I was recently reading about the failure of the Humane AI Pin, and it made me think of Jeff Hilimire’s new book “Dream Small“, which is being released today.
The book is fantastic, and is a very short read (77 pages). It shares how “the smallest of actions can create the largest ripples” and it’s well worth an hour of your time to read it. Here’s a good snippet that showcases the focus of the book, from the middle of a conversation between “Charles” and “Will”:
“One thing that Stanley pointed out to me was that when they helped a nonprofit, no matter the size of the effort or the charity itself, he felt like he was doing purposeful work. He said he tried to get other agencies to do the same, but they’d always start by focusing on how big of an impact they could have, and they’d spin up a committee and make plans, and … it would never happen.” “Interesting,” Will said. “So the fact that they were thinking so big ultimately stalled them from making any progress at all. That’s part of my problem, too.”
Big dreams can be amazing, but it’s often better to start small and build from there.
The Humane AI Pin
The Humane AI Pin had some bold ideas, and that’s essentially what killed it. They tried to replace your phone instead of working with it, but it wasn’t nearly capable enough to do that. As a result, you had a separate device, with a separate phone number, and a separate monthly bill. I appreciate what they were trying to do, as some day there may be a device like this that indeed replaces your phone, but it’s far too early for that. Their bold approach simply wasn’t applicable today.
Humane should have taken the better approach to “dream small”.
The Meta Ray-Ban glasses are a perfect example of this. They’re fantastic glasses with great features, but they work with your phone instead of trying to replace it. When I’m wearing them I get a handy camera, speakers, and AI tools, all working in conjunction with my phone. For this day and age, that’s perfect.
We’ll see what comes in future years for tech, but for today I encourage you to grab a copy of Jeff’s book and appreciate the amazing power in dreaming just a little bit smaller.
