About Dirk
I'm Dirk, and not a techie. But I am curious.
Who I am
Until recently I was a business consultant. I helped small and large organisations, often in government, to bring in innovation with the help of digitalisation. My passion was applying new, innovative possibilities, where and when they make sense. I never programmed myself. I did the organising around it: guiding and coordinating change. I was always looking for ways to work smarter and more handily, myself and within the organisations I worked for.
By now I'm retired and have stopped regular work. These days I only do photography. I like to photograph nature, and together with others I have an olive grove in Molise, in Italy.
Why this site?
I use a few dozen AI assistants for home, family and my company. I want to show honestly how that goes: month by month, with what it costs, what it brings, what went wrong and what I always keep deciding myself.
Now that I'm retired, I have time for my hobbies. But I also wanted to do a bit more for others. The assistants save time, and I can also do more with them: for myself, but also for others.
What drives me
- I enjoy putting new technology to use.
- I enjoy giving advice.
- I enjoy helping others reach concrete results.
- I'm always looking for smarter, handier ways of working.
- This site is my kind of volunteer work.
There's a lot of news about AI, but little about how an ordinary user works with it in daily life. That's what I want to show, without difficult words.
Why personal contact comes first
The assistants do the routine work. That leaves me more time and attention for people and for my own ideas. Not instead of them. The assistant makes the list; I make the call, do the cooking and choose the photo myself.
An example: last week, in between other things, I made three websites, simply on the road in the car.
Looking for balance
My experience so far: working with AI is a search for balance between AI and personal contact. Sending someone long AI texts because you think it's helpful isn't always appreciated, however relevant they may be. Sometimes a person would simply rather have direct contact.
Back in business you sometimes earned 'bonus points' when you came to an existing client with advice they hadn't asked for yet. They weren't used to that. With the rise of AI I sometimes thought of the old saying: give a child a hammer and everything turns into a nail. You try to use it whether it fits or not. But that's part of it, and you learn by trial and error when it works and when it doesn't. The key is to keep the personal contact, so you can talk it over.
Keep thinking for yourself
An assistant can prepare a lot. But the idea, the choice and the conversation remain mine. I use AI to think better, not to hand over the thinking.