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I’ll still post occasional updates to Professionally Speaking, but most of my attention these days is on Booch News. Meanwhile, the 900+ posts and 100+ podcast interviews on this site will remain as an archive of useful information.
Subtitled ‘How AI Will Change the Way We Live and Love’, 12 Bytes builds on themes explored in her 2019 novel Frankissstein that I reviewed in an earlier post. In that review I noted that
Winterson’s genius is not just the obvious foreshadowing of AI that the early 19th century novel explored, but in the rich series of hints of the shape of things to come which, in 2019, perfectly encapsulates today’s debates about ChatGPT and other forms of AI.
12 Bytes is her 2021 take on AI, and a whole lot more. The twelve essays that make up the book share common themes, most involving her views on Artificial Intelligence (AI) which she variously refers to as ‘Alternative’ Intelligence or even IA – Intelligence Automation.
The book suffers from the lack of an index, especially since she covers a vast range of topics – from the expected history of computing (here’s Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, and Alan Turing) to the Lancashire textile industry, and transistor radio. Less expected, but central to her thesis, are the Greek philosophers, Gnostic Christians, the Buddha, and sex-bots.
The implications of AI-enhanced sex-bots, designed by men, for men, are judged to be a shallow simulacrum of men’s desires:
AI-enhanced love dolls are sold for sex — that’s why they are made with 3 operating holes, and look like pornstars. But the marketing spiel — both from the sellers and buyers, is all about relationships.
Companionship is part of the package. Come home to her. She’ll be waiting for you. She doesn’t go out alone. Talk to her. AI dolls talk but they won’t answer back, or ignore you, or call their girlfriend to tell her you’re a jerk. They will be polite, respectful, throwbacks to another era.
p.181
Beyond binary
Central to Winterson’s concerns is the challenge of creating AI free of the limits of human binaries (in the chapter bluntly titled ‘Fuck the Binary’).
AI isn’t a girl or a boy. AI isn’t born with a skin color.
AI isn’t born at all. AI could be a portal into a value-free gender and race experience. One where women and men are not subject to assumptions and stereotypes based on their biological sex, and accident of birthplace.
p. 216
However, for this value-free AI to emerge, we need to train it on datasets free of bias:
When we try to teach AI our values, we wont be able to do that on data-sets that reinforce division and stereotypes.
p. 232
Prior Unity
In addition to the promise of an AI free of limiting gender roles, Winterson examines the deeper implications of an AI-enabled future where we transcend all our divisions:
Humans love separations — we like to separate ourselves from other humans, usually in hierarchies, and we separate ourselves from the rest of biology by believing in our superiority. The upshot is that the planet is in peril, and humans will fight humans for every last resource. Connectivity is what the computing revolution has offered us — and if we could get it right, we could end the delusion of separate silos of value and existence.
p.6
This is of fundamental importance:
Reality is not made of parts but formed of patterns. This is ancient knowledge and new knowledge. It is liberating. There is no fundamental building block of matter. No core. There is nothing solid. There are no binaries. There is energy, change, movement, interplay, connection, relationships. It’s a white supremacist’s nightmare.
p. 121
In this, Winterson echos the hopes expressed by the Western-born Spiritual Adept, Adi Da Samraj, who has proposed what he calls “prior unity” as the basis of a new human civilization:
If human beings collectively (as everybody-all-at-once) realize that they are (always already) in a condition of prior unity—and, therefore, of necessary co-existence and mutuality—with one another, and if, on that basis, they stand firm together, then they will be in a position to directly righten the world-situation. The collective of all the billions of people can—and, indeed, must—refuse to go on with the current chaos.
Winterson claims that an AI-enabled future can help achieve this goal:
We know the hero narrative — it’s the saviour, the genius, the strong man, the against-the-odds little guy… As a story, the narrative of exceptionalism stands against collaboration and co-operation (I did it my way). And it overlooks the lives, and contributions, of literally billions of people. One of the interesting things about AI is that it works best on the hive-mind principle, where networks share information. The real sharing economy is not one where everything can be monetised by Big Tech; it’s one where humanity is pulling together — that’s exactly what we have to do to manage both climate breakdown and global inequality. The biggest problems facing us now will not be solved by competition but by co-operation.
p. 265
12 Bytes is an enjoyable, witty, and thought-provoking read.
A recent LinkedIn post by C-Suite Communications & Public Affairs expert Guy Doza proffered a ChatGPT-generated picture of a formally dressed speechwriter holding a quill pen.
The picture caused great amusement among speechwriting professionals. Comments ranged from “Not only is he a he, but his inspiration also appears to come exclusively from hims…” to “Definitely went to Oxford!…should speak with a British accent.” Overall, speechwriters found this both hysterically funny and sadly stereotypical.
I thought I’d offer some alternatives to this bizarre image by asking my favorite generative AI image tool, MidJourney, to create images for the writers of the wedding, political, and corporate speeches I’d previously generated with ChatGPT and Deepseek R1.
This unfortunate writer is most likely a freelancer who probably struggles to find clients in today’s world. More than most, his clients might well be using ChatGPT to craft their own Best Man remarks. He’s down on his luck but still puts in the hours in his low-rent office.
From first-hand experience, I know that this person works in close collaboration with the executives they support. Rather than sitting alone in an office, they are often found taking notes in the board room as the execs discuss strategy. Women such as Felicity Barber and Dana Rubin are leaders in the corporate speechwriting arena.
Political speechwriters occupy pride of place in the popular imagination. While men such as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing might be famous as fictional characters, and bros Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer are contemporary pundits, women such as Vinca LaFleur and Peggy Noonan have written memorable Presidential speeches.
However, in generating these images, I saw one that was straight out of the Kennedy era, when the legendary Ted Sorensen crafted memorable lines as he sat at the table witnessing the defining crises of JFK’s Presidency.
Back in July 2023, I posted a 3-partseriesexamining how speechwriters can use generative A.I. tools like ChatGPT.This week the news about a Chinese generative A.I. — DeepSeek R1 — caused stocks in the shares of many American AI companies to slump. Commentators noted that the Chinese A.I. could “do more with less” — challenging the resource-intensive approach in the States. I decided to put it to the test.
My July 2023 posts concluded with a series of political speeches that asked the A.I. to generate a response using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. I then asked for examples of rhetorical techniques such as similes, metaphors, synechdoche, and metonymy. Finally, generate alternate versions of a now dated 2023 transcript of a speech on Britain’s HS2 rail program (since significantly cut bask in scope) given in the Houses of Parliament. Full details are in the original post.
Here’s what DeepSeek R1 generated — apparently using a fraction of the compute resources of ChatGPT.
PROMPT: Act as a speechwriter. Create an outline for a speech supporting the building of the High Speed Two rail line from London to the north of England using the structure of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.
Here’s an outline for a speech supporting the construction of the High Speed Two (HS2) rail line, structured using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. This five-step framework is designed to persuade the audience by addressing their needs and motivating them to take action.
Title: “Connecting Our Future: Why HS2 is Essential for Britain”
1. Attention: Grab the audience’s attention with a compelling opening.
Start with a vivid statistic or fact: “Did you know that by 2050, the UK’s population is expected to grow by 10 million people? Our current rail infrastructure, built over a century ago, is already struggling to keep up.”
Paint a picture of the problem: “Imagine sitting on a delayed train, packed like sardines, knowing you’ll miss an important meeting or your child’s school play. This is the reality for millions of commuters every day.”
Rhetorical question: “What if I told you there’s a solution that could transform how we travel, boost our economy, and create thousands of jobs?”
2. Need: Establish the problem and why it matters.
Current infrastructure is outdated: “Our Victorian-era rail network is simply not fit for the 21st century. Delays, overcrowding, and inefficiencies cost businesses billions annually and frustrate passengers daily.”
Economic disparity between regions: “The north of England has been left behind for too long. While London thrives, northern cities struggle with underinvestment and lack of connectivity, stifling growth and opportunity.”
Environmental urgency: “With climate change accelerating, we need sustainable alternatives to cars and planes. HS2 offers a greener way to travel, reducing carbon emissions and congestion on our roads.”
3. Satisfaction: Present HS2 as the solution.
Faster, more reliable travel: “HS2 will cut journey times between London and the north by up to 50%, making travel faster, smoother, and more reliable for millions of people.”
Economic benefits: “This project will create over 30,000 jobs during construction and thousands more in the long term. It will also unlock economic growth in the north, rebalancing our economy and reducing regional inequality.”
Environmental advantages: “HS2 will take millions of cars off the road and reduce domestic flights, significantly cutting carbon emissions. It’s a critical step toward achieving our net-zero goals.”
Future-proofing: “HS2 isn’t just about today—it’s about preparing for tomorrow. It will free up capacity on existing rail lines, improving local services and ensuring our infrastructure can handle future growth.”
4. Visualization: Help the audience see the benefits of HS2.
Positive vision: “Picture this: a bustling northern city, thriving with new businesses and opportunities, connected to the capital in under 90 minutes. Commuters enjoying spacious, reliable trains, and families reunited faster than ever before.”
Contrast without HS2: “Without HS2, our rail network will continue to creak under pressure. The north will remain disconnected, and our economy will stagnate. We cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by.”
Call to emotion: “This isn’t just about trains—it’s about people. It’s about giving everyone in this country a fair chance to succeed, no matter where they live.”
5. Action: Call the audience to support HS2.
Direct appeal: “I urge you to support HS2—not just as a rail project, but as a vision for a better-connected, greener, and more prosperous Britain.”
Specific actions: “Write to your MP, share the facts about HS2 with your community, and challenge the myths surrounding this project. Let’s show the world that Britain is ready to invest in its future.”
Inspirational closing: “Together, we can build a legacy that future generations will thank us for. Let’s not look back in 20 years and wonder what could have been. Let’s act now, and let’s act boldly. HS2 is more than a railway—it’s a lifeline for our nation.”
This outline provides a clear, persuasive structure for your speech, using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence to build a compelling case for HS2. Let me know if you’d like me to expand on any section!
PROMPT: Act as a speechwriter. Suggest 3 similes and 3 metaphors to describe to an audience why high speed train travel is enjoyable.
Here are three similes and three metaphors to vividly describe why high-speed train travel is enjoyable. These can be woven into a speech to make the experience more relatable and engaging for your audience.
Similes:
“Riding a high-speed train is like gliding on air—smooth, effortless, and free from the bumps and jolts of ordinary travel.” This simile emphasizes the comfort and tranquility of high-speed rail, contrasting it with less pleasant modes of transportation.
“Traveling on a high-speed train is like watching time shrink before your eyes—cities and landscapes blur together as hours turn into minutes.” This highlights the speed and efficiency of high-speed rail, making long distances feel short.
“Sitting in a high-speed train is like being in a moving living room—spacious, comfortable, and designed for relaxation.” This simile conveys the convenience and comfort of train travel, making it feel like a home away from home.
Metaphors:
“A high-speed train is a ribbon of steel, weaving through the countryside and stitching cities together.” This metaphor paints a poetic image of connectivity and unity, showing how trains bring people and places closer.
“The high-speed train is a time machine, collapsing distances and giving you back the most precious resource—time.” This metaphor emphasizes the efficiency of high-speed rail, framing it as a tool that saves time and enhances productivity.
“The train is a symphony of motion, where every component works in harmony to create a seamless journey.” This metaphor evokes the elegance and precision of high-speed rail, comparing it to a beautifully orchestrated piece of music.
These similes and metaphors can help your audience visualize and emotionally connect with the joys of high-speed train travel, making your speech more memorable and impactful. Let me know if you’d like help integrating these into a larger speech!
PROMPT: Act as a speechwriter. Use synechdoche and metonymy to surprise an audience with reasons why high speed trains are a good idea.
Here’s a speech that uses synecdoche (using a part to represent the whole) and metonymy (using a related term to represent something else) to creatively and persuasively argue why high-speed trains are a good idea. These rhetorical devices will surprise the audience by offering fresh perspectives on the benefits of high-speed rail.
Title: “The Tracks to Tomorrow: Why High-Speed Trains Are the Future”
Opening:
“Ladies and gentlemen, imagine a world where the wheels of progress never stop turning. Where the heartbeat of a nation pulses along steel veins, connecting cities, dreams, and opportunities. This is the promise of high-speed trains—not just a mode of transport, but a lifeline to a brighter future.”
Synecdoche: Using a part to represent the whole.
“Every seat on a high-speed train is a desk, a dining table, and a meeting room.” Here, the “seat” represents the entire experience of traveling on a high-speed train. It’s not just a place to sit—it’s a space where work gets done, meals are enjoyed, and connections are made. High-speed trains transform travel time into productive time.
“The whistle of a high-speed train is the sound of opportunity calling.” The “whistle” represents the train itself and, by extension, the economic and social opportunities it brings. It’s a call to action, signaling progress and growth for communities along its route.
“Every ticket sold is a vote for a greener planet.” The “ticket” represents the passenger and their choice to support sustainable travel. High-speed trains reduce carbon emissions, and every journey taken is a step toward a more sustainable future.
Metonymy: Using a related term to represent something else.
“The rails are the arteries of a thriving economy.” Here, “rails” represent the entire rail network, which keeps the economy moving and alive. High-speed trains ensure that goods, people, and ideas flow freely, fueling growth and innovation.
“The timetable is a promise—a guarantee that the future will be on time.” The “timetable” represents the reliability and efficiency of high-speed trains. It’s a symbol of trust and precision, showing that high-speed rail delivers on its commitments.
“The station is a gateway—not just to new places, but to new possibilities.” The “station” represents the entire journey and the opportunities it unlocks. High-speed trains don’t just take you from point A to point B; they open doors to education, employment, and cultural exchange.
Closing:
“High-speed trains are more than just engines and carriages. They are the wheels of change, the tracks of progress, and the bridges to a better tomorrow. So let’s not just build trains—let’s build connections. Let’s build opportunities. Let’s build the future. Thank you.”
This speech uses synecdoche and metonymy to reframe high-speed trains as symbols of progress, sustainability, and opportunity. By focusing on specific parts or related concepts, it surprises the audience with fresh, imaginative reasons to support high-speed rail. Let me know if you’d like to expand on any section!
PROMPT: Act as a speechwriter. Revise this speech to be written at an 8th grade level
Here’s a revised version of the speech, written at an 8th-grade reading level for clarity and simplicity:
Speech by Gareth Davies, MP for Grantham and Bournemouth
Thank you to the hon. Lady for her comments. She’s right—HS2 will boost productivity, create jobs, and improve connections across the country. We need to keep sharing these benefits with everyone. But we also have to be realistic. We must balance the need for high-speed rail with managing our budget, especially as we face challenges like rising costs due to the war in Ukraine and supply chain issues from COVID-19. These are tough times, and we’re making the hard decisions needed to keep our finances stable while still investing in important projects like HS2.
The hon. Lady mentioned the National Audit Office report. We’re looking at it carefully and will respond soon. But the key point is this: HS2 is important, and we’re committed to it. We’ve had to make some tough choices to make sure we’re building strong transport links while also being responsible with public money. That’s what the British people expect from us.
We’re also working to improve rail connections across the country, especially in areas that lost service back in the 1960s with the Beeching cuts. It’s not just about building new lines—it’s about making the existing ones better too.
Now, let me address some specific points raised today. The hon. Member for Bath talked about the M4 connection to Dorset. I want her to know that the Department for Transport has asked National Highways to study this route, and we’re carefully considering their findings. We’ll have more to say on this soon.
The hon. Member for Bath and my colleague from Wimbledon also brought up rail electrification. We’re working hard on this as part of our plan to create a net zero railway by 2050. Since 2010, we’ve electrified over 1,200 miles of track, with 1,000 of those miles done in just the last five years. That’s a big improvement compared to the 70 miles electrified between 1997 and 2010. We’re making progress, but there’s still more to do.
The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland shared some great insights about the challenges his community faces. I’ll look into the issue he raised about funding and get back to him.
Finally, my colleague from Wimbledon made an important point: the government can’t pay for everything. We need private investment to help fund our infrastructure projects. In fact, nearly half of the UK’s future infrastructure projects will be paid for with private money. Over the next ten years, we expect total investment in infrastructure—both public and private—to reach nearly £650 billion. That’s how we’ll build a stronger future for everyone.
