Making better reviews

I’ve been on some sort of an audiobook binge lately.
YouTube used to be my go-to app on my commutes, but now it’s Audible.
I think at some point I got tired of the whirlwind of directions that the YouTube algorithm takes you on. There’s so much to see, enjoy, and learn out there that my brain just gets overwhelmed. I spend so much time on my commutes anyways, I figured I’d make the most of it by actually learning something. Not to say I don’t learn things from YouTube videos. There are so many great resources for learning all manner of things via YouTube, but given the myriad things your phone does, it’s so easy to get distracted.

Which brings me to my next point: distraction.

I randomly chanced upon a video (thanks YouTube) that was reviewing a standalone, dedicated music player and its benefits over a smartphone. Yes, an MP3 player. In 2023. The reviewer addressed the inevitable question of why would you need a standalone media player when you’ve got the smartphone that can literally do everything? It’s precisely because it can do everything that it loses its utility, ironically as it may seem.

You see, today we all live fighting a war of attention.The FANG companies and all its wannabes employ sophisticated algorithms to make it ever difficult to tear ourselves away from our phones. While I’ll be the first to say I’ve gained a lot from being a YouTube Premium user – bingeing on all manner of YouTube videos over the years – I’ve found it made me scatterbrained and losing focus. The things I do learn from YouTube videos are in a scattershot fashion and not “organized” as such. In short, longtail-style content consumption, the x-axis being infinitely long with so many topics. Tons of breadth but no depth.

I opted to dive into books – audiobooks more specifically – as an alternative to YouTube. I liked the production quality, uniformity of presentation, which isn’t something you can expect from YouTube as individuality is what makes creators who they are. I’ve managed to finish three audiobooks (The Pathless Path, The Surrender Experiment, Disrupting the Game) in a few days’ time, always listening to them at a minimum of 1.7x to 2.2x tops(tip I gained from Ali Abdaal).

As usual, I wanted to write down interesting tidbits, learnings, and takeaways for future reference. I would stop and dial down the speed to 0.7x or 1x and type them out feverishly on my Obsidian app, rewinding multiple times to get the text down verbatim. Alternatively I also used the Audible clip feature, which lets you capture the past 30 seconds or so of past audio.

Creating this secondary content derived from the primary content is great; after all, you don’t want to consume all this content only to forget all of it later on. But with all this secondary content in different forms and on different platforms (Obsidian, Audible, Ticktick, etc.), you then create more work for yourself in needing to categorizing, distilling them. Tasks that fall within Tiago Forte’s BASB(Building a Second Brain for the uninitiated) and PKM mandate. I’m still working through / trying to find the best way to create a streamlined process to optimally capture, organize, distill, express (credit to Tiago Forte again) the content I consume. But of course it’s a work in progress.

Consuming all this content got me thinking about reviews. What is the best way to review this content that seems relevant to me and impartial? Of course, I am the one writing the reviews so I can’t not be impartial, but if there was a way to have a systematic review method that would enable my reviews of different content be fair and objective against each other. To explain, without applying uniform criteria by which content is reviewed, the standards will vary for each piece of content reviewed. That would naturally make each review incomparable to that of another piece of content. I mulled over this for a while and came up with the following 5 criteria by which to review content.

1. Entertainment: how entertaining is it?
2. Resonance: how much did the content resonate with me? how eye-opening / wonder-inspiring / idea-generating / worldview-altering / new conversation-starting was it?
3. Originality: how original was it i.e. to what extent was it not a re-hash of existing content?
4. Coherence: to what extent did the story, plot, structure, progression lend themselves to forming a unified whole that was comprehensible, compelling, and accessible? Or conversely, was it esoteric and/or arcane?
5. Recommendability: to what extent would I recommend this piece of content to others? In modern social-media speak, how ‘Instagrammable’ is the content? Put another way, how relatable is this content? Would it be helpful / entertaining / useful to others? Best-sellers, box office hits, and chart-topping singles become what they are because they are shared and recommended. It travels. To borrow the funnel model, the content that ultimately get passed through the lower funnel are few and far in between.

My idea is to use a 5-point Likert scale for each of the above ranging from ‘Disagree strongly’ to ‘Agree strongly’, and get the average total score. I think doing this will let me come to a more balanced and generally more uniform approach to how I rate and review content. I want to try this out and tweak / revise as necessary starting with movies, books, games, and other forms of content consumed. Each of the five categories could be tweaked slightly to account for categorical differences (e.g. gameplay mechanics when reviewing a game for example).

