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The public relations sector and other industries in the business of persuasion will need to modify their tools. Not overhaul the fundamentals.  Research, as published in Nature Human Behavior , found that moving the needle on points of view via chat bots is more effective if information about who's in the loop is programmed into the technology. Of course, as everyone in communications, as well as politicos and trial lawyers, knows: That circles back to the concept of understanding the details about your audience. Every interaction, no matter the medium, has to be targeted at the audience.  A summary of the findings in the MIT Technology Review puts it this way: "A multi-university team of researchers found that OpenAI’s GPT-4 was significantly more persuasive than humans when it was given the ability to adapt its arguments using personal information about whoever it was debating." No surprise, this opens the door to extreme misuse. Be it a political campaign or a marketi...

Paul Weiss ' signature has been as a Wall Street law firm .  This summer it reinforced that financial branding when it rushed in to help Treasury after a cybersecurity incident . Bloomberg Law reports that the law firm: " ... provided 'urgent cybersecurity assessment services' for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency"   That involved receiving a $4.2 million contract last July and wrapping up the work recently. It was at the end of March that Paul Weiss negotiated a deal with the Trump administration to lift an Executive Order which could have constrained its ability to conduct business. Much of that consisted of an agreement to do pro bono assignments which were in the public interest. The contract with Treasury might have signaled that the law firm has maintained a positive relationship with that administration. And, in contrast to pro-bono work, this was paid.  Some of us might recall that Marc Rowan was in the consideration to be Secretary of the...

Sure, our Social Security benefits could be cut 20% to 25% in eight years. And who knows what will happen to Medicare Advantage . But today is a very nice day, at least so far, in BoomerVille.  Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare 45,123.57 USD ▲  +212.31 (+0.47%) today August 15, 9:31 AM EDT  ·  Market Open Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare UPDATE: 44,946.12 USD ▲  +34.86 (+0.078%) today August 15, 4:20 PM EDT  ·  Market Closed Fizzle out under 45,000. Joy in BoomerVille tempered.

Your job interview will quickly go south if you talk about who you used to be professionally. The same will happen if they pick up that you're set on the high total compensation of your previous employment. The world of work has turned zen: focused on the now. And cheap: They hire the most affordable where's there's a glut of talent. Get it: Most are expendable. In addition, don't take their time telling how things used to be done. That labels you as "old." Yet, too many former Googlers don't get that. On a Blind post about reduced job opportunities as well at deflation in TC and distracting descriptions of out-dated methodologies, there are these observations:  (Sarcasm) " I worked at google therefore everyone should want to hire me over someone with more relevant experience" "Market realized Google L5+ are mostly useless without the internal infra. High comp expectations with little value, and no one wants to listen to 'at Google we u...

  Yes, the Dow, and no one knows why, can hit 45,000. And beyond. Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI: ^DJI 44,738.13 +279.52  (+0.63%) As of Wed. Aug 13, 2025 10:34 AM EDT · Free Realtime Quote (USD) · Market open Also, a 2026 SS COLA of 2.7% isn't that bad, given the scrutiny of the Social Security Administration. We Boomers, who had been the luckiest generation in America, had our confidence in ourselves knocked. It's not all that easy (or affordable) to get what we want. Youth rejects us just like we rejected our parents. In order to land, hold onto and move on to better work we had to let go of so much we thought we knew about success. But as we approach Labor Day, our hearts are less heavy. We might even decide we can pop for the long-weekend getaway, not just a day trip to the free state park. Being frugal can wear you down. Thrown off your game, maybe the first time since you started working? You made all the right moves and then the world moved in another direction. I...

  Sensationalism sells. Or, does it?  The  Reuters Q2 financial index report  on law firms has the meme Eye of the Hurricane. But I have a hunch its influence - and that's what survival is all about these days - is limited.  The supposed grim warning is about the uncertainty in the law-firm sector. What's driving that, notes Reuters, are the old suspects: Possibility of recession Rising expenses Shifting client attitudes.  Also, throw in that M&A is still not where it had been expected to be in the Trump administration. We all know about wild card Generative AI. So? It's unlikely that this documentation of factors has Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Weiss and Skadden scheduling emergency meetings to reflect on any eye of the hurricane. Right now they are still the go-tos for high-stake matters by the heads of legal departments in businesses who don't want to risk being fired. Still embedded in the system is the job-saving ritual of saying, "We hired K&E,...

A former brandname in the public relations agency sector announced on LinkedIn that they are now licensed to sell financial products . Yes, they are over-50. Will this kind of career shift become common in public relations, the way it has been in journalism ? On professional anonymous network Fishbowl PR and Communications there is this observation: "PR jobs are following the trends in journalism jobs from 10 years ago - massive cuts hitting hardest on older/more experienced workers. There simply aren’t enough chairs left for everyone and it’s only going to get worse."  More and more of the standard tasks in PR - in contrast to the high-value strategy ones - can be assigned to the growing number of Generative AI tools.  Of course, small businesses have access to those same tools and can approach their promotional needs DIY. They will have to learn new tricks, such as the transition from SEO (search engine optimization) to Answer Engine Optimization. That includes understan...