Bravo Amazon – KDP Self-Publishing Rocks!
I wrote the first edition of my book one year ago. And since then, I have continued to write extensively about the same subjects and published many additional posts on LinkedIn.
So, it should not be a great surprise to anyone that after one year I decided to expand the previous edition of my book and add additional content to the revised version.
Lo and behold, I ended up adding 60 pages to my book, created an updated manuscript file, and turned to the trusted service of Amazon’s KDP – Kindle Direct Publishing services.
I used KDP to publish my first book and to say that it wasn’t EXTREMELY user-friendly would be an understatement. It only accepted my Word file and even then, the amount of format tweaking was… obscene. Besides, all the graphics needed to appear as JPG files, and I had to manually convert all my PNGs. What a nightmare it was!
Even worse, just when the formatting looked OK, you had to publish the book and wait until it goes “LIVE”. Only then, you could see how the “final” version looks like and… unfortunately repeat the formatting steps a few times.
Surprisingly enough, the PDF version of the manuscript was not accepted, and I was openly discouraged by KDP to do so. Hence, imagine my delight when it was so much better this time…
Firstly, my PDF version was accepted. Secondly… I didn’t have to do any post-formatting after the book was published. What a delight! The only annoyance came when I discovered that the minimum paperback price-tag I can set is above… $40! It incorporates actual printing and marketing costs, etc.
And this is when I decided to… experiment. What if I publish my paperback in Black & White instead of Colour? Bingo, it worked like a charm, and my new paperback black & white edition was born – at less than half the price! Enjoy…
So, why did I write this book in the first place? Well, IMHO, honesty is in short supply these days. Yet its scarcity is well compensated by an abundance of fake news, fake data, fake policies, fake flattery, fake apologies, fake advice, fake smiles, fake hair, fake boobs... should I go on?
Whether you have a job or plan to get one soon - chances are that you have some questions about the impact of AI on the job market. You’re not alone. So, treat my book as: “The Honest Advice For The Not-So-Honest World”.
Driven by a burning desire, I decided to write an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Business Book that is:
? As profound as “Good To Great”
? As provocative as “Zero To One”
? As powerful as “Blue Ocean Strategy”
I view book publishing as an entrepreneurial venture, too. As such, my book needs to offer a unique value proposition to a reader. And to sell – it also needs to generate a strong brand. So, I view this book as... an ANXIETY BUSTER.
“AI BOOGEYMAN - Dispelling Fake News About Job Losses” will dismiss an unprecedented onslaught of doom and gloom predictions - from a unique perspective of a seasoned AI practitioner. It’s time to focus my readers on what’s notable and skip the noise…
You may ask: why call this book an ANXIETY BUSTER? Well, when I ask aspiring AI entrepreneurs to clearly articulate their brand in two words, it starts with a single question:
IMHO, spreading unproven and hypothetical statistics about job losses is equivalent to spreading an airborne virus. Perhaps it is less deadly than COVID-19, but it’s a disease – a social disease, to be precise.
Not since the Y2K scare, the predictions of AI-linked job losses have turned the prophecies of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) into such a massive cottage industry.
In the past, the doom and gloom projections primarily aimed at blue-collar jobs – to be replaced by robotics and automation. Now, AI is being perceived as a threat to all – including white-collar professionals.
If you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a Fortune 500 CEO, or even a… book publisher – sooner or later, you begin to think about how AI is going to affect your job security, too. And the more mass media articles you read – the more it creeps under your skin.
Like it or not, such uncomfortable feelings can’t be easily ignored. The anxieties and confusions created by mass media articles are real. Surprised? – don’t be. It’s like hitting someone over the head with a 2x4 - and then asking politely if he/she is dizzy?
To all the economists, futurists, scientists, and authors spreading the FUDs about shiny robots replacing blue and white-collar professionals – I like to remind a single quote from Yogi Berra:
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”
I aim to separate facts from fiction. Whether you’re just entering the job market or are currently employed and concerned about losing your job in the next few years – read my book…
It’s time to share my 30+ years of AI “wisdom” with a wide audience. After all - lives will be changed… as they are changing already.
My concern, however, is that without restoring common sense - too much energy, time and money will be wasted by both: employers and employees of many progressive businesses and institutions. In some cases, such bad decisions will bring devastating consequences.
In many ways, the present AI craze resembles the “dotcom” bubble of the late 1990s. And yet, there is one fundamental difference:
· During the “dotcom” bubble, many of the rising stars such as eBay and amazon sold EXISTING products and services on the Internet.
