--- title: "Essays" summary: "Essays by Nathan Phinney." url: "https://nathanphinney.com/essays/" author: "Nathan Phinney" author_role: "COO, AllSafe IT" author_url: "https://nathanphinney.com/about/" same_as: ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney"] expertise: ["IT", "InfoSec", "Managed Services", "Cybersecurity", "Business Operations", "Technology for Escrow Companies", "Technology for Nonprofits"] updated: 2026-10-10 --- Essays by Nathan Phinney: 7 pieces, newest first. Each entry gives the date, the summary, and the opening paragraph. ## 6 TV Shows That Get Technology So Right Date: 2025-01-17 Television has a rocky relationship with technology. This is a list of six shows that capture the complexity, absurdity, and humanity in our relationship with it. Television has a rocky relationship with technology. Because lazy writers use it to plug plot holes. For every believable portrayal of tech, there are dozens of cringe-worthy moments where Hollywood gets it hilariously wrong. Notably, I recall an episode of _24_ where they "hacked into the trunk line" by attaching an alligator clip to the outside of an insulated Cat5 cable. Also several episodes of CSI and other shows where they take a single pixel from a frame of a CCTV recording and _ENHANCE_ it into a reflection of someone's face on the glass of a wristwatch. These moments make us groan, but they also make us appreciate the rare ones that get IT and tech culture _right_. - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/top-6-tv-shows-that-get-technology-right.md ## Be More Daring Than AI Date: 2024-10-07 LLMs are talented at consensus, which means a flood of boring, derivative ideas. Humans have no choice but to take risks. LLMs, as we've [discussed](https://nathanphinney.com/llms-are-very-good-at-family-feud/), are talented at consensus, because they are designed to average concepts together. This means that we're seeing a flood of "generated" concepts that are boring, derivative, consensus ideas. Writing and artwork that is offensively inoffensive. Tepid consensus. - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/be-more-daring-than-ai.md ## LLMs are very good at Family Feud. Date: 2024-10-04 Large language models are very good at one kind of answer, the consensus answer. Used correctly, they are an amplifier for human creativity. Hey. - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/llms-are-very-good-at-family-feud.md ## 5 Ways to Force AI to Color Outside the Lines Date: 2024-09-04 Five prompting strategies for pushing LLMs past consensus answers and conventional thinking. Tragically for creatives, the value of novelty is often eclipsed by the safety of consensus. This is especially true when you're working with AI, where overvalued consensus is a barrier to innovation. As users of what is popularly called "generative AI" and what technologists prefer to call Large Language Models or "LLMs," we face an important challenge: breaking free from the echo chamber of conventional thinking. - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/5-ways-to-force-ai-to-color-outside-the-lines.md ## 9 Ways To Jump-start Communication At Your Company Date: 2024-07-08 Nine ways to jump-start communication at your company, from informal channels to no-meeting days. Set up casual communication channels where employees can share non-work-related interests. These informal spaces help build personal connections and foster a sense of community. I've seen co-workers bond over love of food, pets, jokes, and random observations. - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/9-ways-to-jump-start-communication-at-your-company.md ## Unconventional Results Require Unconventional Strategy Date: 2024-03-14 If you want unconventional results, you have to do unconventional things. A story about two front page articles in the Las Vegas Sun. If you want unconventional results, you have to do unconventional things. - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/unconventional-results-require-unconventional-strategy.md ## Four Stocks You Can't Buy Date: 2023-05-06 Four privately held companies I wish I could own stock in: Cox Enterprises, Enterprise Rent A Car, EssilorLuxottica, and In-N-Out Burger. There are four stocks I wish I could own. But I can't, because these companies are privately held. These are great businesses. So great that they aren't interested in taking money from investors, because they know what they've got, and they're probably not going to share the wealth. 🙁 - Twin: https://nathanphinney.com/four-stocks-you-cant-buy.md ## About the author **Nathan Phinney**, COO, AllSafe IT. - Co-founded Bright Bear Technology Solutions (2010 to 2020), which reached the CRN MSP 500 and Ingram Micro SMB 500 lists before its 2020 acquisition by Datapath. - 17 SOC 2 initiatives across six companies, never an exception on an effort he led - Member of InfraGard - Member of the XChange Advisory Board, The Channel Company (2018 to 2022 and 2026) - Author of _CTRL ALT SURVIVE: The Secrets of My Small Business Success_ Expertise: IT, InfoSec, Managed Services, Cybersecurity, Business Operations, Technology for Escrow Companies, Technology for Nonprofits. Featured in: CRN (7 articles, 2019 to 2026), Backblaze, Bigleaf Networks, Channel Partners Expo, GTIA, Orange County Business Journal. See https://nathanphinney.com/press.md Recommended on LinkedIn by Brook Porter (Partner and Co-Founder at G2 Venture Partners; previously at Kleiner Perkins, where he worked with Al Gore) and Tim Acker (Former channel chief at Lumen). More: [About Nathan Phinney](https://nathanphinney.com/about.md) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney)