linkedin – Mitchell's thoughts, photos, etc.

What Does AI Really Know About You?

How Accurate Is It?

By Mitchell Slepian

I read on a social media platform to do a deep AI search of yourself. You should see what people find about you when they search for you. It’s a good idea.

These days, organizations do that as a pre-employment check, potential dating partners check you out and organizations do it to see if you’re okay to volunteer with them. This is only the top of the list.

Maybe you read my May 15 post, “Is AI Really That Smart?” I discuss its accuracy and your need to verify. AI is a great tool, and it is forging ahead. We are in the midst of a revolution. We are also at a learning stage.

The other day, I took the advice from my reading and did an AI search on myself. I used Google. I have found that it and X’s Grok offer the easiest and quickest searches. Was what I found about me accurate? Yes and no. Was it concerning? Not really. Was it funny? A little. Was it slightly misleading? Yes.

Let’s jump into it. It quickly found my employment records. All it did was search LinkedIn. It was fairly accurate. It didn’t pull up the timing I had for certain roles. But it was not terribly off. My LinkedIn profile is accurate as the platform allows. That’s the simple stuff.

I asked it about my interests. It quickly pulled up my loves: the Yankees, summer camp, and theater, particularly at Lincoln Center. I am in love with the fountain. I’d love to jump into it. That’d be way cooler than jumping into the one at Washington Square Park. I have been in that one when there was no water in it. I’d have no problem jumping it when the water was in it. People do it every day. Lincoln Center’s fountain is too classy. Maybe they can do a fundraiser and let people pay to jump in. I’d donate and jump.

I asked it some questions. It said I was an avid Knicks fan, and I do not follow the NFL. I only follow MLB. I am not a Knicks fan. Sure, I am rooting for them in the championship. I have never watched a basketball game in my life. I was once offered tickets in the area Spike Lee sits. I turned them down because I was attending a more exciting (at least in my mind) event at the Plaza Hotel. Google told me to I check the scores of their games. During the final game of the playoff round, I checked once while I was watching the Bronx Bombers. As a New Yorker, I felt the need to know. I was glad they won. Does this constitute me being a hardcore fan? No way.

I asked it about my family. It noted that my father passed away. It mentioned my mom was an RN. It said, “I am very close to my sister, and we travel regularly to Long Island for photo shoots.” I do a lot of photo shoots. My photography is mostly shot at Coney Island, Scout camps, my European vacations, and the East and Hudson Rivers. My first one on Long Island will be next week at Baiting Hollow Scout Camp. My sister will not be there. She has never been to any of my photo shoots. Oh, the ones I allegedly do on the Island are shots of the stars. I tried that once in Forest Hills. One day, I will try again. It also said someone who is not my sister is.

I asked it what music I like. It said the top of my lists are Sir Elton, Billy Joel, and it claimed I don’t like the Beatles. I love the Fab Four. It expanded to list my new-wave and punk loves – The Clash, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, and others. It left out my favorite band, U2. Was it right or wrong about music? I am not sure. Google pulled stuff from my blogs. In some of them, I mentioned what I listen to while I am writing or editing photography. All of these bands are in there. For the record, I am listening to goth right now. So, I guess AI was making educated guesses.

Rock Lake in Kunatah, Ten Mile River Scout Camps

It noted “Rent” is my favorite show. Hands down, it is. It pulled up my volunteer work and my role as chairman of the Ten Mile River Scout Museum. It mentioned my other volunteer work and attendance at religious services. It might have made me too religious. It is what it is.

It chronicled my Scouting America history. It noted that I was the chief of the former Aquehongian Lodge #112 and that I am an Eagle Scout. It got a few other things right and some things wrong. Funny thing is, I searched on the same terms two days in a row. One day it said this. The next day, it said that. It also pulled my fiction blogs and looped what my characters are doing as me. Most of the characters are based on me. That has never been mentioned. So maybe AI figured that out.

Bottom line, AI is getting there. Is it 100 percent accurate? Will it ever be? Probably not. But will it be really close? No doubt about it. Should you use it as your final check to judge a future hire or date? No. Should you still verify and check other sources? Absolutely.

Is LinkedIn Worth It?

Has It Helped You?

