Did you notice the lights flickering or dimming around noon on Saturday? That was me stomping on the AI gas pedals to inspire this week’s edition of the Energy Rant. I asked ChatGPT for an example of thinking outside the box, which, duh, is precisely what artificial intelligence cannot do worth a hoot. It only brings solutions within the massive data set from which it has to draw.
Outside the Box
I asked, “Give me an example of thinking outside the box.” It gave me the nine-dot puzzle, which many or most of you have already seen:
Challenge: Connect all nine dots using four straight lines or fewer, without lifting your pen or retracing a line.
● ● ●
● ● ●
● ● ●
I know the trick is not to stay “in the box,” so I messed around with it a little, and after 30 seconds, I thought, “screw this.” I don’t have patience for silly games. My job is my game. “Show me the solution for the nine dots.” It provides the following.
A B C
D E F
G H I
“Start at G (bottom-left). Draw a line diagonally up through E and A, and extend the line beyond A.
“From there, draw a line right, going through B and C, and extend it beyond C.
“Then draw a line down diagonally, going through F and I, and extend it past I.
“Finally, draw a line left, going through H and ending at D.”
This generates the following masterpiece. Seven lines to connect nine dots. Perfect.
After that abysmal failure, I asked, “Draw the nine dot solution.” After grinding for a couple of minutes, it produced the following gem:
Perfect. If we count the northeast corner dot that was nicked, four lines connect four dots.
A Solution
I continued for another minute with my biological brain and figured it out. Interestingly, these are the same ideas, but the AI-generated cartoon above did nothing for me. Still more interesting after all this fun (?), I asked the dumb internet, “Connect nine dots with four lines solution,” which instantly gave me the solution on YouTube.
Magic Bullets
Magic BulletsI don’t focus a lot of my time on magic bullets. When I asked ChatGPT, “Give me an example of a magic bullet,” it responded, “A ‘magic bullet’ is a solution that perfectly and efficiently solves a difficult or complex problem, often with minimal side effects or unintended consequences. The term originally came from medicine—Paul Ehrlich used it to describe a drug that could target disease-causing organisms without harming the host.”
Penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic, was given as an example. Penicillin was derived from a mistake, like Post-it notes, which were often used for “brainstorming,” were developed from another failure to invent a perfect adhesive for the aerospace industry. If “thinking outside the box” includes paying attention to what’s in front of you, maybe I believe in it.
Strategy and Execution
Strategy and execution are essential to long-term market dominance. Strategy is a way to operate within a box or maybe to fray the boundaries. Consider airlines, which have gone through many highs, lows, and bankruptcies since deregulation in 1978 under Jimmy Carter. Whoa!
Many airlines didn’t know how to cope without a box. Codgers like me may remember flying on Pan American, Braniff, Eastern, Trans World, Western, and Piedmont. I flew on TWA in my formative years when tickets were delivered by U.S. Mail and humans, rather than kiosks, served travelers in airports.
The Walmart of Airlines
Southwest Airlines built their box a bit like Aldi or Walmart – one plane, cattle class for all, quirky flight attendants, and no assigned seating in exchange for low prices – a Walmart experience with a personality.
Not for me. I’m not going to log on or arrive at the gate to stake my place in line like a groupie to get backstage at a Doors concert. The $50 savings isn’t worth it to me. Nor is $100, $200, or $300. When I book, I want my seat reserved so I don’t have to log in again, and I can walk straight through the gate and onto the plane without stopping.
This model worked for Southwest until late 2022 when it nearly imploded, and Walmart shoppers had had enough. SkySolver, Southwest’s crew-management platform, was overwhelmed by weather events – a frigid winter storm Elliot (blamed on climate change) that also almost collapsed the electric grid in the Mid-Atlantic. Southwest lost its Walmart mojo and was sentenced to $140 million in fines for nearly 17,000 flight cancellations during this fiasco. It takes years and decades to build trust and a few days to lose it.
People whine and cry about the miserable experience of flying (and how difficult it is to hire good people). Here is an article from Harvard Law School, Why Flying is Miserable, and what to do about it. The author suggests re-regulating the system to reduce the confusion over seat selection and luggage fees and to provide a better experience. No! We don’t need that!
Fanatical Execution
Delta leads the competition with excellent service, perennially the highest on-time ranking, and low pain in canceled flights and tarmac delays. The Wall Street Journal’s most recent airline ranking by category follows.
Such performance allows Delta to charge premium prices for extra legroom and business class. People pay for value. The old phrase, “You get what you pay for,” or not, endures. How do they do it? Not with a silver bullet, but with fanatical execution. CNBC writes:
“Former CEO Richard Anderson said the airline had to start with basics: stop losing bags. Make sure flights don’t get canceled and arrive on time. Clean up the cabins.
“It was about building the operation brick by brick,” said Anderson. “It didn’t matter what you did with AmEx. If the flight [is] canceled, you ruined your brand.”
“Delta took better care to avoid maintenance problems. It also started ferrying planes to airports to avoid cancellations if a replacement aircraft was needed.”
Those are the basics, folks, and it is the way to the top in any industry.
