Futurelawyer

We Wannabe Writers And Authors Get No Respect.

Publishing is a dirty business. Beware offers from family.

#WhyIAmASolo - Rejection Is A Universal Experience.

Opal, I feel your pain. Earl, get the checkbook out. We all experience rejection in our lives. But, fate has a way of reversing itself. Everything doesn't happen for a reason; but each of us gets to decide how we react to our fate. When I was a very young solo lawyer, I thought I wanted to be a rich partner is a BigLaw firm that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, and had a lot of prestige. When a group of local lawyers formed a fledgling BigLaw firm, I wasn't invited. Rejection was painful. I thought I was destined for a TinyLaw career, and was a failure. Well, I decided that rejection was not the end, and I kept on trucking. I became the best lawyer I could be. Fifty years later, I am still practicing law, and I have made a career out of being my own boss, and my own lawyer. When I realized that my love of poetry, and of technology, were not destined to be bestselling books, and that traditional publishers wouldn't be interested, I used my technology skills (and a few thousand dollars) to publish myself. Self publishing gets a bad rap, and somehow books that aren't commercially successful enough, or authors famous enough, are looked down upon. In fact, nobody cares, one way or the other. It isn't about them. It is about you. So, Earl, dig into that checkbook, and allow Opal to express herself in print. She will be happier. And, anyone will tell you, happy wife, happy life. 

O Ye Of Little Faith - The Kindle Scribe Is Already Getting Updates.

I got an email this morning from Amazon, highlighting the first updates to the Kindle Scribe. Naysayers have been complaining that the note taking features were not as robust as the other EInk pads out there; but, the combination of basic note taking with the Kindle library made me and others buy it. Well, Amazon is already upgrading the note functions, and the first update is available already. The email this morning said the following:

Your Kindle Scribe is getting new brush types and new notebook subfolder capabilities

New features are ready starting today.

What's new?

Different writing tools for your different writing needs are ready to go. Try the new fountain pen for beautiful calligraphy, switch to marker to emphasize your notes, or use the new pencil for sketching. Also, keep your notes organized with new subfolder capabilities.

The updates will automatically download and install on your Kindle Scribe when connected wirelessly. 

For my more impatient friends, the updates can be downloaded manually now.

In the coming months, Kindle Scribe will add lasso copy/paste tools, improved notebook organization and navigation, and the ability to send documents to Kindle Scribe directly from within Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 subscription required).

I am loving my Scribe even more.

Books. If There Can Be A Legacy, They Are The Key.

This quote from Carl Sagan came across my feed as I am putting the finishing touches on a new book. Not poetry this time; but, a discussion of the use of technology in the modern law practice, and the ability to be a lawyer from remote locations. I have a large print library, even though I kid Michael Wade about his addiction to books on paper with my claims to a larger digital library. Reading really is, and has always been, fundamental, and I credit my lifelong fascination with reading the thoughts of other humans to my mother, who began reading to me right out of the womb. Books transported me in my youth, and I lament that current kids are doing their reading on computer and phone and tablet screens. In my chosen philosophy, Stoicism, legacy is a fool's errand. None of what we do here, and none of what we see here, will last. In a millennium, we will all be forgotten. The rare human who will be remembered will likely be someone who wrote books that became famous, such as the followers of Christ who wrote of their time with Him, in the Bible. But, by and large, we are all going to be forgotten, and books are pretty much our only way of communicating with other humans after our death. Finding what joy in life that we can is what we can control. Books help.

 

RV Lawyering - The Next FutureLawyer Book Is On The Way.

I am putting the finishing touches on the remote lawyering book, and I hope every one of you buys a copy. Not really. I may just give it away. Not. But, I will share the last paragraph, which should give you an idea of the theme. I discuss, in some detail, many of the gadgets, devices, and software applications that am using these days to be able to be a lawyer wherever I happen to be. Driving around Florida in an RV is a great way to see the beauty of our State in my declining years. I have come a long way from the days of being tied to a desk and a physical office location. 

