I was part of a small group that in 1994 persuaded our VP of R&D to put every researcher on Window 95 PCs linked by an ethernet network.  Big bucks, global team, many challenges.  I still remember what he said: “I only hope this doesn’t make the scientists spend less time thinking.”

It makes me squirm to think that the GPT text-generators are essentially a sophisticated plagiarism.  Start with a billion text documents, build a statistical probability model, generate derivative (and often remarkably good) text.

One can legitimately ask, “Glenn, if you read a bunch of articles on a subject, then write an essay about it, aren’t you doing much the same thing?”  In part. 

The difference is that I gain more than information by reading articles and writing an essay.  I strengthen my study power and intellect.  I get to make links from what I read and examine to existing knowledge.  I strengthen my self-discipline.  I gain far less when I only use GPT tools to generate an essay. 

My opportunity is to embrace GPT as a complementary tool rather than a substitution for thinking.

…

I’ve shared a few ChatGPT threads with various people and some have commented about my use of the words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in my prompts.  “It’s not adding any value to the query,” one person wrote.  

One observation from both history and contemporary life is that when we treat others in a master-slave relationship, we ourselves are damaged and demeaned.  You can say “AI is just a tool,” which is correct — but we should still treat tools with respect, whether animate or inanimate.  We’re made better when we treat others, including tools, with appropriate respect and courtesy.

I suspect this will become even more important as our algorithms and robotics become increasingly sophisticated.  

…

A tip for using ChatGPT – enter your prompt and ask for citations.  It’s an interesting way to find resources to explore further.  Cautionary note: check to verify the citations are genuine.

…

It’s about the clicks and likes. The economic incentive model of keeping you engaged longer on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and many other websites means that algorithms are designed to show you more of what you liked and consumed before. 

Couple this with the reality that we’re more drawn to entertaining “junk food” content than nourishing content, and it’s a downward spiral.

Multiple universities have made their best courses online, for free.  The goofiest squirrel video will be viewed 100,000 times more frequently.

Nothing about GPT will transform these vectors.  That’s up to individual bravery. 

…

“The first rule of economics is there isn’t enough to go around. The first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics.” (Thomas Sowell) 

One of the biggest lessons to absorb into your bones is that there are no solutions, so we must explore tradeoffs.  Tradeoffs are never perfect because they don’t eliminate the tension between options.  This is why I repeatedly ask the question “What problems do I prefer to have?”  

Nothing about GPT and AI as we have it today changes this reality.

…

An acquaintance wrote me, flatly stating “We shouldn’t use AI.  It won’t help us in the end.” He went on to say he admires the concept of the mentats from Dune. (Mentats are highly-trained human computers capable of immense memory and calculations, fueled in part by the Sappho juice drug.)  “This fuses human ethics with rational computing power.”

I reminded him that the novel describes “twisted” mentats like Piter DeVries who use their training for evil outside of any moral framework beyond Nietzsche’s power dynamic.

Our species is not well-equipped to walk away from a technology if it’s potentially useful.  Despite treaties, we still have nerve gas and nuclear weapons in abundance.  AI isn’t going to evaporate because a few people righteously choose to avoid using it. 

The human factor is crucial with any tool.  Nothing about GPT and AI as we have it today changes this reality.

…

AI will produce multiple billion-dollar and a few trillion-dollar companies.  The rewards will be skewed 80/20, or more likely 95/5.  Most of the advantages of AI capabilities will accrue to the top 20%.  Are you in that 20% or 5%? 

Nothing about AI changes the reality that unequal distributions are universal.

…

See if this resonates:  

Imagine 1000 people each routinely using the power of tens of AI tools. They could have 100,000 or a million times the volume output as 1000 people not using AI tools.  AI makes many things scale much faster. (Maybe not quality, certainly not true innovation.)

The net effect is that everyone in a domain that is heavily digitized is now competing with 10x or 100x more people. 

