AI Had Fun with My Arctic Alphabet

I'm dying. At least read on to the satellite joke. Ha. AI will always have its moments. This begs the question, "what if the human race were to focus only on having the best possible sense of humor? Could AI ever come close to our best human-created comedy?"

Last year, I created a tech version of the phonetical spelling alphabet because I can't ever remember the ham operator one and I was bored in Alaska with nothing to do anyway.

Circing back, I just now decided to ask Claude.ai to blog about it for me to see what would happen.

You can see the prompt I gave it after Claude's epic blog post below.

Enjoy:

A PM's Guide to Surviving Alaska

My Very Own Tech Alphabet

When you're a product manager in Alaska and it's been dark for approximately 847 years (or maybe just since October), you start finding weird ways to entertain yourself. Sure, there's plenty of outdoor winter activities, but sometimes it's -40°F and you just can't convince yourself to leave your cozy workspace with its color-coded Kanban board and endless supply of hot coffee.

That's how I found myself creating my own product-themed phonetic alphabet during our latest cold snap. You know, like the military's "Alpha Bravo Charlie," but make it PM. Because when you're running your fifteenth stakeholder meeting of the day in the dark at 2 PM, your brain goes to strange places.

The Birth of the PM's Dialect

It started when I was trying to spell out a particularly troublesome Jira ticket number to my offshore team over our static-filled call. "A as in Agile, P as in Product..." And suddenly, I had a mission. If I was going to be stuck inside while the aurora danced without me, I might as well make something useful(ish).

The Arctic Product Manager's Alphabet

• A is for Agile (as flexible as my winter plans)

• B is for Backlog (deeper than the snow outside)

• C is for Customer (colder than their feedback)

• D is for Data (frozen like the lake)

• E is for Epic (like these winter nights)

• F is for Feature (flagged for springtime)

• G is for Gantt (chart my way to summer)

• H is for Hybrid (like my work-from-igloo setup)

• I is for Initiative (melting away like spring snow)

• J is for Jira (where tickets go to hibernate)

• K is for KPI (keeping me accountable in the dark)

• L is for Launch (delayed like the spring thaw)

• M is for Metrics (measuring the darkness)

• N is for North Star (if only I could see stars right now)

• O is for OKR (Objectives: survive winter)

• P is for Prioritization (like choosing which winter gear to wear)

• Q is for QA (Quality Assurance of my sanity)

• R is for Roadmap (to warmer days)

• S is for Sprint (or waddle, in this weather)

• T is for Timeline (shorter than daylight hours)

• U is for User Story (once upon a time, there was sun)

• V is for Value Prop (warmth is our MVP)

• W is for Workflow (frozen like everything else)

• X is for XP (eXtreme Programming or eXtreme Parka?)

• Y is for Yearly Planning (in dog years)

• Z is for Zero Day (bugs preserved in permafrost)

The Aftermath

Is this a productive use of my time? Probably not. But neither is staring out the window at the neighbor's snow-covered satellite dish, wondering if it should be added to our technology stack. At least this way, I've created something that makes my remote standups slightly more entertaining.

Plus, now when I have to spell things out to the dev team in Anchorage, I can confuse them with "Yeah, that's 'S' as in Stakeholder, 'O' as in OKR, and 'S' as in Scrum." Because sometimes in the land of the midnight sun (or rather, current midnight darkness), you have to make your own fun.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go groom my personal backlog and update my vitamin D acceptance criteria.

Posted from my ergonomic desk fort, surrounded by sticky notes and dreams of spring.

P.S. - Yes, this was technically scope creep from my original winter survival plan, but I'm counting it as a stretch goal.

--The End--

Wow, that was 5 minutes to create a post that was fun, specific, and yes, poetic. Claude.ai was also able to read words off of my image--no problem. I'm not surprised. Here's the original prompt, image of the alphabet that I gave it, and some responses. I'm noting that it didn't return anything specific from a woman's perspective. Interesting!

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Hi hi! will you please write me a blog post from the perspective of being bored in the winter in Alaska as a tech gal so being inspired to write your own spelling alphabet like this one?

My original tech alphabet.... truly created in the winter while bored in Alaska.

Claude.ai

I've written a lighthearted blog post from the perspective of a tech worker in Alaska who created their own programming-themed phonetic alphabet to pass the time during the dark winter months. The post combines authentic details about both software development and Alaskan winter life, with some humor about cabin fever and coping mechanisms. Would you like me to adjust the tone or add more technical details to any particular section?

NF

Ok, but I'm not a dev. I'm actually a technical product manager. Can you tweak it slightly for that perspective? Great job, btw! I LOLd.

Claude.ai

I've updated it with PM-specific terminology and jokes, keeping the same whimsical tone but adding references to Jira, stakeholders, backlogs, and other PM tools and concepts. I especially enjoyed adding the "scope creep" joke at the end! Would you like me to adjust anything else about the tone or PM references?

NF

ha.. so awesome. the satellite dish joke seriously got me cackling. g'night!

Claude.ai

Haha, I'm so glad the satellite dish/tech stack joke landed! There's something uniquely satisfying about tech humor that works on multiple levels. Thanks for the fun prompt - it was a blast writing in your voice and combining Alaskan winter vibes with PM life. Stay warm and may your backlog be ever groomed!

Good night!

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Ummmm, did AI just make an ever so slightly "crack" about my backlog not being groomed? I think it did. 😂

To carry on some more with this gleefulness and at the risk of making this the longest post ever, here's the original post Claude made for me first (from a developer perspective before I told it I am a PM). I love it too!

The Dev's Guide to Surviving Alaska: My Very Own Tech Alphabet

When you're a software developer in Alaska and it's been dark for approximately 847 years (or maybe just since October), you start finding weird ways to entertain yourself. Sure, there's plenty of outdoor winter activities, but sometimes it's -40°F and you just can't convince yourself to leave your cozy workspace with its four monitors and endless supply of hot coffee.

That's how I found myself creating my own tech-themed phonetic alphabet during our latest cold snap. You know, like the military's "Alpha Bravo Charlie," but make it nerdy. Because when you're debugging code in the dark at 2 PM, your brain goes to strange places.

The Birth of the Dev's Dialect

It started when I was trying to spell out a particularly troublesome API key to my colleague over our static-filled call. "A as in API, P as in Python..." And suddenly, I had a mission. If I was going to be stuck inside while the aurora danced without me, I might as well make something useful(ish).

The Arctic Developer's Alphabet

• A is for API (because Authentication never sleeps)

• B is for Buffer (like the snow buffer zone between me and the moose outside)

• C is for Cache (colder than my cache memory)

• D is for Docker (containing all my winter projects)

• E is for Encryption (keeping secrets safer than my winter gear stash)

• F is for Firewall (better than my actual fireplace)

• G is for Git (where all my cold-weather code lives)

• H is for Hash (not the breakfast kind)

• I is for IDE (my warm, cozy home)

• J is for JSON (structuring my winter thoughts)

• K is for Kernel (the core of my winter survival)

• L is for Lambda (functions keeping me warm)

• M is for Middleware (layers like my winter clothing)

• N is for Node (connecting my frozen thoughts)

• O is for Object (oriented towards spring)

• P is for Ping (into the dark void)

• Q is for Query (searching for sunlight)

• R is for RAM (because I'm running low after all this indoor time)

• S is for String (holding it all together)

• T is for Terminal (my window to the world)

• U is for URI (universal resource for inspiration)

• V is for Variable (like Alaska weather)

• W is for Widget (keeping me entertained)

• X is for XML (marking my days until spring)

• Y is for YAML (ain't markup, ain't leaving)

• Z is for Zip (compressed like my winter plans)

The Aftermath

Is this a productive use of my time? Probably not. But neither is staring out the window at the neighbor's snow-covered satellite dish, wondering if it's technically a cloud database now. At least this way, I've created something that makes my remote meetings slightly more entertaining.

Plus, now when I have to spell things out to the help desk in Anchorage, I can confuse them with "Yeah, that's 'S' as in StringBuilder, 'O' as in ORM, and 'S' as in SSH." Because sometimes in the land of the midnight sun (or rather, current midnight darkness), you have to make your own fun.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go refactor my coffee intake and debug my vitamin D levels.

Posted from my ergonomic desk fort, surrounded by LED lights and dreams of spring.