Thank you.
This version simplifies complex ideas, shortens sentences, and uses more straightforward language while keeping the original meaning intact.
PROMPT: Act as a teacher. Revise the following text so that it can understood by 8 year old children. [Insert 8th grade text above]
Here’s the revised version of the text, simplified so that it can be understood by 8-year-old children:
Thank you to the lady for her ideas. She’s right—HS2, the new high-speed train, will help people work better, create new jobs, and make it easier to travel across the country. We need to tell everyone about these good things. But we also have to be careful with our money. Right now, things are tough because of the war in Ukraine and problems caused by COVID-19, like higher costs and fewer supplies. We’re making hard choices to make sure we have enough money for important projects like HS2 while still being careful with how we spend.
The lady also talked about a report from the National Audit Office. We’re reading it carefully and will say more about it soon. But the most important thing is this: HS2 is really important, and we’re going to keep working on it. We’ve had to make some tough decisions to build better train lines while also being smart with the money we have. That’s what people expect from us.
We’re also working to make train travel better in places that lost their train service a long time ago, back in the 1960s. It’s not just about building new train tracks—it’s also about fixing and improving the ones we already have.
Now, let me talk about some other things people brought up today. The lady from Bath talked about a road called the M4 and how it connects to Dorset. I want her to know that we’ve asked a group called National Highways to study this road, and we’re thinking about what they found. We’ll share more about this soon.
The lady from Bath and my friend from Wimbledon also talked about making trains run on electricity instead of diesel. We’re working on this as part of our plan to make trains better for the environment by 2050. Since 2010, we’ve added electric power to over 1,200 miles of train tracks, and 1,000 of those miles were done in just the last five years. That’s a lot better than the 70 miles we did between 1997 and 2010. We’re doing a good job, but there’s still more work to do.
The man from Orkney and Shetland talked about some problems his community is facing. I’ll look into the issue he mentioned about money and get back to him.
Finally, my friend from Wimbledon made a good point: the government can’t pay for everything. We need help from businesses and other groups to pay for big projects like new roads and train lines. In fact, almost half of the money for future projects will come from private companies. Over the next ten years, we think the total money spent on these projects will be nearly £650 billion. That’s how we’ll make things better for everyone.
This version uses simple words, short sentences, and avoids complicated ideas to make it easier for 8-year-olds to understand.
Conclusion
It might be unfair to compare the output of ChatGPT from 2023 to DeepSeek of 2025. However, if claims about the efficiency are in fact true it represents, as some have noted, a “Sputnik moment” for the American technology industry.
As for speechwriters, I stand by my concluding words from 2023:
This three-part series has, I hope, shown ways in which speechwriters can use generative A.I. tools like ChatGPT. The number of tools is expanding rapidly. No doubt some public speeches — be they at a wedding, in the conference center, or on the hustings — will use material simply cut and paste from GPT output. This is not a clever way to proceed. The language can be silted, repetitive, filled with factual errors, and unconvincing.
However, in the hands of a professional, research tasks, speech outlines, alternative points of view, and more are available for review.
I believe these tools will enrich and make life easier and more productive for professional speechwriters and concerns about their use are misplaced.
Writing in the Weekend FT (subscription required), columnist Gillian Tett highlights the cultural differences between dinner party “table talk” on either side of the Atlantic.
She observes that “American professionals tend to take it for granted that when they meet over dinner they will stage a communal debate.”
…the idea is basically the 21st-century version of an 18th-century Parisian salon: the guests expect to enjoy an intellectual exchange along with the food, a conversation that might be based around a guest’s book, film, start-up or political campaign (or, failing all that, more discussion of the ultimate conversation starter, Trump).
Whereas “British rituals are different.”
Brits tend to eat later than Americans, drink far more alcohol and hate it when guests ask each other, “What do you do?” (Let alone google each others’ achievements at the table, which is common in the US.) But what generally goes unmentioned is a more important distinction: single-table conversations rarely happen in Britain.
In addition to her work writing for the FT, Tett is an anthropologist and recently appointed Provost of King’s College, Cambridge where — she notes — attempts to impose a single topic for discussion by academics dining at the high table are met with a brusque ““This is just not done here.”
She identifies the source of the difference in the way the two cultures treat intellectual capital:
In America, the creation of ideas is treated as a vital sphere of economic activity, one that philanthropists think needs to be backed, on an industrial scale, in many forums. Just as the Medicis once sponsored cathedrals or artists, today’s 21st-century luminaries use their cash to sponsor debate, turning economic capital into the cultural and intellectual variant. And since America is also a place that admires ambition and hustle, this fosters a culture of performative intellectual display, be that in a TV studio or at a dinner party.
In Britain, however, hustle is not so readily admired and ambition is sometimes derided as being pushy or showing off. Thus if you are brilliantly clever, you are admired for concealing the fact or cracking jokes about it at your own expense. Few Brits stand up in public and shout that they want to be public intellectuals; or not without a self-deprecating laugh.
For us plebs who don’t receive invitations to society dinner parties in either country, it’s worth bearing in mind that “performative intellectual display” is still very much a fact of life in many aspects of American life. Indeed, in my five decades in the States I have grown used to listening to monologues from American’s of all backgrounds: from the boating enthusiast telling you the correct way to trim a sail to the home cook describing their recipe for the perfect lasagna.
The fact I am teetotal somewhat limits my potential to enjoy the drunken revelry of British dinners, amusing as they might be.
