The Weekly Distillation No.80
Leadership in a chaotic world; scary cockroaches; AI; GPUs; Oppenheimer; a funny story
This newsletter is written for entrepreneurial leaders who want to learn about the moment we are living in but don’t have time to read broadly; who want to grasp the key themes; and who want to create better ways of advancing their mission. The Weekly Distillation covers a broad range of topics with the intent to curate the key narratives of the week, how they fit the broader themes of society and to pose questions that help you to think deeper on the application in your context. You can read more about the key themes I see here.
People once said……….or maybe ChatGPT
"Cockroaches may rule the world someday, but they're no match for a shoe." - Anonymous
"In the realm of algorithms, GPUs are the artist's palette, painting vivid landscapes of virtual reality." - John Hennessy
“Move, shoot, communicate.” - Navy Seals
"Leadership is not about being in control. It is about creating conditions that enable others to succeed." - Greg Petroff
“If more people follow their superpowers - and everyone has one - then we're going to be better as a society.” - Adam Neumann
“WeWork is my fifth venture. I failed in my first, second and third, had mediocre success in the fourth.” - Adam Neumann
Skim it in a minute
WeWork heads for bankruptcy. Sad but predictable. This business is one of 3 companies I never buy from. If you wonder why, read Billion Dollar Loser.
Russia tells Ecowas to stay out of Niger. Can’t think why…..#wagner #saheltakeover
Did you know there’s possibly a fifth force of nature? No? Can you tell me the other four? I couldn’t but I only got an A in Higher Physics, reinforcing how poor education in Scotland is. Discovered by Fermilab - with ‘fermi’ a tribute to Enrico Fermi who was part of creating the atomic bomb and worked with Oppenheimer. Talking of bombs, wars and movies, I’m heading to see Oppenheimer in Derry/Londonderry/stroke-city next week.
On a 2 hour drive to Edinburgh this week, I fired up the audio feature in Pocket and had it read to me several articles I had saved to read later. I was fascinated by this one on Nvidia H100 GPUs and what’s going on in the world for processors and chips in the AI world. It’s a 28-minute read so not one for a quick read on the train platform but if you’re in any way interested in AI, I’d recommend it. 6 months to get your H100s!
I worried I had shared this one already but thankfully not. Robot cockroaches. Seriously. Real-life cockroaches with silicon fibres attached that can then control the cockroach. Positives: Being able to send these into earthquake-devastated cities to find people who are buried and get them the rescue they need. Negatives: I’m able to weaponise a million cockroaches to attack you. Ha.
When chaos is the new norm for leaders
I really don’t like the word leader. It has become so widely used that it has almost become meaningless. Managers have become leaders. You are a leader if you lead yourself. Any politician becomes a leader. In the good ol days it used to be a leader was the person who was out front when the bullets started flying. Simply, if no-one’s following you seriously, you are not a leader.
Leaving that minor rant aside, the art of leadership has continued to go beyond what the human brain has capacity for. A large part of this is the connectedness of the world. For example, why care about the coup in Niger if you are a corporate leader? Well, it’s a major supplier of Uranium to France. France is heavily reliant on Nuclear to generate electricity. France is an exporter of electricity (17.6 TWh in H1 2023), especially to the UK. The UK is short of additional generating capacity. Markets in energy are freely traded and prices spike in relation to shortages. We have high energy costs now and this would drive them higher. That reduces corporate margins and reinforces the pressures for companies to raise prices, keeping inflation higher. The Bank of England keeps rates higher for longer, making the cost pressures and income squeeze greater. The economy slows, people lose their jobs, move to foodbanks and end up in broken families and homeless. Ridiculous connections? Perhaps. But the point is that the average leader has to stay on top of distant geopolitical events that they wouldn’t have had to 50 years ago.
The second area is that paying attention isn’t enough. We seem capable of focusing on one crisis at a time - global financial crisis, climate change, Ukraine etc. But it’s whack a mole. Every time we think we defeat one, another one pops up elsewhere. This week it was, in the UK, the turn of Northern Ireland where an inadvertent / negligent / criminal breach of data led to massive amounts of data shared on serving police officers in the province, people who currently live under regular threat of attack or death. 205 people have died this year from terrorist attacks. How high is terrorism up the agenda? Pandemics? Mental health? Corruption? Ageing western populations? Global debt? Russia? Cyber security? Iran? Declining education standards? Falling sperm counts? UFOs? Gender? Social Media? Black Lives Matter? Inflation? Falling ethical standards? The state of media? Religion? Secularism? AI?
