Last week there was an AI video of celebrities eating spaghetti, and everyone LOL’ed a how rubbish the quality was. It was rubbish, but it was very much a V1. If you look at the exponential growth of AI, the Christmas version will look like a Hollywood blockbuster. The WEF said in February that critical thinking […]
AI, Chat GPT and the future
AI, Chat GPT and their associated tools fascinate me.I was jaded by yet another hype cycle (I must confess that Web 3 leaves me cold), but the possibilities around AI are genuinely fascinating. I am worried about how we’re diving into this without an obvious outcome. Open AI’s new statement of intent has its detractors […]
2 sides of the experimentation coin
I’m blessed to see two sides to the experimentation coin. With Now Novel, we have a scrappy team with limited resources. The path to testing requires little negotiation and process. It also means that there are fewer tests you can do due to the smaller team, and with less traffic and data, it is harder to […]
How to make millions online?
I have this ongoing fantasy of coming up with the perfect internet side hustle. After a blinding flash of inspiration, I set it up. It gets people visiting due to my fantastic SEO skills, and it ticks over with some high-value affiliate or advertising business that I don’t have to do anything with. I sip […]
You’ve heard that your brain gets worse as you age, and your neuroplasticity disappears. As a result, as you grow older, you need to do more Sudoku to keep you intelligent and stop the brain rot. By consistently challenging yourself and learning new things, you keep your synapses firing and stay sharp. But learning and […]
Even though I’m nearly 50 years old, I still have a childish enthusiasm for trainers. Over the last year, during the lockdown, when I couldn’t even wear them anywhere, I bought a couple of pairs unavailable in South Africa (because there is extra joy in having something unique). I bought these from two different platforms, […]
Anatomy of a scam
A (smart) friend of mine sent me this Whatsapp the other day. It looked like a scam to me, but I was interested in understanding a couple of things: how smart people get taken in (i.e. what marketing/persuasion tactics were used) what benefit the person who set it up gets As I went through it […]
The power of nudges
I recently upgraded my Balsamiq subscription and I thought this was quite a good example of what I mean by a nudge: a consistent always on reminder of the payment option and the benefit that you’ll receive. I think it works best with industries like SAAS where you are on the site fairly frequently, but […]
My Headspace subscription was coming to an end and I wanted to cancel . As I went through their cancellation funnel I wanted to look for dark patterns and see if there was anything I could learn from what they had done. Overall I thought it was OK, but I think trying to rescue a […]
Machine learning and AI are frequently used buzzwords. In terms of application I’m not sure whether we’re in the killer app territory yet. I read someone on Twitter saying something to the effect of most AI can be replicated with some good SQL queries (which is a nice soundbite). From a conversion perspective I use […]