CDOQ

The men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only agents, and the men who can manage foundational models manage all.   - Inspired by Will & Ariel Durant  

With eight billion people in the world, why are truly original ideas so rare?

Before calendars, did birthdays exist?

Some things don’t mix well, no matter how good they are individually—like Mexican huevos rancheros and French sourdough bread.

Music doesn’t recognize generational boundaries.

Normal is what a lot of other people like you do. 

Imagine teaching a lion to speak perfect English. Every word pronounced flawlessly, grammar impeccable. Yet, a conversation with it would still be impossible. Its frames of reference are so alien to ours that true understanding cannot occur—just as Ludwig Wittgenstein noted in Philosophical Investigations : ‘If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.’ Now imagine a counterpart trained on the vast body of human knowledge: GenAI. Here, conversation is not only possible but also delightful, because its frame of reference aligns with ours. GenAI can reason, explain, and answer across countless domains. On the surface, it seems like a mind without limits. Conversations But there’s a catch. Unlike a lion, GenAI can confidently deliver falsehoods. Without deep understanding of the topic in discussion, you may never notice. Knowledge alone isn’t enough. Context, experience, and critical thinking remain irreplaceable—even when conversing with a machine that seems to know everything.

The world works because not everyone wants the same thing at the same time. 

Both Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have an extraordinary gift for simplifying the complicated. They taught me that the most powerful ideas are often the clearest. I have since carried that lesson into my own work. At Moki, a company that provides software for remotely managing hardware in retail environments, we faced a common challenge: overcoming CIOs' fear of losing control. Instead of delving into the technical depth and cybersecurity of our product, we focused on a single, compelling promise: " Total Control of their devices." This simple framing cut through the complexity and directly addressed their primary concern. It worked.   An often-cited (but unverified) framework, attributed to Einstein, outlines five levels of intellect: 1. Smart: Possesses vast knowledge (e.g., a McKinsey consultant; whatever you think of them, they do know a lot). 2. Intelligent: Applies existing knowledge effectively (e.g., Michael Dell, who adapted the direct-to-consumer model for...

In just two years, ChatGPT knows me better than Google and Meta do after two decades.

The blind once led the blind. Now, the hallucinated lead the clear-eyed. 

Fears that GenAI (Generative AI like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) will make us dumber are greatly exaggerated. Did calculators make us dumber? Did computers? Sure, every new tool shifts what we practice, but history suggests we adapt, and often end up smarter in different ways. Brain damage? (image credit: Gemini) A commonly cited worry is that ChatGPT takes away independent thinking. Who has that anyway 😀? It’s true that you can lose elements of critical thinking if you hand over all the mental work to GenAI. Just as using a calculator without understanding math fundamentals can be a problem, using GenAI without grasping the basics of writing or coding could lead to skill loss. But for most adults, that’s not what’s happening. Those who outsource all their writing or coding to ChatGPT usually didn’t enjoy those tasks in the first place. Generally, repetition doesn’t magically make us love a task we dislike, nor does it guarantee we get much better at it. I’ve been cleaning for decades,...

We have lost the fragrance in roses. Scent did not scale.  Quantity over quality (image credit: Google Gemini)

Under U.S. law, a corporation is considered a legal person, but it has no inherent moral obligations. So why do we expect the artificial intelligence (AI) products created by corporations to behave morally?

A major societal shift in the past few decades is that most primary research in artificial intelligence (AI) is now happening within corporations, rather than in academia or through government-funded programs. Details here.  

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Munger and Buffett at the 2015 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting Recently, I attended a talk by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits . Below is a summary of his framework for making and breaking habits—along with some of my reflections and questions. Chains of habit (image credit: Gemini) How Habits Are Formed According to Clear, habits form through the repeated execution of four steps: 1. Cue – A trigger or reminder (e.g., you see a cookie). 2. Craving – The cue leads to a desire (e.g., you want the cookie). 3. Response – The craving drives an action (e.g., you eat the cookie). 4. Reward – The action provides a reward (e.g., you feel good). Note: I like the simplicity of this framework, but it's not airtight. For instance, you can experience a craving without an external cue—sometimes I just feel like a cookie without seeing one. Also, some habits form through training rather ...

Lack of principles can make one succeed in a society bound by principles. 

Which is better: a person of good character with good intentions who tries to improve society but fails, or a person of questionable character with self-interest in mind who does something that benefits him and ends up making society better?

No two people live the same life. 

Nature dominates nurture.