Like me, L&D has a problem with GAS.
Like me, L&D has a problem with GAS.
No, not gas — GAS!
Reader, I have a confession to make.
For a long time now, I’ve had a problem with GAS.
It’s a condition that’s cost me money, consumed countless hours of my life, and led to difficult conversations with loved ones.
I’m talking, of course, about ‘Gear Acquisition Syndrome’.
Long-time readers and podcast-listeners will know about my love of photography, and my shameless promotion of my Instagram account. (Since you asked, you can find me @ross.dickie.)
When I first became interested in photography, my primary camera was a cheap point-and-shoot. Later, it was my iPhone.
Before long, I persuaded myself that, if I wanted to be a ‘serious’ photographer, I would need to invest in a proper camera. And so I did.
After a few years, I traded that camera for a newer model, and purchased prime lenses that would allow me to create ‘better’ images. Then I discovered film photography, and tumbled even further down the rabbit hole.
Today, I have somewhere between 10 and 15 cameras in my house.
Although I don’t actually use most of these cameras, this doesn’t stop me from spending hours every week scouring the internet for more kit…
GAS can affect anyone, but it is particularly common amongst photographers, musicians, and, yes, L&D professionals.
For me, there are two key drivers of the syndrome.
🤓 The intrinsic appeal of technology
Photography is merely the latest way GAS has shown up in my life. Before that, it was computers. For a while, it was juggling equipment.
If ‘juggling equipment’ hasn’t already made this painfully clear, I’m a nerd! Always have been, always will be.
And one of the things about nerds is… we like tech.
My interest in photography is not just about making photographs, it’s about the cameras themselves. This is why I have so many of them.
In my experience, people who work in L&D tend to share this fascination with technology.
While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s important to remember that technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Ultimately, our purpose in L&D is not to collect and experiment with gadgets — it’s to facilitate performance.
Before purchasing any new tool, ask yourself why you need it and how it’s going to help you achieve your goals. Is it really necessary? Or are you just adding to your collection?
🪞 The illusion of a quick fix
If I were to be self-critical, part of the reason I spend so much time obsessing over cameras is that I am unsatisfied with my photographs.
Like a bad workman, it’s much more appealing to blame my tools than to acknowledge a deeper problem.
So, I convince myself that buying a better camera will make me a better photographer. Which, deep down, I know it won’t.
I see L&D folks falling into this trap all the time.
Whether it’s a new LMS or LXP, a more powerful authoring tool, or the latest AI product, we often persuade ourselves that our technologies are both the source of and the solution to our problems.
We do this because the truth is a much tougher pill to swallow. Often, we just need to put in the work.
Interested in working with the Mind Tools Custom Team? Want to share your thoughts on this week’s Dispatch? Then get in touch by emailing custom@mindtools.com or reply to this newsletter from your inbox.
🎧 On the podcast
You’ve got a brilliant idea for the next big thing in tech and have gathered the smartest engineers and designers to build it (plus the cash to pay them). Will it end up being a success? You’ve got the best team to deliver it, so why wouldn’t it be? Well…
In last week’s episode of the Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Ross G discuss this situation with Martin Gonzalez, author and founder of Google’s Effective Founders Project. They explore how and why people issues often lead to (startup) business failure, and the balances that need to be struck by those creating and working in teams.
Check out the episode below. 👇
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or the podcast page of our website. Want to share your thoughts? Get in touch @RossDickieMT, @RossGarnerMT or #MindToolsPodcast
📖 Deep dive
Last week, the Mind Tools Custom team had a long discussion about the use of ‘you’ versus ‘we’, versus ‘the organization’ in learning design.
We all agreed that, when developing learning materials, we should be speaking to you (the learner) as much as possible.
In support of this, one of my colleagues shared the following words from Steve Harrison, author of How to Write Better Copy:
“There’s one short word that you should work into your copy as often as possible. It is ‘you’. In fact, when you are reading your first draft, check that ‘you’ appears three times more than ‘I’, ‘we’ or ‘our’. If the latter predominate, then you’ve probably been banging on about how great you and your product are.
But if you have used ‘you’ in a higher ratio, then chances are you’ve been looking at the thing you’re selling through the eyes of your reader.
This is good because it trains you to see not just the product, but the whole scenario in which your message is being delivered, from your reader’s point of view.
And that in turn enables you to realize that, as far as they’re concerned, they are not the ‘reader’. Nor do they see themselves as the ‘audience’, the ‘consumer’, the ‘customer’, the ‘target’, the ‘user’, the ‘browser’, the ‘punter’ or the ‘prospect’.
They are the heroes of their own stories. Selfie-stick extended. Camera slightly higher than the face. Head tilted to one side. Ready for their close-up.”
Substitute ‘reader’ for ‘learner’, and I think that’s spot-on advice for learning designers.
Harrsion, S. (2016). How to Write Better Copy.
👹 Missing links
💊 This Is a Very Weird Moment in the History of Drug Laws
I became interested in the ‘war on drugs’ and its policies after watching The Wire in 2008. The show led me to believe that problems associated with illegal drug-use had a clear but politically unpopular solution. Fast forward 20 years, and what was once politically unthinkable has now become a reality in certain parts of the US. But things haven’t gone quite as well as some might have expected.
Last week, Meta announced its plans to sunset ‘Workplace’, the company’s professional collaboration tool. Pitched as an alternative to Slack and Teams, Workplace provided companies with a platform for internal communications, including news feeds, video calls and live-streaming. Unsurprisingly, the decision is designed to free up Meta’s resources to focus on… you guessed it, AI!
🤖 What do you need to know about GPT-4o?
Last week was a big week for AI nerds, with OpenAI announcing its latest flagship model, GPT-4o. I’ve started to find the pace of AI news almost impossible to keep up with, but thankfully Ross Stevenson has provided a breakdown of the announcement and what it might mean for L&D. Perhaps most interestingly, from the perspective of someone who recently cancelled their ChatGPT Plus subscription, many of the new features are going to be available for free.
👋 And finally…
I somehow missed this a couple of weeks ago, but Paul Auster - one of my favorite writers - recently passed away. In addition to his many novels, Auster also wrote the screenplay for Smoke. Here’s a clip, featuring a terrific performance from Harvey Keitel:
👍 Thanks!
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