The thoughts I cannot write down

One of the challenges of writing a public piece (eg, this newsletter) is knowing what NOT to write. We worry about offending people or creating a wrong impression of ourselves. Thus, we censor our words, temper our emotions, and try to sound as intelligent as we can. We're so eager to impress or please the strangers who read our words, we end up not speaking what is really on our minds. At the end of the day, a newsletter or social media post is often a heavily filtered version of our true thoughts.

So I just want to say how glad I was to have coffee with different friends this week. One guy was a childhood friend whom I hadn't met in over 30 years. Two chaps were people I only got to know in the past year. Our intersections in time did not matter as we were at ease with each other and chatted earnestly about the things that mattered to us - the forks in the road, the tough decisions we have to make, the people who put up obstacles or pave the way, the audiences that we choose to ignore or care for, and the mystery of God's will.

Unfortunately, I don't carve out enough coffee time for my mates. I spend too much time staring at my big monitor doing work, writing disposable posts (I've observed that the half-life of most LinkedIn posts is about 6 hours), and just ruminating on the stuff I read online. I guess this is one of the things that got me to write my latest commentary for CNA about how people go too far with their cringey LinkedIn posts. Many people commented or pinged me to tell me how they felt the same way - we're all sick of reading the self-puffery, posturing, or outright imposture. But while we crave authenticity, how much can we reveal of our true selves online?

Now that the digital world has flooded our activities and consciousness, we need to unplug more than ever and invest our time in real life where we can be authentic and unfettered with our friends and family. So, it is an irony that I share more of my online content...

What I wrote this week

This is how I teach my students skills in the Age of AI.

Gen AI is so advanced that it is reviving the traditional pen and paper experience.

Absorbing change matters more than ever - Greg Shove.

How I revised the curriculum of the 6th edition of The Straits Times Gen AI Masterclass.

Using Google Veo 3, I created an 8-second burger ad that is 95% commercially viable. Just need to add your burger stall's name and ignore the cheddar cheese's naughty behaviour.

However, Veo 3 may also unleash a flood of annoying AI-generated profile videos...

A new take on Humpty Dumpty, but in a circus.

That's all, thanks for reading!