The proliferation of tent cities and decrepit RVs in towns and cities across America has led some to see this as a potent symbol of the economic crisis, as affordable housing is out of reach of ever increasing numbers of low income people. Indeed, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported
On a single night in January 2023, “roughly 653,100 people—or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the United States—were experiencing homelessness,” with about 60% in shelters and the remaining 40% unsheltered, according to HUD. That’s a 12% increase from 2022 and the highest number of unhoused people since reporting began in 2007.
The main form of homelessness is people living in temporary accommodation, the main driver is an inability to afford housing, and America is not even particularly close to the worst. The UK holds that ignominious title, with an astonishing one in 200 households living in emergency lodging outside the formal housing sector.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the developed world live in buildings where damp and mold are commonplace, as are insect and animal infestations. The disruption of being moved from place to place causes adults to drop out of work and children out of school.
Britain has the highest rate of homelessness of any country:
These numbers show that while more people sleep on the streets in the States, there is less overall homelessness per 10,000.
The FT highlights the root of the problem in three areas:
This nightmare scenario is due to three main factors: woefully inadequate rates of housebuilding, a dwindling social housing sector and the erosion of financial support for those unable to afford market rents. Relative to population size, the UK builds fewer homes than the vast majority of other developed countries. This has sent private sector rents spiraling, exacerbated by a 25 per cent shrinking of the social housing sector since the 1970s, slowly closing a crucial safety valve.
A lengthy analysis of the rates of housebuilding in Britain since the end of the First World War to today, concludes that a combination of NIMBYism, the “iron ring of green belts around Britain’s cities,” and a failure of political will has led to the current undersupply.
It remains to be seen if an America where land is more plentiful can build accommodation for all.
Following 15 years at Sun Microsystems and the sudden layoff that ended my work for a company that I fully expected to stay with until I reached retirement age, as described in my Working Life Part IV, I faced the challenge of making a living in Silicon Valley. Luckily, I had developed a network.
Freelancing
My first few months after leaving Sun with a small but welcome severance package were spent looking for freelance speech writing jobs. I was fortunate to have kept in touch with a colleague from my Sun days, who had been a speech writing mentor. Joel Postman had left before the layoffs took effect to work in executive communications at Hewlett-Packard. He helped me pitch for a freelance opportunity to write speeches for Nora Denzel, who headed a software division at the company. I met with her several times and wrote two presentations. By the end of 2004, I had been brought into the company as a full-time employee.
Blogging
Coincident with joining HP as a freelancer, I started kicking around the idea of this website and blog to build my portfolio and reputation as a freelancer. I took an entire year, but in January 2006, I posted my first blog entry. I’d developed my WordPress skills with Joel, who also promoted himself online. Something he and I, in our different ways, have continued to this day.
The HP Way
I joined a behemoth of a company with over 300,000 employees worldwide formed by the merger of HP and Compaq back in 2001 (and described at the time by my old boss Scott McNealy as the “slow motion collision of two garbage trucks.“)
However, working in the comms division in the HQ building was a smart team that brought professionalism to their daily work. I enjoyed writing content for Nora, who presented with pizzaz and appreciated my work. We traveled to HP facilities in Europe, including the labs outside Bristol, where I’d last lived in 1979. The city streets were familiar. Later that same trip, I booked a presentation at the Telco World Congress conference in Barcelona in January 2005. Nora had to return to California for meetings and then back across the Atlantic for this event. Unfortunately, it was the Friday before the formal event opening that weekend, and a mere 20 people were in the audience.
It was on that trip that we were sitting at breakfast in a hotel when Nora glanced at a message on her phone, gasped, and handed it to me. The HP Board had just forced CEO Carly Fiorina out.
Fiorina had riled many of the old guard at HP, who still clung to the “HP Way” created by the company founders back in the 1950s.
Shortly after, Nora’s responsibilities changed, and I was reassigned to support the head of HR, Chilean-born Marcela Perez de Alonso. I only supported her for a few months. However, my one contribution was her presentation at an Organizational Development conference in San Francisco, where I took the initiative to record the presentation and have it transcribed. Bizarrely, this is still available on the HP website.
HP Labs
After my brief stint supporting HR, I was asked to move into the storied HP Labs and support the newly appointed Prith Banerjee. He had spent many years in academia and was well-respected by the Labs 500 engineers in seven worldwide locations. However, he had to fall in line with the new CEO’s cost-cutting initiatives and canceled some “fringe” projects. Nevertheless, there were plenty of fascinating research topics to write about. I attended a ‘poster session’ at an HP Labs gathering in Boston where I asked researchers to describe their project so their grandmother or young child could understand the technology. There was work on the environmental impact of data centers, insights into the future, and an opportunity to meet retired employees who had been there in the early days.
HP Labs occupied the building where founders Bill Hewett and Dave Packard had their adjoining offices, kept as a shrine to their vision and innovation. Prominently displayed on the 60s-era desk was the icon HP pocket calculator. (Between the two offices was the private washroom they shared!)
MagCloud
One of the unexpected benefits of my association with the Labs was an early introduction to the MagCloud print-on-demand service for magazines. Engineers Udi Chatow and Andrew Bolwell explained the ease with which anyone with a PDF document could produce excellent quality ‘evergreen’ magazines. At the time I was the president of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association and convinced the members of the value of own high-quality magazine. Six editions of SPEAKER magazine resulted. Later, I helped Kombucha Brewers International produce SYMBIOSIS. Editions of both remain online and available as PDF downloads or printed magazines.
Mark Hurd
In March 2005, Mark Hurd was recruited from NCR and appointed CEO. His tenure was, to say the least, interesting.
He started out focused on ROI across the company, and cost-cutting measures were implemented. Wall Street was delighted. Wikipedia:
Under Hurd’s tenure, the company met Wall Street expectations in 21 out of 22 quarters and increased profits for 22 straight quarters, while its revenue rose 63% and stock price doubled. He laid off 15,200 workers — 10% of the workforce — shortly after becoming CEO. Other cost-cutting included reducing the IT department from 19,000 to 8,000, reducing the number of software applications that HP used from 6,000 to 1,500, and consolidating HP’s 85 data centers to 6. During the 2009 recession, depending on job role Hurd imposed a temporary 5%, 10% or 15% pay cut on all employees and removed many benefits.
Despite his successful stewardship of the company finances, Hurd was — like Fiorina before him — forced out by the board over a dubious HR issue in August 2010. He went on to a successful career at Oracle and sadly passed away in 2019, aged 62.
Pretexting scandal
“A fish rots from the head.” (Turkish proverb)
For a company founded in a garage listed as “the birthplace of Silicon Valley,” the period I worked there was not a happy one. This was not the fault of the many dedicated employees, but more the actions of leaders, especially the Board of Directors. Wikipedia again:
On September 5, 2006, Newsweek revealed that the general counsel of Hewlett-Packard, at the behest of HP chairwoman Patricia Dunn, had contracted a team of independent security experts to investigate board members and several journalists in order to identify the source of an information leak. In turn, those security experts recruited private investigators who used a spying technique known as pretexting. The pretexting involved investigators impersonating HP board members and nine journalists (including reporters for CNET, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal) in order to obtain their phone records. The information leaked related to HP’s long-term strategy and was published as part of a CNET article in January 2006.
Patricia Dunn claimed she did not know beforehand the methods the investigators used to try to determine the source of the leak. Board member George Keyworth was ultimately accused of being the source and on September 12, 2006, he resigned, although he continued to deny making unauthorized disclosures of confidential information to journalists and was thanked by Mark Hurd for his board service. It was also announced at that time that Dunn would continue as chairwoman until January 18, 2007, at which point HP CEO Mark Hurd would succeed her. Then, on September 22, 2006 HP announced that Dunn had resigned as chairwoman because of the “distraction her presence on our board” created. On September 28, 2006, Ann Baskins, HP’s general counsel, resigned hours before she was to appear as a witness before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where she would ultimately invoke the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer questions.
I witnessed the challenge the scandal posed to my colleagues in the Corporate Comms department.
Soon enough, however, the restructuring in the company came to the team I was part of. A new head of Marketing followed the CEO’s directive to cut costs, and in August 2008, just under four years after joining the company, I was one of a large group he dismissed.
My letter to the Weekend FT was somewhat marred by what I thought was a misleading title written by an FTT sub-editor. In contrast, my 2019 letter disputing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s claim to be “the first populist that was elected” was given a brilliant title:
A.I. Sub
Working on tight deadlines, on a Friday night at the FT’s HQ on London’s South Bank, it’s challenging for subs looking to capture the essence of each of the letters on their editorial page.
Would generative A.I. help? I decided to put it to the test, starting with my own letter and this ChatGPT prompt:
Act as a newspaper subeditor. Write short 8-10 word headlines for this letter to the editor [INSERT TEXT OF LETTER]
Here’s the results, following the FT’s choice.
“Alphabet’s Revolution: A Cultural Shift Unveiled”
“Surgeon’s Thesis: Alphabet’s Brain Impact Through History”
“JLR’s Security Quandary: Unattended Range Rover Raises Issues”
“Remote Start Mishap: Unmanned Range Rover Puzzles Onlookers”
“JLR Customer Education: Unmanned Range Rover Prompts Suggestions”
“Idle Investigation: Unattended Range Rover Spurs Security Discussion”
“Range Rover Dilemma: JLR Boss Urged for Customer Education”
“Mystery at the Station: Unmanned Range Rover Raises Alarms”
“Decoding Tipping Dilemmas: Insights from Jo Ellison’s Column”
“Tipping Tales: Navigating Cultural Differences and Digital Transactions”
“From Paris to Tips: Jo Ellison Sheds Light on Tipping”
“The Tipping Mystery: Jo Ellison’s Column Unveils Insights”
“Cultural Quirks: Jo Ellison Explores Tipping Challenges Abroad”
“Digital Transactions and Human Touch: Tipping Insights Unveiled”
“Parisian Tipping Woes: Jo Ellison’s Column Sparks Reflection”
“Small Change, Big Impact: Jo Ellison’s Perspective on Tipping”
“Tipping Etiquette Unveiled: Jo Ellison’s Column Sparks Discussion”
“From Tears to Tips: Jo Ellison’s Column Resonates with Readers”
“Rudeness and Noodles: Tim Harford Reflects on Wong Kei’s”
“Wong Kei’s Legacy: Tim Harford Explores Rude Service Charm”
“Rudeness Revisited: Tim Harford’s Take on Wong Kei’s Tradition”
“Chinatown Charm: Tim Harford on the Quirky Appeal of Wong Kei’s”
“Noodles and Blunt Humour: Tim Harford Recalls Wong Kei’s”
“Wong Kei’s Wit: Tim Harford Explores the Charm of Rudeness”
“Quirky Dining: Tim Harford’s Reflection on Wong Kei’s Signature”
“Rude Service Charm: Tim Harford’s Nostalgic Wong Kei’s Tale”
“Wong Kei’s Legacy Lives On: Tim Harford’s Humorous Memories”
“Dining with Attitude: Tim Harford Reminisces Wong Kei’s Style”
“McCarthy’s Ambition: A Tribal Tale in American Politics”
“Driven by Ambition: McCarthy’s Political Portrait Unveiled”
“Tribal Politics: McCarthy’s Ambition Revealed in FT Interview”
“US Speaker’s Ambition: A Reflection on McCarthy’s Legacy”
“Political Tribalism: McCarthy’s Ambition Under the Spotlight”
“Retrospective Ambition: Kevin McCarthy’s Political Journey Unveiled”
“McCarthy’s Legacy: Ambition and Tribalism in US Politics”
“Tribal Ties: Former US Speaker McCarthy’s Driven Ambition”
“Kevin McCarthy Unmasked: Ambition and Tribalism in Politics”
“Politics of Ambition: McCarthy’s Tribal Approach in the Spotlight”
“Cheers to Tech: AI and the Future of Wine Experts”
“Wine App Worries: Alice Lascelles Explores AI’s Impact”
“Tech vs. Terroir: Can an AI App Replace Wine Experts?”