I know a man who writes for multiple sites, each expecting a different style.  (He uses multiple pseudonyms.)  He told recently told me that he writes an article, then requests ChatGPT to rewrite it “in the style of” writers liked by the editors of these sites.  In 15 minutes he can make 10 variants of the original article, and spend another 30 minutes tweaking them.  Bang, done, ready to submit to a multiple editors.  He got the idea from twitter bot farms that tweak the same message and create a hundred tweets.

…

Plenty of people (correctly) believe that AI will transform our culture.  It’s a major new category of tools, even if it can’t fix your plumbing problem.

The etymological root of the word culture is the word ‘cult.’  The singular characteristic of a cult is that someone tells you what to think and how to think, when to think, and when not to think.  (Did your mind just leap to government spokespersons, social media, and TV/radio talking heads? Or some religious leaders?)

One lesson from studying the lives and patterns of highly influential people:  They all inspired a culture around them.  Some were healthy and helpful. Many were unhealthy and evil. 

A cult is an unhealthy culture.  A healthy culture promotes clear thinking, new ideas, and innovations, grounded in a moral framework.

We must have more healthy cultures in a world increasingly occupied by AI tools to offset the power of algorithm-driven cult of controlled thought.  We need fathers and mothers who nurture and launch young adults who have the capacity to mature further. We need teachers who educate their students to go beyond their teachers.  Indoctrination does not tolerate deviations from what it taught.  We need entrepreneurs who create value far above the status quo.  We need leaders who surround themselves with the right peers and mentors to keep them on a positive vector.  We need men and women who model boldness, self-control, humility, strength, humor, wisdom, compassion, fearlessness. 

What are the enemies to your aim of becoming a deeper person?

• Lack of self-care and unbalanced rhythms
• Consuming low-content media, especially social media. 
• The 24-hour news and commentary feeding a compulsion to stay informed.  Try fasting from “news” for a few days, and you’ll learn that when something is important you will hear about it. 
• Trusting the wrong people
• Associating with people who don’t honor the work required to become a deeper person
• Wishful thinking and the desire for instant solutions
• Impatience and arrogance (note how often these go together)
• The desire to be the noun without doing the verb

How do you overcome the power of these enemies?

• Consistent practices to pull you towards depth
• Preach to yourself
• Make yourself accountable to others
• Being in community
• Humility and willingness to begin afresh after a let-down
• Embracing discomfort
• Measuring progress (e.g., tracking consecutive days of a good habit)

Not easy, but straightforward.

I’m a words guy.  Love words.  Deal in words.  Believe in the power of words.

But there’s a phrase that pops to mind in these situations:

·         Reviewing resumes for people asking for suggestions

·         Studying quarterly financial reports

·         Listening to someone give project updates

·         When I need to convince a business leader about an opportunity

“Words talk, numbers scream.” I first heard this perhaps 25 years ago.  Expressing specific quantities, time, and dates is powerful. Season your documents, presentations, and pro/con persuasion arguments with numbers.

Authority is key to being influential and leaving a legacy. There is a curious relationship between personal depth and authority.  It’s subtle at times, but quite real, and we seemed wired to detect it. Deeper people exude authority that others can sense.  They’re far less intimidated by pseudo-authority figures and bullies.  You strengthen your authority level every time you resist bad impulses and foolish habits.

Shallow people must fake authority, or leverage the authority of others.  It’s notable that Jesus is described as teaching with authority, unlike their local law teachers (see Matthew 7:29).

Authority flows from competence, character, and communication skill.  Competence comes from study and practice in a discipline.  Nobel Prize winners are often asked their views on subjects far from their discipline. I think it’s silly to get more than an opinion about economics from a prize-winning chemist, but hey, they’re smart and are perceived to be an authority.

Personal authority is reinforced through the demonstration of strong character. Honesty, reliability, and consistency are vital components of building trust with others. People with personal authority take responsibility for their actions, admit mistakes, and show integrity in their dealings. By cultivating strong moral principles and treating others with respect, deep people establish themselves as reliable and trustworthy leaders.