Fear of living with me

Randomly got around to watching an interview with Conan O’Brien at his alma mater Harvard.

You can’t not like this man. Him giving a talk at a university took me back to the times when I used to watch his late night show in my bedroom…back in 2007, 2008ish.

Some thoughts while listening to his talk.

At around the 7:00 mark, he says “college is when you should actually get about as lost as you can get…in terms of expanding what it is you want to know what it is you think you know and don’t know go places, think about things that you wold not normally think about. You do not get this opportunity again”.

I related a lot with this. I was lost in this sense myself, and being a lover of the liberal arts, and like Conan being averse to math, I indulged myself in all manner of courses that piqued my interest, ranging from music theory, modern music, archaeology, and linguistics.

It was comforting to know that being lost isn’t such a bad thing. Of course, there is a time and place to be lost. But being lost just means you are finding your way.

He also speaks about insecurity and the fact that his insecurity still remains even after all these years, and truth be told, it doesn’t go away. Conan’s brand of self-deprecating humor and quirky, weird style was what drew me in all those years ago. He was just so different from Letterman and Leno.

I now see that he draws on his insecurity to poke fun at himself and make people laugh at him. He mentions that this is what he does on his travels…he becomes the butt of the joke for people he meets abroad.

He said he went through a laundry list of the things he was good at and what he wasn’t good at, and he arrived at the fact that he could be silly and make people laugh. That was his thing. This made me reflect on myself as well. After all these years – and now as a 30-something – do I still need to figure out what it is I’m good at? Or have I maybe forgotten it and buried it away?

I think it slowly dawned on me that I was living afraid. Living in fear of being me. Because living being me, living 100% me would mean getting face to face and being uncomfortable with the things that I don’t like about myself.

In terms of work and careers, I scour job postings to see what would be a good fit and what I would like to do. The idea of certain jobs, industries, positions, and tasks that are listed out gets me excited and interested. But then again, when I think about it, would I really like doing it? I question whether it’s just the idea or the prospect of the job is what gets me excited.

At the end of the day, I realize I’d be happiest just being me. What if I could live life being me 100%? Build out a career where what is inside me comes out into the world and that’s what puts bread on the table? To go back to Conan, he realized early on that he knew he could be funny and could make people laugh. It’s not that he made up his mind then and there that he was going to pursue a lifelong career in comedy. It was a mixture of happenstance, hard work, and God knows what that converged to make him who he is today. He has his insecurities, but in my view, he lives a life making money being 100% himself. That is the greatest achievement.

I tell myself that I need to be interested in this or that I have to work in business-related fields, bla bla bla. Because that’s the right thing to do, that’s what makes the most money, highest yields, etc. I work long hours and beat myself up for the mistakes I make or not striking things off the endless list of to-dos. But at some point it makes me think…am I working to redeem myself? Am I using work as a means to redeem myself? Resolve my insecurities or something?

If that’s the case, I realize I’m misguided. You can’t deny that work defines you – in whole or in part. You spend the majority of your waking hours doing work. The time you put in defines, determines what it is you are as a person. How could it be otherwise? But if you are using work as a means to offset the negativity you have about yourself…or as a way to distract yourself from taking a good hard look at yourself and your issues, that’s just wrong. Perhaps I’m reading too deep into things, but Conan’s talk drew these things out.

People say you should strive to become the best version of yourself. What does that mean? Taken in the context of this post, I think it means to carry your insecurities with you and don’t let them hinder your progress. Because any version of yourself – best or less than best – will be accompanied by your insecurities. You as a human being cannot be rid of your insecurities. It’s just a part of your being. I am learning and struggling to be at peace with my insecurities. It may be obvious to some people, but I think I have had to come to realize that ‘ah, this isn’t something that’s going to magically go away’. When I was younger, I just figured I would grow out of them someday. When I was old enough, experienced enough, or wealthy or something like that.

In that respect, serving yourself is the best way of serving the world. I don’t mean this in an egotistical, narcissistic kind of way. Coming to terms with who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, and the value you can really contribute to society and the world in general, and having the wherewithal to throw your weight into it, is serving yourself. Toiling away at a job that’s not what you are meant to be doing is not only doing a disservice to you, but to all of society. Serve yourself first, and that’s how you serve your neighbor.