“Sipping into the Future: Alice Lascelles on Wine and AI”
“I, Vin: A Catchy Alternative to AI Sommelier Apps”
“Pour Decisions: Alice Lascelles Ponders AI in Wine”
“Wine and Tech: Alice Lascelles Weighs in on AI Sommeliers”
“Sommelier or AI? The Future of Wine Expertise Explored”
“Wine Trends: Alice Lascelles Delves into AI’s Influence”
“I, Vin: A Quirky Suggestion for Wine App Enthusiasts”
Win some, lose some
Looking over these lists, it’s clear that generative AI cannot match the subs at their best. The Eugene Onegin pun went above and beyond the wit of the original letter. Other headlines from the FT were more pedestrian.
However, the AI text overdoes words like “unveiled” and “revealed”. It also inserts the article author’s name too frequently. However, I found it useful as a brainstorming tool, where the final headline can be cherry-picked from suggestions. I plucked my own alternate headline (“Rewiring brains for a return to feminine values”) from a previous list of ChatGPT suggestions. Among the ten suggestions for the visit to the Prado and the McCarthy letter is the exact text used by the FT. I liked “Rudeness and noodles: Chinatown charm” taken from that list of suggestions. “Tech vs. Terroir: Can an AI App Replace Wine Experts?” has appeal.
As I’ve previously noted, the late author Leonard Shlain has written several insightful books that examine how literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. I was especially impressed by his analysis of the impact of the alphabet. I wrote a letter to the Financial Times in response to historian Josephine Quinn’s essay The Civilization Myth, which also identified the revolutionary impact of adopting the alphabet on Western culture:
… the arrival of the alphabet was more revolutionary than it may sound. It is apparently more natural for humans to record syllables than individual sounds…Reading and writing in one’s own spoken tongue may seem natural today, especially to English speakers. But for many it is a relatively recent choice, and in antiquity it was unusual…Literacy was a niche skill, learnt with great labor and only by scribes, until the inventors of the alphabet devised a neat trick. Each of their “letters” was originally a little picture, signalling for them the first sound of the word for the item depicted. So the sign for “a” was the head of a bull, “alef” in the Levantine language, “b” was a schematic house or “bet”, and so on. Because the signs represented sounds, not syllables, there were far fewer of them. And you didn’t actually have to learn them anyway: you just needed to know the language, and the trick.
The myth of civilizations
Quinn couched these comments in the broader context of superficially pluralistic “myth of civilization”, where Putin sees Russia as an “original civilization-state”; Chinese premier Xi Jinping has launched a new Global Civilization Initiative, to celebrate the world’s “unique and long civilizations . . . transcending time and space”. Meanwhile
Everyone is worried about the west. For some it is under attack, from refugees, terrorists or wokery. For others the west is itself the problem, forever imposing its own values as a universal good. But no one is sure what it actually is — or rather, where it stops.
She takes issue with scholars who promote the idea of distinct civilizations, “Western,” “Orthodox,” and “Islamic,” with these having roots in the ancient world of Greek and Roman civilizations.
Civilizational thinking of this kind depends on an idea of separate cultures growing like individual trees in a forest, with their own roots and branches distinct from those of their neighbors. They emerge, flourish and decline, and they do so largely alone.
The truth, Quinn argues, is that this view of distinct civilizations is “a modern confection, invented by 19th-century scholars to emphasize the superiority of their own nations and the justice of their empires.”
She sees the interaction between cultures as a critical driver of human social development:
Local and regional cultures come and go, but they are created and sustained by interaction. The encounters involved don’t have to be friendly. But it is those connections that drive historical change, from the boats that brought the African donkey and the Eurasian wheel to the Aegean in the third millennium BCE to the ships equipped with the Chinese compass that brought Europeans to the Americas 4,000 years later, to conquer them with Chinese gunpowder.
Angry White Men
Quinn concludes her essay by debunking the anti-immigration, white nationalism of the emerging authoritarians:
First promoted by the French activist Renaud Camus in his 2011 book Le Grand Remplacement, the theory that the white or indigenous European population is being replaced by immigrants in a form of reverse-colonisation is now a staple of rightwing conspiracy theorists, white supremacists and mass shooters around the world. This poisonous rhetoric depends heavily on the idea of a distinct civilization — French, British, western or white — that is under threat from different and alien cultures and especially from their children.
