Become Known for Something. Just Don't Become It. Read online → “ "To know who you are is the greatest power of all." — Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love (Blood Trinity) In December 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle pushed Sherlock Holmes over a waterfall and killed him. He wrote to his mother that he was in the middle of the last Holmes story, "after which the gentleman vanishes never never to reappear. I am weary of his name." Doyle thought of himself as a historical novelist. Sherlock Holmes simply...
11 days ago • 9 min read
What AI Detection Is Quietly Doing to Your Judgment Read online → “ "Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner." — Lao Tzu In 1902, the French administration in Hanoi finished a modern sewer system, and the rats moved in. So the city offered a bounty. One cent per rat. Unsurprisingly, collecting dead rats turned out to be unpleasant work for everyone involved, so the administration simplified. Bring us the tail. We'll take your word for the rest. The tails came...
18 days ago • 9 min read
Agency Is the Last Moat Read online → “ "To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour." — Sir Winston Churchill Every generation tends to inherit a story about work. The question is always whether or not it still fits the...
25 days ago • 9 min read
You don't need an AI detox. You need an input diet. Read online → “ "The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become." — James Clear I'm tired of AI too. Every day, a new model pops up, a new update, another new thing that I'm apparently supposed to learn and understand before lunchtime. If your job isn't primarily about AI, you're actually now doing two jobs at the same time: The work itself that you're supposed to be doing and simply...
about 1 month ago • 12 min read
Why Smart People Rarely Change Their Minds (It Isn't the Facts) Read online → “ "People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies." — Blair Warren (One Sentence Persuasion) Imagine someone tells you about a psychiatric patient who walks into a shopping mall and stabs a young girl. Your stomach tightens. And somewhere underneath, without you deciding anything, your brain...
about 1 month ago • 10 min read
How AI Is Killing the Future of Leadership Read online → “ "The higher you climb, the more your success depends on making other people successful." — Eric Schmidt, Trillion Dollar Coach In 2015, Zappos offered its employees a strange deal. Adopt a new system with no bosses and no managers, or take a severance check and leave. Around 18% took the check and walked out the door. The system was called holacracy. No titles, no managers, just overlapping circles of self-governing roles. For a...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
What Astronauts Know About Fear That Most Leaders Don't Read online → “ "We become brave by doing brave actions." — Aristotle In April 2001, Chris Hadfield was holding onto the side of the International Space Station with one hand, 250 miles above Earth, when he went blind. He was on a spacewalk, installing a robotic arm, when a drop of cleaning solution drifted off his visor and into his left eye. It turns out that in zero gravity, tears don't fall. The contamination grew into a ball, rolled...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
Why Confidence Won't Fix What's Holding You Back Read online → “ "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." — Carl Jung Hey there, I keep getting the same question after these essays: "is there a place to do this work together?" So I'm testing the idea. A community for people serious about leveling up their life and work in the AI era. Curious if it's something you'd want. I'm thinking about starting a community for people leveling up their...
2 months ago • 10 min read
Why AI Layoffs Are the Lazy Answer (And What to Do Instead) Read online → “ "Power always stems from cooperation between large numbers of humans." — Yuval Noah Harari, Nexus In 2002, a baseball team (the Oakland Athletics) with almost no money beat teams with ten times the budget by noticing that everyone else was measuring the wrong thing. The story became a Michael Lewis book, and then a movie with Brad Pitt. Most people remember the story as being about math and statistics. I remember the...
2 months ago • 10 min read