· However, many of the aspiring amazon “wannabes” died not because of the inexistent technology, but due to their lousy and dreadful business models.
The AI offerings are different. Few and far between existing products are working. And many of the lauded opportunities are nothing more than the glorified Promissory Notes... and plenty of hand-waving. So, my advice to the CEOs is as follows: “AI Magic” will not save your business. Leave the illusions to David Copperfield, instead…
Neural networks are trained on labeled data - lots of it. In many cases, reliable training and testing data sets still do not exist, yet.
IMHO, the book publishing industry is no different from any other market segment. Successful authors are no different from successful physicists, or musicians. In the end, it all boils down to people…
With thousands of followers on Twitter and Linkedin - I often speak my mind without anesthetics. But first, I would like to tell you more about my unique background and life experiences:
I am in the business of joining Advisory Boards (ABs) with a single mission: to Reinvent Corporate Prosperity. I used AI in Technology, Finance, & Renewable Energy for 30+ yrs.
Now, I help VC/CVC/PE to maximize their returns & use AI also in Healthcare, Fintech, Transportation, Construction & Manufacturing. It is based on the same structured finance expertise I acquired through financing over $1B of Renewable Energy projects.
As a 30-yr BusinessAI? veteran, I also Propose, Design, Structure, Finance, and Deploy state-of-the-art Joint Ventures to bring RAPID & SUSTAINABLE REVENUES. And as a coach and mentor, I bring business savvy to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is a process to beat the odds, just as I did w/ Verizon 20 years ago.
I reached the stage in my life where I don’t care about office politics and water-cooler gossips. Nor do I offer fake flatteries to CEOs. All I care about is how to solve problems and deliver results - by managing change and uncertainty, resiliently.
As an Operating Advisor, I work with companies & their venture funds - at a granular as well as strategic levels. My turnkey approach helps to raise 10X more capital at 1/10 of the cost.
What I learned over the years is that it is not just technology innovation, but also the exponential increase in the value offered to clients at a much lower cost – that makes all the difference.
Business Model Innovation is as disruptive as Technology Innovation and yet I see too many companies focused on pushing their product out the door – while losing ~70% of untapped revenue streams.
My innovative “The Push, The Pull and The AI Bull?” process, generates huge secondary and tertiary revenue streams. Such a strategy is scalable and sustainable – resulting in significant revenue smoothing. It allows companies to elevate their brand and bring massive NEW revenues.
In some cases, I step-in as an interim CXO to significantly accelerate scale-up & expansion. The emphasis is on EBITDA & Revenue Growth, Margin Enhancement & Opening New Channels in diverse markets. Unique pattern recognition abilities allow me to see what is still missing & how to maximize business offerings & profitability.
SELECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Using AI in CT medical diagnostic, financial fraud detection, solar PV, wind, WTE, energy efficiency, etc. Finance skills: equity, non-recourse debt, balance sheet financing, and tax equity. I also took a tiny startup public, building a $135MM enterprise & received grants from NRC & DND. Academic R&D collaborations included: UW, UofG, UofT, and MCC Consortium in Texas.
And based on my 30+ years of entrepreneurial experience, I’m convinced that companies succeed when they are READY to act and are keenly OPPORTUNISTIC. Besides, every successful company must also be LUCKY to be at the right time and at the right place - to take advantage of the unfolding opportunity…
For such a reason, I always recommend that BODs insist and mandate CEOs to establish an outstanding Advisory Board of their choosing…
Years ago, I coined a simple tag line that gradually became a part of my email signature:
BODs Serve Investors, Competent Advisory Boards Are CEOs’ Best Friends…
And I truly believe in what I say! Bringing competent advisers on board is a smart move! A good adviser will help reconsider the validity of the CEO’s assumptions and a good Advisory Board improves the decision-making process and helps the CEO considering different perspectives. Besides, many advisers become the proverbial Sounding Boards to the CEO. So, every CEO should have one!”
From experience, I find that even two opinions are often enough to make a better decision, especially for complex & ambiguous problems. I learned to focus not only on making existing businesses better but also on what is missing.
What I enjoy the most, however, is successfully porting breakthrough strategies from unrelated fields – to new markets…
Already 20 years ago, my startup: International Neural Machines Inc. (INM) - was the ONLY, product-oriented neural network AI company in Canada!
At that time, I dealt with the complexities of risk management running a whole slew of Fraud Detection & Money Laundering Detection projects at financial institutions - linked to Visa Fraud at Canadian banks, World Bank, and the Workers Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB).
