 |
|
|
|||||
If youre like most Americans, youve already set all manner of goals and resolutions for the New Year. And likewise, if youre like most Americans, youll have entirely abandoned them by February 1. Studies have found that 23% of people quit their New Years resolutions within a week, and almost half drop them by the end of January. Only 9% of Americans actually complete anything from their list in a given year. The biggest issue, apparently, is that were all very bad at setting resolutions. The things we choose are too vague, too hard, or too external. That got me wondering: Could AI do any better? Specifically: Can I mine the vast treasure trove of personal information ChatGPT has gleaned from our conversations and use that to set better resolutions for the year ahead? Turns out, the answer is yes. Heres how I funneled ChatGPTs casual disregard for privacy into a list of specific, actionable resolutions for 2026and how you can do it too. Remember Me Many users dont realize that ChatGPT pays careful attention to every conversation you have with it. Its constantly eyeing your language choices, facts you share about yourself, and data you upload in order to better understand what makes you tick. And it retains everything. This privacy-obliterating feature is called Memory. OpenAI rolled it out in 2024. And its been expanded and improved constantly ever since. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Memory one of the most important breakthrough areas for AI, and the company is leaning heavily into improving the feature in 2026. Memory is helpful because it allows ChatGPT to respond to your queries in a more personalized way. If the bot knows youre a vegetarian, for example, it wont recommend a meatball sandwich when you ask it for lunch ideas. But ChatGPTs Memory can also get extremely granularand strange. You can see what the bot knows about you by clicking your profile icon in the ChatGPT interface, choosing Personalization, finding the Memory section, and pressing Manage. Doing this for myself, I learned, for example, that ChatGPT knows my birthday, my marital status, where I live, and the names of my children. But bizarrely, it also believes that Im writing articles about asphalt and has stored the fact that I like straight ASCII quotes in its vast Memory banks. While OpenAI talks about Memory as a personalization function to help ChatGPT provide more helpful responses, its also likely a way to lock you into OpenAIs system. If ChatGPT knows more about you than Gemini, youre more likely to keep using it. You wont just flit over to a different chatbot provider every time they roll out a new model, as many users do today. All that stored info, then, is really there for OpenAI, not for you. But with the right prompting, you can readily access and mine it. Specifically, you can use it to make a killer list of resolutions. Resolving Wisely To do so, I fired up the ChatGPT interface and selected the GPT-5.2 model. I then set the bot to the Extended Thinking mode. That configuration ensures that ChatGPT uses its most powerful LLM, and spends as much time as possible processing a given query. I then gave the bot this prompt (feel free to steal it for your own resolution setting): Look back at your memory of the conversations we’ve had over the last year. Based on what you find, make a list of 10 highly specific, actionable New Years Resolutions for me for 2026. Cover all aspects of life, including work, health, family, and more. Follow expert guidance and best practices for setting realistic, actionable and truly achievable New Year’s resolutions. Specifically, use your knowledge of me to tailor the resolutions to the things I value and care about, and phrase/structure them in a way that you know will resonate with me personally. After thinking for several minutes, ChatGPT responded with a customized list. As requested, the resolutions are very specific. And the bot clearly knows lots about me. Its first recommendation is to Run a 45-minute 925 Newsroom Sprint 4 days/week with the goal of publishing 3 locally sourced Bay Area Telegraph stories/week (permits, public safety, openings, schools, city hall) and miss no more than 6 weeks total. Based on that, ChatGPT clearly knows that I run a local news publication and publish a newsletter about the Bay Areas 925 region. But it also seems to know about how much time I take off every year (six weeks), and correctly inferred the kinds of stories I cover for my publication. For another resolution, ChatGPT advises me to Hit 30 minutes of licensing progress 5 days/week and gives specific ways I could do thata reference to my day job as a news photographer with licensable photos. I mostly talk with ChatGPT about work, so many of its resolutions focus on my professional life. But it also recommended several health-related resolutions, like Make LDL-friendly eating automatic with 3 defaults including one soluble-fiber item daily (beans, oats, chia, etc.) Sometime in 2025 I must have uploaded blood test results and asked the bot to explain them to me. Since then, ChatGPT has apparently been worrying about my LDL cholesterol and would like me to tweak it (thankfully, my actual doctor is not worried). Other suggested resolutions focus on building a workout routine (including a less-strenuous dad-of-3 version for busy weeks), improving my Python coding, and traveling more to photograph hotels for work. Forget