Effective communication plays a crucial role in increasing personal authority.  Communication is a lifelong craft, which is why shallow people are usually poor communicators. Expressing ideas clearly, actively listening to others, and demonstrating empathy fosters positive relationships and encourages others to value and respect your ideas. Additionally, displaying confidence in one’s opinions while remaining open to constructive feedback allows for a balanced and persuasive communication style that enhances your personal authority.

False authority lacks at least one of these three: competence, character, communication.  I’m sure you can recall horrific authority figures who were impressive communicators but lacked character or competence.

… Don’t focus on your personal authority.  Focus on building skills, being honorable, and the lifelong craft of communicating clearly.  There are opportunities every day for these.

We speak sloppily about “time management.”  You can certainly make decisions based on a time factor.  You can choose how to watch time.  But the idea that you can manage time is a bit silly.  Try telling time “Do this, not that.”  Or “Change the consequences of your motion.” Try giving time feedback on what happened.

Maybe I should start a side hustle selling bumper stickers that say, “Time happens.”

What you can (and must) do is manage yourself and other people working with you.  You can make choices based on your energy level.  You can take actions which shape your energy level. You can direct and redirect your focus.  You can give specific directions related to time. 

What’s the difference between doing nothing for a year and making a 1% improvement daily for a year?1.00 to the 365^th power = 1.00

1.01 to the 365^th power = 37.7

Small consistent efforts are enormously powerful.

Consider how much better the world would be if everyone had a great father and a great mother.  Even a pretty good father and mother. 

We know this because the evidence piles up fast from children, young people, and adults who did not.  Much higher rates of emotional and mental problems, dysfunctional relationships, addictions, crime, violence.  Deficit parenting early in childhood is not easily made up later on; the consequences are more profound.  Being human, we tend to perpetuate our experience to the next generations.   

Is there a genetic predisposition at work here?  To some degree, almost certainly.  (It’s very hard to prove a certainty.)  We have evidence of DNA modification being passed down two generations. But the multiple stories of people who have consciously broken the chains of abuse and addiction and self-loathing tell us this is more nurture than nature.  It’s an important message from good fathers and mothers:  Sustained change is possible.   

… 

Personal story.  I loved my dad.  He died unexpectedly almost 22 years ago and I still think of him daily.  That loss taught me, deeply, that we’re not built to say goodbye, physically or spiritually.  It’s not a design feature.  

My dad wasn’t perfect.  Like most teenagers, I thought him a complete idiot for a few years until I had more experiences to appreciate his wisdom.   My dad exemplified self-control and was an excellent negotiator and persuader.  But he was not a dangerous man. 

I wanted my dad to be something that he wasn’t.  I wanted a man who was dangerous but highly self-controlled.  He had significant strength and endurance, but he wasn’t dangerous. 

I picked up the ‘dangerous’ dimension of a father from scoutmasters, a sensei, a college professor.  I over-indulged my desire to be dangerous for a few years, in part because for two years I didn’t have a good fatherly role model for being dangerous with self-control.  

… 

I have a working hypothesis that we seek out other father and mother figures where our own parents fall short.  I’ve seen this in my life and in the lives of friends, and you can certainly find it in many biographies.  Many young men today are enthralled by leaders like Jordan Peterson and Jocko Willink inspiring them to be responsible, active, and self-controlled.  They would have a smaller audience if 95% of fathers and the culture at large were providing this messaging and encouragement.  

We never outgrow our need for parents and mentors.  I believe this is why God in the Bible is described with so many fatherly and motherly characteristics.  We will ‘outgrow’ some fatherly and motherly human mentors over time.  We still honor them for how they helped us, but we move forward.  We’re changing, they’re changing.   

Which leads me to encourage you to invest yourself in parenting and mentoring others.  Every generation needs many fathers and mothers.  You can abdicate these roles but you can’t delegate them.  

Are you in the 4th Quarter of your career? Roughly, last 10 years of a 40-year career at an organization or in an industry.

Many books and articles are available on getting started well in your new career, and there are many books about mid-career challenges — but very little is said about finishing well. 

At this stage of your career:

• Some of the colleagues who knew you best are gone.
• You’re likely more expensive than newer employees.
• New leaders look more to the future, and tend to discount the past you helped create.
• There are new personal challenges with medical issues and aging relatives.
• You begin reporting to people younger and less experienced than you.
• Technologies and business changes are coming faster and require more adaptation.  What made you successful in the past might be less relevant going forward.
• The prospects of being laid off before you’re ready weigh heavier when you’re at an age where getting an equivalent job is difficult.
• You won’t qualify for certain roles because your “runway” is short.

We want to finish strong.  We want to be remembered for excellence and professionalism.

We also want to transition well to our next adventure.  This is a reset in mindset and expectations, in rhythms and practices. It’s much more than figuring out your retirement finances!  This transition requires self-reflection, insights, and planning.  The transition work begins before you submit your final notice. 

I believe that finishing strong and transitioning well in the fourth quarter of your career are two sides of the same coin.  I’d like to learn from others!

“Don’t you dare retire until you find fulfilling ways to use your time and energy!”

Those were the words of my doctor when I turned 55.  He explained that he’d had too many male patients die within 18 months of retiring, and he was certain it was because their identity was so rooted in their job that they didn’t have anything else. 

Be wary of how much of your identity is wrapped up in a job.  Remember that when you’re gone the company will likely fill your position within a few weeks or months. 

You’ve probably heard the example of sticking your hand in a bucket of water and pulling it out – leaves no hole!  BUT the dirt and oils on your hand did stay in the water, and if you swirled your hand you created some motion that will carry forward. 

Still, organizations, especially larger organizations, move on without you.  

Though digitally interacting more than ever, awash in entertainment and information, we might be the loneliest generation in history.  There are reports today that loneliness is as medically dangerous as smoking. 

A colleague surprised me recently when she blurted out, “I’m so desperately lonely.”  Right after she told me this she insisted I keep this a secret.  I suspect few around her, perhaps no one, would label her “desperately lonely.” She is compelled to maintain the illusion.

We crave connection. We both want to be known and are terrified to be known.  Being known is unsafe. At times even the most bizarre masks and illusions we can generate are preferable to being known.  I think the reason why is because we fear that if we’re really known we won’t be loved.  This fear stokes many self-defeating behaviors.

I felt horribly lonely during a stretch in high school, so of course I read a book about loneliness written by a prominent psychologist I saw on Phil Donahue’s show.  Dreadful schlock, it just made me feel worse because it amplified and supported my selfish woe-is-me thinking.  Zero useful advice.  Some time after that I decided that I felt lonely because I was on a journey that people around me couldn’t understand.  God and parents were quite patient with this arrogance.

Feelings of loneliness are amplified when we don’t have a clear Why, a call, a mission.  Our best animal spirits of bravery and adventure turn against us when our biggest goal is to just bumble through today. 

Every moment we invest in being truly present – paying attention, noticing details and patterns, evaluating with all our senses – is a moment we won’t feel lonely.  Lonely people dwell on themselves and comparisons to others.  Connecting with our world reduces the space loneliness gets to operate.

…

Everyone one of you is a leader in some way, for some people.

The truth: Loneliness is necessary to effective leadership.  The challenge is to embrace loneliness as a gift, rather than fight against it the wrong way. Every leader faces loneliness.  Many try the wrong approaches to escape loneliness, to the point of abdicating leadership roles when we desperately need them to lead.

Leadership forces a structural kind of loneliness by design.  You need a kind of distance from a group to lead them well.   Leaders need to know their people but avoid being sucked into the crowd.  Former peers often misunderstand why a leader acts differently than they did “before.”  Leaders often feel alone and distant, even when surrounded by others and busy with all kinds of good work.

