Irregular Update #3

LegalTech is People #1

In the summer of my ninth year, my parents sent me to summer camp. Yes, this was the same camp run by Mennonites that didn’t let us have real chocolate and tried to pass carob off as acceptable substitute that I’m still bitter about 30+ years later. (Not the camp itself - that was great and I went every summer - just still mad about the carob.) ANYWAY, when I came back to civilization, which in the mid 1980s still meant no cable or Internet, just six over the air TV channels (seven if the weather was good and we could get KET from across the river), I was surprised to discover that I apparently missed the entirety of New Coke? It was launched and pulled and I never got to taste it? Even though I was only gone about a week?

This is about ChatGPT.

Between the holidays (both the busy-ness and my annual emotional meltdown), upending my professional life, having Covid, and then going on vacation to the Upper Peninsula with sketchy internet, I haven’t been able to do much “thinking work” about anything. Every time I peeked into Twitter or LinkedIn, it seemed that the latest ChatGPT release was all anyone was talking about. The conversation was moving so fast and I had limited resources to participate so all I could do is watch the progress from “this will change everything” to “you fools YOU FOOLS for thinking anything will change ever” and all the stops in between.

(I simultaneously love and loathe the race for the hot take that happens every time a new shiny hits the scene.)

So is the ChatGPT good? I honestly don’t know. I haven’t had time to seriously play with it nor am I sure that I have the ability to accurately judge it. From what I’ve read though my review would probably be somewhat like when someone proudly shows you how their baby can now walk across the room. It’s like “well good for the kid for not face-planting like they used to but objectively they’re still not a good walker. They’re not doing a marathon anytime soon.”

(This is not what I actually say to new parents.)

A good rule of thumb is to assume that all technology (except blockchain - don’t argue with me, go argue with your momma) is making incremental improvements and getting better but probably not to the level of capabilities that evangelists promise. Honestly, though, I don’t know that it matters how good it is. When I was double checking the dates on the New Coke launch, I came across this interesting paragraph:

I’m really starting to think my purpose in life is spend my time like Charleton Heston in Soylent Green running through legal tech conference exhibit halls yelling “LEGAL TECH IS PEOPLE.”

It’s the adoption prep, it’s the making the content usable by machines, it’s the finding actual use cases where it makes sense to have a machine replace human work, it’s the agreeing on standards for organization and quality, it’s so many things before we even get to the actual functionality of a tool and all the bells and whistles it provides. But it’s cool whatever trick you just made it do works. Yay.

LegalTech is People #2

I just wanted to record a funny incident and realization that happened over the past few months…

After the news broke that I was on the job market, I got some very nice emails from legal tech owners that I worked with in my old job. It was either in response to one of those or in the ex-coworker group chat that I flippantly said as a summary of our work “the REAL LegalTech/Legal Innovation/RC Marketplace was the friends we made along the way.” And then I was immediately like “oh shit that’s actually true.”

I alluded to this in my post-ILTA post, but the communities of people that are forming around the various aspects of legal innovation is probably the most exciting development of them all. How many of us have been the only person in their organization to think things should be different, even if just a little?

It’s reassuring to realize that - well, I’m not saying that you’re NOT crazy, I’m just saying there are a lot of us and you won’t be alone in the asylum.

Women in Tech History Reminder

Apropos of nothing (which is the official theme of these irregular updates), I came across this fun picture on Twitter.

(I am still officially Not Using Twitter but still check occasionally if for no other reason than I can have that 18 minute warning that the nukes have been launched. Once a Cold War kid, always a Cold War kid..)

ANYWAY, never forget that early computing was considered women’s work and despite the manels that still happen at legal tech conferences, women belong in legal tech and are doing some of the coolest shit out there. As we’ve established, legal tech is people and therefore it makes sense to have as diversified teams as possible (not just gender based) to make sure your product development is considering all needs.

New Year, New Me?

I love birthdays, anniversaries, New Years, new years for cultures/religions I don’t follow, basically anything that gives me an excuse to consider my slate wiped clean and start fresh. That being said, I can’t say I’ve been one for New Years Resolutions.

EVERYTHING CHANGES THIS YEAR.

I already skipped my annual New Year’s good luck sauerkraut, mainly because I spent January 1st snowmobiling and didn’t feel like eating anything close to that when I was done, so I am already making changes. I figure since I have nothing better to do already have lots of opportunity for change in 2023, let’s go for it.

Here’s a list of something I’d like to change/accomplish/keep rolling in 2023:

1. Stop being so superstitious

2. Figure out what’s going on with the half-dozen 401Ks I have floating around from my peripatetic work history.

3. Write more. Mostly on my own spaces. (I’m going to try and commit to doing at least one post a month here or on my blog. That seems doable?) You should do it too! See this Verge piece by Monique Judge, who I used to know on FriendFeed.

4. Get back on the professional speaking horse. (Coincidentally I am doing a AALL Coffee Chat with David Whelan on January 24 about topic 3! Also note my “job title” - lol. I am such an asshole sometimes.)

5. Maybe get paid for 3 or 4 sometime? Definitely at some point figure out a sustainable income stream because I can only get by on my good looks and sparking personality for so long.

6. Attend conferences in person. Literally the day before I was laid off I sent a substantial amount of money to ILTA (lol) because I was accepted as regular person member (double lol) and I need to take advantage of that and get my money’s worth. But there’s stuff in Chicago I need to show up to and I have weird desire to go to Legal Week.

7. Travel more. Any job I get is going to have to be mostly remote and I need to take advantage of the digital nomad thing more.

8. Consume more entertainment, either reading, movies, or TV. I am in such a rut of reading the same websites or TV shows. I panic cancelled all of my streaming services when I was laid off and then a month later signed up again with the super cheap temporary rates around Christmas. If I don’t use them by the time the price goes up, they’re getting cut off. Prince Harry’s autobiography comes out on Tuesday and THE TEA LOOK SCALDING so I think that may be my first book of 2023. Maybe I can sign up for one of those tracking things to keep myself accountable.

9. Finally, be more present and not just float through existence? The last five years have been a lot. A LOT. I think like many of us I was just trying to make it to the next day or whatever. But I’m to the point where I want to try and inhabit my life more. That probably sound a little woo woo but whatevs. I was introduced to this tool but I may try to find another option where I can just color code how each day went to live more intentionally. (NOTE: edited this paragraph after publication because I had an extraneous “not” that messed up meaning)

(I’m proud of myself for not insisting upon an even 10. Go me.)

Well, that’s all I have for now. Be well and take care.

Thank you for reading Sarah's Commonplace Book. This post is public so feel free to share it.