I want to conclude by saying that because of my insecurities, I was and still am afraid to put myself out there. But with social media, it’s become so easy to put yourself out there – for better or for worse. Of course, so much on social media is fake, but at the same time, there are people who live doing what they love doing. What you love doing is you yourself that’s put out into the world. To put it simply, a productivity YouTuber’s channel is in some sense, a digital extension of himself. A game YouTuber’s channel is his passion and love for games that exists outside of himself. And if you can make a living off of that, why not?

Steven Barlett’s 3 Lessons for ‘Making It’

I came to know Steven Bartlett through his YouTube channel “Diary of a CEO”.

He did an interview with Ali Abdaal, a Cambridge doctor and productivity creator who has become one of my favorite creators on YouTube.

The Ali Abdaal interview led me into Steven Bartlett’s channel, and I’m glad to have discovered his awesome content. He himself is a very successful entrepreneur, and his candid and honest interviews with successful CEOs have been very enlightening. In wanting to know more about his own story, my googling led me to this article about him.

https://www.virginstartup.org/how-i-made-it/steve-bartlett-how-i-built-europes-fastest-growing-social-media-agency

It’s a short article that ends with his 3 lessons for ‘making it’:

• Believe in yourself.
• Learn how to sell.
• Master your craft.

Everyone, myself included, knows these things already. Yet these simple points struck home because they’re all things that I need to work on.

Belief in yourself and self-confidence. He talks about not undervaluing yourself and understanding your worth. This encapsulates knowing yourself and your strengths properly. In the frenetic mess of daily tasks and phone calls and meetings, I lose sight of what really moves the needle in terms of Me, Inc. I busy myself with a laundry list of tasks that need to be performed to keep the company chugging along, but I am fooling myself when I think I’m advancing my career because of the time I put in. Of course, you need to put in the time, but it’s about where you put in the time. And if where I’m putting in the time is just keeping the company going, but not creating outstanding value that feeds into building Me, Inc., then that’s time ill spent. Know what value I possess, and have the confidence to cut out those things that detract and take away time from building Me, Inc.

Learn how to sell. “Grueling” is the word that comes to mind. That’s what sales is. And I admit I still have a long ways to go. The article just reminded me that sales is something I need to consciously spend time working on. Just because I work “in sales” or because I work in a position that involves “doing sales” doesn’t automatically make me a salesperson. It’s a skill that requires constant polishing and updating, and Bartlett’s article was a gentle wake-up call in that regard.

Master your craft. So cliche and obvious, but so true. It’s basic truths that are the most important. Everything builds on the basics. Who doesn’t know that they’re supposed to master their craft? I like that he says to think of yourself as a craftsman, not a carpenter. A carpenter gets the job done, and it’s done. A craftsman, on the other hand, is never done. He/she is constantly looking to get a little better, striving to push his boundaries just a tiny bit farther than before. That’s the mindset to have.

Simplifying digital life

Ever since I got on the Internet, part of my life has lived on it. And that leaves traces. Traces of this other digital self gets heavy over time. The sum of its disparate parts is way more than bits and bytes.

I think about those bits and bytes every now and then, and it is in varying degrees frustrating, anxiety-inducing, and comforting.

Frustrating because they are scattered throughout the many platforms and services I’ve used throughout the years, and I don’t know how long it would take for me to clean, classify, and consolidate them into a coherent, unifying whole.

Anxiety-inducing because of all those “read laters”, notes-to-self, and self-gardening I will eventually have to do. Speaking of gardening, I suppose the Internet I’ve sown for myself is rather overgrown with overlaps, inconsistencies, nuggets, admonitions, memory trinkets, tips, and other minutiae that nags at my soul like a sore thumb. Digital baggage more like.

Comforting in knowing that I at least had half a mind to at least jot things down, however puerile and trivial. The simple fact that I at least tried to document interesting things I encountered and/or experienced on the Internet and in real life. I’m glad I did it. And occasionally there is the nugget or two that I like to keep with me.

But ever since I discovered personal knowledge management, I’ve wanted to create my own wiki that strings together all of my disparate notes, links, ideas, etc. But the thought of tackling the old notes and data is amxiety-inducing aplenty, and I already run into obstacles when thinking about the “best” classification system for all of these things.