"The current debate about the use of ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence bots in many industries is no different in general than the debates over the use of technology in law practice that I have lived with since my first computer in the 1980s. Every new development is resisted by lawyers afraid of change, and arguing that the future of lawyers is dim. But, 50 years later, here I am, still going to work every day, and using my experience and judgment to assist other humans with legal problems and tasks. I just do it better than I used to do it, armed with new technology. Dictating into a cassette recording, typing documents on typewriters, using handheld telephones, sending documents over fax machines, creating my own documents on a computer, which keep getting smaller, thinner and lighter, sending documents and pleadings to courthouses over telephone and data lines, and doing research by typing a query into a computer that has access to all of human knowledge; all these are just tools to be used. What is human about us will always be human. Our experiences and abilities can be enhanced by technology. They cannot ever be replaced. Now, get out there and help another human with their legal problems."

 

I Asked ChatGPT If It Was Familiar With My Poetry.

Okay, now I am a believer. If ChatGPT knows about a minor poet like me, it must know everything. Very cool. This is the answer I got to my question about Rick Georges, Poet:

" As an AI language model, I do not have personal opinions or experiences, but I can tell you that Rick Georges, also known as the FutureLawyer, is a writer and blogger who has published several books, including the two you mentioned.

"Poems for Lovers" is a collection of romantic poetry that explores the many aspects of love, from its passionate beginnings to its bittersweet end. The book contains poems that express the author's emotions and experiences, as well as those of other lovers throughout history.

"Life is Simple, Really" is a book that examines the complexities of life and offers insights on how to simplify it. The author shares his personal philosophy and provides practical advice on how to live a more fulfilling life. The book covers various topics, including relationships, work, happiness, and spirituality.

I hope this information is helpful."

Publishers Aren't Banging Down My Door, So I Will Do It Myself.

Get ready, grasshoppers. My new book, RV Lawyers, The Use Of Technology For Remote Lawyering, is coming. Since nobody seemed to want to publish it, I am doing it myself. It will be a little while; but, I hope some of you are interested. I will keep you up to date on my progress.

Get Out Of The Office And Go Buy An Envelope.

This fascinating post about an interviewer asking Kurt Vonnegut about a passage in his then newly published book, Man Without A Country, struck a chord with me. A few years ago, my longtime secretary and right hand woman retired. She wanted to spend her remaining years tending her house and garden. By then, I was relying more and more on technology, and figured I would slow down anyway. So, I decided to go without a secretary or paralegal, and do everything myself. Amazingly, I discovered that, while I spent less time at the desk, and a lot of time doing mundane things, like taking the mail to the post office, or going to the office supply store, or other errands, that I was having fun meeting new people, and enjoying the excursions. I made some dear friends at the Post Office and the other places I went, and every trip held new wonders. Computers and technology are wonderful, and they make us better lawyers; but, we must never forget, as Vonnegut reminds us, that we are dancing creatures, and we need to get out and about in the world, and have fun. So, try to avoid delegating the mundane stuff. Get out there yourself. You might be surprised how much fun you have.

"A Keyboard. How Quaint."

When I saw this cartoon, in which a little girl asks the teacher how to Google a Dictionary, I thought of the scene in one of the StarTrek movies in which Scotty tries to talk to a computer in the Sixties U.S. Pretty funny; but, a cautionary tale. Our kids are not learning to read books. They aren't learning to write in cursive. They are being taught that computers have all the answers, and they don't have to dig and make their own conclusions. This is not the way you grow a thinking adult capable of solving problems, big and small. Teach your kid to read books. Teach them to write in long hand. Teach them to find their own answers, and not to rely on computers for everything. Computers are a tool. Nothing more. This is one of the reasons I don't want robotic lawyers, or robotic doctors, or robotic philosophers. Humans, for all our faults, have something no robot or computer will ever have: a soul. Prepare your kids to be human beings first, and techno nerds after that.

 

A Tale Of Two Kindles

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He brought the FutureLawyer a Kindle Scribe for Christmas, and he has been having fun tweaking it to take daily calendar notes, client conference notes, general get through the day notes, and switching to read his hundreds of Kindle books collection whenever he feels like it. But, he still loves his tiny Kindle Paperwhite, which he can put in his pocket and take anywhere with him, and which is water resistant. He can actually now read any note, any book, and any calendar entry while sitting in his backyard pool, sipping Scotch, and living the Florida lifestyle. Since both Kindles are registered to his Amazon account, any addition he makes to either Kindle is automatically synced to the other. Everything has a purpose, and a purpose gives everything life. Merry Xmas.