Expert Performance

Expert performance is built through thousands of hours of practice in your area of expertise, in varying conditions, through which you accumulate a vast library of such mental models that enables you to correctly discern a given situation and instantaneously select and execute the correct response.

At the root of our effectiveness is our ability to grasp the world around us and to take the measure of our own performance. We are constantly making judgments about what we know and don't know whether we're capable of handling a task or solving a problem. As we work at something, we keep an eye on ourselves, adjusting our thinking or actions as we progress.

Monitoring your own thinking is what psychologists call metacognition (meta is Greek for "about".) Learning to be accurate self-observers helps us stay out of blind alleys, make good decisions, and reflect on how we might do better next time. An important part of this skill is being sensitive to the ways we can delude ourselves. One problem with poor judgment is that we usually don't know when we've got it. Another problem is the sheer scope of the ways our judgment can be led astray.

Peter C. Brown and Henry L. Roediger III, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

13 articles about how Companies are using AI

Turns Out AI Is More Empathetic Than Allstate’s Insurance Reps - Wall Street Journal  

Lyft is using Anthropic’s Claude AI for customer service – The Verge   

How Are Companies Using AI Agents? Here’s a Look at Five Early Users of the Bots – Wall Street Journal  

New AI tool could redefine book charts and bestseller lists – Jerusalem Post  

25 experts predict how AI will change business and life in 2025 – Fast Company   

Oreo Owner Mondelez Taps AI to Tweak Its Classic Snacks - Wall Street Journal

AI lets us ‘punch above our weight class’ – Press Gazette

Meta rolls out internal AI tool as it pushes into business market – Financial Times 

New AI tech can spot fake Lacoste products from a photo – Semafor

The Path to AI Everywhere: New Study Unveils Human-First Strategy for AI-Fuelled Future of Work – Inside AI News

I'm the CEO of an AI company, and this is the BS behind AI – Fast Company 

What Businesses Can Do With Generative AI Right Now - Wall Street Journal

Report Investigates Workforce Implications of AI - Carnegie Mellon University

AI meets poultry: The science behind Targan’s WingScan innovation – Poultry World

The origins of our anger

Problems of anger begin as seed thoughts of self-pity, discouragement, jealousy, or some other negative thought. One’s thought life is the key ingredient in behavioral and emotional control; therefore thoughts prior to and during times of anger are important. Thoughts give emotional feelings prolonged existence and strength, and lead interpretation to vague emotions.

When anger feelings begin, people should “listen” to themselves think. Their minds are constantly making value judgments, decisions, and comparisons. Therefore, there always exists the opportunity to intercept anger by changing these thoughts.

Gary Collins, Counseling and Anger

19 Articles about the Dangers of AI

Low quality books that appear to be AI generated are making their way into public libraries – 404 Media  

AI Hallucinations: What Designers Need to Know - NN Group

AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU – Tech Crunch

Ultra-efficient AI won’t solve data centers’ climate problem. This might. – Washington Post

Citing ‘Shadow of Evil,’ Vatican Warns About the Risks of A.I. – New York Times  

South Carolina to Reboot Giant Nuclear Project to Meet AI Demand – Wall Street Journal  

Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches – Washington Post

AI agents’ promise to arrange your finances, do your taxes, book your holidays – and put us all at risk – The Conversation  

The soldier who exploded a Cybertruck at Trump hotel in Vegas used AI to help plan the attack – Associated Press  

A Book App Used AI to ‘Roast’ Its Users. It Went Anti-Woke Instead – Wired

The cognitive cost of AI – Fast Company  

Ex-Google CEO warns there's a time to consider "unplugging" AI systems – Axios  

Their Job Is to Push Computers Toward AI Doom - Wall Street Journal 

An AI companion suggested he kill his parents. Now his mom is suing. - Washington Post   

New Book Explores Promise and Perils of AI for Scientific Community – Anne Berg Public Policy Center  

Labelers training AI say they're overworked, underpaid and exploited by big American tech companies - CBS News

AI-generated influencers based on stolen images of real-life adult content creators are flooding social media – Wired  

The phony comforts of AI skepticism - Platformer 

Google AI chatbot responds with a threatening message: "Human … Please die." - CBS News

Restlessness and discontent

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress. —Thomas A. Edison (Born Feb. 11, 1847)

Taking Sides

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.  -Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel

10 Free Webinars in the Next 10 Days about AI, Journalism, & more

Mon, Feb 10 - The Growing Threats to Press Freedom in the USA

What: A discussion of threats to press freedom in the United States.

Who: Kirstin McCudden, Vice President of Editorial at Freedom of the Press Foundation and Managing Editor at US Press Freedom Tracker

When: 6 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Society of Professional Journalists

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Tue, Feb 11 - AI Innovator Collaborative

What: What’s on the horizon for AI and emerging tech and how it could touch newsrooms’ work over the next few years.

Who: Independent journalist Lindsey Mastis.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Tue, Feb 11 - Why Blue Sky and Threads Matter for News Organizations Right Now

What: We’ll explore the unique opportunities Blue Sky and Threads offer for newsrooms, including reaching new audiences, diversifying traffic sources, and building community engagement in a post-Twitter world. 

Who: David Arkin, CEO of David Arkin Consulting and Emilie Lutostanki, content strategist, David Arkin Consulting.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England Newspaper & Press Association

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Mon, Feb 17 - Throughlines: New Formats in Journalism

What: Fandoms in Sports & Fashion, The New Economy of Video, Innovative News Formats, and AI’s Impact on Archives.

Who: Yasir Khan Patricia Echeverria Liras Tierney Bonini.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Video Consortium

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Tue, Feb 18 - 30 Minute Skills: Covering Marginalized Communities

What: Advice on covering marginalized communities in news reporting.

Who: Auditi Guha, a northwest & equity reporter/editor at VTDigger.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England First Amendment Coalition

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Wed, Feb 19 - Brief, but Descriptive: Writing Effective Alt Text

What: Effective alt text can be tricky. How detailed does one need to be? Would context change the alt text? And if alt text is supposed to be brief, how does one describe complex images like artwork and research data?  This webinar will help participants learn to write effective alt text for different contexts and types of content, from simple social media posts to complex scientific and artistic materials.

Who: Melissa Wong, adjunct instructor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Niche Academy

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Wed, Feb 19 - Reporting on Children Exposed to Violence

What: Practical, implementable strategies for conducting interviews with children and young people across different age groups. Understanding the distinct ways children process and respond to trauma—which differ significantly from adult responses—is fundamental to making more informed and protective choices when working with young subjects.

Who: Katherine Porterfield is a consulting psychologist at the Bellevue Hospital Program for Survivors of Torture and a founding staff member of the Journalist Trauma Support Network; Irene Caselli, a senior advisor for the Early Childhood Reporting Initiative at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

When: 8 am, Eastern.

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

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Wed, Feb 19 - New Breed of Journalism Watchdogs, Blending GenAI, History, and a “Writing Coach” Approach

What: The Journalism Watchdogs is a way to test the efficacy and usefulness of Large Language Models and AI interfaces in a context of Journalism education.

Who: Brett Oppegaard, a professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, researches media-production processes and products at intersections of Journalism, Artificial Intelligence, Technical Communication, Rhetoric, Human-Computer Interaction, and Disability Studies.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Thu, Feb 20 - Immigration and Border Coverage

What: Immigration and border reporting will be a key area for reporting in 2025. Here we will hear from some programs tackling these stories, approaches they are using and some of the stories that are out there and are evolving.

Who: Kate Gannon, University of El Paso who directs BorderZine; Luis Ferré-Sadurní, an immigration reporter at the New York Times; Lourdes Cardenas, from San Francisco State University.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: University of Vermont

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Thu, Feb 20 - Diversifying Revenue Series: Empowering sales teams in news organizations

What: How news organizations can leverage individual strengths to support sales teams and boost revenue. We’ll talk about: How to nurture a high-performing sales team by leaning into individuals’ strengths; The importance of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in news media sales; Strategies to help navigate hurdles, enhance client communication and drive higher conversion rates.

Who: Media consultant and revenue sustainability coach Richard E. Brown; The community manager for Table Stakes alumni on the API journalism strategy team, Jan Ross Sakian.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: American Press Institute

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Serious Business

Joy is the serious business of heaven. -C.S. Lewis

Unleashing AI Agents

Setting a bunch of A.I. agents loose on the internet could provoke a backlash. If you’re a business buying ads on Amazon, you want those ads to be seen by humans, not bots pretending to be humans.In the future, I can imagine more websites taking steps to block A.I. agents or steer them toward certain pages or products.

Right now, A.I. agents are too incompetent to be much of a threat. But it doesn’t take much imagination to envision a near future when most of the web will consist of robots talking to robots, buying things from robots and writing emails that only other robots will read.

Kevin Roose  writing in the New York Times

Meanwhile...

I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing. -Daniel Hillel

19 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company

Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance - Washington Post 

Chegg bets big on the AI that nearly broke it – Semafor

OpenAI Set to Make Super Bowl Ad Debut – Wall Street Journal  

OpenAI looks across US for sites to build its Trump-backed Stargate AI data centers - Washington Post

DeepSeek AI Is the Competition America Needs – Wall Street Journal

OpenAI may reveal reasoning steps behind outputs from its AI models, will consider open source approach – Business Insider  

European AI firms encouraged by DeepSeek in scramble to catch up to US - Semafor 

The AI Spending Race Is Still On as Google Antes Up – Wall Street Journal 

Why ‘Distillation’ Has Become the Scariest Word for AI Companies – Wall Street Journal

The DeepSeek app is impressively strange. It’s clever, quirky and self-censoring — but it’s the stuff behind the scenes that really matters. – Washington Post 

SoftBank in Talks to Invest as Much as $25 Billion in OpenAI – Wall Street Journal

What to Know About DeepSeek and How It Is Upending A.I. – New York Times

DeepSeek's great news for the corporate world - Axios

Reid Hoffman Raises $24.6 Million for AI Cancer-Research Startup - Wall Street Journal

Stunning breakthroughs from China's DeepSeek AI alarm U.S. rivals – Axios  

OpenAI introduced a new tool, called Operator, that can autonomously perform tasks on the internet – New  York Times 

South Carolina to Reboot Giant Nuclear Project to Meet AI Demand – Wall Street Journal 

Google rushed to sell AI tools to Israel’s military after Hamas attack – Washington Post   

OpenAI product chief says world is "on the verge" of AI agents - Axios

21 Recent Articles about Politics & AI

Washington lawmakers weigh new artificial intelligence regulations - PBS

Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance - Washington Post 

AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU – Tech Crunch 

Will AI Regulation “Avoid Past Mistakes” or Just Make Different Ones? - Information Technology & Innovation Foundation 

Legal challenges await OpenAI chief as he visits India on global tour – Washington Post

The Manhattan Project Was Secret. Should America’s AI Work Be Too? - Wall Street Journal

Is China winning the AI race? – Washington Post  

Stunning breakthroughs from China's DeepSeek AI alarm U.S. rivals – Axios

The global struggle over how to regulate AI – Rest of World

South Carolina to Reboot Giant Nuclear Project to Meet AI Demand - Wall Street Journal

Trump Announces Private-Sector $500 Billion AI Infrastructure Investment – Unite 

Google rushed to sell AI tools to Israel’s military after Hamas attack – Washington Post  

China's AI keeps getting better — and cheaper – Axios

Joe Biden signs executive order to speed AI data center construction – The Verge

Sam Altman on ChatGPT’s First Two Years, Elon Musk and AI Under Trump – Bloomberg

A Book App Used AI to ‘Roast’ Its Users. It Went Anti-Woke Instead – Wired

Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza. – Washington Post

Don’t Look Now, but China’s AI Is Catching Up Fast - Wall Street Journal  

Behind the Curtain: A chilling, "catastrophic" warning – Axios

House AI Report Lays the Foundation for a Clear, Credible U.S. Vision on AI Governance – Data Innovation

Generative AI bias poses risk to democratic values, research suggests – Phys.org

A New Philosophy

I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time. - Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"

My Silences

Let my silences become more eloquent. -Andrew Boyd

Outsourcing to AI Agents

What tasks you can outsource to these AI assistants depend on your job, your workflow and, most importantly, the AI’s capabilities. It’s a lot like hiring—you want the candidate with the right skills. - Joanna Stern writing in the Wall Street Journal

Making Progress

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. -C.S.Lewis

18 Recent Articles about AI & Journalism

What DeepSeek may mean for the future of journalism and generative AI – Reuters

How journalists in the Global South and emerging economies are using AI – Editor & Publisher

Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America” – Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Google signs deal with AP to deliver up-to-date news through its Gemini AI chatbot – Associated Press  

Apple Intelligence: iPhone AI news alerts halted after errors - BBC

Fake CBC ads have flooded X with sketchy headlines. We looked for the source - CBC News

Key AI concepts to grasp in a new hybrid journalism era: transparency, autonomy, and authorship - Reuters  

How Journalism Will Adapt in the Age of AI – Bloomberg  

A Year of AI Experimentation in Nonprofit News - Christina Bruno in Medium  

Apple urged to withdraw 'out of control' AI news alerts – BBC

Dow Jones negotiates AI usage agreements with nearly 4,000 news publishers - Harvard’s Nieman Lab 

How AI can help journalists rebuild a fraying connection with their audience - Reuters

Time unveils new AI chatbot - Axios 

Who owns the AI tools journalists use? A new study exposes a dangerous transparency gap - Reuters  

AI slop is already invading Oregon’s local journalism – Oregon Public Broadcasting 

Perplexity expands its publisher program – TechCrunch

Business Insider tech chief: AI lets us ‘punch above our weight class’ – Press Gazette   

When the Word Is Not Just Flesh: Reporting on A.I. in Religion – New York Times

Attitude

I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. – Charles Swindoll

Copyright & AI Use in the Creative Process

The US Copyright Office says “the use of artificial intelligence tools to assist in the creative process does not undermine the copyright of a work. The announcement clears the way for continued adoption of AI in post-production, such as in the enhancement of Hungarian-language dialogue in “The Brutalist.” https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/copyright-ai-tools-filmmaking-studios-office-1236288969/

8 Webinars This Week about AI, Journalism & Media

Mon, Feb 3 - AI ChatBot Ethics

What: We examine how children and teens engage with AI tools, from companionship to questionable information sources. Drawing on the BBC TechLife podcast “Dating a Chatbot” and recent high-profile stories, we’ll discuss media literacy strategies to identify risks, navigate misinformation, and foster responsible AI use. Don’t miss this timely conversation on the opportunities and challenges chatbots bring to families today.

Who: Wesley Fryer, an educational technology early adopter / innovator who teaches middle school STEM and media literacy.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Media Education Lab

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Wed, Feb 5 - The Playbook for GenAI in the News Media Business

What: How best to harness this GenAI technology, common mistakes made, and insights from working on GenAI solutions worldwide. Our guests will present guidelines for those just getting started with GenAI, those with some experience, and those who are now advanced users, ensuring that this session is valuable for news brands at different stages of technological maturity.

Who: Justin Kosslyn, an AI consultant who was previously Director of News Ecosystem products at Google and has also been head of digital products at TED conferences; Lukas Görög, an AI consultant who works extensively on GenAI implementation across industries and draws on his experience as AI and data strategy lead at NZZ, data strategist at Die Presse, and AI consultant for The Thomson Foundation.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members

Sponsor: International News Media Association

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Wed, Feb 5 - Mini-Lab: AI Tools for Video Creation

What: We’ll experiment with prompts in Sora to build lengthy videos that will have some journalistic value. We’ll start building a prompt library for Sora videos and tweak/test them as we build videos. We’ll cover how to post them properly online (YouTube) and disclose the AI use to readers when posting. Participants will be given a handout with links to all the tools and exercises on how to use them. Prior to the session, have an account set up at Sora and have access to a YouTube account if we want to post the videos there afterward.

Who: Mike Reilley  Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois-Chicago.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Wed, Feb 5 - Demystifying AI Agents

What: Real-world examples of how generative and agentic AI can help you work smarter, streamlining workflows, enhancing proactive threat detection, and automating key tasks.

Who: David Irwin, Director of Product Management - AI, Swimlane; Katie Bykowski, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Swimlane.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Swimlane

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Thu, Feb 6 - Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025

What: We unpack the findings for 2025 of the Study of Journalism, the Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions report—including the transformative role of generative AI in newsrooms, the rise of 'creator-fication' of news and more.

Who: Tom Platt, Global Head of Newsgathering & Video at Reuters; Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Reuters

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Thu, Feb 6 - Creating Action-FIrst Learning Through AI-Generated Avatars

What: Explore how AI-driven avatars can transform traditional training by simulating real-world conversations, decision-making challenges, and interactive scenarios, Plus learn how to create your own AI avatar using several different AI software tools in a matter of mere minutes. If you have ever wanted to create your own digital twin, this webinar will teach you how to quickly create a digital copy of yourself for use in training, delivering messages, or even just to have a little fun.

Who: Karl Kapp, Director, Institute for Interactive Technologies, Bloomsburg University.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenSesame

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Thu, Feb 6 -  SEO Basics 2.0: Strategies and Tools to Write Winning Headlines

What: Agentic AI vs. generative AI - what’s the difference? The do’s and don’ts for using AI in your SOC. Tips for getting (and quantifying) the business value of AI. Meet Hero, Swimlane’s private AI companion for SecOps.

Who: Jessie Willms & Shelby Blackley cofounders of SEO for journalists.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Indiegraf

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Fri, Feb 7 - Trust and The Government: What journalists need to know to guide political coverage

What: This briefing that will prepare journalists to cover politics with their audience in mind, while noting their unique role in how the public perceives — and trusts — their federal government.

Who: Max Stier, founding president and CEO, Partnership for Public Service; Elliot C. Williams, training coordinator for the National Press Club Journalism Institute.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Press Club

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