Yalim K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)

1) The Industrial Revolution (Machines and Canals)
2) Railways and The Steam Engine
3) Heavy Engineering using Cheap Steal
4) The Automobile, The Assembly Line and Mass Production of Electrical Appliances
5) The Information Revolution

On October 4 2011, with the introduction of Siri in iPhone 4S, a new technological revolution has begun:

6)The Artificial Intelligence Revolution
Siri signals the dawn of a new era in software and technology. In this decade, Artificial Intelligence and its application to business and everyday life will be the driving factor of innovation and economic growth.

A.I. will redefine everything. Cards will be dealt yet again. Commerce, manufacturing, biotech, science, internet, telecom, banking, insurance, homes and even the god damn television finally will succumb to its immense power. No moat, no pile of cash, no monopoly will save any company from extinction unless they catch up to the Artificial Intelligence Revolution.

The Magic of Siri
In the first days of computers, humans needed to know how to punch cards to make the computer do anything. That was really inefficient and could only be done by very few people who have the proper education. Then came the command line and the keyboard. Next in line was GUI and mouse. Recently, we started touching computers to make them do stuff for us.

Every step forward made new kinds of software possible. This new software was easier to use and learn than its predecessor. It was more useful and richer in features, too. At every step forward, not only more people could use computers, they were also able to do more advanced tasks more easily. Today, billions are able to incorporate computers to their daily lives in a useful way. Computers are also at the core of any scientific research in such a way that it is impossible to imagine one that doesn’t use a computer.

Yet still, most software requires special training. Software user interfaces can be so complicated that there are courses, books and certification programs only to learn how to operate them.
You might be a gifted architect but without learning AutoCAD you cannot design a building.

Siri eliminates the need for special training to use software. It throws away the mouse, the keyboard, the menus, the buttons, the tabs, the popup menus, the toolbars. It removes all the obstacles between your abilities and getting tasks done.

A writer doesn’t need to know how to use Word to write a story anymore. He just needs inspiration. An architect does not need to waste time learning AutoCAD to design a building. She just needs to be creative.  An executive does not need to wait a week for the IT department to produce him a new report. He just needs to be savvy enough to ask the right question.

In the next decade, thanks to the middle man called Artificial Intelligence, humans will perceive their computers as indispensable servants. The genuine intelligence of the human mind and the computer’s incredible ability to do dull work at amazing speeds will melt together. You will talk, you will touch, you will imagine and the servant will make it happen.

The Opportunity is not Artificial
The incredible thing about Siri or A.I. in general is that it departmentalizes knowledge. A.I. learns about topics. Today, Siri answers simple trivia questions, makes restaurant recommendations, talks about the weather and performs the tasks you can do with your phone such as setting up reminders and appointments.

There are a gazillion of other tasks that we do with our computers. A.I. needs to be thought to do all of them. It should be thought to make spreadsheets, draw 3D graphics or execute business processes.

In this decade, our job as software developers will be to teach the A.I. how to perform these tasks. It will all happen gradually. First, we are going to build bridges between the A.I and existing software. We will teach it how to use Excel. Next, we will rebuild Excel from ground up specifically optimized for A.I. Finally, there will be no Excel, just A.I. that knows how to prepare a spreadsheet. The App Store won’t sell Pages, Numbers and Keynote. It will sell the ability of preparing a document, spreadsheet and presentation. You will download an ability and your Siri will learn how to accomplish a task.

This way of thinking will be applied to all software. Software for every business task you can imagine such as budgeting, accounting, hiring will have to be rethought, reengineered and rebuilt in the light of A.I., possibly several times over.

The Pain will not be Artificial
What A.I. will do to current jobs and businesses will be difficult to watch. Everytime it learns to do something, there will be people and companies that are left behind. They will feel like someone just ripped off one of their limps. Imagine A.I. helps you prepare your monthly reports. Will you need the staff in the IT department who knows how to write reports and screens?

If A.I. knows about insurance, will you ever google for it? What if A.I. can help you with loans, morgage rates, attorneys, credit, donation, getting a degree, finding a hosting solution, accident claim, setting up a conference call and credit card balance transfer which happen to be the top 10 keywords Google makes its money from. What then? What if your business depends on Google for customers?

I could go on and on with examples but I think the point is loud and clear.

You are in or You are Out
This is not some futuristic bullshit. It is not intellectual masturbation. It is all happening now. Entrepreneurs; start imagining and prepare your pitches. VC’s; make your bets. Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, eBay and the like; either wake up and catch up to IBM and Apple or become irrelevant along the way. Traditional software developers; adapt or join the unemployment line. Managers; save a seat for the invisible member of every meeting. And as last but not the least…Consumers; buckle up, because this is going to be an amazing ride.

And to think that when Siri debuted, the crowd was disappointed that there was no IPhone 5 with a wider screen…

Yalim K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)

18 Ekim saat 15:45’de, İTÜ ARI 2 A Blok toplantı salonunda tanışma toplantımızı düzenliyoruz.

Neden Bir Tanışma Toplantısı Düzenliyoruz?

Bu toplantıyı kendim için düzenliyorum ben. Bundan onbeş sene önceki kendim için. O zamanlar durumum feciydi. Dünyadan haberim yoktu. Gözümün önünde internet devrimi oluyordu, bilgisayar mühendisliğinde okuyordum ama benim bütün yaptığım haytalıktı. O günlere dönmek, kendimi kolumdan tutup iki çift laf söylemek, iki tokat atmak için yanıp tutuşuyorum. Bu asla ama asla yapamayacağım şeye beni en çok yaklaştıran, biraz gönlüme su serpen sizinle konuşmak olacak.

