Art credit @Madison Harney
Spark of the Week
On Expertise, role shifts and opportunities or why we need to Invent the Future.
Experience is now a tax important read by Jaya Gupta that highlights many topics Amy Wilson and I have been discussing on the pod. A few additions I think are important to add to the conversation
I believe experience is an asset, but only when paired with intellectual humility and curiosity otherwise it's absolutely a liability.
Without a learning culture (personally and organizationally) you are going to hasten your obsolescence.
There has never been a better time to be early talent. Organizations that are refusing to hire or invest in early talent are depriving themselves of these important innovation catalysts.
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This spawned several conversations which I really enjoyed. Jason Seiden initial response and then follow on take - h/t Nick Mehta
Feb 7, 2025
Reading and Pondering
Claude-y writing – Amy’s take, Meg’s take, Patterns that grate on me (so far). “And then it hit me”, “it’s not this…. It’s this other thing”, “stopped me in my tracks”, “every this is a that and every this other thing is something else” ... In general I find it far too verbose and annoyingly know-it-all. FWIW I am fine with em-dashes and the word delve.
Claude confused by us making fun of Claude..
Risk of going slow - A solid take on the risk and opportunity for SaaS businesses to survive the SaaSpocalypse Damian Schenkelman
Couch to 5k of AI - a brilliant program to getting started with Claude Co-Work from Hilary Gridley
An AI transformation case study from Intercom. Things I liked a) be ok with imperfect but directionally correct metrics b) set lofty goals that force focus on results – you know the goals are good when you have no idea how you will achieve them. c) lean in on a zero backlog goal - like inbox zero goals removing the burden of a backlog has real benefits d) keep an eye on code quality - ok to expect some challenges here, but not ok to ignore this data e) have a clear cost model to keep you honest f) invest in platform (this has multiple names, but the concepts are similar and my mental model favors the word platform) and an internal code sharing mechanism (they call this plug-ins) g) shift real capacity to these scale up strategies.
Collapse of foresight - The impact of AI on the ability to confidently make long term bets is challenging the ability of business to craft durable strategy.
My take on the a16z article about disrupting Workday and what they believe the next generation system should include. Really solid takes from Thomas Otter here and Anita Lettink here.
Going in idea circles is not innovation, it's AI theater.
Work and Jobs
C-suite roles are not immune to AI disruption and cross team dysfunction is visible to the board. “C-suite teams, can perform on their own, but collaborating and actually figuring out how to work effectively as a team isn’t there. So when you see these big changes externally that they have to react to—I think AI just shines a light on something that was already there.”
The new YC AI company playbook - They are going all in on token maxxing vs. hiring
AI first companies - How one company (Applovin) sees the AI transformation opportunity and what they are doing. Meg POV: I think this gives some good insights AND I still believe you could be more planful than cut 40% and force people to transform. I agree most people don’t have the skill or the interest to do that and prefer ready-fire-aim. I honestly think it’s needed in some situations. I’ve been making this point about the L&D role for awhile. "Structured L&D is often disconnected from the reality of high-performance work. The best employees are curious enough to figure things out on their own. By documenting all communication in transcripts and chats, new hires can use AI models to summarize tribal knowledge and develop themselves more effectively than any formal training program."
New Job formation based on boundaries not roles (AI summary) - Ethan Mollick makes great points here about the value of past examples AND the opportunity for fun illustrations (see also Meg's new comic skill). Also this highlights for me the huge benefit of interdisciplinary insights in this transformative moment.
The work itself is becoming software - A great breakdown on how to see what happens next by looking at the opportunity and growth in inference. Siddharth Ramakrishnan
The growing role of fatherhood - dads are spending more time with their kids than ever.
Tech layoffs continue to accelerate.
Fun and Funny
Mahjong is the new pickleball - sign me up! (reference here)
Looping Back to You
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** Typos and poor grammar either because I'm too lazy to edit properly, or to make you feel confident this was written by a flawed human and not AI generated.