2,047 Evernote notes

Kakao chat records

10K+ emails

Gtasks

Google Keep notes

Handwritten notes, journals

Hard drive backups

Diigo, Pocket, Raindrop, Instapaper links

YouTube videos saved to watch later

Over the years I’ve collected so much into a second brain of sorts, the nodes of which are spread out over many apps and services. Now I want to bring them together via an inter-connected wiki. Doing so would help see connections between thoughts and ideas. In particular, it would facilitate the discovery of linkages between old and new ideas that would otherwise remain buried and hard to resurface. Obsidian is just the tool for doing that, and I plan on building an Obsidian Publish blog to post these things.

Do what others won’t or can’t

The word value is used so much that it’s lost its value.

What does it mean and how does one create it? Especially in the context of #learninginpublic

When we put ourselves out there either on a blog or YouTube or Instagram, showcasing something we’ve learned, we do so for various reasons. We may want to document our progress, share useful learnings with others, etc. One thing’s clear: we can’t do so without showing our vulnerabilities. Who wants to watch a beginner show themselves stumbling through something?

Putting aside the fact that showing vulnerability is a means of forging connections – a topic for another post altogether – this post is about VALUE.

What value can one provide to others if he or she is not a so-called expert? Something that is of value to one person may not be such for someone else.

What do people consider to be of value? Money. Time. Memories. Gold bars. Nature.

Everybody knows that money is valuable. Money is a store of value. It holds value, so it is valuable. Money is a ‘fiction’ (cf. Sapiens, Yuval Harari) that people agree upon to be a store of arbitrary value. Instead of bartering stuff, we exchange pieces of paper we collectively and arbitrarily decide has some sort of value.

Money can buy almost everything, but not everything. Time is one of those things. In a sense, you can buy time. You can pay money to elicit or borrow someone’s time. In exchange for your cash, other people perform services for you that you otherwise would have to do yourself. CEOs hire employees, travelers buy Uber drivers’ time, and dog owners buy dog sitters’ time so that they can free up their time to do other things that they would rather do. They are willing to pay money they’ve made to make other people do what they don’t want to do or can’t do.

The people who take the money do so because they
1) do shit that others don’t want to do
2) do shit better, faster, prettier, nicer, etc. than others

In the case of #1, maybe these people have no self-respect or think they’ve found some kind of calling doing shit that people don’t want to do. I’m more interested in #2.

How is it that these people have come to do shit better, faster, etc.?

Precluding ‘genius’ or preternatural abilities, they put in the time to acquire those skills.

The time they put in led them to hone their skills which led them to be sought after, which is something that happens when something is valued or has value.

So how does one become a blogger or YouTuber who creates value?

1) do shit that people couldn’t be bothered to learn themselves or spend the time because they’re lazy or physically unable to

2) do shit that people would not dare to do themselves out of fear or circumstances

3) do shit or talk about shit that only you have learned/acquired/experienced because of the circumstances of your life, which are uniquely your own and thus can serve as your unfair advantage (nobody can be you)

Some examples:

1) I don’t have the interest nor the time nor the necessity to learn plumbing. That’s why we have plumbers who went through the process of becoming one so that we don’t have to. And since so few people want to become them, they can command high prices.

2) A celebrity tabloid reporter has sources across the entertainment industry digging up dirt on celebrities that he / she uses to write in the tabloids or announce to the world via YouTube. This reporter has spent decades in the entertainment industry with the right people and the right successes such that he has privileged access to information that few others have access to.

3) An industry insider who knows all the ins and outs of a particular industry and knows about important announcements before the general public does. Again, privileged access to information. But he would be acting against his own interests to open up about this information to the world.

4) Expert hikers who have scaled the most daunting mountains in the world. They talk about their experiences in interviews, articles, and YouTube videos. They have an experience that few others do.

5) YouTubers and Tik Tokkers who do crazy pranks and stunts to amass viewers. They do things that people would normally not spend time doing. Their value offer is that viewers can experience those things vicariously.

The list goes on.

Candlestick charts

Reference: https://youtu.be/eynxyoKgpng

Red: Close price < Open price / High open, low close ↓
Green: Open price < Close price / Low open, high close ↑

The brain’s housekeeping

Watched a Deutsche Welle documentary called “How to get a good night’s sleep”.

