I live.

Digital Dilemma

Art of the Interview

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I’ll be hiring summer students soon. While discussing with a work colleague, she casually asked if any of my interviewees had used ChatGPT during an interview yet. Though not entirely shocked, I felt surprised she noticed. She told me it was really obvious because the candidate paused for some questions, then looked as though he was reading something. To be thorough, she plugged a similar prompt as the interview question into ChatGPT on her smartphone during the interview. Mere seconds later she had something pop up eerily similar to the candidate’s response. I was impressed with her detection skills and quick thinking to try out the interview question herself in ChatGPT.

A few changes have made this sort of practice possible. First of all is the wide-spread and easy-access to generate AI solutions, many of which are free. Secondly, many interviews are now virtual making it easy to mask this kind of activity. In my interviews, as with many, I allow the candidates time to take notes and reflect, if needed, before answering a question. It’s now an accepted practice to take notes digitally, rather than with pen and paper. It could be tricky to know if the notes are going directly into ChatGPT (or other) as a prompt!

To set up, the candidate would need to provide ChatGPT with their resume, job posting, and company website prior to the interview. This would probably ensure enough background and context for some polished and prepared sounding answers. For example, a common interview question is to ask candidates what they know about the company. This is easy question only requires the candidate to spend a few minutes reviewing the website. What I find interesting is hearing about which details stuck out to the candidate, or maybe sparked their interest. However, now I wouldn’t know if a candidate’s answer was a ChatGPT generated summary of the organization, or if they did the work themselves.

Is this a time saver? Or are they short changing them selves?

I can usually detect ChatGPT generated cover letters and resumes. However, I’m not confident about my abilities to spot this happening live in an interview. I suppose I’ll have to wait until a candidate makes it obvious. Then I’ll have something to watch for in future interviews.

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

Necessary Notes

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Earlier today, I retold a childhood tale to a friend about getting trapped in our basement. Here’s what happened. I was around 11 or 12. When I got home, I realized I didn’t have my keys on me. Though I can’t remember what time of year it was, or the weather, somehow I decided breaking into the basement was my best option. Our house had a door near the rear entrance to the basement. Sometimes it was open, or so my tween-aged brain reasoned.

Anyway, I broke into the basement through a window only to discover the basement door firmly latched. Trapped. Somehow I found some paper and a pencil. I began writing notes containing messages such as “Help,” “I’m in the basement,” and “Let me out.” I slipped the notes under the basement door. When my father came home he found the rear entry hallway littered with my help notes. That weekend he fixed all the basement windows so they actually latched properly.

After telling the story, I had a moment of reflection on how different things would be if that happened to my tween-aged self in today’s world. First of all, I wouldn’t have house keys anymore. For the last 5 years we’ve used a keypad to enter the house. At the tender young age of 11 or 12, I might also have my own phone. I could have used this to message my parents or a friend. My parents would have been able to open the door remotely, the same way I can from my phone app. I may have also been able to do google searches about different ways to break into a house when you forget your keys. It’s also highly unlikely there would have been paper and pencils readily available in the basement as so many things are now electronic and digital.

Needless to say, the story would have ended up completely different. Maybe it wouldn’t even be that funny retelling it decades later. Part of what made it funny was remembering how easy and simple everything seemed. Note writing, house keys, rotary dial phones with cords, or cordless phones with short battery life and range. So many things that used to happen to us wouldn’t even be an afterthought in today’s world because of technology’s impacts.

Productivity, True Confessions

The Ordinary of Extraordinary

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When ChatGPT, and other forms of generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI), first hit, I felt dazzled. And overwhelmed. Also baffled, curious, and a teensy bit scared. Initially, I couldn’t figure out uses for this new magical, and terrifying, technology. Every time I opened the news I read more stories about all these amazing uses for AI. In a short time, some of these uses crossed a boundary and became scary, questionable, or just plain litigious.

In schools, kids used the technology to create deep fakes of their teachers and principals. Teenage girls discovered deep nudes of their bodies circulating on social media. AI generated these deep nude images in mere seconds, requiring little thought or effort to create. Other news featured protests over genAI taking over jobs, for example, writers of TV shows and movies. Everywhere I turned, something, somewhere, was being powered by AI. Or at least it seemed that’s what everybody wanted, and still wants, if they’re not using it already.

Though I did try out a few things in the beginning, I mostly felt bewildered by the number of options. It was hard to know where to start! What could ChatGPT do for me to make my life simpler? One day, after procrastinating on making a meal plan for about a year, I had my idea. Making a meal plan was a perfect task for ChatGPT.

Some years ago I painstakingly created meal plans every week. While, I didn’t enjoy the process and the tedium of creating the plan, I did appreciate how much mental energy it saved me during the week. I no longer had to think about what to make for each meal or figure out what to put on the grocery list. The answers were there, on the meal plan. This time, I had a draft in less than 10 minutes. I tried a few prompts and still need to do some editing, but overall, it’s a good start! Check out the sample below:

“Week 1: Monday

  • Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with whole-grain toast, and a side of strawberries
  • Dinner: Chicken stir-fry with mixed vegetables and brown rice
  • Dessert: Yogurt with honey and granola

Tuesday

  • Breakfast: Oatmeal with sliced banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon
  • Dinner: Beef tacos with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and salsa (on soft tortillas)
  • Dessert: Apple slices with peanut butter

Wednesday

  • Breakfast: Whole-grain waffles with fresh blueberries and maple syrup
  • Dinner: Grilled salmon with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli
  • Dessert: Chocolate pudding

Thursday

  • Breakfast: Smoothie with spinach, banana, berries, and yogurt
  • Dinner: Vegetarian pasta with marinara sauce, spinach, and mozzarella
  • Dessert: Fruit salad with a drizzle of honey

Friday

  • Breakfast: Whole-wheat pancakes with sliced strawberries
  • Dinner: Chicken and vegetable skewers with couscous
  • Dessert: Homemade chocolate chip cookies

Saturday

  • Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese on a whole-grain English muffin
  • Dinner: Beef and vegetable stir-fry with rice noodles
  • Dessert: Frozen yogurt with mixed berries

Sunday

  • Breakfast: Pancakes with peanut butter and banana
  • Dinner: Veggie burger with sweet potato fries
  • Dessert: Ice cream”

Today, a blog I like to read (The Art of Doing Stuff) offered a ChatGPT prompt to create a seed starting schedule. In that moment it occurred to me, ordinary, everyday tasks are a good fit for ChatGPT. Nothing special, nothing scary or damaging, but a whole lot of time and tedious effort spared.

Digital Dilemma

Governing the Governed

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The recent events in the United States are scary to consider, on more than one level. One of the most dangerous is giving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) workers so much access to data! Though we have some idea of what DOGE can access, we don’t really understand the full extent. And probably neither do they, which can be dangerous in its own way.

When we collectively started to go digital and mobile, our data came along. We all generate mass quantities of data about ourselves and others every day. Even worse, in most scenarios, we don’t even realize how much data we’re giving up control to or who is gaining access. Nor do we fully know what will happen to all that data.

Based on my experiences working in information and data governance, the little “g” governance is sometimes missing in big “G” Government. Basically, this means not enough controls or guard rails exist in systems controlling information and data. I’m willing to bet that the US government is similar to a lot of places I’ve worked. They probably didn’t put in enough controls and guardrails on their information systems when they were first created. After all, when the workplace started to go digitally, nobody was thinking this far ahead. Or perhaps not imaging this particular scenario could happen.

For example, an organization should put controls around highly sensitive and personal employee data. This would include information about an employee’s marital status, health issues, personal address and phone number, etc. Controls are a way to protect data and the people behind it. One control may be to restrict access to authorized personnel. Another could be to anonymize data when used in aggregate. Deleting data once it is no longer needed is a control often overlooked. However, it protects both former employees from and the company by limiting and minimizing damage if there is a cybersecurity incident.

With all this technology and advances, one might think implementing these controls is easy. After all, can’t AI do this for us? The short answer is “no.” Often the controls are missing because they weren’t considered part of the information system. It’s usually only after a disaster happens that people start to think about these things. By that time, it’s often expensive, or sometimes not possible, to implement controls. Now we’ll all be learning a valuable lesson about governing the Governed.