Solicited Advice

A nephew of mine came to visit recently and I had the opportunity to bring him around the places in Manchester. As we traveled a bit, we talked quite a bit too. As common when we visit another country, we complained and thrashed our country, while at the same time saying that Malaysia has the best food/weather/beaches/you-name-it. Other than those conflicting discussions, we also talked about ideas and life in general.

As customary being older than my nephew, I imparted some of my advices. I am not sure whether they were solicited but my nephew assured me that they were and he appreciated the views. I remember my sister saying to me that I should talk to her children, as they tend to listen to me. Funny I thought because I listen to my sisters more, compared to sometimes listening to my mother. This is a recurring pattern in my families and extended family where parents and children normally need a bridge between them, especially so if the age gap is quite big.

Even in the working world I see a somewhat similar situation where it is normally easier for a manager to have a slightly senior/mid staff to advise the junior staff. I guess this is just within human nature that when talking about uncomfortable or ‘heavy’ matters, it helps to have intermediaries. I generally don’t like talking to people and companies having big structure but in this case, to make teams work, there must be enough personnel to enable intermediaries and space for people to communicate.

Moving to less physical and face to face interactions in the future, the need for the human bridge will be less, and I wonder how will communication work? Maybe this is where the AI will come in and be the ones who is giving the advice. Let’s see.

Thank you for reading.