In this week’s newsletter, I write about how the work we do must be valuable even though they are disposable. My recap covers my latest appearance on CNA Talking Point, my retrenchment story, how we need to be correctly identified by AI, and how not to confuse efficiency with value creation. I also share some snippets of my ongoing trip in Hong Kong with my NTU students.
Photo of the Week
17 July 2026, Jordan, Hong Kong
Weekly Recap
CNA’s Talking Point special on AI-related retrenchments is now on YouTube. From the numerous comments (400 and counting), you will see how people will find many reasons to reject the new circumstances that we find ourselves in. I generally ignore these anonymous people and focus on teaching those willing to improve themselves.
A few faceless commentators wrote that the panelists are talking nonsense because we’ve never been retrenched – that was a good excuse for me to pull out the 2023 Zaobao article where I declared that I was retrenched to the world.
One tip for people looking for jobs and biz opportunities in the AI Age – make sure that AI can identify you correctly. Otherwise, you don’t exist.
AI speeds up your work, but that doesn’t mean it will raise your salary. Don’t confuse efficiency with value creation.
You can now use AI extensions from ChatGPT, Copilot Enterprise and Claude within Excel. Don’t just use AI for analysing data, how about creating new tools within Excel?
There’s a 41% chance that you’re reading random robotic output on LinkedIn.
Hong Kong stuff
I’m in Hong Kong for two weeks with my students from WKWSCI. They’re experiencing overseas journalism for the first time!
Sunset in HK on one of the few days it wasn’t raining.
Thinking about a few of my past HK adventures.
Here’s my hotel workspace setup in HK.
Quick Rambling
I learned one important principle as a journalist – you’re only as good as the story you got published today.
In the old days of print newspapers, we would read each day’s edition and throw away the pages either immediately or some time later. If you decided to keep the papers, the pages would gradually turn yellow. Never mind that so much blood and tears went into the writing of the stories – every story was disposable and would be disposed.
In the same way, most of the work you do is disposable. You may have put a lot of effort into a report, an event, a launch campaign, a pitch, an email, etc… and people may just glance at it once and mentally dispose it, or actually press “Delete”.
But disposable doesn’t equate useless. When we put in effort into our work, the outcomes help to solve problems or change the world for the better, then are discarded when no longer needed.
In the age of AI, more work output will be produced and discarded. The only question is whether the output was useful to anyone. People who believe that “more is more” will discover that even infinite output without value is worthless.
That’s why I keep writing on LinkedIn. You will delete this newsletter, but just for this very moment, I’ve made you think a little harder.
Keep making and throwing away!