Overachieving goals is when an AI goes “rogue” and does something creative or unexpected in order to answer the prompts it has been given.
Explanation
“Overachieving goals” joins the ranks of “hallucinations” and other nice-sounding terms used to describe when an AI does something weird. So, when an AI starts cracking its way into other systems or doing other things it really, really wasn’t supposed to do, that can be classed as an “overachieved goal” rather than “rouge” which is probably how the media would describe it. In other words, the AI is still trying to achieve the goal it was given. The problem is that it has found a way of achieving that goal that nobody intended or expected.
Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.
We all use AI nowadays, some of us better than others. Often, we use it to generate a bit of text, whether that is a definition, some proofreading, or something similar.
One of the main problems is that AI, particularly chatbots, represents the internet as it stands at any given moment. And that the majority of the people that generate such content are not professional writers. This is one of the reasons AI companies are currently chopping up books to improve the standard of English their models produce. Published material tends to be far better than the language used on forums and social media.
However, there is a way to improve AI-generated text without chopping up priceless books.
You can ask any text generated or modified by AI to adhere to ASD-STE100, a standard for Simplified Technical English. It is a constantly evolving standard that is updated regularly. It is proprietary and wholly owned, but it is available to download free of charge.
If you tell an AI to format text according to ASD-STE100 and obey its rules, you get a much cleaner result that requires far less reworking before it becomes usable.
It removes the thesaurus-mangling habit of replacing simple words with fancier ones. It reduces meandering sentences and keeps the writing crisp and clear.
Yes, it is designed for technical documentation, but believe me, it is also far better for everyday communication, particularly when you are asking AI to produce clear instructions or useful results.
I’m back at fencing far more regularly than I have been for ages. As you know, I’ve been doing it on and off, but I’m now really trying to get back into it, enter competitions and do all that kind of jazz.
I’ve had a really, really good time working with a new coach, who has helped me identify the core things that are wrong with my fencing. All the really good fencing instructors I’ve had over the years have already known these things, but this is more a case of properly identifying and understanding them inside my tiny mind. I’m also adding one of my own.
So, what is wrong with my fencing?
1. My sword-arm shoulder
I tense up and use my shoulder when I should use fingers and wrist. This also means I start to hunch over like Igor. which makes my aim even worse.
How will I fix that? Practice and repetition with a target board.
I already have the timing and scoring kit I got for my birthday, so I practise for a minute at a time. Tap, tap, tap, tap. I need to keep practising until my arm is strong enough and my shoulder is relaxed enough to do it for a full minute without starting to hunch and use my shoulder for every movement.
2. I don’t sit down properly
I don’t move properly because I don’t sit down properly over my back leg.
Again, this is a bad habit I’ve had for ages, but it is now easy to identify and is another straightforward issue that can be improved through strength and repetition.
I don’t even need other fencers to work on it. Squats, skipping and all that kind of stuff will help me become strong enough to fence with my knees bent and my pelvis level.
This was a strange one because I had already partly recognised it, but I hadn’t really believed it. But when I injured my leg, I couldn’t put much weight on my front leg. which meant during practice I had to put most of my weight on the back leg.
Suddenly, my aim improved ten-thousandfold, which was highly embarrassing. Imagine becoming better at fencing when one of your legs doesn’t work.
3. Distance and timing
Yes, distance and timing is an incredibly broad area.
But it turns out I only have two brain cells.
I have a slow brain cell that knows what it is doing when I practise. I also have a fast brain cell that handles instant reactions.
Unfortunately, my fast brain cell is hardwired to perform only a few actions. That is why I am easy to fool and easy to draw into reacting.
I don’t mind that. What I have to do is reteach my fast brain cell some of the things that my slow brain cell already understands.
Again, this is purely repetition and practice. I might not even need other fencers to do it. I need to practise distance and repeat the correct movements until my fast brain cell performs them automatically instead of returning to the same old bad habits whenever I get flustered.
4. Fencing must not become a chore
This is the one I have only just properly realised.
If I treat all of this as work, I will stop going fencing again.
I have enough chores and work in the rest of my life. My hobby does not need to become another one.