Takeaways
– glial cells in the brain play a role in getting rid of ‘brain waste’ during sleep. Sleep is essential for keeping the brain working in tip top condition
– Sara Mednick – Take a Nap! Change your Life (book)

Broken Nest, Eggs Fall Out

When the nest breaks, the eggs are bound to fall out.

So were the final words of the scions of a noble house, unperturbed by impending death even as it came scampering up the steps where they sat, engaged in a round of xiangqi.

Many years ago, I came across the book “Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed” written by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. The title and the deeper meaning it conveys is all that has remained with me after having read it so long ago.

The premise is simple: don’t go around asking for permission to do what you will. In other words, don’t let anyone dictate what you can or cannot do.

You decide what you have got to do.

While the message is simple, it unfortunately did not translate into action for me.

For years I found myself seeking permission before acting. Whose permission exactly I don’t quite know. I like to think I had some good ideas, but there was always that voice inside my head telling me that it won’t work, that it’ll fail, that I’m too old to do that, that someone is already doing it several orders of magnitude better than I ever could. I was the quintessential think before you act person. Too much of it.

During a conversation today, I came to a startling realization. He said that if the same voice that told you ten years ago that you’re too old to do something is telling you in the present (i.e. ten years after the fact) that you’re still too old to do something, there’s something amiss. That same voice – whoever is its owner – hasn’t aged one bit! Or rather, I was deathly old ten years ago and I am only even older now.

It means that the same voice that told me I couldn’t do it back then hasn’t changed one bit. I haven’t changed one bit. And that that voice never will go change nor go away. That voice will always be there, tantalizing in its self-assured tone coaxing me to stay put on terra firma, rather than venturing forth on terra incognita. It’s one of those things that you need to live with and put up with, take it in stride as you go about the business of life.

Once you realize that it will always be there, you just have to brush past the voice and take action. It’s the fear that ensnares you and keeps you from moving forward. I’m still too old to do that thing I’m so scared to do, when will I ever be too young to do it?

When the nest breaks, the eggs will inevitably fall out. But all the better for it.

美 MIT “AI와 로봇, 일자리 감소 아닌 증가 이끌 것” [노경목의 미래노트]

Source: https://news.v.daum.net/v/20201128104303215

스위스 다보스포럼에서 4차 산업혁명이라는 단어가 소개된지 만 5년이 가까워 오고 있다. 사물인터넷(IoT) 등을 활용한 지능화로 생산과 물류, 일상생활에 큰 변화가 일어날 것이라는 주장이었다.

여기에 2016년 구글의 인공지능(AI)이 이세돌을 꺾는 ‘알파고 쇼크’가 겹쳤다. 의사와 변호사 등 전문직부터 화물차 운전사와 생산직 근로자까지 AI에 대체될 것이라는 전망이 나왔다. 5년, 10년이면 일자리가 크게 감소할 것이라는 예상이 대세가 됐다.

AI와 로봇은 실제로 일자리에 어떤 영향을 주고 있을까. 정말 사람의 일자리가 크게 줄어들게 될까. 이같은 질문에 답하기 위한 미국 MIT(메사추세츠공과대학)의 보고서가 지난 17일 발표됐다. ‘미래의 일: 지능화된 기계의 시대에 더 좋은 일자리를 만들기’라는 제목의 보고서다.

MIT의 각 분야 전문가 수십명이 2017년부터 3년간 연구한 결과물이다. 결론부터 이야기하면 AI와 로봇이 일자리 없는 세상을 예고하는 것은 아니다. 혁명보다는 진화에 대한 변화가 각 분야에서 서서히 일어나며 앞으로 20년간 현재보다 더 많은 일자리가 생길 것으로 예측됐다.

 AI로 더 많은 직업 만들어지는 이유

MIT 리포트는 우선 앞으로 10년간 AI와 로봇이 대체할 수 있는 인간의 일자리는 상당히 제한적일 것이라고 예상한다. 우선 AI와 관련해서는 신뢰성 있는 결과를 산출할만한 데이터를 쌓기가 쉽지 않다는 점을 문제로 든다.

