Podcast 1:8 - The John Henry of AI

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John Henry (Wikipedia) - Talcott West Virginia
The tall tale of John Henry is just as endearing now as is was 170 years ago when the story started. Machine vs Man. (Think Skynet and Terminator). As we are at the beginning of another industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) many people are concerned that AI will take their jobs. Just like steam power took the jobs of thousands of railroad workers in the 1800s. In this episode, we explore the changes in workforces and effecting change in such an environment.


Story of John Henry

  • Dawn of the Industry 2.0
  • Several sites claim to be the site of the tunnel that was the location of the race between man and machine. 
    • Big Bend Tunnel - West Virginia
    • Lewis Tunnel - Virginia 
    • Coosa Mountain Tunnel - Alabama
  • The Story -
    • John Henry was born with a Hammer in his hand.
    • He was the strongest man that ever lived.
    • Started helping the railroad works by carrying rocks at age 6
    • By age 10 he was working a hard steel drill.
    • By the time he was a young man, he was the best steel driver that ever lived.
    • Big tunnel needed to be dug through the side of a mountain. 1 mile long.
    • A "Technologist" shows up with a steam drill to show the latest in technology.
    • The race between John Henry and the steam drill ensued.
    • John Henry won the race working all day and all night
    • The next day John Henry died from exhaustion.
  • The Movie - The Rock will play John Henry in a Netflix original. And Terry Crews in another competing version.

  • The Song - Johnny Cash 

History repeats itself

  • Industry 3.0 - Information Technology Emergence. Computers begin to take over jobs. New jobs are created.
  • Industry 4.0 - AI starts taking over information workers' jobs, agriculture jobs, and manufacturing jobs.
  • Understand the story of John Henry. From the perspective of the automated drill manufacturer.
  • How do you find John Henry in your organization? How can you go about not having the same thing happen to you and your organization?
  • Culture Keepers - 
    • What motivates them, 
    • Are they afraid of losing their jobs?
    • Their careers? 
    • How far along are they in their careers?
    • Can they be retrained?
  • Change Agents -
    • How do you motivate them? Most of the time they want to be disruptive.
    • How do you empower them? 
    • How do you incentivize others to follow them?
  • Followers - Go with the flow. Don't make waves.

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