Weekly Pulse by William Meller | Week 06, 2023

The Weekly Pulse is my content curation and my highlights from readings, books, podcasts, insights, and everything I discovered during the week.
The Weekly Pulse is my content curation and my highlights from readings, books, podcasts, insights, and everything I discovered during the week.

So, let’s go with some discoveries from the week!

#1 – The Customer-Centered Innovation Map
#2 – What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life
#3 – When Does Intelligence Peak?
#4 – Build ChatGPT-like Chatbots Using Simple Programming
#5 – Embracing Agile

The Customer-Centered Innovation Map

Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick

Summary: The article outlines a framework for companies to approach innovation with a focus on the customer. A methodology called job mapping helps companies analyze the biggest drawbacks of the products and services customers currently use and discover opportunities for innovation. Within each of the discrete steps lie multiple opportunities for making the job simpler, easier, or faster. By mapping out every step of the job and locating those opportunities, companies can discover new ways to differentiate their offerings.

3 Highlights:

“… Many companies are focused on the product or service they’re already developing, or on the one, the competition is offering, rather than on the help they must give the customer to execute the steps in a job. When the job is the focal point of value creation, companies not only can improve their existing offerings but also can target new, or “blue ocean,” market space…“

“… A successful innovation process is one that involves constant iteration and testing with customers…“

“… To find ways to innovate, deconstruct the job a customer is trying to get done. By working through the questions here, you can map a customer job in just a handful of interviews with customers and internal experts…” 

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What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life

Source: AI Summer
Author: Sergios Karagiannakos and Nikolas Adaloglou

Summary: The Harvard Study of Adult Development has established a strong correlation between deep relationships and well-being. The question is, how does a person nurture those deep relationships?

3 Highlights:

“… Even small investments today in our relationships with others can create long-term ripples of well-being…“ 

“… Loneliness has a physical effect on the body. It can render people more sensitive to pain, suppress their immune system, diminish brain function, and disrupt sleep, which in turn can make an already lonely person even more tired and irritable…“ 

“… Relationships keep us happier and healthier throughout our life spans…” 

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When Does Intelligence Peak?

Source: MarktechPost
Author: Arham Islam

Summary: The article discusses the concept of peak cognitive functioning and the various factors that contribute to it. The author argues that there is no specific age at which a person performs at their best on all cognitive tasks. Studies have shown that some cognitive functions, such as processing speed and short-term memory, peak during adolescence and then decline, while others, such as vocabulary and general information, do not peak until later in life.

3 Highlights:

“… In the intelligence field, there is a distinction between “fluid” intelligence (indexed by tests of abstract reasoning and pattern detection) and “crystallized” intelligence (indexed by measures of vocabulary and general knowledge). But domain-specific expertise—the dark matter of intelligence—is not identical to either fluid or crystallized intelligence. Most IQ tests, which were only ever designed for testing schoolchildren, don’t include the rich depth of knowledge we acquire only after extensive immersion in a field…“ 

“… They found that after adjusting for covariates, purpose in life acted as a protective factor against cognitive decline. The researchers argue that purpose in life could be used as a treatment technique for cognitive decline in clinical settings…“ 

“… The good news for older adults is that not only can we continue to acquire domain-specific knowledge into older age, but purpose in life is also modifiable. It seems that the question “When does intelligence peak?” is actually a rather meaningless question...” 

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Build ChatGPT-like Chatbots Using Simple Programming

Source: Towards AI
Author: Luciano Sphere

Summary: Like ChatGPT but in a form that you can plug into your website and expand with any kind of tailored information by combining basic “old-school” NLP with cutting-edge GPT-3. As impressive as ChatGPT is, it would be even cooler if there was a way to integrate it into your own website and train it with customized information. Imagine being able to create a chatbot that is tailored to your business or one that can hold intelligent conversations with your friends and family. This is all possible with technologies that are just an API call away and that you can integrate seamlessly into web pages, web apps, and websites.

3 Highlights:

“… To extract customized information, I tried several approaches based on “old school” NLP. I ended up doing it this way, which worked best…“ 

“… In this way, the chatbot automatically understands the flow of the conversation, helping to maintain its logical flow. And as we saw earlier, each call to GPT-3 can include information retrieved from a customizable paragraph…“ 

“… Fortunately, ChatGPT knows quite a bit about how to couple HTML and CSS. So I won’t lie to you: 90% of the CSS in my app was created by ChatGPT -not all automatically, as I had to ask for several suggestions…” 

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Embracing Agile

Source: Harvard Business Review
Author: Darrell Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, and Hirotaka Takeuchi

Summary: The article discusses the benefits of adopting an Agile approach to management and how it can help organizations increase their adaptability and responsiveness to changes in the business environment. The article also outlines the key principles of Agile and provides guidance on how organizations can successfully implement an Agile approach. The authors conclude that organizations that embrace Agile will be better equipped to succeed in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.

3 Highlights:

“… Agile methods such as scrum, kanban, and lean development are spreading beyond IT to other functions. Although some companies are scoring big improvements in productivity, speed to market, and customer and employee satisfaction, others are struggling…“ 

“… Leaders don’t really understand agile. As a result, they unwittingly continue to employ conventional management practices that undermine agile projects…“ 

“… Some executives seem to associate agile with anarchy (everybody does what he or she wants to), whereas others take it to mean “doing what I say, only faster.” But agile is neither…” 

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