Learn to Take Advantage of New Technology.
Grow to Success 13/01/23
Content:
Current Thoughts and Opinions
Related Twitter Thread
Related Video
Learn to Take Advantage of New Technology.
Top 5 News Articles this Week
Quote of the Week
Scheduling My Consistency
This is now the 2nd edition of the Grow to Success newsletter. I’m finally getting the feeling of being ready for the year ahead. After two weeks into the new year, I now feel I have everything in place for me to now get my head down and work.
I now have my schedule sorted out. For me, planning a schedule is where I find my consistency. First, I make a schedule and try to stick to it. After a few weeks, I find myself tweaking it to make it work around my lifestyle. There are always things I forget to include so making sure it stays updated is key.
I know this schedule will still probably change a little over the year but just having one keeps me on track. It sets out the jobs I need to complete to stay healthy and committed to the goals I want to achieve. If I didn’t schedule jobs, things would get missed, and then get messy and this would lead to losing motivation.
This is only my second newsletter and already I’m learning a lot about:
My writing and how it needs to improve
Remembering to record every idea no matter where I am
Making sure my main goal is to improve my skills and not my follow count
This week we talk about how to take advantage of new technology as it’s something I wish to do this year myself to make my workflow more efficient. I focus on 2 main points:
Approaching it with a positive attitude
Using it to your advantage
Twitter Thread
Video
Learn to Take Advantage of New Technology.
1. How to approach it with a positive attitude
When a new technology emerges it’s always exciting but also a little daunting. Questions start popping up like:
How will this technology affect me?
Will it have a positive or negative effect on the world?
What opinions do others have about this technology?
Naturally, we tend to be more negative about new things. It’s completely natural due to old survival instincts embedded in us. Instincts that helped us be wary of possible dangers back when we used to live in caves.
As valuable as these instincts were. They do tend to hold us back a little when new opportunities open up. That’s why it’s important to learn to fight these negative instincts.
A way to do this is by rephrasing the questions you might have about new technologies. I’ll take the 3 examples from before.
Negative: How will this technology affect me?
Positive: How can I use this technology to my advantage?
Will it have a positive or negative effect on the world?
Positive: How can I use this technology for good?
What opinions do others have about this technology?
Positive: Where can I find people that are already using this technology?
Notice how the negative questions keep you waiting on the sideline almost like you’re waiting before it’s safe. Whereas the positive questions encourage action.
They force you to fight your negative instincts and help you dive straight into the newfound tech. This will help you explore new technologies faster and maybe even become a pioneer in discovering new use cases for the technology.
Having a positive view of anything new is always a healthy practice. It opens your mind to trying instead of dismissing. This can be a hard mindset to master but once achieved it becomes second nature. I can guarantee with this mindset the world becomes a healthier place to live too.
2. Using the tech to your advantage
Now I know you’re probably sick of hearing about ChatGPT by now but considering how much of an impact it’s had already, it makes for a great example.
I know there’s already a big copy-and-paste culture around ChatGPT and I think it’s a big reason why so many are starting to create newsletters and other written materials.
For me, ChatGPT is great when you want information about something. Information always goes well with an opinion. But if you want an opinion to accompany that information, that must come from you, NOT an AI.
People read newsletters to gain value on subjects they find interesting. To offer value, you have to give something that no one else can offer… your own opinion. If people were looking to seek just information, they would just use ChatGPT themselves. I have no qualms with people that copy and paste information from AI but it needs to be accompanied by that person’s opinions, otherwise, I might as well of just used ChatGPT myself.
There’s no doubt I’ll be using ChatGPT for my future newsletters. Probably to seek information and ideas for topics to write about. I promise though, I will always offer value alongside this information in the form of my own opinions. I want people to take advantage of this amazing free-to-use technology, but while doing so, I want to make sure it doesn't get in the way of the value you can bring as a human being. As I believe the true value is not from the tech itself, but from the combined power of tech and humans working together.
Now you’ve heard me ramble on. Here are the 5 best ways to find and take advantage of new technologies.
Start using it…obviously
Join communities so you can learn from others
Put yourself where you’ll be the first to know about any newly available technology
Combine technologies to make your learning experience more efficient
Don’t be afraid to use technology in places that no one has taken it before
I believe the best way to learn is to do, so to help you with the first point here are my favourite resources that will help you find, use, and take advantage of new technologies:
Podcasts - BadCryptoPodcast - Interviews with the most prominent people within the Web3 space. This podcast always makes me laugh, which is why I think I always remember a lot of the valuable content that comes with it. Check out their website for great links to resources mentioned in their podcasts.
Conferences - Bizzabo - This website is a great guide to the biggest tech conferences happening this year. Just find the conferences you’re interested in. Find out how to attend them or if you can’t, find all the content created around it.
Youtube - Marques Brownlee - His content is focused more on consumer tech but I’ve learnt a lot about what sort of questions I should be asking when it comes to the technology around me.
Websites - Brutalist - Daily headlines without any of the bullsh*t. This website is a roundup of every major tech headline there is. This website has no adverts which I like and is updated every hour or so.
Newsletters - Flipboard - Flipboard’s great for a daily "Tech Briefing". It will send you a few articles every day. You can set the topics to what you want, then it will collect and send articles to you from a variety of sources, which can help you discover even more newsletters you may like. I was going to plug my own newsletter. But you know where the sub button is :)
Notice I didn’t include social media or Twitter. Everyone should know by now that social media is a great place for hearing about new trends. I wanted to give you specific places that give you a chance of being the first to hear about the next big thing before it goes viral. Hopefully giving you a head start over everyone else.
But for those who still want a cool list of tech pages to follow on Twitter, here it is:
TechCrunch - Articles and short videos showing all things new in the tech industry.
ProductHunt - Great place to discover interesting tech ideas.
TheNextWeb - Has a great Twitter page and their website is also good as it has a careers section. Here you can find job opportunities around new emerging technologies.
Mashable - You’re probably following them already but if you’re not, you should be. Great content and links to articles and I love the cool tech videos they post.
DigitalTrends - My new favourite page that also likes to post about possible tech rumours. ( Doesn’t everyone like to speculate within the tech industry ;)
Top 5 News Articles This Week
The global recession will push Bitcoin price to remarkable highs in 2023
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Quote of the Week
Let me know how you think this newsletter can be improved.