A Robot Could Do This

Today's Concept: "A Robot Could Do This"

Just in time for Labor Day, I'm going to share the story when I realized I would be replaced by a robot.

Person of The Day

Me.

And you.

All of us really.

We're going to be replaced by robots.

I began writing a screenplay seven years ago when I lived in Denver and worked at Fidelity Investments. It was a reaction to my day to day job.

I worked in a large room of workstations and monitors.

I spoke on the phone all day. Every day.

Connecting with clients by Voice. Only voice. Nothing in person.

And I talked through with them some of the most important things in the world. Family. Money. Dreams.

Problems. Solutions. Plans. Personal matters of money and life.

I had to close my eyes sometimes. To listen better.

And I had to listen more than talk. It was a job of observation.

I acted in the role of an Empath.

And because I was empathetic, I solved problems well.

I had sales.

Customers were satisfied.

And all my results were recorded by the firm. Put into dashboards. And metrics.

My patterns of interaction and success were tokenized into Numbers by which I was judged. Every person in the massive room was in the same boat.

Do more. Make better metrics for the unit you belong to.

I had one problem: after listening intently, and solving problems, and doing business, and bonding emotionally, I took breaks. I took walks. I recharged.

Recharging takes time. Recharging doesn't put notes in the computer.

And recharging doesn't cover the compliance needs of a firm.

Recharging is a luxury in a metric driven system.

And I realized a robot could do better.

A robot could do better at 20% of my job at least, maybe 50%, maybe 80%.

I began to wonder how much of my job a robot could do better. Because a large part of the job follows a "playbook" of questions, decision trees, and logic a computer can follow with ease. And another time consuming part of the job is all about putting the right notes into the system for compliance, and scheduling and other next steps. Again, work that can be automated so well by rules and logic and computers.

I had a long commute each day, about an hour each way to and from.

I had time to think. And I got curious.

At one point I found myself applying to work at the Technology division of the company to work on the solution to this problem: How do we get more done while keeping alive the Humanity of what we do?

I knew for a fact that it was my Humanity that made me a top performer on the team. My clients told me so. In surveys. With "verbatim" quotes in addition to their numeric ratings. And, it was those verbal comments, and the inflows of funds, that told me Humanity is not only good for clients, but good for business.

But, how to do more? And remain Human.

Quote of The Day

From the dude, Rick Rubin, in his book, The Creative Act: A Way Of Being:

"The heart of experiment is mystery. We cannot predict where a seed will lead or if it will take root. Remain open to the new and unknown. Begin with a question mark and embark on a journey of discovery."

I am a person who accepts Technological change as a fact. It is disruptive.

Disruption means Destruction. And it means Oppportunity.

The Mystery is how the Tech will be developed, what will be at the core of it, and how it will affect people.

Specifically for me, the Mystery is how do we ensure that it makes our lives better. In the case of my work at Fidelity, I wanted to remain focused on the clients, Empathetic and Strategic in helping them, while meeting the full set of goals of the organization.

Caution & Controversy

Back to that Screenplay. It came about when Fidelity declined my offer to join the Technology division.

So, I thought, if I can't invent the Future right now, I'll write about the Future. And I began a set of stories about the design of empathetic robots, that could bring efficiency and accuracy and empathy to the tasks required of them.

In my screenplay, the main characters were the ones who invented the kernel of logic in the robots. And those main characters were women. Two partners.

A couple of years into this process, and a move with Fidelity to Silicon Valley, and my research led me to discover Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, who I celebrated as my Person of The Day in yesterday's newsletter. Remarkably, she and her partner, Dr. Rosalind Picard, were a lot like the women I had imagined as leads in my screenplay, yet I'd never heard of them back when I began the story in Denver. It was a kind of affirmation for me that I was on to something special.

So, to Rick Rubin's point: "The heart of experiment is mystery. We cannot predict where a seed will lead or if it will take root. Remain open to the new and unknown. Begin with a question mark and embark on a journey of discovery."

Real World

My curiosity has led me to this point, grateful for the hundreds of clients I have known over the years, grateful for the insights to the work they all do, grateful to the Technology and Artistic pioneers who inspire me.

In terms of how much Robots and AI can do of any particular job, it remains to be seen. Robots are not yet doing my old job at Fidelity, but I could tell you how they would do it, and I imagine they will do a large part of the advisory job soon, within five years or less.

For me, the question is how to stay ahead of change, and, with this newsletter, the goal is to explore how to help others with this time of change.

Tomorrow's Concept: Designing a Daily Workflow with AI

Tomorrow we are Designing a Daily Workflow with AI

See you tomorrow!

Matt