We were curious about the plants in grandma’s backyard—there’s an app for that. Take a photo, identify the plant! Easier than hitting the big red Staples button, and it’s almost always right.
Amazing, until I remember watching my landscape architecture friends slaving over flashcards preparing for tests. Now it’s a camera and an internet connection. Kind of scary!
Is the the future? The prophets of AI have been warning us that automation is now coming for us. (I wrote the first draft in 2020, before ChatGPT became famous!)
I suspect that my generation, those landscape students who are now a quarter century into their careers, will be spared the worst of it. Our kids won’t be so lucky.
How do I help them become useful producers in this brave new world?
The obvious answer is to minimize the menial work in my job. If it’s easy, someone will automate it. Focus my energies on the difficult, squishy parts of work. Like figuring out how to create deep relationships with my team, to dance through problems with firmness and grace.
Of course this is a bummer. Crushing a simple TTD list feels so good! But too gorge on fluff and some OPM-AI app will push me into an early pension.
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Some Links
John Parshal gives an intriguing presentation on the different tank manufacturing systems between the Germans, Americans, and Soviets. (The full conference session about the Kursk is worth a watch.)
Dr. Robert Citino asks “Why Did the German Army Fight to the End?” The sobering answer is because they kept fighting. As much as we want to blame one man, everyone played their part in that machine.
On a completely different note, a surreal scene of a gunfight capped with a Nick Cage directing one of the gunmen to shoot a corpse, “his soul is still dancing”.
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Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA