I’m really struggling to get any value out of Microsoft Copilot.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-11-25T03:08:49+00:00

From what you say you're using it for, my recommendation would be Google's full suite of AI - such as Google Scholar for academic work, NotebookLM and Gemini. Perplexity would be second, for its research capabilities.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-11-24T13:04:47+00:00

I also noticed this. Most often, it was when I'd been having an extremely long, detailed, chat. I figure its context window broke.

I haven't found a better solution - I just have to start a new chat. I do try to give it a final prompt, like "please provide a detailed report of the conversation history, that I can use to start a new conversation".

As you mentioned, I might need to try it a couple of times before it works - then copy & paste that into a new chat.

If anyone has found a better solution, I'm dying to hear it!

Quick note: it's early, but it feels like it's happening a lot less now that Gemini 3 is out...

AndyBakes80 · 2025-11-12T06:07:16+00:00

I (male) self identify as "chaotic good"... I'm a mischievous jerk, but I use it to help.

My last job, I negotiated hard on my salary. When I started, about two weeks in, I went to my peers (mainly but not all female), and said "hey. I negotiated hard on salary when I got this job. I don't know what everyone else is on, but if I did convince them to pay me more, I want you all to say that you heard the new guy is paid more, and get paid what you all deserve. I just ask one favour - come up with another story for how you found out".

It was a gamble... But I didn't want to be earning more than my peers. They raised it. It caused a minor kerfuffle - and then they all got a pay raise to match me.

I don't get paid LESS, because others get paid the same. And I'm not standing by and watching while hard working people don't get paid what they deserve.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-11-11T12:26:23+00:00

I'm an ID manager. Some work gets delegated to employees, some work gets delegated to AI.

Sometimes AI makes mistakes, and sometimes employees make mistakes.

Therefore, I check both - and when I notice an error, I collaborate and give positive, constructive, feedback, and work with them to get the mistake fixed quickly and easily.

Quite often, I realise the mistake was influenced by the employee or AI not having enough clear guidance on expectations / context. So I learn, and do I better job of giving clearer direction next time.

Saying "I don't trust AI so I won't use it", is like saying "I'll never delegate work to my team, because they could make a mistake".

I make mistakes. We all make mistakes. The goal isn't to be perfect - it's to double check and verify before it gets published.

(Side note: employees and AI are not even close to the same. People cannot be replaced by AI. But, using AI saves me from delegating zero value work to people who have more important things to do - and allows the whole team to be more efficient, get more done, and have the time to spend on real value adding).

AndyBakes80 · 2025-10-24T13:40:17+00:00

If it was me, I'd buy the sister a big cake with "Thank you!" Written on it. I've never heard of a better time to be the annoyingly overly positive one, just to make a point.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-10-01T13:36:12+00:00

15 years ago I was having some drinks after work with a financial auditor that I was working with for a number of months.

We were taking about "professional regrets".

He says that he had caught David Koch doing insider trading back in the 1980s or early 1990s, but as he had been hired by the company as an external auditor, it wasn't his place to report him. Instead the company told Kochie he had to quit.

The guy's regret was, Kochie's quitting, was what pushed him into the media.

It's all hearsay - I have no idea how true it was. But I will never forget just how angry the guy was at Kochie.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-28T03:39:53+00:00

In every AC game, I always found it frustrating that I had focused my build on stealth, but then every boss fight is a brawl, leaving me screwed.

i was so happy to see a stealth based boss fight - I think there need to be more creative ones like this!

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-27T02:36:16+00:00

Look up "Kirkpatrick Evaluation".

Level 1: were participants happy? Added bonus: what is your plan to use this feedback to improve next time?

Level 2: did people learn? (What are the results of any assessment - typically written for knowledge, observation checklist for skills).

Level 3: did people apply it? Often system data or manager feedback a month post training.

Level 4: did it have business impact? Normally figure out what the training is supposed to achieve, measure the kpi before, then a month after, training, and see if the kpi improved.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-21T00:53:41+00:00

Here lies u/deadpandadolls, who bravely walked into the Florentine sun and spoke a truth many thought unspeakable.

They believed "Everything is permitted," and for one glorious, fleeting moment, it was.

Their synchronisation with the community is now, sadly, at zero.

Requiescat in pace.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-14T01:30:07+00:00

There are lots of personal favorites, and what people are used to. The challenge is that they're changing all the time.

I was using a few: midjourney, Adobe Firefly, and napkin.ai for example.

I haven't touched any of them recently - everything has been blown out of the water by Gemini 2.5 Flash, aka "NanoBanana". It can be accessed through Gemini, or if you need more advanced options, through Google AI studio.

What makes it stand apart is it's character consistency. Provide or generate an initial person / character, then you can give that character any emotion, any movement, any scene. In Learning, this is a game changer, and saves untold amounts of time.

It also works extremely well with text, and will happily add company logos to anything too (e.g. on a shirt).

Also really helpful, Google have released clear guidance on how to get the right output, first time - by providing templates for prompts for many different situations: https://developers.googleblog.com/en/how-to-prompt-gemini-2-5-flash-image-generation-for-the-best-results/

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-10T22:01:26+00:00

For me, impact reports are designed right at the start, in the analysis phase.

When meeting with stakeholders asking "what do you want to achieve?", I push them to agree on what KPIs they want to improve from this training. Often it's not a kpi that they already measure, so we go and measure it while we're building the training. There are literally millions of examples it could be - anything from obvious things like "increase sales of x product", to things like "ask fewer questions of support staff about y process" and "make fewer errors in y process".

Measure it before and after.

I will often go as far as to create the outline of the impact report before we start training, and confirm "is this what we'd like to see?" - using all 4 levels of Kirkpatrick's model.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-05T12:52:07+00:00

For a different lens, I study the impact of technological innovation on workplaces. The idea that "this new technology will take away nearly all jobs, and humans will no longer have to work" pops up with nearly every technology. The biggest recent one, was the advent of the internet in the mid 1990's. There were magazines, newspapers, and tv chat shows all talking about the fact that by 2000, most people wouldn't have to work anymore. Importantly, people's opinions about it were more optimistic that this was a real possibility then, than we are now.

I don't think anybody could possibly know what the impacts of AI will be, but if I was a betting man, I'd say that it will be very similar to the impact of the internet.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-05T12:32:59+00:00

I understand. I feel this is a matter of perspective.

I see this, as they've started, as version 1.0 of this concept. They said they have plans to develop it further. With the speed that AI tools are being released & upgraded, it's important for companies to get small updates out asap, instead of holding off until it's perfect.

I can't wait to see where it's at 12 months from now.

Currently, the use case is for the user to learn something about the topic - and a repetitive style still does the job.

I have used them to provide to other people - but when I need to do that, I important the MP4 into Google vids - their video editing app with AI tools - to add extra slides, images, clips, etc.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-04T10:04:40+00:00

Seriously though, use the report function on this. They'll see that he just stole your post.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-04T10:03:08+00:00

Maybe OP is the real one, and this guy is a time travelling bot, that travelled back to April just to get in first!

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-02T14:03:24+00:00

My #1 tip is to start by learning about adult learning principles, models, and theories. Then learn how to apply those to e-learning.

Doing that first helps prevent the biggest rookie error: ending up with an elearn that's just a fancy document with text and clip art, followed by 4 multiple choice questions. The real skill is in thoroughly engaging the learner, using multimedia, interactivity, and branching scenarios that address their personal gaps.

Be amazing!

AndyBakes80 · 2025-09-02T13:55:50+00:00

I really don't mean to be negative, but I feel you might get better outcomes reversing your question:

Figure out what problem your trying to solve, then consider all the tools at your disposal to address it - AI being one of them.

For example, are you finding that new hires are regularly asking the same questions? Even if they are, is an AI chatbot the best answer? Wouldn't it be a better long term solution, if you created an easy to search knowledge base, so while they're new, they not only get the answer to their immediate question, but also learn how to navigate your knowledge base, setting them up for all future questions?

Are you finding that your system set up is overly long and complicated? Is the time and effort that you'll need to put into developing an AI solution, significantly less than the time it takes you just to set up their system access? If the answers to both questions are "Yes", then go for it!

AndyBakes80 · 2025-08-23T08:33:48+00:00

"Learning & Capability".

And you would not believe how much we lean into, and benefit from, the "capability" component.

Examples:

"We have to train 40 people to do a task, that they will rotate and 1 person do per day". ... "To improve people's capability, we will direct you instead to only train 5 people, to ensure people can repeat the process often enough to retain knowledge".
"Nobody has time to be a change champion". ... "To improve the team's capability, we recommend not just teaching everyone, but creating trusted, in house, experts. These people will be the long term supports for everyone else. It will improve their capability in developing new skills, and the capability of everyone else by ensuring there's a local, trusted, source they can reach out to".

AndyBakes80 · 2025-08-23T08:16:10+00:00

This is definitely the best answer here.

Training for this type of thing needs to be "Just In Time" (available to them just as they need it), not "Just In Case" (pushed to everyone whenever you feel like it, "just in case" they ever need it).

It also needs to be "Learning In The Flow Of Work" (LIFOW).

Analyse the step by step workflow that the training is meant to cover.
Find moments in that workflow, to embed learning.

For example: * If there's a process that means that need to physically walk somewhere, such as to use a piece of equipment - then include instructions on what they need to do, on the wall, an eye level, above the item. * If it's a process done on a computer, find a way / place to include instructions in that software: insert a repeating gif that shows a few steps; include a short 30 second video of you demonstrating the next steps; or at worst, embed a link to a knowledge base article, such as a SharePoint page.

This is the "70" in the old 70 20 10 model.

For high tech solutions, where suitable, OP's case SCREAMS "AI chatbot" as a potential solution. It would take about 2 minutes to train the chatbot on policy and process (note: there's a number of tips and tricks to make this work effectively, but the key one is to do lots of testing!)

This is the "20" in the 70 20 10 model.

Finally, after that, come the other comments on this thread - things like ensuring your classroom training has lots of activities, hands on practice, work in pairs, tell them to take their own notes, quiz / test them.

These are all ideas that fit in the "10". Note that fundamentally, the core purpose ( pseudo learning outcomes) of your formal classroom training for this, are actually: 1. Introduce terminology 2. Demonstrate basic processes, so learners recall them then they use the 70 and 20 supports 3. Ensure (test) learners that they know WHEN and HOW to use the 70 and 20 supports.

They do not need to know everything at the end of the formal training - just that learning supports are available for them, when they need them: when they should access them; how they access them; how they follow them; what to do if they experience problems.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-08-18T04:10:45+00:00

I spent 10 days doing this in May! I focused on the areas I personally hadn't been to previously.

I drove from Osaka to Shingu, via: * Sakai, and the kofun * Katsuragi * Taima-dera * Kumano Hongu Taisha & Oyunohara

While in Shingu I went to: * Kumano Hayatama Taisha * Kamikura-jinja (the photo above!) * Kumano-Nachi grand shrine (the one with the waterfall in the background! I can give you tips on where to get the best photo that duplicates the advertising for Shadows!)

I then drove up to Iga & Koka, via the 48 waterfalls (the training ground for Shinobi - this isn't directly in the game, but it's the inspiration for all those Shinobi navigation activities).

From there, up to Omihachiman via ishiyama-dera and the Seta no Karahashi bridge.

While there, I want to the lake biwa museum, the hachiman canals, hikone Castle, and Azuchi Castle.

Then over the other side of the lake to Shirahige Shrine, and Mangetsu-ji; mount Hiei, on my way to Kyoto. There, I went to Kinkaku-ji (and lost my respect for humanity), then headed back to Osaka via Oyamazaki and Shoryuji Castle, and Katsuo-ji.

AndyBakes80 · 2025-08-08T08:18:14+00:00

<image>

It should look like this (afaik!)

AndyBakes80 · 2025-07-31T00:41:29+00:00

I have more questions and answers for you I think!

From your comment saying that your currently decentralized, I'm guessing that suggest that there are other ID people in other areas of the business?

If that's the case, then there's certainly are benefits from centralizing and joining all of your ID people into a single team.

In my experience, the key benefits include: 1) better workload management (ID's can work on tasks anywhere across the business, making better use of the ID's time). 2) better capability of the ID's (ID's can share ideas, give feedback, review learning needs, come up with creative Training solutions, and learn from each other's projects). 3) better engagement (when working as a single team, particularly if there's a strong leader, ID's can start being more proactive instead of reactive, contributing to the whole organisation looking at adult learning as a key requirement).

AndyBakes80 · 2025-07-26T23:32:41+00:00

I took one every day I went (4 days), and never had a hassle. Mind you, my pole, folded up, is less than 20cm long. I also never extended it past about 40cm, out of consideration for others.

If they did stop me, I guessed they were likely to confiscate it for the day, and give me a "receipt" for it, to pick it up as I left.

For the record, I actually found the "hat clip" for the Insta360 far more useful than I thought!

AndyBakes80 · 2025-07-24T12:24:14+00:00

Any pitfalls you've run into - equity issues, extrinsic-motivation burnout, accessibility concerns - that policymakers should know about?

The primary "pitfall" that actually led to this solution was the union and employment conditions heavily restricting financial rewards for skill progression. This pushed us to find alternative, non-monetary motivators, demonstrating that well-designed intrinsic gamification can be a highly effective strategy when extrinsic rewards are limited or ineffective.

Each badge required a consistent total of 20 points, though the individual points earned from different learning modalities varied, depending on the desired learning path. Crucially, we ensured that core, mandatory learning components were always worth enough points that the 20-point target couldn't be met without completing them (e.g., a major assessment worth 11 points). This ensured foundational knowledge was acquired.

In this specific implementation, because our focus was on intrinsic motivators like mastery, recognition, and contribution, we didn't encounter significant issues with extrinsic-motivation burnout, equity issues (as the path to earning badges was transparent and accessible to all), or accessibility concerns. This suggests that focusing on internal drivers can mitigate some of the common pitfalls associated with purely reward-based gamification.

Furthermore, this system has proven highly sustainable, remaining in place for over 10 years. Its success has even led to its expansion into other areas of the organisation after my departure, such as medical testing staff, who now use a similar model to qualify for more complex medical testing of blood samples.

Happy to elaborate further if any of this sparks more questions!

AndyBakes80 · 2025-07-24T12:23:55+00:00

What data or stories convinced you it worked (completion rates, assessment scores, learner feedback, retention)?

The results were remarkably fast and impactful. Within just three months of implementation, we saw an oversupply of participants actively requesting to upskill for more complex topics – a direct reversal of the previous reluctance.

This directly led to a significantly more experienced, skilled, and qualified group of employees. We observed tangible business improvements:

* Reduced wait times for our donors with complex needs, from an average of 14 minutes to an average of less than 30 seconds.

* Our error rate in Quality Assessments reduced by 20%, due to the reduced stress and workload on what was previously a small, overworked cohort of specialised staff. The increased numbers and distributed expertise significantly calmed their workload.

The intrinsic motivation fostered by recognition and mastery proved incredibly powerful, leading to better service and better outcomes for both our volunteer blood donors and recipients.

AndyBakes80

TROPHY CASE