Most capable and healthy people enjoy their autonomy and boundaries - a way to exercise their own way of being and creativity. It tends to bring out their best and make them feel good. Conversely, most people have a visceral reaction to domination and authority. Demanding and commanding may be apt when the situation is dire and answer is somewhat clear; like during a war. Or with a low-trust and low-agency audience where you have some leverage, power, or authority. But in most cases, asking and influencing well will have higher ceiling and longer-term outcomes. It’s also more pleasant for everyone involved. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
It’s typically much easier to upskill on procedural or declarative skills (just follow these steps/checklist or memorize these facts), compared to cognitive or creative skills (like analyze a situation and come up with a solution, or to compose great music). The path to developing higher order general intelligence is murky and abstract; probably a mix of natural ability and years of varied exposure and practice. Therefore it’s harder and longer to train and change. Good news is that with GenAI, intelligence has become procedural now. Just ask ChatGPT to analyze the situation, suggest relevant frameworks and analogies, effective ideas, or to critically improve your approach. And lo…you’re immediately operating at a higher cognitive level! This was simply not possible before. It’s similar to how arithmetic turned from a mental ability to punching numbers into a calculator. Most people use Chatgpt to improve their writing (with mixed results), but I think the bigger application...
On weeks like this, as stocks plummet 20% because of a senseless trade war, you see clearly that currency and stocks are just fiction. Intangible entries in a ledger, and only of value because of our fragile shared imaginations and agreements. This isn’t the first time. In 2022, the market crashed because of inflation and interest rate hikes — an after-effect of the COVID shutdowns and stimulus. In 2009, it was the banks — over-leveraged, peddling toxic financial products dressed up as safe bets. Every time, the cause is different. But the outcome feels familiar. You wake up one morning, and the number in your brokerage or savings account — the one that’s supposed to map to something real, like a countdown to retirement or savings for a college fund, just doesn’t anymore. You realize that you're perched atop an economic Jenga tower. It's swaying, and your control is an illusion. At the very base, there’s geopolitics — the invisible tectonic plates. Oil supply shocks. Wars. Sa...