Madden Mischief

A short time ago a publisher friend asked me if I would like to be interviewed on how I see AI changing PR. 

I had to tell her the truth that I’d probably be the worst person to interview about AI as I don’t use it that much and frankly there are aspects I don’t trust.

Sure, I see it as a resourceful asset in business, but on the other hand I wonder if AI will make us all a bit lazy creatively. 

Yet I can certainly see AI’s awesome usefulness for those in technology, medical research and gathering intelligence. 

In my field, I can see AI helping to find the right people to pitch stories to and even crafting the perfect pitch to hit the target’s soft spot. 

But for me, I prefer to keep exercising my creativity, my OWN, not one prescribed by a robot who thinks a thousand times faster than me.  Yes, I might also be the proud jealous type who hates to be outgunned, outmaneuvered, left in the dust. 

To me, thinking is like eating.  You don’t want to gulp it down, you want to chew and savor the flavor, not break speed records consuming a less memorable meal. 

That’s how I think of writing.  Words are more delicious when you’re judicious, when you deliver them thoughtfully, however long it takes to come up with just the right ones to fit the recipe.  

While I haven’t heard back from her yet, I’m still reflecting on how I prefer living more in the real world than the artificial one now spreading itself not as wildfire but seductively smarter by appearing just precocious, comprehensive and swift.   

My only worry is that while AI makes us infinitely quicker and more industrious, we might become in the process perhaps a little less human, more celluloidish.    

Was there not a glimpse of an accelerating future when first automobiles, then airplanes arrived enabling drivers to speed and families to spread?  Now to spend holidays together, we just hop on a flight.

I told my publisher friend she can use these thoughts if she likes, but I’m jammed busy, yet I couldn’t help sharing this with another blogger friend whose writing I admire and thoughtful comments I respect.  Here’s what Frank B. Glassner wrote back:

“What a great answer–spot on!” said Frank, the Chairman and CEO of Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants.  Frank is someone whose frank and articulate blogs and media interviews I follow, whose uplifting advice and feedback I appreciate.

If you don’t believe me what a compensation guru he is, read his “Welcome to Board-Walk Empire.”

This is Frank’s candid look behind the curtain of modern governance, where performance meets politics, judgment meets pressure, and every boardroom becomes a stage for navigating risk, reputation and responsibility.

Also, as a mold breaker myself, I like what Frank says Why Mold Breakers Matter: 

“Because they make everyone else uncomfortable in the best way. They question sacred cows. They challenge jargon. They bring field-tested wisdom and fresh eyes to rooms full of recycled perspectives. 

“They’re the ones who: 

• Ask, “Why are we solving this with equity when the actual issue is leadership?” 
• Say, “I don’t care if that’s market. Is it right?” 
• Notice that no one mentioned the customer in the last 47 slides.” 

For that astute advice, I tipped my hat to Frank as I grew up in a mold breaker resort billing itself as the world’s playground and promoting my favorite hangout, its fabulous boardwalk.

Strolling along Glassner’s Board-Walk Empire’s portrayal of modern boardrooms reminded me of my old boardwalk days. 

On that blithesome walkway, I wasn’t chasing truth, competency, and the American way like Frank, however, just pretty girls from Philadelphia on vacation.

Tom Madden doesn’t need to go pretty girl hunting on boardwalks anymore as he’s happily married to a Brazilian beauty, Rita who besides helping Five Rings Financial turn its agents’ aspirations into achievements, she handles QuickBooks and payroll for husband’s bustling PR firm TransMedia Group and helps him crank out books, including soon his seventh, titled As America’s Hippest, Is Catholicism Now Coolest?