Something I aim for is a complete view. Seeing things from multiple sides and angles.
Sometimes that means steel-manning someone else’s argument. Sometimes that means presenting a side that’s been neglected: I find this one to frequently be the case with AI, in particular hype-based reporting. One of the reasons that I went to an AI conference and took a bunch of notes was to get a more complete view of how jobbing engineers are using AI. What’s working and what’s not. To get a more complete view of AI in engineering.
Realistically, it’s impossible to have a (completely) complete view: to consider every single angle. But we can work towards a more complete view. One that takes in more perspectives. The main thing is to ask a lot of questions! I find it helpful to have a few “grips” to get a handle on the process: width, height, depth. Kind of like left-right, up-down, in-out.
Width
- Look more widely. Look left and right.
- What’s happening in parallel situations? Different teams, different organisations.
- What’s being left out? What else is happening?
Height
- Look higher and lower. Look up and down.
- What’s happening in the layers above? The layers below?
Depth
- Look more deeply. Zoom in, and zoom out.
- Zoom in on the details, the specifics, the measurables and metrics, the numbers. Zoom out and look at the context, the bigger picture.