Elderly Era

I'd like to share how prepared we must be in this elderly era ka.

My recent experience was when I had dinner at a hotel with my friends -- an American couple. One of them had a short black out. Thank goodness his wife noticed it almost right away, and we were at the hotel where they were staying ka.

Hotel Actions: 

1. Called the ones in charge who came with a wheelchair. 

2. Others checked my friend's pulse (back from fainting then) and advised us to go to the nearest hospital by cab....faster than calling an ambulance.

3. They took us to the cab waiting in front and before then, one waitress gave me two cold towels for us to cool my friend's forehead and neck.

4. The duty manager accompanied the wife to pick up related documents and medication while I was with the husband.

5. They made sure all was set and that we were able to leave for the hospital.

Once we reached the hospital ER, we sure felt much better.

My friend's home university offers full health insurance coverage throughout the stay so this is another great readiness preparation ka.

All went fine with the high quality of both our hotel and hospital including the home university ka. Credits must also go to his wife for being so alert and calm to know what to do!

Stay healthy na ka, everyone....and be more careful as many of us here are in the vulnerable period of life laew ka!

Co-Intelligence

 Happy Monday kaaa!

The other day, I listened to 'The Secret Sauce' by Ken Nakarin, talking about a new book entitled, 'Co-Intelligence' by Ethan Mollick and it caught my attention right away ka.

So I went to search more to find an article from Fortune, entitled, 'AI’s ability to write for us—and our inability to resist ‘The Button’—will spark a crisis of meaning in creative work' by the book author on April 19, 2024. 

I'd like to share with you the following ka: 

- I personally like the title, Co-Intelligence' as it shows that AI will be working alongside us with its intelligence, not just simple, repeated tasks but for drafts, summaries, designs, etc. The author points out that soon, major offices will have  'The Button',  in capital letters to go with the new helping role for teachers, managers, scientists, artists and all ka.

Helpful, scary, doubtful yet unavoidable?

- Since it's fast and readily available, the author says 'we could lose our creativity and originality.' Under its influence, we could also get used to it and may fail to explore our own precious insights, perspectives, and alternatives. He also mentions that 'we could reduce the quality and depth of our thinking and reasoning.'

What's left for us....especially our education world to do and do better when quite a number of users cut and paste what AI offers without thinking or reviewing?

- One example is about a letter of recommendation that a professor is asked to write and a very good recommender to write a quality letter would need time to work on it carefully, making sure it shows that he/she knows the person and that the person is the right one to be admitted. 

How could an AI know the depth of relationship and the qualities of the applicant to write with the real personal touch? Worrying mai ka if it could!?! What about other tasks?

- 'AI will make a lot of previously useful tasks meaningless...... With AI-generated work sent to other AIs to assess, that sense of meaning disappears.'

He urges that we need to reconstruct meaning.

- Let me also share what is mentioned in the Secret Sauce podcast about the 4 rules of AI ka: Always invite AI to the table, Be the human in the loop, Treat AI like a person, and 'The current AI models are the worse AI. 

Prof. Mollick stressed that while taking advantage of the AI intelligence, we humans are the ones to finalize the tasks and always think that AI can be made smarter and faster than we think so that's why he used 'worse AI' ka.

I heard several scientists saying that they aren't using AI yet because of 'hallucination' but I sure agree with this author and we must get started and learn much faster in most of the circles and sectors laew ka.

Grateful and Loyal?

 Hello all. Late last week, I attended a Fulbright's Pre-departure Orientation and got several things to share ka.

This event was organized for departing grantees to start their studies/teaching/visits/teaching in the US so it's necessary for them to know how to manage their lives and studies ka.

I was happy to introduce our Fulbright alum, Assist. Prof. Dr. Pranee Thiparat, an expert specialized in American Politics and ASEAN to share her thoughts from her long decades of research and teaching with publications at the Faculty of Political Science, Chula ka. She's very keen in her areas of interest, insightful, direct, and genuine ka.

Let me touch on several key points (among a few others I also really like) ka:

1. Getting a grant doesn't mean one needs to be loyal to the grant providers.....she was saying that 'Being grateful is fine but there's no need to be loyal.' This is so true in many cases as quite a few could feel 'too loyal to do whatever is asked, for better or worse ka!

I can't help linking with one rank promotion case, making the one promoted feel far too grateful and loyal to harm one's own self later in life ka.

2. Everyone has to admit the truth that we all are biased and have racial discrimination one way or another. Education will help reduce it ka! As they're educated, one important advice for them is to base all arguments on truths and facts ka.

3. Staying in the US means everyone has to learn how to manage themselves.  Americans grow up with the notion of self-help so Thais need to understand it while trying to immerse themselves to live well with the community, learning more about its values and diversity in its culture. She also mentioned about wars happening that have implications the grantees must follow and be more aware. America is a free expression country. Yet, these days, don't discuss Israel and Palestine matter as we never know which side the others are with.

What do you think about this sharing ka?

Happy Wednesday ka.

Recognition is a Must!

These days, when I think of my retirement, I realize my interest has changed quite a bit ka. My wish to promote internationalization (IZN) is still strong, yet not as strong....I check my own self when I see IZN articles. Previously, I'd fix my eyes there, skim through and if it was interesting, I saved it ka....not that eager laew ka.

I still have my eyes (and definitely ears) for leadership. My favorite podcast is still 'How Leaders Lead with David Novak' and so today, I'm sharing what he shares, serving as a guest in his own program, talking about his leadership lessons. He was co-founder and highly successful CEO of Yum! Brands (KFC, PIzza Hut, and Taco Bell) who turned market cap from Bn4 -Bn32. He prioritized recognition very high on his leadership style ka.

Several stories drawn from an interview on May 30, 2024 ka:

1. It was about a route salesman, Bob, at a small group meeting when David Novak listened to what they had to say about merchandising.  Everyone praised Bob for being their mentor and role model as he was extremely good with customers. David noticed that Bob was crying and so he wondered why. Bob said after having worked at the company for 47 years and would retire in two weeks, he didn't know people felt this way about him. It hit David so hard that Bob never felt appreciated so David placed recognition as the single most important behavior that he would try to drive in any company that he ever worked in again!'

My take is , 'Do let others know when you appreciate them in one way or another, sooner than later ka.'

2. He took recognition seriously to work with fun. He saw his IT department, giving out 'rubber floppy chicken as an award. He liked the idea and started giving it to those who deserve appreciation. It wasn't just that. He wrote down on the chicken what was great, gave it to the person, took pix and sent one back to him/her, and then put it on his office wall even on his ceiling as there wasn't enough space. He cascaded it down to key levels and have trainings on related matters.

My take is, 'Recognition doesn't end when an award is given but it's a series of leaders' heartfelt actions that will make the recipients' hearts full of pride and positive energy! Other leaders would eventually follow too.'

3. David Novak's childhood had to move a lot following his father, 'government surveyor' to different cities and states. One time, he had to change schools 3 times in a year. His mother told him to make friends fast as they would be moving again. He's become a 'people person' and has a good sense of assessing people.

My take is ,'Change helps shape us to be more flexible when we take it up!'

This episode is long and I'd get more key takeaways to share later na ka.