구글 딥마인드가 이세돌에게 이길 수 있었던 것은 수십년간의 기보를 학습했기 때문이다. 하지만 개별 공정과 서비스에서 이같이 데이터를 모을 수 있는 분야는 많지 않다. 설령 모으더라도 끊임없이 변하는 작업 환경과 공정에 맞춰 AI의 작동 방식을 수정하기도 쉽지 않다. 수천년간 거의 동일한 규칙 하에 대국이 이뤄지는 바둑과 다른 점이다.

로봇은 범용성의 문제에 부딪힌다. MIT 보고서는 도넛용 로봇팔을 예로 들었다. 현재 로봇기술은 도넛을 집어 초콜릿 소스통에 담아 알맞은 소스를 묻힌 뒤 고객에게 서비스할 수 있을만큼 섬세한 로봇팔을 만들었다.

하지만 이같은 로봇팔을 그대로 농산물이나 건설 자재 운반에 투입할 수는 없다. 각각의 용도에 맞는 로봇팔을 별도로 만들거나 구입해야 한다. 인간 노동에 비해 복잡한 관리체계와 높은 비용을 필요로 하는 부분이다.

MIT 보고서는 이같은 판단을 근거로 대부분의 AI와 로봇은 기존 근로 영역에서 인간 노동의 생산성을 높이는 결과로 이어질 것으로 전망했다. 이는 필연적으로 일자리의 증가를 낳는다는 것이 보고서의 설명이다.

생산성이 높아지면서 전체 경제의 산출이 늘어나고 이는 필연적으로 소비 증가로 이어진다는 것이다. 소비 수준이 높아지면서 과거에는 없던 새로운 서비스와 재화가 나타나고 해당 분야에서 추가 고용이 발생할 것이라는 설명이다.

기술 발전과 일자리의 관계는 오랜 기간을 놓고 판단하면 더욱 명확해진다. MIT 조사에 따르면 2018년에 존재하는 일자리 중 63%는 1940년에는 존재하지 않았다. 컴퓨터 산업과 태양광 에너지, TV네트워크 등과 관련된 직업은 새로운 기술을 기반으로 출현했다.

새로 생기는 일자리의 대부분은 기존 일자리보다 더 높은 숙련도를 요구하고 그만큼 더 많은 급여를 지급한다. 경제 고도화가 국민 생활수준 상승으로 연결되는 구조다.

MIT 보고서는 “1980년대와 1990년대에 개발된 컴퓨터 및 인터넷 기술이 최근 20년간 양질의 일자리 증가로 이어지고 있다”며 “AI와 로봇 분야의 혁신은 미래 20년의 일자리 혁신과 창출로 이어질 것”이라고 내다봤다.

 인간 노동 대체 힘든 로봇

 MIT 팀은 현장조사를 통해 AI와 로봇이 실제로 어느 정도의 변화를 이끌어내고 있는지 조사했다. 제조업과 자율주행, 의료산업, 보험업종 등에 대해서다.

우선 제조업에서는 딥러닝을 적용하기에는 축적된 데이터가 기대에 못 미친다는 점을 문제로 든다. 각종 공정 및 공구에 센서를 부착해 데이터를 수집하는 기업들이 늘고 있지만 데이터 부족 문제는 근본적으로 해결되기 어렵다. 시대 변화에 따라 계속 생산제품이 바뀌며 공정을 계속 수정해야 하는데 그에 맞는 데이터는 확보하기 어렵기 때문이다.

이같은 문제는 대기업보다 중소기업에 더 큰 걸림돌이 된다. 대기업에 비해 더 다양한 제품을 소량으로 생산해야하는 특성상 데이터를 쌓기가 쉽지 않기 때문이다. 제품에 따라 공정을 전환하는 것도 쉽지 않다.

생산 체계 전반을 로봇 도입에 맞춰 수정해야 한다는 점도 숙제다. 로봇이 최대한 효율을 낼 수 있도록 공정 흐름부터 인력 배치까지 바꿔야 하기 때문이다. 미국 중부 일대에서 500인 이하 제조업체 34곳을 분석한 MIT 연구팀은 해당 작업에 들어가는 비용이 로봇 구입 비용의 9배 이상이라고 진단했다.

