We had freezing rain come down hard about 2:20am this morning.  And then my mind provided me a very clear dream about my “why” in a way I had not connected with recently.  (And I immediately realized that I had a few more holiday cards to send out….)

I was in front of the microphone in a lecture hall for about 1500 (which included a place for boxing practice?) and I was teaching my doctoral research on IT productivity economics.  I was explaining the basic principle that firms get different results from technology depending on their allocation of resources, their data, their people and their processes.

Someone pulls me aside at a break and asks me “Is there math in this”? [ I laugh, as my students either love or hate math.]   I started to try to explain the choice of coefficients and how they are created.

And for some reason, Katrien Wauters was my teaching assistant and Piet Ribbers popped his head in to say hello.  (OK, more holiday cards going out this morning….).

Do you want to know why I get so annoyed with AI discussions right now?  

Because the need for technology for productivity is not new, but it has always been about achieving authentic outcomes and efficiencies. It has been about networks, cloud, edge — all about enabling things where they are, but real things.   I am SO tired of all of the fake stuff being created from AI and the urge of the tech bros to make and break things quickly (and inefficiently in terms of cost to the environment) just so they can play.

Technology is a resource that needs to be allocated, structured and managed, just like other scarce resources, including people.

As we head into 2025, the question is “Was this dream a nightmare – or a preview of where this is all going?”