The third area is even when they are paying attention, the flow of information that they receive is insane. I do NOT call myself a leader. But in my world this week, in one half day I had 4 zoom calls, sent 30 emails and received 65 emails, multiple WhatsApp messages and still distracted myself off onto the BBC and Social Media apps. We’ve all read Cal Newport and know the systems and tools that can help. But these are temporary fixes - at some point you have to reconnect and triage the inbounds. AI is going to make this worse. I have already seen (and been part of) a wave of content (emails, copy, pitches) that is AI generated - spam emails have become more sophisticated, more eloquent and longer as one example.
Time for our weekly ChatGPT tangent. In the heart of the bustling city, a harried leader named Alex was glued to their smartphone, drowning in a sea of notifications. "Urgent meetings, pressing emails, and trending memes!" they muttered, while a lone pigeon perched on their windowsill, observing the chaos.
Amidst the digital frenzy, the pigeon took flight, soaring gracefully above the city's maze of screens. It squawked, "Humans, busy as bees, forgetting to feel the breeze!"
Just then, a holographic news alert about climate change caught Alex's eye. They mused, "I should do something about this... after one last tweet." The pigeon swooped down, delivering a paperclip to their desk. "For your scattered thoughts," it cooed.
Alex's thoughts turned to AI, as a quirky robot vacuum whizzed by. "Maybe AI can solve everything!" they exclaimed. The pigeon chuckled, "Robots can vacuum, but not the mess in your mind!"
As Alex contemplated action, the UN's emblem flashed onscreen, reminding them of global cooperation. "I should call for a meeting," they pondered. The pigeon nodded approvingly, "Unity is key, like birds in a flock, facing challenges as one rock!"
In the midst of their pondering, a familiar voice echoed from the past—the one and only Donald Trump, sharing golf tips on a podcast. Alex burst into laughter, realizing the absurdity of distractions.
Gathering their resolve, Alex closed their laptop, embraced the fleeting breeze, and stood by the window, watching the pigeon glide against the backdrop of a city skyline.
With newfound clarity, Alex addressed the nation, pledging to combat climate change and harness AI for a sustainable future. Hope blossomed like a resilient flower in a digital desert.
And so, in the midst of distraction and chaos, a busy leader found the serenity to focus on what truly mattered—the world, the future, and the promise of positive change. And somewhere in the city, a pigeon shared a knowing wink with a passing bird, carrying the message of hope forward on its wings.
I hope you get my point. So where do we go from here? We remain connected globally (even whilst rediscovering what can be good in nationalism), we are playing whack a mole and we are swamped with a ridiculous amount of inbound information. (Irony, enclosed in a Substack).
Let’s go back to leaders in the army. A while back the military realised that the answer is technology + delegated authority + clarity of vision + dynamic teams. An openness to ripping up the business model and starting again doesn’t hurt in this context either. You can be pretty sure that part of your business is facing an existential threat right now. You just need to find that out before it finds you out. UAVs gave oversight of the battlefield and handheld tablets meant platoon commanders could have sight of the battlefield. ISIS/ISIL/IS was successful because it delegated authority to unit comanders. As are the Navy Seals. Both have absolute mission clarity. Dynamic teams are critical. The war stays the same but the battles change.
In a corporate context, leaders need to be clearer on what the mission is (not the vision). Authority needs radically delegated so that it’s a case of rarely having to ask permission. High reporting, High permission. Technology budgets should be delegated to teams who know best what they need. Dynamic teams are still critical. The person who works in a job that works in the pandemic isn’t much use for the Niger energy crisis. (Probably). If you’re in marketing this week, you might be a community manager next. If you’re selling advertising this week, you might be coding AI tools next week. You need to be prepared to reskill, volunteer for new roles and be up for the challenge. That’s what makes you useful. You remain a valuable human being even if you are not useful. But your employer likely wants you to be useful too.
Practical questions:
Is your mission clear? Would your team repeat it back correctly to you if they asked? Demonstrating they understand it? Or would you get a better answer from ChatGPT?
What tech does your team want? Why? Where will you find the money?
Where can you delegate more authority? What’s stopping you?
Who needs to move seats in your org to fit the new mission? Who needs trained? What new seat do you need to occupy?
I moved house at the end of April, returning to where I spent the first 17 years of my life. Here’s some things I’m re-learning about rural life - no-one cares what your job is; farming is still very important; communities still gather in person; facebook messenger is used > than WhatsApp; phone signals still are missing in some areas; young people are flooding to rural villages still; values are still more conservative; multi-generational communities are better; you have to learn to fix things yourself; cutting the grass takes a long time; growing stuff is fun; remote work + hybrid is working; it’s still easy to get distracted; low flying fighter jets passing by at 200 feet and 500mph is still heart-stopping; slow life is better. Thanks for reading.