Yeah it’s true, I got laid off from my day job as lead engineer at [company’s] Innovation Lab last month, as part of a massive company-wide restructuring. Or, putting it another way, I got replaced by an AI bot. You see, [company] has been losing money for a while now, its core value proposition of well-researched and authoritative product comparison information being attacked and eroded by AI internet chatbots that, while perhaps not as accurate or nuanced, tend to be cheaper and more convenient. So, the Innovation Lab is no more. They got rid of a bunch of us including Ben our VP and visionary leader, while the rest got reassigned into other business units in the organization. Ah well, it was a good run while it lasted. We built some excellent products in the space of consumer privacy protection, advocacy, and digital rights, including the Permission Slip app and the Data Right’s Protocol. I was the tech lead for both projects, and they rank high as proud achievements in a career that has included many fun and cool accomplishments in software R&D and product development. Sadly [company’s] commitment to continuing working in that space had diminished prior to the restructuring, so the writing was on the wall. Meanwhile, the other main thread of the lab’s work, focused on AI chatbots of our own, had pretty much graduated from R&D and folded into the main digital group. I have no idea what has become of the remaining R&D initiatives.
But there’s no point in sitting around feeling bitter about it, although they do try hard to make you feel as bad as possible when they give you the boot, suddenly cut off from your friends and colleagues and your own work that you’ve put so much into over many years. For my part, I had a lucky bounce in that I’ve been able to increase my level of commitment to The Global Jukebox, and it’s a good time for it too. We’re building towards a major release later this year and there’s tons of work to do, and it’s a fun project. Last week I listened to over a hundred and fifty pop songs to review the Cantometric codings done by a team of consultants. Kind of amazing how vast and diverse the last hundred years of recorded music is, and how many great songs are out there.
Other than that, my plan for now is to relax and enjoy the summer, and not worry until the fall about whether I want to look for another full-time job or just continue doing consulting. My sense is that now is not a good time to try and jump back in, since all the big tech companies are sacking their workers by the thousands and replacing them with AI. Eventually this will blow over like every previous cyclic downturn. What really matters to me is to find a cool and exciting project to work on that is worth my time and effort.
Anyway, it’s a good time of year to have some time off. As mentioned before, I’ve been doing alot of biking. I’m averaging about sixty miles a week now, and plan to for the rest of the summer. This past weekend Jeannie and I finally got out to the Empire State trail. I did sixteen miles in an hour and twelve minutes. Not too bad, but a little slower than my best times last year. I’ve also increased the level of weight in my weightlifting workout, up to 202 pounds on bench press, and 120 on curls and the other dumbbell exercises. 200/120 was the goal I set for myself a long time ago to hit before I turn sixty. I’ll be fifty-eight this year, so from here on out it’s gravy. Oh, and I’ve lost ten pounds since the winter too.
There’s tons to do outside this time of year, and I’ve been spending time every day working on the yard. Project patio is nearly done. It involves spending time outside and lifting heavy things, so double fun. My patio is made of flagstones laid on a bed of sand and compacted gravel, and over time the stones tend to settle and shift. Five years ago during the pandemic I enlarged the patio, so this year I’m straightening up the new area. This involves lifting up the stones one by one with a crowbar, putting in some new sand under them, putting the back and filling in the gaps between the stones with more sand. The new area all done and I just have one more spot near the stairs to go. I might need to go out and buy more sand before I can finish.
In music, my jazz group Spacecats has a gig coming up in late June. We would have liked to make it sooner, but different members of the groups have scheduling conflicts, so we’re off-and-on for rehearsals for the next few weeks. We’re also trying to schedule our long-awaited recording session. Meanwhile we’re continuing to learn new songs and have fun.
My recording project Spellbound is progressing as well. I’ve been working in the 18-minute epic that fills most of side two, which I’m calling The Sailor’s Saga because I don’t remember what title we gave it back in the day. I’m tracking the first three sections, leaving the big instrumental fourth movement to the end, because I’m going to rewrite it pretty dramatically, whereas the first three parts follow the original demo fairly faithfully. Back in the winter I started with a click track and basic piano part. To this I’ve now added a pretty much full (midi) drum part, and electric bass. The first section is fast and grooving, the second is slow and atmospheric, and the third features a carefully crafted slow build in the rhythm section over a long, repeated chord progression.
Now I’m up to the first of the guitar tracks, basic rhythm guitar. The jaunty first section went down pretty easily, although I had to practice the part a few times to get it together. There’s no part in the section section, so now I’m up to the third section. It starts out doing arpeggios on the eighth notes, which is surprisingly hard for me. I’ve been practicing every day, and consistently improving, but I imagine it’ll be a few more days at least before I’ll be able to get a good take.
Finally, we have an origami event coming next week. It’s CFC, the Conference for Creators, and this year it’s in Ann Arbor Michigan, hosted by Beth Johnson. I’ve never been to that part of the country before, so Jeannie and I are going out a few days before the start to tour around the upper midwest. Also, I’m scheduled to give a seminar on Folding with Fivefold Geometry, so I need to get my presentation together. And, I want to have a new model for my exhibit, a perfected version of my Pentagon Human Figure that I came up with at CoCon in Chicago in March. More on all this as it, uh, unfolds.