More recently, as a founder of Canada Green ESCO Inc. (CGE), I frequently covered Climate Change and Environmental Risks - dealing with stranded assets at the largest utilities. CGE raised $1B+ in project finance linked to solar (utility-scale and distributed), wind, geothermal, Waste-To-Energy (WTE), energy efficiency, and more. It covered: equity, non-recourse debt, balance sheet financing, and tax equity.
Back in the 1990s, I also used to be an Associate Professor at The University of Waterloo, School of Optometry - and helped graduate students, to become proficient at advanced image processing.
As previously mentioned, I’ve been involved with both: the funding and the receiving end of entrepreneurship. For example: taking a tiny start-up and turning it overnight into a $125MM Market Cap entity - by merging with a publicly trading company on Toronto Stock Exchange and employing 150 people.
In addition, I’m extremely proud of the work I did at the Microelectronics and Computer Consortium (MCC) in Austin, Texas. MCC was the first, and - at one time - one of the largest, computer industry research and development consortia in the United States, headed by Navy Admiral, Bobby Inman. At its peak, MCC housed over 400 PhDs under one roof, and I was supervising for 3 years a large group of the world’s brightest neural network and Artificial Intelligence researchers – on behalf of $7B NCR Corporation.
Yet technology is only one part of a much bigger picture. After all: “The graveyards of AI innovation are full of brilliant ideas with a lousy business model - no matter the industry”.
When I join Advisory Boards, my aim is not to help increase revenues that year, but to set exponential growth trajectories for the next 3 years…
Yes, I’ve done it with Verizon in the past, and I’m delighted to share with readers my personal experiences. Besides, you will also find in this book many of my comments on Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital behind Artificial Intelligence. Essentially, view it as:
Your Personal Advisory Board on PracticalAI?
Unique pattern recognition abilities allow me to see what’s still missing in describing the true meaning of AI job losses. And looking at existing problems with a pair of fresh eyes - often brings a set of creative solutions, that were never even considered in the past.
So, as far as AI Boogeyman goes, my message is quite straightforward:
Stop letting Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) to blind your professional judgment
After all, our brains contain more than 100 billion neurons – nothing to sneeze at! Companies and their employees may lose billions - if they try to put all eggs in a single AI basket! Or, as I often say:
Stay curious and open-minded – but not lopsided
Join the movement! This book is the first step to bring urgent attention to various AI disinformation campaigns. And if AI thrives on data, then let's see the evidence of Doom and Gloom scenarios through data - instead of guesses, hunches, and hypothetical theories.
We have enough worries as is. Nobody needs to be manipulated by the so-called "experts" - who never actually developed any viable AI application on their own…
I aim at counterbalancing the empty threats of disappearing jobs linked to AI Boogeyman. And I offer real examples to restore sanity. Thank you for joining me on such a rewarding journey and helping me pioneer the “resistance” to fake science...
Fans, like-minded rebels, die-hard revolutionaries, and publishers sitting on the fence and waiting for the next blockbuster to miraculously emerge and fall in your lap – unite…
So, help me turn this book into a real catalyst for a much bigger movement! One day, you'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you've been there, with me - from the beginning.
The last time I checked, there was no letter “B” nor “S” in the words: A R T I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E - so, why should we let the "BS" in?
This book will help you find a true BALANCE. Baseless fear of job losses caused by AI may prevent many from embracing the natural evolution of AI capabilities. Such misplaced apprehension may lead to a long-term loss of engagement with AI innovation - by those who need it the most...
Enough is enough! To paraphrase Peter Finch’s call to arms from the 1976 Network movie: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Are you?
“AI Boogeyman – Dispelling Fake News About Job Losses” is now available on Amazon in Kindle and hard-print formats...
As BusinessAI? veteran w/ 30-yr hands-on AI expertise, I deliver unbiased AI investment advice to separate the wheat from the chaff. By joining Advisory Boards, I help VC/CVC/PE funds to turn their unicorns into stallions… instead of little ponies.
I am on a single mission: to Reinvent Corporate Prosperity. My goal is to stop the Dreams of Wealth from becoming Nightmares of Poverty. My structured finance expertise was acquired by financing over $1B of Renewable Energy projects. And now, I apply such skills to Healthcare, Fintech, Transportation, Construction & Manufacturing sectors.
And it is not about how to score one hit. It’s a process to beat the odds and it needs to be repeated time after time – just as I did w/ Verizon 20 years ago. I reached the stage in my life where I don’t care about office politics and water-cooler gossips. Nor do I offer fake flatteries to CEOs. All I care about is how to solve problems and deliver results - by managing change and uncertainty, resiliently...