I am by nature a curious person. I spend a lot of time trying to answer questions, which is why I love my job and what has contributed to my success as a tech journalist. One term that was popular was “life-long learner” (as I wrote about this term in relation to my non-retirement strategy back in 2021) but I think curiosity is a better description. I noticed that many analysts looking at our AI-enabled future have called attention to this skill as something we will need to cultivate and develop. So in this post, I want to examine what it will take to train folks to become more curious.

Before you do any formal training, it helps to understand what type of learner that you are. We all learn in different ways: some of us have to go through the actual experience — these people respond better to tactile situations. Others learn better through more visual or auditory cues and need materials specializing in these methods.

How do you figure this out? One way is to take this short online quiz to find out which style you are. Once armed with this data, you should focus your attention on situations that offer those types of materials so you can learn things your way and retain it better. For example, if you are an auditory learner, you may wish to listen to recorded lectures or presentations. This is a boon for online webinars, where you can stop, rewind, and replay the key portions. In some cases, you might want to take notes, or recite what was just said to fix the concepts in your mind.

If you are more of a visual learner, then by all means be sure that you look carefully at the study materials. Use charts, maps, movies, notes and flashcards. Practice visualizing or picturing words/concepts in your mind. Finally, if you are a tactile learner, think about ways that you can involve more of your senses besides just watching a particular lecture. Make study sheets and refer to them often.

But knowing how you learn is just one part of your journey. Next comes having the right motivations. I have been lucky to be a self-starter and get myself motivated, whether that involves writing one of these essays or tackling a more in-depth project. Sometimes, just seeking knowledge isn’t enough. If you’re not that motivated to learn, find someone who’s also interested in becoming more curious. That link will take you to other suggestions on how to become more curious. Here is another resource, posted on the site Natural Training, which describes the ten most common habits of curious people. Things like listening without judging, willing to be wrong, and staying in the moment are all important skills to acquire.

I was thinking about this when I read something that Naomi Wu, a Chinese maker, said recently about how the education of Asian students has to change. “The key skill- prompting, asking questions. Is something our kids are generally not taught and are often quite poor at. I’d even say it’s discouraged. The ability to ask good questions becomes incredibly important with AI.” I saw this first-hand when I gave lectures in Singapore and Japan years ago: I had to seed the audience with someone who was willing to ask the first question to break the ice.

Longtime freelancing colleague Pam Baker’s forthcoming book on ChatGPT, has more tips on how to become an expert at using these tools. She told me, “Many worry that ChatGPT will erode the critical thinking skills of users. But that’s not likely because the most successful users will employ advanced critical thinking skills in forming prompts. The key is not in what you say to the machine, but in how you say it.” She tells me she is also putting together classes on LinkedIn Learning on the topic too.

I was thinking how fortunate I have been in my job as a freelance journalist. I have been able to to call up all sorts of people and ask them questions about their lives and jobs, as I wrote about ten years ago when I described two of my sources in this blog post on how to question everything. The two people had an insatiable curiosity for the unknown, to be constantly learning something new, and figuring out how the world works. While that extreme case of hyper-curiosity might not be your cup of tea, it might make you more motivated to become more curious about something.

Last week Shou Chew, the CEO of the American TikTok, was called on the US House hearing room carpet. Combining the current anti-China paranoia with social media crimes against teenagers was a potent political mix that brought a tremendous amount of bipartisan angst. The five hour hearing was attended by seemingly the entire House membership, and for me it was noteworthy in that almost none of the members were folks that I have ever heard of, but all managed to ask unanswerable questions that they demanded simple yes or no answers so they could save time for their own take.

The best commentary was Jimmy Kimmel who simulated what the app does on his show (shown here at right). More insights from Casey Newton here.

Also last week, Utah became the first state to place legal restrictions on social media usage by children (<18).  This law goes into effect in a year; we’ll see how they will enforce it, which will be difficult. TikTok seems to be included in its framework, although Google might not be (there is an exemption for online emails, so Gmail might not apply but YouTube might be covered).

The hearing wasn’t a total time waster. In addition to getting acquainted with our Congress (a couple of whom actually have had tech jobs, interestingly), it also brought to the public’s attention a few reports that I will highlight here. But what I saw was that America will probably join others in some form of ban, whether it be just for the government employees (as the US has done, as have the UK and France did last week) or something that is contemplated by other bills that are making their way through Congress.

Second best commentary was by security maven Bruce Schneier, who wrote last month  “There’s no doubt that TikTok and ByteDance, the company that owns it, are shady. If we want to address the real problem, we need to enact serious privacy laws, not security theater, to stop our data from being collected, analyzed, and sold—by anyone.” He explored on the blog various kinds of bans, all of which would be ineffective or place Chinese-style restrictions across our internet. That message was lost on Congress, sadly. The UK ban is ineffective if you use your own Wifi or data provider, for example.

The relationship between TikTok and its parent company was explored in detail in this report done for the Australian Senate and released earlier this month. This was cited several times by various Congress members. The research found that ByteDance should be considered as a hybrid state/private entity, collaborating closely with the government on its operations. Chew made an effort to show TikTok’s independence from its parent and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an effort that fell on deaf ears and “didn’t pass the smell test” as one member said. The report looked closely at two days’ worth of content last November and compared the depictions of the CCP across TikTok when compared with what was posted on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. While the researchers couldn’t assess the cause, they did find both Twitter and TikTok had more pro-CCP content than YouTube or Instagram.

Another issue is how TikTok tracks users across the internet. Consumer Reports did a report last fall that found hundreds of organizations sharing data with TikTok using tracking pixels and other canvas fingerprinting techniques. Before you sound any alarms, these are common for Facebook, Google, and numerous commercial websites, and TikTok’s tracking efforts are a small fraction of what these other companies do. Still Chew’s answers were less than satisfying in this area.

Much was made about the differences between the TikTok app we use in the USA versus the ByteDance app called Douyin that is only available in China. The excellent Citizen Lab issued a report last year that examined what data leaks from both apps. Not surprisingly, the Chinese app had more potential security and privacy issues, although the researchers said neither app had any noticeable malware characteristics.

So let’s answer some questions.

Is the TikTok app spying on its users? Not according to Citizen Lab and other security analysts. Could it become weaponized? Sure. But so could any other phone app.

What else should the government ban on its own phones? Well, if you are going to ban TikTok, how about deleting dozens of other apps that collect private data too? That is what France just did, or is trying to do. Good luck with that.

Will selling the company accomplish anything? Not really, other than improved optics. Look no further than Facebook to show misuse of data by a wholly-owned American company. Ownership doesn’t mean total control.

What about the Oracle Cloud migration? TikTok is making a big effort towards migrating its servers to the Oracle Cloud, and promises to keep all US data on these servers eventually. That clearly comes under the heading of “security theater,” since these servers can still transmit anything back to their Chinese parent company. Chew made a big deal about the Oracle project, but what he neglected to say is that any third-party code audit would be nearly impossible, since the servers started out in a pristine “bare metal” state and TikTok could put anything on them. I am not sure what is accomplished here other than having better app latency for US users. Again, a lot of effort to improve optics, but not much else.

“There may be nothing I’ve seen wreck the careers of high-performing, hardworking people more commonly than stepping into a manager role the person isn’t ready for,” tweeted Kieran Snyder earlier this month. The CEO of linguistic analysis firm Textio then follows up this with some very cogent remarks about knowing when to take that leap into management that really resonated with me.

This is because I faced a similar circumstance in my own career back in 1990, when I took the job to run Network Computing, a brand new computer publication. I have often mentioned that decision as a pivot point in my professional life in these essays, At that time, I was managing a group of about a dozen editors for PC Week — and this would be a big promotion to running an entire publication, hiring its entire staff, and learning how to get the magazine from words to a coherent whole. It shaped the rest of my career, to be sure.

I also addressed this topic a couple of years ago in this post about whether super coders should take the next step into management. It is worth reviewing that piece and listening to a discussion with Jaya Baloo and Troy Hunt on the subject.

Snyder lays out four important questions you need to ask yourself whether or not you are ready:

1. Can you communicate complex expectations clearly? And behind this question is also holding people accountable — and avoiding eventual disappointments — for these expectations too. Even when you know this, it is still hard to achieve. “This is an issue I have faced, and often management fails to set clear expectations,” said Alan Elmont, who has been a recruiter and staffing professional for decades. “This has been particularly an issue with small companies or mid-sized companies that are growing too quickly.”
2. Can you engage and mange conflicts well? Being fair in these fights is more important that being well-liked.
3. Where do you fit in the scale between being a hero and being predictable? “Managers mostly do hero work to compensate when their team isn’t delivering,” she says. That could be caused by a variety of failures, such as unclear feedback or expectations or poor solutions delivery — or a combination.
4. Finally, do you have the right combination of technical skills and a solid functional foundation to properly lead your team? That is a tough one to dispassionately assess, either by yourself or with your prospective hiring manager.

Now let me take another moment from my career when I got a job to run another publication. It was a major failure, and because I couldn’t do any of the first three things that Snyder mentioned above. I barely lasted a year there before being fired. I should have spent more time understanding the lay of the landscape and the management style of my eventual boss. Now, this happened years after my Network Computing anecdote, so you would think being older and more experienced I would have spotted the danger signs. But no, I was too caught up in the thrill of being chased for a new job. Live and learn.

While on the topic of career development, I had an opportunity to talk to a group of mid-career folks who are considering jobs in cybersecurity this week. You can see my slides below, and some of the issues that we discussed.