Size nasıl yardım edebiliriz onu bulmak için toplanıyoruz. Yarı zamanlı iş mi? Staj mı? Büyüyünce ne olmak istediğinizi mi bilmiyorsunuz? Bir projeniz var da, kafanız karışık fikir alışverişinde bulunacak birine mi ihtiyacınız var? CV’nizde güzel duracak bir projede çalışıp tecrübe mi kazanmak istiyorsunuz? İlerde bir şirket kurmak istiyorsunuz da anneniz “Git adam gibi bir işe gir!” diye cesaretinizi mi kırıyor? Sevgilinizden ayrıldınız canınız mı sıkkın? Gelin konuşalım.

Sevgili Yalım, lütfen gel konuşalım…

Yalım K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)

Facebook’taki etkinlik sayfasından katılacağını belirtirsen çok seviniriz.

Siri that made her debut a day before Steve Jobs passed away, will be remembered as his latest and greatest gift to mankind.

He will be remembered not only as someone who brought computers to the masses or revolutionized the movie industry or the music industry or the phones or reinvented computers but the one who brought artificial intelligence to the masses.

IPhone 4S received the most wary reviews since the first announcement of iPad and we all know how that has turned out. Ipad’s success will pale in comparison to Siri’s effect in our lives. His best is yet to come.

Did you really think that he left the stage without one more thing?

Yalim K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)

It will never work against you
However, if you are under dressed, it may work against you. A business meeting with a client you’ve just met is not the place to make a statement about your life style. You have your personal time for that.

Scientifically it is the right thing to do
Transactional Analysis divides how people spend their time into six categories. A business meeting falls under the 4th category of time structuring, called Work. During Work, people focus on accomplishing a certain goal, together. Getting any deeper than that and trying to be more intimate is not expected and may unpleasantly surprise the other party especially if you’ve just only met.

Sometimes a suit is just a suit
Some people worry that wearing a suit will give them a suck-up or a too desperate look. This is just reflections of inner fears. There is no correlation between wearing a suit and one’s lack of self-esteem. Dressing up does not make you less confident (or more confident for that matter). By that logic, homeless people with shabby clothes must have the highest self esteem among all of us.

It might just look good on you
Hey, you never know…

Yalım K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)

What the heck does that mean?
Interested? Good. Read on.

Transactional Analysis in 60 seconds
Transactional Analysis, a theory of psychology and psychoanalysis, says that there are actually three people living in you and trying to take control of you. The Parent, the Adult and the Child.

Meet the Parent
The parent criticizes, judges, and undercuts. He creates imaginary fears and scares the hell out of you. He will not let you create a Facebook account, citing security reasons. He will not let you write that blog post, threatening with ridicule. He will not let you quit your job and found a startup, foretelling doom. In the extreme, he may make you genuinely think that you are being surveilled by evil people. He is against every interesting, fun thing you do that makes life…you know…life. He constantly reminds sins, rules, laws and ethics…He is the Dr. McCoy in you.

The Fascinating Adult
The Adult is the logical one. He is the Mr. Spock in you. He processes information like a computer and executes his decisions like one. Like a Vulcan, the Adult has no emotions whatsoever, which means he has no fear, does not feel love or compassion, and does not regret his actions. These all sound great and make a very interesting TV character to watch. In real life, these are symptoms of psychopaths.

The Child in You
Meet the Captain Kirk in you. He is adventurous, courageous and spontaneous. He is in a whirlwind of emotions and passions. He composes songs, plays games and falls in love. The Child is a little crazy, very funny and truly adorable. He is also extremely vulnerable.

The Secret to Happiness
The secret to being happy in life is to let the Child in you have his way, while the Adult in you is closely watching his actions. After all, it was Kirk who was the Captain of the Enterprise while Mr. Spock was watching over him. They didn’t even allow McCoy to the bridge.

Yalım K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)

He refuses to interact with a computer.
To put things in perspective, every member of the family owns at least one computer and presented the advantages of owning one to him repeatedly. He never even touched a computer and seemed genuinely offended by the presence of one. Even at the (quite modern) hospital where he worked as the pharmacist, he refused to touch the computer and made his assistant do the work. He took his principle to extremes when he made the janitor use the computer while the assistant was on vacation. In an audit, the inspector asked him to produce a report but neither the assistant nor the janitor was around. One can only imagine his predicament. To this day, he claims that he randomly pressed a button on the computer and the report started printing.

He’s never owned a smart phone.
He couldn’t resist the cell phone. He bought one in 1996 and stuck with it. Since a smart phone has a CPU, which is technically against his principles, he dismissed the idea of owning one right then and there.

He’s never owned an email address.
I think he is the only person in Turkey below sixty and who doesn’t have an email address.

On July 17 2011, my uncle stayed at my parents for a few days. One day he casually lied down on the couch and started reading on his iPad. He gave up on the idea of introducing computers to his brother long time ago. To his surprise my father showed an enormous interest to iPad and asked many questions. He loved the fact that, he could buy an app and just look at beautiful painting while listening to music. He loved to touch items on the screen make them do things.

On July 18 2011 my father bought an iPad.
No matter how many billions of dollars they made, Gates, Dell, Page and Brin were not able to get a penny from my father. Steve Jobs sold my father an iPad for $499, a cover for $69, and an app for $0.99.

Steve Jobs found a way through my father’s stubbornness, resistance and denial. He showed us the path. And for that I am thankful…

Yalım K. Gerger (@yalimgerger)