공정 지능화를 하더라도 기존 인력을 줄이는 것보다 훈련시키는 쪽이 선호됐다. 관련 전문 지식을 신규로 고용하는데 드는 비용이 훈련비용보다 높기 때문이다. 생산 현장을 잘 아는 기존 인력을 훈련시켜 각종 지능화 공정을 제어하는 것이 보다 확실한 성과를 보장한다는 점도 이유다.

 자율주행으로 생길 새로운 직업들

자율주행 역시 앞으로 최소 10년 이상은 택시나 트럭 운전 기사의 일자리를 위협하지 못할 전망이다. 완전 자율주행보다는 운전자 보조를 중심으로 관련 기술이 발전하고 있어서다.

이미 1980년대에 보편화된 항공기의 자동운항 장치가 대표적이다. 장치가 도입되면서 파일럿의 업무 부담이 줄었지만 이·착륙 등 중요한 단계에서는 여전히 인간의 손길이 필요하다. MIT는 이같은 공존이 예상한 것보다 오래 지속될 수 있다고 내다봤다.

MIT 리포트는 “자율주행 기술이 경쟁하는 것은 운전자가 아니라, 운전자와 함께 유기적으로 작동하는 운전자 보조 시스템”이라며 “이같은 시스템의 도움을 받는 운전자를 신뢰성과 안전성 등에서 자율주행 기술이 넘어서는데는 상당한 시간이 걸릴 것”이라고 분석했다.

운전자 보조시스템을 중심으로 자율주행 기술 적용이 확대되면서 새로운 직업도 나타날 것으로 예상된다. 이미 자율주행 기술 개발업체들에 존재하는 ‘사이트 슈퍼바이저’라는 것이다.

자율주행 기술은 일종의 운전 서비스인만큼 서비스 과정에서 발생하는 문제를 청취하고 이를 회사에 전달할 사람이 필요하다. 자율주행의 도움을 받는 운전자와 해당 기술을 개발한 엔지니어를 연결하는 업무다.

자율주행에 필요한 다양한 센서를 점검하고 관리하는 인력도 필요하다. 안전 운전에 직결되는만큼 잦은 점검이 필요하고, 완전히 무인화하기에도 부담이 있다.

MIT는 이들 직업들이 중산층 이하의 계층에 새로운 일자리를 만들어 줄 것으로 예상했다. 어느 정도의 급여를 보장하지만 4년제 대학을 졸업해야할 정도의 숙련도를 요구하지 않는다는 이유에서다.

 챗봇도 인간 상담사 대체 못해

의료산업 역시 마찬가지다. 부가가치가 높은 산업인만큼 2000년대 초반부터 각종 첨단기술 적용이 확대되고 있지만 실제 일자리는 늘고 있다. 간호사 등 관련 인력 숫자가 늘어나는 것은 물론 처우도 좋아지고 있다.

고령화와 결합해 성장하는 의료 산업에서 AI 등은 일자리를 줄이는 대신 늘어나는 인력의 생산성을 한층 끌어올리는 역할을 하고 있다는 분석이다.

여러 분야에서 AI가 적극적으로 도입된 보험업계 역시 마찬가지다. MIT 팀이 접촉한 한 보험회사(이 리포트에서 모든 업체는 익명으로 처리된다)는 20여명이 일하는 법무 감사팀에 AI 알고리즘을 도입했다.

법무 감사팀은 손해사정과 보험금 지급 등의 과정에서 고용된 수천명의 변호사들에게 재대로 급여가 지급되고 있는지를 살피는 것이 주업무다. AI알고리즘이 도입되며 업무의 85%는 사람이 따로 살피지 않고도 이뤄질 수 있게 됐다.

하지만 해당 팀 인력의 85%가 쓸모 없어진 것은 아니다. 이들은 알고리즘에 맡길 수 없는 보자 복잡하고 중요한 업무에 집중했다. 덕분에 회사는 수백억달러의 비용을 절감할 수 있게 됐다.

알고리즘이 향상되며 인간 상담사를 대체할 것으로 기대됐던 챗봇(모바일 메신저 등을 통해 고객과 상담하는 AI 알고리즘) 역시 마찬가지다. 보험사들은 모바일 및 온라인 활용도가 높은 고객들의 비중이 높아지면서 챗봇이 사람을 대신해 많은 상담을 처리할 것으로 기대했다.