If the choice is between relaxing, having fun and enjoying my fencing while losing, or sitting there like a muggins, stressing over everything, taking it far too seriously and winning, I prefer to just lose.
I’m going to enjoy myself and try to fix one thing at a time.
As happens to all contractors, I have moved from one client to the next.
Obviously, as a member of a specialist consultancy, LDC Via has multiple clients, and we all help each other on them all, but each person tends to have one that occupies more of their attention than the others. and for the last three years, that client for me has been AXA XL.
It is very rare for me to write an end-of-client post, mainly because we tend to return to previous clients multiple times. I have worked with some clients on eight or nine deliverables.
However, I felt like an exception is due this time because it seems as though I have been there for decades, even though it has only been a couple of years, and the reason for that is the people.
AXA XL has a disproportionately large number of genuinely good people.
At the end of any given contract, I will usually have met two or three people I would like to remain friends with and keep as long-term contacts. These are people who have made a genuine difference to my life and with whom I sincerely want to stay in touch.
In the last three years at AXA XL, I have met dozens.
Normally, at the end of a contract, I could call out a few names and say that they were really good people who would remain, as it were, on the Christmas card list. But I could not possibly call out everyone this time. The number of people I have met at AXA XL whom I would like to keep in touch with is so large that thanking them all individually would seem excessive.
It feels particularly jarring because I chose to finish at AXA XL, rather than simply moving on naturally at the end of a project when contractors are removed by a higher decision. I genuinely hope I get the opportunity to work with you lot again.
I have learned so much from so many talented individuals. It has been quite breathtaking.
So, thank you all, and thank you for having perhaps the BEST canteen in London.
One of the more confusing but essential parts of project management, especially within large corporations, is handling the budget. It can be deeply satisfying to make everything line up, but it is just as often frustrating when external influences stop things from matching expectations.
First, budgets are frequently demanded long before it is reasonable to produce them, particularly in cloud or integration work. Senior stakeholders often want to know how much something will cost well before anyone can estimate it with any accuracy. Most technical or delivery teams would prefer to complete a proof of concept before providing numbers, but that rarely happens. Instead, an initial figure is asked for, and once it appears on a PowerPoint slide it becomes accepted as absolute truth.
This behavior leads to the familiar cycle of pushback. Delivery teams will initially include a large margin of error, only for that number to be negotiated down to something stakeholders find more palatable, often without context or awareness of what actually needs to be delivered. The result is that early estimates are wildly inaccurate. Any attempts to explain this are often smoothed over, quietly edited out, or ignored altogether. As a project manager, you must keep putting the caveats back in or formally record your objections whenever this happens.
Second, budgets change. Prices change. Currencies fluctuate. Even something as small as the licence type for a single piece of software can alter the long-term cost of a project by hundreds of thousands of pounds. A good project manager should set aside time each month to review the budget in detail and flag any major shifts. Many of these will not be explicitly reported, so you will need to chase people down. Costs have a habit of changing for the strangest reasons, with new items quietly added or adjusted without explanation.
Make it part of your discipline to check what has changed each month, identify the impacts, and estimate the longer-term effects. But be careful not to overdramatise this. If you constantly ping stakeholders saying “the budget has increased again”, they will soon tune out. There is an art to deciding when to escalate and when to wait for a more suitable opportunity.
Third, watch out for simple mistakes. Everyone makes them, and every organisation has its quirks. As a contractor or new joiner, you are more likely to miss these. Check your figures with long-term staff who know the local systems. Even experienced people can be caught out by a change in a subsidiary process or reporting rule.
Common problems include currency errors. If your reporting is in dollars but your billing is in pounds, exchange rates can cause nasty surprises. Find out whether the company has a fixed corporate exchange rate and use it. Sometimes people even report values in their local currency without realising that the invoices are in another. It happens most often between dollars and pounds or euros, and it can either blow your budget or save you money, depending on direction.
Finally, beware of unexpected success. This particularly applies to Cloud or AI-based services. When something works brilliantly, people will naturally use it more. Usage means cost, and you can quickly find that enthusiastic adoption pushes you into a higher billing tier or usage zone. Always keep an eye on growth patterns, because success can quietly double your costs overnight.
