What I'm Most Afraid Of (and I've seen things)

The truth is I am drowning.

Not in a sea of numbers.

But in an ocean of meaninglessness, at the hands of a never-ending stream of cold, calculated, sterile, data.

DATA.

"You think you understand, Jon?"

it cackles from column b26 in the middle of a table I never read, in a spreadsheet I rarely check, in a workbook I lost the link to.

Each piece of data, each byte, is tied to another, and another, in an intricate dance of cause and effect that makes me feel like I should give it all up and become a park ranger.

Yet, every morning, I wake up, a steaming cup of coffee in hand, staring at my screen, ready to wage war on the silent enemy that is “figuring out what the F all this data means.”

And every night, I retreat, beaten, ready to rest, to regroup, to renew my assault.

But finally, help is on the way.

My prayers to the great flying spaghetti monster in the sky have been answered. (FYI: I am a legally ordained Minsteroni)

Code Interpreter has finally arrived, and it is glorious.

OpenAI continues its painfully bad naming tradition with “Code Interpreter”, but that is the only thing negative I can say right now.

So how’s it work and why is it going to fundamentally change your business?

I think an example is the best way to show this:

I uploaded a raw ugly CSV:

The CSV has about 1,000 rows.

I uploaded that CSV to Code Interpreter and simply asked “help me understand this data”.

Here is what it initially returned:

Good stuff - but nothing life changing there.

Here’s where it gets fun.

Here is what I asked:

“Can you list the top 10 key points? What insights do you see here? Give me a numbered list. Can you create 10 beautiful visuals to represent different data? Show me the top trends in a visual format”.

I’m not going to write the whole thing (as it returned a lot) I’m just going to show a few highlights.

Remember, I just uploaded the data and asked a plain English question. Here are the trends it spotted:

Pretty slick right?

The possibilities for this tool are nuts.

• Export reports from CRM - “What time of day are the opt-ins of the highest quality, based on the corresponding add set number ? Any other trends? Do you see any weak sales people?”

• Export Quickbooks Data - “Do you see any concerning credit card transactions from the account ending is 4534?”

• Export Google Analytics - “I think my PPC guy is a drinker - can you see if we have worse campaigns on Mondays”?

And on.

And on.

And on.

Give it a shot - let me know what kind of analysis you are using it for!

And as always - the reminder:

Historically data scientists make 100K + per year.

Tools like this need a “technician”.

Now, a junior entry level global talent can do the same analysis as the data scientist for a tenth the price.

Tech like this turns low skill person into high skill person. 

I hope you can appreciate how many industries can be absolutely upended by aggressive entrepreneurs, using global talent and tech.

I don’t have time to start all the potential companies, but if you are doing some cool in this category, and you need my help, drop me an email.

Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavor,

Jon

Passage of the Week:

A Tale of Two Healers - From Irwin Yalom (One of my favorite authors, psychotherapists)

“One of my favorite tales of healing, found in Hermann Hesse’s Magister Ludi, involves Joseph and Dion, two renowned healers, who lived in biblical times.

Though both were highly effective, they worked in different ways. The younger healer, Joseph, healed through quiet, inspired listening.

Pilgrims trusted Joseph. Suffering and anxiety poured into his ears vanished like water on the desert sand and penitents left his presence emptied and calmed.

On the other hand, Dion, the older healer, actively confronted those who sought his help. He divined their unconfessed sin. He was a great judge, chastiser, scolder, and rectifier, and he healed through active intervention.

Treating the penitents as children, he gave advice, punished by assigning penance, ordered pilgrimages and marriages, and compelled enemies to make up.

The two healers never met, and they worked as rivals for many years until Joseph grew spiritually ill, fell into dark despair, and was assailed with ideas of self-destruction.

Unable to heal himself with his own therapeutic methods, he set out on a journey to the south to seek help from Dion.

On his pilgrimage, Joseph rested one evening at an oasis, where he fell into a conversation with an older traveler.

When Joseph described the purpose and destination of his pilgrimage, the traveler offered himself as a guide to assist in the search for Dion.

Later, in the midst of their long journey together the old traveler revealed his identity to Joseph. Miribile dictum: he himself was Dion — the very man Joseph sought.

Without hesitation Dion invited his younger, despairing rival into his home, where they lived and worked together for many years. Dion first asked Joseph to be a servant. Later he elevated him to a student and, finally, to full colleagueship.

Years later, Dion fell ill and on his deathbed called his young colleague to him in order to hear a confession. He spoke of Joseph’s earlier terrible illness and his journey to old Dion to plead for help. He spoke of how Joseph had felt it was a miracle that his fellow traveler and guide turned out to be Dion himself.

Now that he was dying, the hour had come, Dion told Joseph, to break his silence about that miracle. Dion confessed that at the time it had seemed a miracle to him as well, for he too, had fallen into despair.

He, too, felt empty and spiritually dead and, unable to help himself, had set off on a journey to seek help.

On the very night that they had met at the oasis he was on a pilgrimage to a famous healer named Joseph.