It Overall, Im impressed by ChatGPTs specificity and level of detail. My own real-life list of resolutions is laudable but vague, with items like be more present in daily life. ChatGPTs, in contrast, are all about mtrics, action items, and accountability. Based on expert advice, thats probably a wise approach. Still, it creeps me out a bit to see how much ChatGPT knows about me. And it feels stranger because I never specifically asked the bot to remember any of those thingsit just decided to retain all the minutiae I dumped into its interface. Thats fine when ChatGPT remembers things like my preferred format for em dashes, and the fact that I enjoy Jared Baumans writing (hes a friend). But when the bot starts retaining highly specific medical information based on a conversation I forgot I even had, the whole thing starts to feel invasive. Thankfully, OpenAI makes it fairly easy to remove specific items from ChatGPTs memory. You can do so on the same Manage page I referenced earlier. After seeing what the bot knows about me, I deleted several items that were too overtly medical or were simply wrong. You can also opt to switch off the function entirely, or to use a Temporary Chat for a specific, sensitive query. Those are short-term fixes, though. As Altmans breakthrough comment suggests, Memory is becoming an increasingly important function of modern AI chatbots. That means LLMs will almost certainly retain ever more knowledge about usespecially as companies exhaust the performance gains of building ever-bigger models and data centers. And they may not always explicitly share what they know. For now, you can leverage that knowledge for good and set some resolutions for the year ahead. But as you do so, might I suggest adding another resolution to your list: Share less with LLMs. And remember that what you do share they may never truly forget.
Category:
E-Commerce
We all think that we have great ideas. And we all tend to fall in love with our own ideas because, well, theyre ours. But most of my ideasand yoursare probably mediocre. And no, thats not an insult; its just a fact about the way most ideas are generated. I mean, if we were all genuinely spewing game-changers the world would be in a much different place than it is today. Most ideas are created without much thought or insight or pushbackand could probably benefit from people challenging them a lot more. Way too many ideas get approved that shouldnt have made it out of the conference room, but with lack of time, energy, and questioning, they move forward at an alarming rate. It doesnt have to be this way. Imagine if you had someone whose job it was to voice concerns about those ideas; someone whose sole purpose was to poke holes, identify flaws, and challenge assumptions. A Devils Advocate isnt there to be negative just for the sake of it. The role exists to make your ideas sharper and more bulletproof before they ever get the green light. The purpose isnt to tear down or be difficult; its to help you move forward more confidently with the best version of your idea, an idea that has been stress-tested and refined to withstand real-world challenges. A stress test The reason you need a Devils Advocate is simple: its the only way to make sure your ideas are ready for the real world. It should be common practice to stress-test your assumptions, invite dissent, and build real critical thinking into your process. Constructive debate is a cornerstone of the innovation process and should be embraced. Personally, I love it. Heres why: it makes me, and my ideas, better. The Devils Advocate role creates honest discussion, and pushes people to elevate their work by considering: Is this really the best we can do? They encourage people to say the hard thing: what others may be too afraid to express. Id much rather have someone help me think through all the potential angles early so I can win versus being blindsided later. I tell my team when Im introducing an idea: Please argue with meI need your brain on this! I dont have all the knowledge or ideas, so I dont make a decision until weve done that, says Tracie Ybarra, VP of talent at Avantor. Without someone willing to push back, your ideas may never reach their full potential. Instead, theyll simply be okay ideas, good enough to get by, but not strong enough to disrupt, innovate, or leave a lasting impact. And thats a shame. Because were all here to live a life of meaning, not mediocrity. Make Your Ideas Stronger How does being a Devils Advocate actually work? The goal isnt to be contrarian or difficult just for the fun of it. Its about creating a process that welcomes balanceseeing the potential and the problems in an idea, and generating solutions to overcome issues that arise. When you know that someone will challenge your ideas, you work harder to defend them, to improve them, to find the flaws before anyone else does. A good Devils Advocate is a professional skeptic: They don’t just point out what’s wrong; they ask why its wrong, and they offer alternative solutions. Engaging with you like this forces you to reflect, to rethink, and revise with the goal of improvement, not failure. Jarret Kleppél, VP, talent and organizational development at NBCUniversal, agrees: Inviting critique and cynicism throughout our process keeps our team less emotionally attached to the proposal and more focused on the outcome. This process also builds an important skill: resilience. You cant prepare for every problem in advance, but you can certainly stress-test better things before you go live. The Power of Constructive Conflict Constructive conflict is what makes a successful team. But we often take conflict as a negative thing. I like to think of constructive conflict to be more like a contrastit creates productive friction by giving a different perspective, not a divisive one. Without that, we settle into mediocrity, where comfort ensures everyones happy, but nobody really grows. Real innovation happens when different perspectives collide, when people arent afraid to challenge each others ideas in a productive way. A MIT Sloan-affiliated piece emphasizes that having a critical reviewer in meetings improves outcomes. One company that they studied experienced a 25% improvement in their project success rates when this role was active. What does that mean? It means that the Devils Advocate creates a stronger foundation for your ideas by challenging them before they face the real world. Devils Advocates also eliminate some of the fatal flaws of some collaboration: groupthink and the tendency to favor consensus over critical thought. People are scared of scrutiny so we avoid it, and thats how “good enough” takes hold. A Devils Advocate Doesnt Kill Ideas. It Protects Them A good idea that hasnt been tested isnt goodits vulnerable. Its like sending a fighter into the ring without any practice or training, expecting them to win. Doing that is naive, and somebody just might get hurt. The Devils Advocate is the trainer that makes your idea go a few rounds in the gym before its ready to compete. At X, Googles innovation lab, teams designate employees to act as devils advocates, identifying flaws in ideas to make them better before launch. IBM thoroughly tests ideas for weaknesses during high-stakes project planning to dramatically increase its chances of success. Christine Tricoli, group executive vice president and chief human resources officer at H.W. Kaufman Group advocates for this approach: One of the benefits of having someone ‘call you out’ or share the ‘unspoken concerns’ of the group is that it spares the team the embarrassment of having someone external discovering the issue for you. It saves time and money and helps you be more productive sooner rather than later. Leaders need to cultivate an environment that encourages this type of disruption or challenge within the team. How Do You Implement the Devils Advocate? Its easier than it sounds. Start by assigning someone the role of asking (or rotating the role among the team) tough questions during brainstorms or project planning. This person should have the power to challenge assumptions, ask what could go wrong, and offer alternative solutions without repercussions. Their job isnt to just criticize; its to actively work with the team to solve problems and refine ideas so theyre more likely to succeed. Ask yourself: when was the last time you let someone challenge your ideas in a constructive way? And if you dont have a Devils Advocate on your team, how could you benefit from having one? Let Dissent Be Your Friend My closest friends are the ones that can be most honest with me. I need them because they make me a better person, and their intent is to help, not to harm. Its the same here with ideas. By challenging your ideas early and often,you help move them forward and give them the best shot at success. Stop avoiding the hard questions, and stop letting groupthink win. Instead, build the Devils Advocate into your process and let it turn your good ideas into great ones. Because in the end, the only thing worse than a bad idea is an unexamined one.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hi there! My name is Marcus Collins, DBA, and I study culture and its influence and impact on human behavior at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Each week, this column will explore the inner workings of organizational culture and the mechanisms that make it tick. Every entry will be accompanied by an episode from my podcast, From the Culture, that digs deeper into the culture of work from my conversations with the organizational leaders that make it all happen. If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then this is the most important conversation in business that you are not having. Sign up for the newsletter to make sure you dont miss a beat. ___________________________________ Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Weve all heard this misattributed Peter Drucker quote and instinctively understand the disproportionate influence culture can have on an organizations business. However, if you asked five people to define organizational culture, youd likely get 55 different answers. Chief among them would be something along the lines of organizational culture is how we do things around here, the behaviors and norms that make up how a company engages in the collective production of work. Sounds about right, right? Sure. However, a centurys worth of literature on the matter would say otherwise. A social operating system According to Émile Durkheim, one of the founding fathers of sociology, culture is a system of conventions and expectations that demarcate who we are and govern what people like us do. Its a social operating system by which we collectively see the world and, subsequently, behave in it . . . together. What we wear, how we talk, what we dotheyre all byproducts of our cultural subscription. The same goes for organizational culture, the shared operating system for an organization that helps employees collectively see, so that they might collectively do. Therefore, reducing our concept of organizational culture to merely what we do around here ignores half of what makes culture . . . well . . . culture. Its this half, the way the organization sees the world and makes meaning of it, that dictates what we do. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_16-9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_square_thumbnail.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"FROM THE CULTURE","dek":"","subhed":"FROM THE CULTURE is a podcast that explores the inner workings of organizational culture that enable companies to thrive, teams to win, and brands to succeed. If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then this is the most important conversation in business that you arent having.","description":"","ctaText":"Listen","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLvojPSJ6Iy0T4VojdtGsZ8Q4eAJ6mzr2h","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470870,"imageMobileId":91470866,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Take Airbnb, for example. The company sees the world as a place where everyone belongs, so its behaviors are demonstrative of this perspective. Thats why Airbnb adheres to a No Meetings Wednesday tradition to accommodate team members who tend to be more introverted, so everyone belongs. They practice radical acts of transparency so that information is available to everyone, not just those in the know. They also provide employees with an annual $2K travel credit to encourage people to go out and experience the world the way other people do. For everyone at Airbnb to feel like they belong, its important that employees see themselves as a part of a global community, not just as coworkers. World travel helps this endeavor by fostering the kind of empathy that drives connection. These ways of doing things around here at Airbnb are byproducts of how the organization sees around here. Together, the seeing and the doing constitute the organizations culture. Culture isnt just values Of course, there are those of us who understand this distinction. However, far too often we mistake the organizations perspective for its values; but the two are not analogues. Values are what an organization deems to be important. The way the organization sees the world, on the other hand, defines the truths that the organization holds about the world and why certain things have any importance in the first place. For instance, Patagonia believes in “climbing clean.” The company envisions a world with minimal human invasiveness on the planet and, therefore, it values environmentalism and integrity, which, ultimately, inform its ways of working. Its valueswhich the organization deems importantare informed by its perspective. Values alone are hollow without the deeply held truths of the organizations perspective that undergirds them. Its no wonder that research from the MIT Sloan Management Reviews 2020 Glassdoor Culture 500 study found no correlation between a companys stated values and the lived experiences of its employees. Culture is not a companys values; its the system upon which these values are constructed. So, without a clear perspective of the world, an organizations values are typically meaningless and have no impact on its behaviors. Theyre merely pretty words beautifully stated but rarely integrated. This is a significant challenge for business leaders who have reduced organizational culture to a set of rituals, rules, and words. Culture is so much more than these components, but since so many of us have defined culture so narrowly, we have not yet fully realized its impact. Culture, as Durkheim asserts, is an operating system, and this system is the most influential external force on human behavior that we arent fully leveraging. Not because of a lack of skill, intelligence, or technology, but because of a lack of understanding. Thats why this column existsto examine the whys and hows of organizational culture so that we might get better at it. Its also why I created a podcastin a world where there are probably too many podcasts, quite frankly. Culture is an organizations biggest cheat code, but the only way to use it properly is to understand it deeply. So thats what were here to do . . . together. And this is our first unlock, with many more to follow. If we want to get better at the way we do organizational culture, it starts with getting better at the way we see it. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_16-9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/studio_square_thumbnail.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"FROM THE CULTURE","dek":"","subhed":"FROM THE CULTURE is a podcast that explores th inner workings of organizational culture that enable companies to thrive, teams to win, and brands to succeed. If culture eats strategy for breakfast, then this is the most important conversation in business that you arent having.","description":"","ctaText":"Listen","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLvojPSJ6Iy0T4VojdtGsZ8Q4eAJ6mzr2h","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470870,"imageMobileId":91470866,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||