Tech-Neill-ogy #30 - 7 January 2024

Welcome to Tech-Neill-ogy #30!

It is a bit amazing for me to reflect on the past year. Aside from having produced 29 consecutive “Tech-Neill-ogy” newsletters, a lot of other things have been going on. Of course, my full-time job here at Graded in São Paulo keeps me busy! But add to that some consulting work and a lot of family time, things got busier! Not including travel within my home country of Brazil, I visited 10 countries [Curacao, Singapore, Guatemala, UK, Netherlands, USA x4 (NYC x2, Miami, Ohio), Grand Cayman, India, Colombia, and Portugal], some for work, some for pleasure, but 6 of them were my first visits! Looking ahead to next semester and the summer, I can already count on trips to the USA, UAE, England, Jordan, and Canada, with the possibility of India, Turkey, Spain, France, Australia, and Nigeria in the wings before the end of 2024!

On top of the travel — and often related — I am proud of the various contributions I was able to make to the College Board, Cialfo, and BMI-THE international advisory boards. Of particular note, I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the popularity and positive feedback surrounding the THE CAP certification program. Additionally, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first semester teaching at UCLA as well as many of the side projects I have done with them and the College Board.

It has been a great year so far at Graded. Lots to keep me and my amazing colleagues, Janan and Trevor, very busy, but good to effect change.

I am looking forward to seeing how this newsletter develops over the coming year. While created in response to the introduction of generative artificial intelligence to the world, the initial idea has always been to help explore technology and its role more broadly. These past 30 newsletters, including this one, have focused almost exclusively on AI; however, I look forward to exploring ways in which this resource can support colleagues in regard to other technologies. (For example, I’ve heard a fair number of requests for spreadsheet tricks and tips!)

So it has been a busy year, but I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your support. It is quite motivating to have almost 400 subscribers! I hope to expand readership even more this year, and I hope to find a way to make a penny or two from this endeavor. That said, please note the “buy me a coffee” opportunity below! If you buy me a coffee (or five), I’ll be sure to go out of my way to enjoy it/them with you!

Thanks, as always, to those of you who share resources with me. I appreciate all of it! In any case, feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

To kick things off this year, I wanted to return to what I have repeatedly shared is one of generative AI’s (especially ChatGPT’s) biggest strengths: brainstorming. Some of the trick here is knowing how to prompt it, which sometimes, like this prompt below, requires some knowledge of brainstorming techniques and tactics. This one is Reverse Brainstorming. Play around with it. Have some fun. I’m confident you’ll like what you get in return.

Using the Reverse Brainstorming framework, brainstorm the following topic: [enter your topic]

(For this one, to test it out, I used this in the [enter your topic'] section: “spending one summer of high school going to summer school, one getting a job, one getting an internship, and one doing nothing.” It’s fun to see!)

Please, if you have any ideas or requests for topics or approaches, please let me know! I am always keen to dig into a new approach or topic! Also, if you have any great prompts or questions about prompting, send me a note at [email protected].

That’s it for this week. Thanks for your support as I took time away these past few weeks for the holidays! I hope you and your families all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season, whether you celebrate or not! And I hope you all were able to find some time to recharge those batteries for the upcoming semester!

Happy counseling,

Jeff