The History of Me
Ive always been curious about how things work, technology, electronics, you name it, I tried to rip it open to see what was inside and how that created the entire product before you. I still have memories of being gifted a battery operated truck by my dad to, only 5 minutes later have it broken open and studying the insides. Granted, that was the final demise of said gift because I had no idea how to put it back together to allow it to work. Since that point, Ive been doing this over and over throughout the years to learn and grow with technology.
I went to college for software engineering. The joy of building hardware and then learning how to develop software to take full advantage of that hardware was an amazing experience. I started that journey from the same curiosity that drove my dads distain for giving me electronic toys; I loved video games and wanted to see how they were built on the inside. Its far harder to rip that apart to look under the hood so the only option was to learn how to code and learn how to build hardware that those games I loved so much ran on. Over time, I became disinterested in where that would take me, to someone else's company to build someone else's dream of a game, but the love for engineering and hardware always remained.
After college, it took a friend to point out that I could take the love of technology and use it to help others. Ive always enjoyed people, to a lesser extent than that sounded, if Im being honest, but the desire to help them succeed on their path through and with technology was the driving force in the next step of my life, Service Management. It meant helping people, giving them knowledge on how to use machines, software, technology overall, and watch them flourish and succeed in the paths they chose to take in life. There is a level of fulfillment in watching people become successful as a result of your support for them. That was my life for the last 20 years. It brought great joy and that I always look back on fondly.
At this current stage of my life, Im in a much more different area than service management, and that are is Compliance. Its weird to transition to it after 20 years of purposefully supporting people in as many different ways as I could. Now I look at how I can protect the organization I work for, implement new strategies to bring them to new markets, support sales cycles, and overall prevent things from happening that shouldn't. Im not exactly a stranger to this area because during my life in service management, I also worked in compliance. Policy, procedure, keeping a team of skilled analysts consistent in the ways they work, all drive towards specific areas of compliance. Its both fascinating and infuriating, but it brings me a new joy to be able to successfully navigate this challenge and support the team and organization I work with
Overall, being born in the 80s allows for a life without technology, playing in the streets until the streetlights came on, to the widespread use of the internet, to electric cars that drive themselves, and now to living in a life with artificial intelligence. The only constant in life is that things will always change, but also, that technology will always continue to evolve whether you're in the boat or not.
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In this new age
As the saying goes, technology waits for no man! If you don't want to be left behind, get in the boat and row!
Who wants to be left behind, certainly not I. Learning and using technology is no longer an option, it is now a necessity. The future is here and we need to be prepared. With that in mind, I recently started an MIT course on the transformative powers of Ai and how to apply that to digital transformation in business, with a focus on leadership. I will be honest and say that this is the first "class" Ive taken in more than 15 years and so Im both excited about it and eager for it to be over. Class settings have never been what Ive wanted and that became evident during my time in college, although that was more hands on for good reason.
The first week has been completed and we cover the topic of "tokens" in the usage of ai, either through a conversation with something like ChatGPT or Claude, or through the usage of APIs for more engineering orientated usage. They had a specific focus on cost, which if you're like me (a nerd) you don't really think about while you're enjoying the usage of the technology. It was very eye opening to say the least, the difference between what Claude costs vs what GPT costs.
For example, they had us use this link https://gptforwork.com/tools/openai-chatgpt-api-pricing-calculator
It gives you a way to check how much any specific usage of text equates to tokens and thereby, to cost. FASCINATING!!!
The cost associated to the usage of AI is essentially invisible to all of us. Most of us don't really fathom the underlying relationship between letters and words and tokens the LLM and AI are converting to in order to understand the message you're trying to communicate. For example, try this link -> https://platform.openai.com/tokenizer. What it does is essentially convert the text you provide into a token count which you can take to the first link above and convert to a cost. You can see that metric come across the numerous AI platforms for an overall estimate in how much you will spend to simply have that conversation.
What For
Overall, this journey is one of growth for myself and my family. I strive for success, have a healthy curiosity that doesn't really stop, and an unwavering "nosiness" for how technology works. It has been whats driven, essentially, my entire life, and what I continue to dance with for the years to come. Im starting this blog to put these experiences to words, really see the evolving changes through a lens that will change as time goes on but where I can circle back to in order to ground myself in what I know is truly who I am. Im excited to take you all on this journey as well, as I do love sharing all of this with you!!
P.S. If you're curious, this entire blog, including this message are 1271 tokens. Until next time Mavens!!!!
