A perspective on choosing tools
Tools for humans in the age of AI
We’re taking a short break from regular programming to introduce “from Our Perspectives” – essays from internal team members that share a personal perspective on internal project management. This week, we’re featuring a perspective from Britt on a way to think about choosing your tools.
The world is consumed right now with the proliferation of AI and the tooling that can change the way we work as humans. We’re canceling contracts for tools that aren’t leveraging the latest AI models, and seeking only the newest that lean into AI’s greatest capabilities. And the goal of switching to these superpowered feats of technology is simple: increase productivity. Do more, achieve more, never stop, go go go go go. It’s a startup / founder’s duty. More, always.
And while this seems like every startup and founder’s dream, to choose tools only for their capabilities of producing at the speed of a robot, I think we can invite a different conversation, one that’s less focused on the doing and more focused on the being.
As shared previously, Sublime is one of my favorite founder tools — ever. It allows me to aggregate my thoughts in a drop-dead-gorgeously simple and communal way, a discrete yet flexible space that invites me to capture the best of what I’m experiencing digitally throughout my day and lovingly safeguard it for future use.
They recently shared a newsletter titled “Make something wonderful.”. As a founder, this of course piqued my interest, and I opened the page to discover a perspective-shifting view of adding tools to my / our startup’s internal tool stack.
There is something so human in this approach that made me think deeply about the tools we use and why we choose them. Do we choose a CRM because it makes us feel more alive? Do we choose an HRIS because it allows us to make work better for the humans that it self-organizes?
Likely not. But should we?
The newsletter closed with this:
This begs the question. How might we choose our CRM to nurture external relationships while ensuring those who are tasked with filling it feel that the technology allows them to be their best professional selves? How might we choose an HRIS that feels like a founder’s companion, that feels trusted and supportive and less like an inhuman piece of tech?
The AI agents will prevail, and soon we’ll be communicating further and further from that which makes us human. Unless – unless we set an intention to choose tools not so that they can make us more like robots (i.e. more productive, produce more tasks and output and scale), but rather, encourage us and ensure that we can be the best humans we can be.
By being discerning and expecting more from our tools and the AI builders that are leading the charge, we can use technology to become ever more ourselves, and ever more human.
Writer: Britt