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OpenAI: Who Am I?
By Shlomo Maital
Who am I? Can we find out about ourselves with AI?
Posting on the Medium website, Mohammed Bakry proposes the following prompt, to ask AI about someone and dig through the Internet for information:
“Do intensive research on XXXXXX and give me a massive report on everything you find. Find the needle in the haystack — something unexpected — so I can reach out with a surprising personal connection.”
So I tried it on myself. Here is the result (with my annotation):
Shlomo Maital is a renowned figure, [false; beware of AI obsequious flattery] primarily recognized for his contributions in the field of economics and innovation management. As a professor and senior researcher at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, he has influenced both academic circles and industry practices significantly. Maital’s work often emphasizes the practical application of economic theory in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
One of his noteworthy roles has been as the Academic Director of the TIM-Technion Institute of Management, which focuses on executive training and development. His research and teachings often explore the intersection of economic theory and real-world applications, striving to make complex concepts accessible to practitioners and policymakers.
Maital is also an accomplished author, having published several books and numerous articles on innovation management, creativity, and entrepreneurship. His writings frequently address the challenges organizations face in cultivating innovation and the strategies they can employ to overcome them.
An unexpected angle to explore when connecting with him could be his interest in the psychological and social aspects of economics. Maital has often focused on how behavioral insights can enhance economic policies, a topic that diverges from the traditional economic narratives and showcases his interdisciplinary approach. [Failed to mention my wife Dr. Sharone Maital, psychologist, who is and was an essential collaborator]. Engaging with him on how behavioral economics can drive sustainable innovation might serve as an unexpected yet impactful point of connection.
To reach out with a surprising personal connection, you might consider referencing his involvement with societal and educational initiatives, reflecting shared interests in how education can drive economic development and societal well-being. His emphasis on the human aspects in economic systems could provide a unique personal touch to your outreach.
[Missing: Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, light of our lives; our synagogue Ve’ahavta, and Rabbi Elisha Wolfin, with whom I do a weekly podcast on the Bible – a deep and meaningful activity; my column in Jerusalem Report, also a huge focus for me; the think tank where I now work, S. Neaman Institute, my second family].
OK — bottom line. Who am I? AI will not help much. Who is XX? AI won’t help much.
That’s a big relief.
“Business Does Better With Love”
By Shlomo Maital
So let’s be clear. Friendships do better with love. Marriage does better with love. Religion does better with love. Love does better with love. Obvious, right?
Everything does better with love. Even war. Respect your enemy and retain your humanity even when fighting for your life.
But – business?? After several decades of teaching MBA classes, in business schools that preach hard-core bottom-line business warfare, I am reading Moshe Engelberg’s new book, first of a series, The Amare Wave, with a combination of delight and perhaps, amusement – at how those who preach fierce capitalism will respond to it. * (Amare means ‘love’ in Latin).
Engelberg is a successful business consultant, founder of ResearchWorks; he has a Ph.D. degree from Stanford University.
Business does better with love, Engelberg shows. Love for whom? Love for your stakeholders – your workers, managers, clients, shareholders… all those who have a stake in your success. It’s a mystery why so many businesses purposely exploit and squeeze their workers, when long-term, respectful love given to them drives long-term loyalty and motivation. If everything does better with love – why then have economists sold the idea that business is the exception – and business does well only with knife-in-the-teeth competition, perhaps the only human endeavor that is a no-love zone?
How is company success measured? By short-term operating profits? How about, Engelberg writes, how well people are treated? By how much real value is created for clients? Imagine, Engelberg writes, that love is not only “the new necessity in business, it is simply how business is done in the 21st C and beyond”. And guess what? Because business is done better with love, it is also, in the end, more profitable. Engelberg knows; he has long years of experience as a consultant.
Imagine — business acts to become kind, green, socially responsible, philanthropic and good for society. Imagine. All business.
I eagerly await Engelberg’s second book in the series – a set of stories about love in business. I kind of wish Engelberg had started the series with the stories – narratives are, I think, far more powerful than polemics.
Show us, Moshe, how business really does work better. You have a tough road ahead – Amazon, Facebook, Google are not exactly Mother Teresa. Google’s “do no harm” has done loads of harm, and Facebook doesn’t even pretend to do good, while Amazon ruins many small retail businesses and squeezes workers.
Here are today’s market cap figures for these three companies: Google $894 b., Amazon $869 b., Facebook $551 b. In contrast: Exxon’s market cap is only $67 b.
Could Google, Facebook and Amazon have even bigger long-term market caps, if they practiced Engelberg-style love? Well, I believe they could – but right now, very few agree.
Alas.
= = = = =
- Moshe Engelberg, with Stacey Aaronson. The Amare Wave: Uplifting Business by Putting Love to Work. Angel Mountain Press, 2019. 359 pages.
Trump is a Fraud – His Business Failures
By Shlomo Maital
Look… the American people have the right to choose whichever Republican candidate they wish for President. They have every right to shout their disaffection with the incompetent, squabbling politicians in Washington who have led American astray, on both sides of the aisle. They have every right to choose Trump.
But what truly disturbs and angers me, is Trump’s lie.
He says that as a successful billionaire businessman, he can run America better than someone who worked as a community organizer in Chicago.
Wait. Successful businessman? Here is the lie. According to TIME magazine, Trump has a very very very VERY long string of business failures to his ‘credit’, after inheriting millions from his dad. Here is the list:
- Trump Airlines
- Trump Vodka
- The Bankruptcies
- The Hair
- The Marriages
- Trump Mortgage
- Trump: The Game
- The China Connection
- Trump Casinos
In his recent victory speech he displayed Trump Steaks…which went out of business in 2007. And his casinos??? The Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City went broke. Here is the story: (from TIME):
Donald Trump’s gambles don’t always go as planned. Especially when that gamble is gambling itself. In February 2009, Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the third time in a row — an extremely rare feat in American business. The casino company, founded in the 1980s, runs the Taj Mahal, the Trump Plaza and the Trump Marina. All three casinos are located in Atlantic City, N.J., where the gambling industry has faced a decline in tourists who prefer gambling in Pennsylvania and Connecticut instead. Trump defended himself by distancing himself from the company, though he owned 28% of its stock. “Other than the fact that it has my name on it — which I’m not thrilled about — I have nothing to do with the company,” he said. He resigned from Trump Entertainment soon after that third filing, and in August of that year he, along with an affiliate of Beal Bank Nevada, agreed to buy the company for $100 million. The company reported it emerged from bankruptcy in July 2010.
I think what Trump is doing is running for President, to enhance the brand value of his name, which he sells at exorbitant prices to legitimate businesses.
So, if you want to help Donald Trump pay for his private jet by ‘branding’ himself, vote for him.
If you want someone who really understands business – well, Bloomberg does, parlaying his $10 m. in severance pay into a multi-billion dollar business he created, but he withdrew, precisely because he did not want to pave the way for a Trump presidency.
How ironic.
A failed businessman defeats a highly successful one, because people just don’t seem to get it and are happy and willing to be duped.
Make America Great again? Dump Trump.
TIMnovate 