Monday stuff

Good morning.

Please read carefully as my menu options have changed.

Have you seen the Progressive TV commercials? The ones where they say they can’t prevent you from becoming your parents?

They were clearly written by some young advertising agency whippersnapper with Daddy issues.

I watch them and I think the old dude seems like a nice guy and I’d talk to him at the gas pumps. I have said every one of those bad jokes to complete strangers. And what’s so bad about becoming your parents?

Insurance commercials may be the worst. Geico ads used to be funny. Liberty has that catchy jingle, but the Emu is over the top. I like Jake from State Farm. Flo from Progressive is creepy but not as creepy as their half man - half motorcycle dude. Shaq and the animated General? C’mon.

Maybe those ads were written by Artificial Intelligence. AI.

AI with Compaq 264 issues.

I just returned from a big radio conference in Orlando, and AI was a recurring theme. The consensus seemed to be that 1) AI is not coming. It is here, and 2) We need to embrace it and use it to do our jobs better.

Every industry has disruptors. Always has always will. But AI is a seismic disruptor for almost every industry. Will it destroy 90% of the jobs within a few years, as some say? I doubt it. But AI is impacting a lot of industries. The winners will study it, use it and adapt, and the losers will just ignore it until they’re so far behind they can’t catch up.

If you are concerned about AI taking your job, be the first one who learns how to use AI better than your competitors. AI might not replace your job, but a guy who knows how to harness the power of AI might.

I had breakfast with a friend at the radio conference. As we were talking, I realized he and I are a rare breed of broadcasters. We actually grew up and have spent most of our life in the community we served as broadcasters.

We talked about the importance of roots and proximity. Knowing people and their stories, and their families, and their history is so valuable. People who are transient miss out on this, I think.

A friend of mine keeps trying to get me into network marketing. He said I can build residual income. I told him already have it.

I just sold my homing pigeon on eBay for the 22nd time.

Have a great week.