INNOVATING AT THE INTERSECTION: THE POWER OF COMBINING DISCIPLINES

 By his own tall standards, Steve Smith's (former Australia men's cricket captain) batting form dipped somewhat in the last few years that raised questions on his longevity in the game.

But the tide turned recently as he again started scoring tonnes of runs for Australia and in the BBL. What really changed for Steve?

The answer is Roger Federer. Infact, a grip inspired by the tennis legend.

Smith recently said-
"“I was probably actually holding the bat how I hold my tennis racket before, I don’t know what it’s called, the western grip maybe with my right hand. But I’ve opened that up to what’s called a continental grip maybe ... a bit more open, just allowing me to slice the ball and hit gaps and hit the ball further."

Steve took inspiration from his idol, Roger Federer, whose more eastern (also called as continental) forehand was known to generate a little more than half the topspin revolutions imparted by his competitor Rafael Nadal’s western grip.

Athletes from different sports often look to one another for inspiration and motivation. Smith's case goes a step further where he adopted a proven technique from a different sport and adapted to his own.

What's happening here?

Frans Johansson, the author of one of my favorite books- "The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures" says "When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary ideas."

Innovation often comes from exploring the intersection of different disciplines, where new ideas and solutions can be discovered. By embracing the power of combining different fields, we open ourselves up to newer and richer perspectives. We may discover fresh and exciting ways to approach solutions to routine problems and create something truly unique and impactful. This amalgamation enhances our knowledge, helps build comprehensive point of views
The possibilities are endless!!

I recently read & quite enjoyed a tweet thread written by David Perell (link in comments) on the subject where he diligently wrote one line lessons from various fields, some of which i drew via the sketchnote below.

Which is your favorite lesson among these ? What are the areas where you have attempted to apply intersectional learning ? hashtag#innovation hashtag#inspiration

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_innovation-inspiration-activity-7024198669818101760-gIol/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

WILL CHATGPT KILL WRITING?

Since the advent of ChatGPT as a potentially game changing tool,  a lot has been written on how it might kill content creation as we know it. After using ChatGPT for a few weeks, I got to observe its enormous potential to revolutionize the expression of creativity, particularly in the realm of writing &, at the same time, also got exposed to some of its shortcomings.

Two recent news items (link in comments) that caught my attention were-
First, NYC bans the ChatGPT in schools amid fears of a new cheating threat & Second, rather ironically, Top AI conference bans use of ChatGPT and AI language tools to write academic papers.

Whenever I read about resistance to adoption of new technology, I am reminded of the evolution that the sport of Chess has seen in the last 2-3 decades. Gary Kasparov outlines this beautifully in his book- Deep Thinking.

In the mid 80s, Gary took on the computers and beat them easily. Computers continued to become better and by 1997 Gary was beaten by IBM supercomputer- Deep Blue. It raised fears in the minds of Chess traditionalists that technology will eat their sport. Fast forward to today, most modern players (including Magnus Carlsen) use computers to get better at their game. The growing popularity of Chess.com (2022 numbers: 100 million members, ~$100 million revenue) validates the role technology is playing in the evolution of chess.

Will Generative AI tech like ChatGPT also evolve from ‘Human vs machine’ battle to ‘Human with machine’ synergy? If the evolution of chess is any indication to go by, this journey might happen sooner than later for writing too.

I tested this hypothesis with a writing framework that I often use.

My sketchnote here talks about the MACJ framework adapted from the book- “HBR Guide to Better Business Writing”. In my experiments, I found the role ChatGPT played varied in each of the listed phases-

-Madman phase: You are the initiator of ideas but feeding in the right prompts to ChatGPT can help generate ideas at scale. You can then curate the ideas

-Architect phase: ChatGPT can augment your efforts in suggesting an outline but being a tool it will not know your context perfectly

-Carpenter phase: ChatGPT can help with weaving the words. But again, the words have no meaning without context. You need to shape the writing

-Judge phase: You own the edit phase. Humans will do a better job in ensuring context alignment

Based on these experiments, I would argue- ChatGPT (as it improves in the future versions) can become an extended brain but it won't replace your brain.

What do you think?

Final thought, I quite liked Paul Graham's recent tweet-
“If AI saves people from having to write, it will also save them from having the ideas that writing engenders.”

The role of writing goes beyond it being a medium of expression, it is a thinking tool that will continue to evolve and AI tools like ChatGPT will play a role in extending human skills. hashtag#chatgpt

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_chatgpt-activity-7019115229141762048--Tj8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Happy New Year 2024

 For a happy and prosperous new year 2024, just try and forget about 2 things:

2023

and

2025

Stay in present and enjoy the moments rather than think in years.

Wishing all of you a happy and successful new year, month, day and the next moment.

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7147412938692124672/