Loneliness is not optional, even if you display a brave social face.  Certain decisions come down to YOU.  Your only choices are to decide or abdicate.  Those decisions, and your behaviors, will occasionally be misunderstood and misrepresented by some people.  These realities create an inevitable loneliness.

Loneliness is the common experience for all leaders, and indeed, all deep people.  Winston Churchill could not have successfully led Britain in WW2 had he not endured a lonely decade of preparation, operating out of power and influence after being blamed for the disaster at Gallipoli.  Abraham Lincoln’s letters show he was intensely lonely during the American Civil War, faced with horribly difficult decisions. Steve Jobs learned during his lonely exile from Apple after his board of directors fired him; those lessons and greater self-awareness were vital to his success when he returned to Apple.  These are dramatic examples in history. There are a million more “ordinary” leaders who endured significant loneliness and later became deeply grateful for it.  

Avoiding loneliness is hazardous.  Of course, you should have friendships and mentors.  Of course, you should pursue healthy solitude, to improve your capability to be truly with people to serve them well.  Yet, you’ll still experience loneliness.  Avoiding loneliness leads to greater problems:

Lying to yourself about loneliness is not a growth strategy.  Seek to be a better truth-teller than a better liar.

Denying your loneliness distorts your ability to appropriately assess your behavior, and the behavior of others.  It’s also a slippery path into depression.

Numbing your loneliness with alcohol, drugs, and distracting entertainment is, at best, deferring your need to deal with reality.  Numbing always creates secondary consequences which make problems harder to solve. You’ll hear people say, ‘Kick the can down the road, and deal with it later.’  It’s not a can that will eventually rust away.  You’re kicking a grizzly bear cub that grows up and gets meaner by the day.

Whining about your loneliness won’t help (and simply demonstrates your immaturity).   Wallowing in your loneliness is refusing to learn what it can teach you and resisting its ability to help transform you as a leader.

Find purpose and meaning in the loneliness!  Embrace it as a gift, rather than fight it as a horror.  Gird yourself and stand firm.  Lean into your lonely moments. Expect loneliness to be hard AND worthwhile.

Loneliness has transforming power.  It keeps our pride in check and gives us space for honest self-assessment.  You have strengths and weaknesses, assets and vulnerabilities. During the lonely times you discover your true friends and allies. What others think (or we imagine they think) becomes less important. Loneliness done well, not bitterly, helps us be more generous with people even as we see their masks and insecurities.  We recognize the loneliness of others with empathy.

Loneliness is a crucible for clarifying your vision and calling.  Loneliness forces us to evaluate our bedrock principles.  The intensity of loneliness is a powerful filter for signal from noise and clamor.

Lonely times are preparation for future leadership.  We get space to process our emotions, so we can accept new challenges.  Especially as we anticipate a coming difficulty, we need time before we can say, “Let’s go.  Bring it on.”  Loneliness expands our ability to be effective while we’re uncomfortable.  Loneliness is practice strengthening our minds, hearts, and sinews for even harder fights to come.

Finally, perhaps most importantly, loneliness shapes your relationship with God — the only Person who knows your fears, doubts, and pain.

…

Please understand – I’m not suggesting loneliness is all bubblegum, popcorn, and parties.

I am convinced that a subset of the people who embrace today’s challenges of loneliness will be the deeper people who lead in tomorrow’s opportunities.

Seven practical helps during the lonely times:

• Say “thank you” aloud, even as you ache and weep inside.
• Share your thoughts only with highly trusted people who have experience to understand and appreciate the challenge.
• Read biographies.  Speak with other leaders.  Remind yourself that every deep person experiences loneliness.
• Journal.  Writing is cathartic and clarifying.  Journaling is a means of interacting constructively with your thoughts and experiences.
• Pray and meditate.  These ancient practices are good for you.
• Take long walks and exercise get your blood flowing.  You’ll process strong emotions better.
• Avoid addictions which distract or numb you.
• Embrace loneliness as a gift that transforms you into a better leader for bigger challenges.