By Mitchell Slepian

LinkedIn officially launched on May 5, 2003. I remember joining it shortly after. I worked at Vonage. I was at my desk when someone called to do business with us. The caller mentioned she found me because she saw I was connected to a colleague of hers on LinkedIn. That was part of the platform’s original purpose – to provide connections. I really didn’t know the person she mentioned, whom she connected me with. But my eyes opened.

I began connecting with more and more people. I am careful with who I connect with. Many people probe your profile and try to scam you for money. They say they are recruiters and resume writers, and that they hold various professional credentials. They impersonate legitimate employees at companies such as Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and many others. Those companies often post notifications on their websites to alert users to these fraudsters. They tell how they will write your corporation’s content and provide a fake copy as an example. They always ask for your credit card. I have never fallen prey to these shenanigans. Yeah, Facebook, Instagram, and X have scammers. But in my experience, LinkedIn attracts more.

I know many people who are obsessed with making new connections and are posting routinely. I do both. I always hope it’ll lead to bigger things. We all want that. Has it? Not yet. I hope.

Companies post. Of course, those who do it right build their business. It can be great for that. For the last year or two, I have had a Premium membership. I did that a few years ago and canceled. I decided to try it again. It gives you first dibs on its job board, InMail, and other good things, but only in limited ways.

But the question raised is, is it worth it? My views have increased. I post my blogs and corporate content, and I’m a top poster on the Nikon Z users’ page. For the most part, the same people like and comment. The bigger question is, do people read what you post? Meaning, I add links to things. I can pretty much see who is clicking on them. For the most part, the LinkedIn audience does not. I do better with emails, Facebook, and Instagram.

People write about how to do better on LinkedIn. People talk about it all the time. Have I gotten any interviews by applying to roles on its job boards? Yes. Has it helped me land a job? No. Other job boards have worked better. Much better.

Bottom line, it is important to use LinkedIn. But one must not rely on it as much as some do. The key things are to use many of its competitors and be careful who you connect with on LinkedIn. The same goes for other sites. Will I renew Premium? Probably. It does offer some pluses. Is it the best platform? No.

But I am sure I will see ‘ya on LinkedIn and the other sites.

How Much Harder Is It to Communicate in Today’s World?

By Mitchell Slepian

In today’s world, we have so many tools to communicate with each other. Does it make life easier? Yes. Does it make life tougher? Yes. Let’s sit back and think for a minute. We now communicate in person, by phone, text, chat, social media, and other ways. It’s not unusual to be sitting at your desk, whether it is in your kitchen or an office somewhere in the city, focusing on your assignment, as emails fly across your screen, your phone buzzes with countless texts, and people are contacting you on Facebook’s and LinkedIn’s messaging services. Does it make it easier? It can. Does it make it rougher? It can.

Many people get jittery as they enter the final stages of a project. As you’re launching it on your website, social media feeds, and to the media, you want it to be perfect. Once it’s been decided that the documents, graphics, etc., are final, the push begins. As you’re uploading to your project management software to start the distribution process, it’s often when it can get chaotic.

I like to remain focused, sit at my laptop, plug away, and be zoned in only on the project at hand. Too many times, it’s at that time when everyone decides to weigh in once again. My Outlook account is full of emails. Thanks to today’s technology, you can see them jumping out at you. My phone goes crazy with countless texts. Then there are the people who decide to message you on LinkedIn or Facebook. Or use Slack or Snap. Does this help you? Yes and No. But in many cases, that’s what creates confusion and leads to mistakes. I have been telling people at the final stages of the project, let’s use one stage of communication. I prefer email. I make sure to tell people to remember to hit reply all. Most of the time, this works. It keeps people focused.

What’s the Best Way to Communicate: email, social media or texting?

By Mitchell Slepian

Email has been mainstream in business since the 1990s. As we know, we now have too many other ways to communicate, including but not limited to social media and texting. Remember faxing? Or snail mail? Both are still in play.

As a chair of a community organization and a volunteer in a few others, we generally communicate our business via email. Several of us who are friends often have our own discussions via chat. But all official business is done via email.

We have members who do not have email. They do not have computers. Some are senior citizens. But before we toss in the age factor, I have worked with people in their early 90s to create PowerPoints and run podcasts. They had no issues. Yes, I worked with people much younger who had no clue how to use email or other communication methods. So, age is just a number.

