Pizza Cheese Innovations Courtesy of Google AI

I trust that my pizzaioli won’t ask AI for directions.

Google’s AI Overview feature wants to add non-toxic glue to pizza sauce for better cheese adhesion.

This bizarre advice highlights a fundamental flaw in AI training approaches, where the inability to discern sincerity from satire leads to absurd and potentially dangerous outcomes.

In AI’s defense, apparently glue does help keep cheese on the pizza.

This woman tried it…

A Life Lesson from 17 Year Cicadas

Welcome to the World (A haiku)

Seventeen long years
In darkness, dirt and voiceless
Now sun, flight and song!

One of the longer insect life cycles in the world is the 17-year Locust (which is actually a cicada). Today I was able to witness one as it experienced daylight for the first time in over a decade. I truly felt honored . White, soft, and fragile but it will soon be black and armored.

I’ve always been fascinated by the intense color combo. It’s not the olive green and drab of the perennial varieties but intense black, orange, yellow and red! It’s like these are designed to say:

“Predators be damned! This is me, world!  I’m free to move in three dimensions and I am going to make my mark!”

There’s a lesson here for all of us. So often we spend our lives in the dirt and dark and feel voiceless and oftentimes it’s even of our own making or because we are afraid.

Let’s not wait 17 years to sing.

This is your day to shine and be you in the colors of your choosing!

Innovating for Winds of Unseen Storms- Lessons from Trees

Businesses share a lot in common with trees. They grow and flourish with an influx of energy, they look beautiful, bearing fruit and spreading their branches. They face powerful winds in the market, year after year becoming a mighty presence, until..

Crack!!

…..thud….

This Maple tree branch has faced winds stronger than this, but from different directions. There weren’t any telltale signs of failure , in fact there were abundant seeds coming from the seemingly healthy branch.

However, there was something about how the tree grew and how it responded to past storms that actually made it vulnerable to the windstorm last night. When certain branches grow thick and regimented, they don’t bend – they break- and leave a mess for others to clean.

Innovation isn’t just about numbers. It’s about resiliency and anti-fragility. Innovation is about flexibility and growth and having the ability to continue growing no matter where challenging winds come from.

Is there a wind that you aren’t prepared for?