Gurteen Knowledge Letter: Issue 285 - March 2024

Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Issue 285 – March 2024

My recent in-person Knowledge Café at Regents University was a great success, marking the first event after a four-year gap. I’m now pleased to announce another London Café hosted by Oliver Wyman for March 27th on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Knowledge Management. I also hope to organize a third session focused on Deliberative Democracy once I have found a host.

These Cafés are enjoyable to run and highly engaging. If you would like any help or advice on organizing them in your city or organization, please get in touch.

1. What Is Intelligence?
   The ability to comprehend and purposefully react to information
2. Using Chatgpt on Your Smartphone
   An indispensable thinking companion
3. Beyond Information Sharing
   The collaborative nature of conversation
4. The Importance of Teaching Respectful Conversation
   A necessity for a healthy society
5. The Journey of Knowledge and Innovation
   A historical timeline
6. Knowledge Summit Dublin
   Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 10th -11th June 2024
7. Conversational Leadership Coach
   A custom GPT
8. Please support my work
9. Unsubscribe
10. Gurteen Knowledge Letter

I recently started to write about artificial intelligence and its relationship to Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management. In doing so, I felt compelled first to define artificial intelligence. However, in attempting to define AI, I realized I needed to step back and define intelligence itself.

This led me to consider evolution, consciousness, and the nature of intelligence — topics intertwined with any discussion of AI. I tend to follow tangents and explore foundational concepts when writing. It helps provide context but can also lead me down rabbit holes.

This is still a work in progress, but take a look if you're interested in my developing perspectives on intelligence.

I hope you have ChatGPT installed on your smartphone. I have it and use it all the time, simply because I can talk to it.

So, during the day, whether I'm in a coffee shop, waiting at the station for my wife to arrive home, or tidying the house, whatever I'm doing, I'm usually thinking about something.

If I have a question or need inspiration, I ask ChatGPT by talking to it on my phone. I can get a text reply that I can capture and send to my Evernote database, or I can listen to the reply and use it to stimulate my thinking.

It's an indispensable thinking companion.

It's important to remember that when we engage in conversation, it's not just about passing on information. We're engaging in a joint process of reasoning and thinking together.

In other words, it's not just about each person sharing what they know, but rather a dynamic exchange of ideas and perspectives, where the combined intellect of all participants can lead to more comprehensive and well-rounded insights. This cooperative aspect of conversation is what drives not only successful knowledge sharing but, far more importantly, knowledge creation.

Watch this brief video, which is under 2 minutes long. It shows a young woman asking a question of Allen West (an American politician) in an aggressive manner.

I wonder where she learned this confrontational style. She likely picked it up from observing professional interviewers and politicians exhibiting similar behavior. Of course, I could be mistaken.

In schools today, students aren't taught how to converse and engage respectfully in dialogue.

It's high time we placed more emphasis on teaching the art of respectful and productive conversation.

I have a post in my blook chronicling the significant events in human history that have shaped our knowledge and advancement over the millennia. Beginning with the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, it touches on pivotal moments like the rise of the first cities 9,500 years ago, the invention of writing 5,500 years ago, the printing press in 1450 CE, and the Scientific Revolution in the 1500s.

Zooming out to view the full scope of history gives perspective on how far we've come in a relatively short period. After emerging as modern humans 200,000 years ago, much of our progress has occurred in just the past 80 years since we entered the Anthropocene.

Studying our collective past reveals patterns in how ideas develop and provides lessons we can apply to the future. While the entire post covers a broad sweep of time, I aimed to summarize each era concisely and readably. There are links to dive deeper into any topic.

I hope this high-level timeline will inspire you to learn about the inflection points and innovations that have shaped human civilization. Understanding where we've been allows us to make better decisions as we progress.

Let me know which chapters of history you find most fascinating!

You can read the complete post here Brief History of Knowledge

The Dublin Knowledge Summit is scheduled for 10th-11th June 2024, hosted at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. This event provides a conducive environment for learning and networking and has an impressive roster of speakers from various industries.

The summit's agenda includes sessions structured to last for one hour, divided into three parallel tracks. Each session is designed to commence with a 20-minute presentation, followed by a 40-minute collaborative segment aimed at developing actionable solutions and insights.

Additionally, John Hovell and I will facilitate a Knowledge Café focused on Conversational Leadership, inviting participants to engage in meaningful dialogue and exchange ideas on the subject.

You can find more information and register here: Knowledge Summit Dublin.

I am developing a custom GPT model using OpenAI’s GPT Builder, which I am designing as a conversational leadership coach. The model is being trained on the principles outlined in my blook about Conversational Leadership. It offers an experience similar to ChatGPT but with a more comprehensive, deeper, and nuanced understanding of Conversational Leadership.

I am still training the model, which frequently provides responses that don’t fully align with my perspective on Conversational Leadership. Additionally, like any AI tool, it sometimes generates incorrect information.

Unfortunately, you must be a ChatGPT Plus subscriber ($20/month) to access the bot, but if you are a subscriber, take a look. Also, browse the other bots in the GPT store.

Please help support my work.
I have been publishing the Gurteen Knowledge Letter every month for over 20 years, and most of you have received it for five years or more. My Knowledge Café also recently had its 20thth birthday in September 2022.

If you find my work valuable, please consider supporting me by donating $1 (or more) a month to become a Patron or making a small one-off contribution. Your assistance will help cover some of my website hosting expenses.

I have over 50 patrons so far—thanks to you all.

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Gurteen Knowledge Letter
The Gurteen Knowledge Letter is a free monthly e-mail-based newsletter. Its purpose is to stimulate thought about Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management. You can find back issues here.

If you don't already receive this newsletter, you can register to receive it by email each month.

It is sponsored by the Henley Forum of the Henley Business School, Oxfordshire, England.

You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues, or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. If you have any queries, please get in touch with me.

David GURTEEN
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom