One of the benefits of the work I do, is I get to work closely with a diverse set of key roles, across a diverse cross-section of industries, often with overlapping components coming from different perspectives. It gives me the opportunity to "gain experience" (second-hand) from experts across multiple fields and who have generally gathered a lot of practical experience in their field also. In some ways, it is like having a very slow internet connection to information, with the difference that the information is trustable due to the relationship and experience depth.
And this came to mind as in a session with a manufacturing quality manager today, we were talking about innovation restrictions due to standardisation and the possible future of AI in the processes they use. Because while automation is possible using robots, currently these is too much variation in the quality. As while the robot does a more consistent job by far, it doesn't have "the eye" to adjust itself for variations in the materials or conditions, whereas an experienced technician can, and can also recognise when things didn't go well, being able to identify errors before an inspection.
In the area my client is in, the error rate is lower for humans. But of course, humans come with their own set of variables, compared to a robot, as humans have illness, bad days, hangovers, fights with family, money problems, tiredness, pains in their body and sneeze from time to time. All of the variables introduce error potential.
What we spent some time talking about today though, was how people generally use AI today to fill gaps that they are unable to perform, or to do it faster than they can do themselves. For instance, my client was talking about calculating a balance for his home air system to keep it stable, and after messing around with the equations manually, he ended up doing it through AI instead. But what he recognised at this point, was something a lot of people are failing to truly appreciate - for the information to be useful, you still have to know what you are doing.
Well before generative AI as we know it today, I identified this a few decades ago with parts designers, where there were a mix of young and old engineers working together. The younger were far more efficient at generating a design, but the "doesn't work" rate of the design was much higher. The reason I identified was that the older designers who grew up learning through experience and manual technical drawing, had a better understanding of the reality of what they were designing, a better spatial awareness, and the ability to think through before committing to paper, than the younger ones. They were able to visualise the problem and the practical implications of the solution, and see what would and wouldn't work. The younger had far less of this ability.
It is not what you know, it is how you are able to apply it.
We are surrounded by information, but having it there at our fingertips doesn't mean it is useful. From an example I used to day, we can all go onto YouTube and get a DiY video that steps us through anything we might need. I have used many of them while renovating the house, but it isn't as easy as it appears, because the videos come with assumptions on experience, as well as equipment. For example, it is pretty easy to fill seams between drywall panels according to a video. However, it also requires understanding of different materials, variations in the materials, what happens if gaps are a little too wide, how to use a trowel, the pressure applied and a host of other aspects that a single video will not likely cover. Not only that, to do it well consistently, it is also going to take practice. With enough good practice under the belt though, and it is easy.
Often today, we tend confuse knowing or appearing to know, with able to do. For instance, my wife is in recruiting and she gets a lot of CVs from people who have used AI to create the cover letter. At first glance, all is well, but upon interviewing the same person, things start to fall apart, as the experience and the personality of the person, does not align with the information they have provided and it is never that the person is actually better than they appear on paper.
Knowing is not doing.
It is very obvious. But as the current environment is digital and generally has some degree of invisibility in the process, which means people feel more comfortable padding their resume. But again, long term, this doesn't tend to work out well, because ultimately they are going to have to prove their ability in the workplace. And a lot are failing.
I was reading an article the other day about trade school graduates in Finland and how the companies that hire them now have to train them in the use of what would have been regarded as basic equipment. This is because the "quality" of their practical ability has decreased so much, due to the far higher amount of online courses they are taking. They are getting the knowledge, but not the practical experience required to be proficient. Most of what they have is theoretical only.
And I think that this is what we are going to have to broach as a species, where we are going to have to revaluate what "valuable information" actually is, because if it isn't applicable, is it still valuable? I would suspect that lot of the information we each consume today, actually has very little practical application in our lives, yet we feel better for having it. I think that this is because we have been conditioned to believe that having knowledge is valuable, without having to apply it to our world.
Philosophically speaking, this is what philosophy is about. The love of wisdom. Wisdom is the application of knowledge, not the collection of knowledge. We are collectors at heart, but especially these days, we needn't collect knowledge, because that is at our fingertips. Instead, what we should be collecting is wisdom, which is the ability to apply what we learn, meaning, having the skills to use the knowledge effectively.
As said, I work with a diverse group of people with a wide range of personalities and skillsets. The most effective of them, and the ones who tend to enjoy their life, aren't the ones who know the most, but the ones who can apply what they know in ways that empower them in daily life. They aren't the ones who sit around, they are the ones doing. They learn new knowledge to empower them to be able to do more, and create more. It is an active knowledge pool, not a passive reservoir they keep filling.
All the answers are at our fingertips.
But what wisdom can we use?
Taraz
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