하지만 고객들은 실제 보험 계약 전에는 인간 상담사와 통화하기를 원했다. 챗봇 도입에도 인간 상담사의 일자리가 줄지 않은 이유다. 기술 접근성이 높아지는 것만으로 사용자 경험이 바뀌지 않는다는 것을 보여주는 사례다.

 “수만개 작은 혁신 누적돼야 AI발 일자리 혁명 올 것”

AI와 로봇의 일자리 대체가 느리거나 현실화되지 않는만큼 우리는 안심하면 될까. MIT 리포트는 사회 전체의 일자리 숫자가 줄지는 않겠지만 사라지거나 새로운 모습으로 바뀌는 일자리는 크게 늘 것으로 예상했다.

특히 인사와 재무 등 지원 부문에서 과거 일자리가 줄어들 수 있을 것으로 내다봤다. 의료산업에서만 해당 분야에서 50~60%의 일자리가 사라질 수 있다는 예측이다. AI에 따른 일자리 변화 속도가 상대적으로  더딜 것으로 예상되는 10~20년동안 개인과 사회가 준비를 해야할 부분이다.

MIT는 이 기간동안 재교육이 현실적으로 불가능한 고령 인력을 질서 있게 은퇴시키면서 젊은 인력은 적극적으로 재교육해야 한다고 했다. 리포트에서는 산업현장에서 CNC 선반을 다루면서 최근 CAD와 CAM 소프트웨어 기술을 익힌 근로자의 말을 소개했다.

“기술이 한발짝 발전하면 근로자도 한발짝 전진해야 합니다.”

다만 4~5년 전 4차산업 혁명 열풍이 강하게 불었던 것에 비해 현재의 상황은 기대에 못 미치는 것이 사실이다. MIT 보고서에 나타나 있듯 AI와 로봇의 현장 적용은 곳곳에서 좌절하고 있으며 도입 속도는 정체되고 있다.

여기에 대해 MIT 보고서는 다음과 같이 설명한다.

“기업가와 엔지니어, 벤처 캐피털리스트와 언론인들은 자신들이 바라는 미래를 보여주고 다른 이들을 설득하는 사람들이다. 이를 통해 그들은 실제로 세상을 자신의 비전에 맞춰 바꾼다.

하지만 실제로 재화나 서비스를 생산하고 유통하는 이들은 공장 및 서비스 분야의 관리자들과 실제 생산 과정에 참여하는 수천개의 직종에 있는 사람들이다. 이들이 진짜 경제를 굴러가게 한다.

매일 결과물을 만들고 여기에 책임져야 하는 이들은 새로운 기술에 회의적일 수 밖에 없다. 새로운 기술로 소개된 것들의 대부분은 현장에서 제대로 작동하지 않았기 때문이다.

결국 AI와 로봇 등이 개별 업종의 모습을 바꾸는 데까지는 수만개의 작은 실천들이 누적되야 가능하다. 해당 기술의 잠재력으로 일상적인 업무의 개선을 시도할 수 있는 현장 인력들의 용기 있는 실천 말이다.”보고서 원문은 기자의 개인 페이스북을 방문하면 확인할 수 있다. 네이버 등 포털용 기사에 전화번호와 링크를 게시하면 광고로 인정돼 뉴스 송출사가 불이익을 받는 문제 때문이다.

Best wiki themes

Best wiki style themes

https://colorlib.com/wp/wordpress-wiki-themes/

1) Lore

• dashboard home
• knowledge base -> category archive

1) Knowledge Base

• love the home page overview page

2) flatbase minimal

3) HelpGuru

4) Knowledge Press

 

Dante theme
https://themeforest.net/item/dante-responsive-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/6175269

classic wordpress wiki style
https://codecanyon.net/item/minervakb-knowledge-base-for-wordpress-with-analytics/19185769

Blue version is what I like. Default demo is also not bad
https://codecanyon.net/item/knowledge-base-helpdesk-wiki-wordpress-plugin/5758910

Super lightweight and simplistic
https://wordpress.org/themes/mywiki/

Good guide to follow
https://wpengine.com/resources/how-to-create-wordpress-wiki/

Flatbase (I like the minimalist version)
https://themeforest.net/item/flatbase-a-responsive-knowledge-basewiki-theme/7264664?

This one looks lke Confluence
https://demo.herothemes.com/wikipress/

WordPress Guide
https://wpengine.com/resources/how-to-use-wordpress/