Andy Trattner

May 13, 2023

The Bards of Our Day

What does this title evoke?

The title "The Bards of Our Day" evokes the idea of modern-day poets, musicians, and artists who use their creativity to tell stories, share their experiences, and connect with others. In the past, bards were professional story teller, verse-makers, music composers, oral historians and genealogists, employed by a patron to praise them or their ancestors. In modern times, bards are anyone who uses their creativity to share their stories and experiences with the world. They can be poets, musicians, filmmakers, writers, or anyone else who uses their art to connect with others.

The title also evokes the idea of the power of storytelling. Stories can be used to entertain, educate, and inspire. They can help us to understand ourselves and the world around us. They can also help us to connect with others and build community.

The bards of our day are using their creativity to tell stories that matter. They are using their art to make a difference in the world. They are the ones who will shape our future.

Thanks Google Bard!

A few weeks ago, I bought everyone on my team a subscription to GPT with our company card, and we each demo'd a productive use-case we encountered over the first few days. I drafted and edited a blog post and an email. Another person generated dummy data sets. Another designed an entire product and landing page, including the whole color palette and other key choices.

From a couple hours to a couple days of time saved, it was immediately apparent that the tool was worth it. I polled the team anonymously and got estimates ranging from 30% to 99% expected job automation (or acceleration, depending how you look at it) within the next 1-5 years. Software engineers in particular found it helpful for getting unstuck, which can often take a nondeterministically long time.

But as powerful as GPT is, maybe we can cancel those subscriptions now. Google seems to be catching up quickly with Bard. The pace of innovation here is insane.

This blog post is an homage to Chamath, Jason, Sacks, and Friedberg. Thanks for your art, and for keeping me informed about what's going on every week in the U.S. and world. Some like Colbert, and some like Fox... but I don't use social media, and I rarely read the news, so the All-In Podcast is the main course of my weekly information diet.

Listening to Seth Godin back in 2018-19 inspired me to start this blog. Since 2021, although I have consumed much wonderful content and Hacker News is always interesting, nothing has really impacted my life choices more than what I had already listed as my influences. For the first time in over two years, that's about to change.

Today, I'm excited to announce my ticket to the All-In Summit 2023. Given I'm not paying myself a salary, and haven't been for the last year, I hesitated at the purchase button...but it's hard to put a price tag on life experiences.

And I think Seth would approve, of both their art and my religious pilgrimage, to go and see the bards of our day. 

About Andy Trattner