About two weeks ago, it snowed in New York City. It hampered some events. One started at 7:30 a.m. ET. The other was supposed to begin at 9 a.m. ET. We wound up combining our groups. This recent storm was not the first time we have had to take that course of action. It will not be the last. We early birds sat around, and the folks from the later-starting group wandered in. Both groups have their latecomers. Snow delayed some of them even further. A day or two later, I suggested that when we know the weather will not be good, we send an email and make a robocall to let people know we are combining. Several people blasted this idea, saying some people don’t have email, and others don’t want to be bothered by a robocall. I made the case that email has been in play for a long time and that the call was coming from a number we all know. It should not register as a potential spam call, as carriers like to say.

I know people who text to landlines. I still have one. The texts usually arrive in gibberish. As chair of my group, generally start meetings (which are traditionally on Zoom, that’s another issue), reminding people you need to text their cell phones. Some folks love Facebook Messenger. Unfortunately, they do not realize Messenger works on Facebook. Many don’t know that you cannot email Gmail or send SMS messages from Messenger. Don’t get me started on WhatsApp. I think it works great and has its place.

Before I was chair, I was corresponding secretary. I created a form for people to send me via email when they donate. I can take their contact information off it and generate thank-you notes to distribute via email and traditional mail. It is still lovely to receive a personal, warm thank-you note in the mail. One of my chairs used to mail me handwritten notes with donor information. Sometimes he would wait weeks, and I’d get an envelope with 30 or 40 scraps of paper with contact information. This issue severely hampered our program.

The question has always lingered in my mind: What to do? I continue to use email and will call people. But the question will always linger on how to reach everyone.

Jen talks marriage and has memories of camp

Jen and Jake were dining on juicy bone-in ribeyes with perfect marbling at Reserve Cut. A bottle of Shiloh Legend was poured into their wine glasses by the wait staff. Things were getting serious with these two. Jen was hoping a ring was not so far away. Jake felt the same. He even started looking for them with his mom and sister.

As Jen dug into her perfect cut of meat an old camp memory hit her right in the head. She remembered Anat Ovadia. She was a weird kid in camp. She wasn’t the friendliest. She didn’t bathe much. She always wore boots, whether she was hiking the trails, playing softball and soccer. She never took them off. She had an affinity for eating dried fruit. Her grandmother often mailed her platters of it. She never shared.

Jen remembered one late evening when she and her girlfriends, all about 11 or 12 years old grabbed her out of their bunk. She was wearing her boots. The tweens held their noses. They dragged her down to Stone Lake. They pulled her boots off. Anat freaked. They had to gag her to shut her up. They put a life preserver on her and tossed her into a canoe. Jen and the others got into their own canoes. Sarah jumped into Anat’s canoe. They all paddled out to the center of the lake. Jen paddled over to Sarah and Anat. Sarah gave the high sign. Jen swamped Sarah’s and Anat’s canoe. Sarah pulled herself over the side of Jen’s vessel. The other girls circled Anat and started a splash war while Anat struggled. She was not a good swimmer. Thankfully she was wearing a life preserver. She was treading. Tears fell down her face. The girls were taunting her. They stopped and paddled back to the docks. They left Anat in the center of the lake.

The girls sat on the docks and had chocolate snacks. They laughed while they watched Anat slowly swim back. When she got out of the lake, they made her swear to keep her mouth shut. If she blabbed they promised they’d take her fruit snacks and leave them out for the raccoons. They let her put her boots back on and made her march back to the bunk in silence.

Man, we were mean Jen thought to herself. She sipped her wine and gazed into Jake’s eyes. Jake started talking to her about marriage. Jen felt the butterflies tingle. As he was talking she thought of Marc and was wondering whatever happened to Anat. She was connected with all of her camp friends on Facebook and Linkedin. One or two might even be bridesmaids if everyone goes as she wishes. Later she’d look Anat up. She figured she probably turned out ok and might even be a mom. Her mind flipped to the time she was kissing Marc as Bowie played Starman at the Garden many years ago.

The two left the restaurant, kissed each other good night and headed to their respective subway lines.

Meanwhile, Anat was trolling the city munching on dates and apricots. Life was not kind to her. But she was not kind too much.