Since everything gets compared to the 'invention of sliced bread' I thought of what a slice might say to its doughy brother. Average life of a slice from rising to being consumed is usually a week and so the conversation imagined is in a compressed timescale.
As the loaf gets baked then sliced a new slice is born. Another one is right next to it. So as they get created they whisper to each other - what's with all this darkness? And suddenly there is light. The sliced loaves are exiting the tunnel and into plastic bags with a twist bound for grocer shelves near you.
Slice 1 says to slice 2, 'can I get some breathing room?'. Upon which slice 2 which is inside the stack says - boy what's with the roof on our head - I need to get out of this bag and go talk to those other guys on that shelf over there. I see nuts clinging to them like ants to honey - unlike us with nothing on but the edge.
Another one pipes up - 'And what's this BO? Do you have a yeast infection?'. Where upon the wise one chimes - of course its yeast...that is how I understand we were made. Yeast and flour are the ingredients which came together at the moment of the big bang and after the heat settled the loaf was born who got us sliced into existence.
Ah they all say - 'but then what happens next?'.
'Soon my friends soon - you will each get to see a different world - from being tossed around in someone's grocery cart to a bag to being stored in a cool dark chamber these things on two legs use to store other things..then the moment of truth - we get covered in a variety of gooey mass from sticky white mayonnaise to smooth butter - that is the best of the spa treatments some of us get to being stuck with smelly meats and cheeses to getting crunched as we enter the mastication chamber'.
Or else there is a quick way - they throw us in another hot chamber full of little wires and then we are TOAST!
This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...
Ha, ha, good one!
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