Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
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Rob Kalin from Etsy has referred to customer support as marketing and Etsy has significantly enhanced its customers support team to cut down response time dramatically. Danny Meyer in his book Setting the Table and the actual operations of his restaurants also makes helping the customer central to the experience. I believe this to be especially important in an age where a customer whose problem is not addressed can tweet and blog about it as I am about to do with regard to my recent experience with Netgear.
In 2006 I purchased a ReadyNAS NV+ that has served as my home media storage and TimeMachine backup since. Recently it started behaving strangely by suddenly losing power without the log files showing anything. I started a thread in the ReadyNAS forums and someone provided a terrific diagnosis of the problem. As it turns out, I need a new power supply unit (PSU) – my ReadyNAS model belong to a group with known PSU problems.
So yesterday I call Netgear customer support to order a replacement PSU. At first things were going just fine. I get a human quickly after navigating the phone tree and she understand the basic issue. But then she said that in order to process my request she needs to register my ReadyNAS. I provided her with the serial number off the back of the device and was told that it is “not a recognized serial number” and so she could not register it.
Instead, I had to take a photograph of the Serial Number and email that to a customer service address which would have a 2 week turnaround time!
It was clear that she could do nothing else for me at this point and so I went home, took a picture and emailed it in. Amazingly, there was not even an automatic reply saying they had received it (and yes, I checked my spam folder).
So now I am in customer service limbo. This is all the more amazing since I told the rep that I was completely prepared to pay for the PSU. After all, the device is over 4 years old and I really don’t expect the PSU to be covered by warranty. I will provide an update on how this goes, but so far Netgear is losing a terrific opportunity …
[Update: Just checked the forums again and the newest reply points out the part number for the PSU, so hopefully I will be able to buy directly]
Rob Kalin from Etsy has referred to customer support as marketing and Etsy has significantly enhanced its customers support team to cut down response time dramatically. Danny Meyer in his book Setting the Table and the actual operations of his restaurants also makes helping the customer central to the experience. I believe this to be especially important in an age where a customer whose problem is not addressed can tweet and blog about it as I am about to do with regard to my recent experience with Netgear.
In 2006 I purchased a ReadyNAS NV+ that has served as my home media storage and TimeMachine backup since. Recently it started behaving strangely by suddenly losing power without the log files showing anything. I started a thread in the ReadyNAS forums and someone provided a terrific diagnosis of the problem. As it turns out, I need a new power supply unit (PSU) – my ReadyNAS model belong to a group with known PSU problems.
So yesterday I call Netgear customer support to order a replacement PSU. At first things were going just fine. I get a human quickly after navigating the phone tree and she understand the basic issue. But then she said that in order to process my request she needs to register my ReadyNAS. I provided her with the serial number off the back of the device and was told that it is “not a recognized serial number” and so she could not register it.
Instead, I had to take a photograph of the Serial Number and email that to a customer service address which would have a 2 week turnaround time!
It was clear that she could do nothing else for me at this point and so I went home, took a picture and emailed it in. Amazingly, there was not even an automatic reply saying they had received it (and yes, I checked my spam folder).
So now I am in customer service limbo. This is all the more amazing since I told the rep that I was completely prepared to pay for the PSU. After all, the device is over 4 years old and I really don’t expect the PSU to be covered by warranty. I will provide an update on how this goes, but so far Netgear is losing a terrific opportunity …
[Update: Just checked the forums again and the newest reply points out the part number for the PSU, so hopefully I will be able to buy directly]
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