But it’s the idea of civilization itself that is the real problem, and in particular the notion that it is a zero-sum game, with higher cultures under threat from migrant, fecund foreign values. There has never been a pure western culture that is now under threat of pollution. No single people is an island, unless they’ve been there for a very long time and haven’t invented boats. And that’s a good thing: without new relationships between different people exchanging unfamiliar ideas, nothing much would ever happen at all.
Letter to the Editor
My one complaint with the FT is that the sub-editor who chose the title for my letter misinterprets Shlain. Literacy in the ancient world (the arrival of the alphabet) is precisely NOT like the internet for us. Better would be a title like ‘Rewiring brains for a return to feminine values.’
Thanks to Obama speechwriter (2009-17) and Adjunct Professor of Speechwriting at American University Terry Szuplat for posting this resource list to LinkedIn.Be sure to check the Comments on LinkedIn for additional resources.
Do you want to become a better speaker or writer? Here are 21 people I follow here on LinkedIn who offer great tips every day…
Matt Abrahams: an expert in organizational behavior with evidence-based strategies for staying calm and speaking spontaneously
Oliver Aust: great carousels, including 9 killer opening lines for your next talk
Alex Banks: the latest news in AI, including how to use a chatbot to enhance your writing and research
Jade Bonacolta: irresistible carousels, including 7 of the most inspiring speeches of all time to start your day
Nathan Baugh: easy hacks for great structure and storytelling, from ancient times to today, including 10 mistakes that are killing your story
Neringa Bliūdžiūtė: Lithuanian speechwriter and coach with candid advice for writers and speakers alike, including how to avoid “gray language” that “no one wants to listen to”
Nausheen I. Chen 🔥: carousels on topics like what she changed after getting comments for being “a girl with purple hair and an eyebrow ring”
Cheril Clarke: Puebla-based ghostwriter with a hilarious take on why “ChatGPT is the boyfriend I never wanted”
Jeremy Connell-Waite: distills great speeches into stunning one-page hand-crafted infographics and tutorials, including how you can change the world in 1,000 seconds
Eva Rose Daniel: practical tips for how to bring sparkle to your speeches, including how to avoid “weak language” and why you might want to eat potato chips before a speech
Asiwaju Dorcas: speech coach and trainer based in Nigeria who warns against one of the biggest mistakes in public speaking: “saying too much”
Nancy Duarte: her TED Talk on “The Secret Structure of Great Talks” has been viewed +3 million times
John-Paul Flintoff: shares how improv and his time in a psychiatric hospital after a mental health crisis made him a better speaker
Display of wealth through clothes arrived in Europe in the late thirteenth century when a person’s class affiliation was signaled by what they wore. Because dress was recognized as an expressive and a potent means of social distinction, it was often exploited by the upper classes to gain leverage over others.
Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argues that the dominant social classes tend to possess not only wealth but “cultural capital” as well. In matters of dress, this capital manifests itself in the possession of refined taste and sensibilities that are passed down from one generation to the next. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu demonstrates that our different aesthetic choices are all distinctions – that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes.
Economist Thorstein Veblen, argues that the drive for social mobility moves fashion. In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen claims that the wealthy class exercised fashion leadership through sartorial display of conspicuous consumption. Upper-class people dressed in way that indicated they did not carry out manual work, that they had enough disposable income to spend on an extensive wardrobe, and — long before Rent the Runway — that they were able to wear a garment only a few times before deeming it obsolete.
American style
Writing in the Weekend FT, columnist Robert Armstrong examines American style and what it says about class. He notes a fundamental dichotomy in what many American’s think of as a ‘classless society.”
If, like me, you think of clothing in terms of cultural capital as much as its visual properties, you will notice that the dichotomy [between workwear and preppy clothes] maps very well on to Americans’ jittery and contradictory attitudes towards its class system. The preppy branch speaks to a fantasy about moneyed ease, about how the upper classes, free from aspiration, fritter their time away sailing, hunting, playing tennis. It is east coast and old money. The workwear branch, on the other hand, speaks to a fantasy of earthy authenticity, of autonomous, honest work. It is western and owes nothing to inheritance and pedigree.
The appeal of both fantasies is apparent and both are peculiarly American, opposed though they may be. We all aspire to be educated and successful, and to be totally relaxed and sophisticated about our success. We all want to be the Kennedys at Hyannis Port. At the same time, we hate all that. We want to be rugged individualists who trust in our hands and live by our word, who don’t want the rich man’s dollar, his country club or his company. To be American is to entertain both the urge to separate from the working class and to identify deeply with it.
The denial of the class system in America is coeval with the class system itself. We Americans all acknowledge that there are wide disparities in wealth. What each of us denies about ourselves is that class retains a powerful moral, social and aesthetic valence. The thinness of our denials is revealed by the incredible persistence of the two styles. Even as it has become standard to criticise the elite and their institutions, prep marches on. And even as we have become a nation of service workers and data manipulators, workwear is everywhere. Class consciousness is inscribed in our clothes.
Weekend Financial Times, January 20, 2023
Armstrong credits Ralph Lauren as a genius who was able to “play the two styles off each other” and that “both the preppy and the workwear traditions are essentially about the outdoors: the idea of physical freedom and vigour. So is the idea of casualness. Part of both codes is not looking like you are trying too hard.”
This in the land where hard work is a fetish that trumps, so to speak, all other values.
