I once knew a person who trained others in the retail trade. After observing this person for some time, I realised that he was just making things up as he went along. He had no formal training in retail marketing, he cooked up his retail playbooks based on personal opinions, and had no skin in the game as he was never responsible for revenue.
Because he spoke confidently, the retail staff were impressed at first. But after a while, they just ignored him. After staying under management’s radar for several years, his game was up and he was let go. Before his departure, I remember this chat I had with him:
Me: “What training standards are you referencing?”
Him: “My own.”
Me: “Do you know who is the best in your field of expertise?”
Him: “No.”
Me: “So how do you know you are training others effectively if you don’t know the experts or their proven methods of driving results?”
He got defensive and I’ll end my anecdote here.
These days, we often talk about a skills-based economy and the importance of skills. However, there isn’t enough talk about the mastery of skills. Without mastery, we cannot achieve significant results, and results are what matter.
I count my blessings because I had great masters in my life. For example, during my days at Anglo-Chinese Junior College, our dragonboat team had a wonderful coach Neo Seilin who led us to victory in the 1994 Singapore and Hong Kong national races.
When I was a young photojournalist at SPH Media , I looked up to my award-winning seniors Mohd Ishak and Jonathan Choo, and learnt as much as I could from them. During my IT career, Ben Tan taught me how to run a business and how to lead others. And there are many more masters that I am deeply indebted to.
Today, even though I teach Gen AI to organisations and the public, I don’t pretend to know it all. I regularly seek out the experts online and learn their effective methods. I feel smarter every time I talk to Uli Hitzel, a true master in AI, and his growing community of AI leaders at Electric Minds. I ask my workshop participants for feedback and they teach me how to improve.
If you’re going to learn a skill, ask yourself if you want to master it. If you want to master the skill, then seek out the Sifus.
What I wrote this week
What I really enjoy about teaching Gen AI to others – seeing them unlock their new capabilities to solve longstanding problems.
Why I feel a mix of wonder and sadness when Claude Cowork knocks my socks off.
Sora is dead. But OpenAI made the right decision.
Congrats to my school for a great achievement!
I didn’t mean to scare off the scammer this way. Really.
I think the era of gaming consoles is coming to an end. Sony PlayStation is now in a difficult spot.