‘Cover image’

The Grand Prix of Gumption: Launch Day Lament

March 1st, 2024 Dear Diary, Today was supposed to be the day I etched my name in the annals of app history, the day my F1 predictions app would take the Grand Prix world by storm. Ah, the sweet taste of anticipation - turned, unexpectedly, into a goblet of sheer disbelief. For two months, my life revolved around codes, caffeine, and dreams. Nights were when the moon kept company, and days blended into a relentless marathon toward perfection....

‘Cover image’

Sales is about teaching

Great sales people teach their clients a different way to think about their issues. A research (by CEB) asked thousands of customers about what is it that they valued most from their suppliers. The results showed that what sets the best sales reps apart is the value of their insights in how to make the customer make or save money in ways they did not know were possible. Customers loves salespeople who teach and discover new ways for them to succeed....

‘Cover image’

What does ChatGPT think about how AI will impact the Future of Work?

Everyone talks about ChatGPT and how it is going to change everything. There are thousands of YouTube videos explaining how ChatGPT can be used to generate content, software or do your homework. There are all sorts of clickbait posts alerting on how AI will leave you jobless and without future. If you want to make sense out of the hype, why not asking ChatGPT for help? You can directly ask the famous AI or just read “AI at Work: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Future of Employment....

‘Cover image’

What makes humans unique versus machines

If there is an activity that is uniquely human and difficult to replace by machines, it is innovation. The creation and implementation of new ideas will remain a genuinely human activity for some time. As long as we think of innovation as the activity that seeks to fulfill human needs in a new better way, we will need humans to drive it. Although automation will replace some jobs, new waves of innovation will drive new waves of employment, despite of a new kind....

‘Cover image’

Building a Second Brain

Building a second brain is about creating a system to process the vast amounts of information we consume and transform it into actionable knowledge. Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential, by Tiago Forte is one of the books of 2022. The underlying philosophy is very similar to that of Zettelkasten. Tiago Forte’s method is a pragmatic update to this note-taking system, which is popular in the academic world....

‘Cover image’

Leadership is about moving others

It was striking to see in Benjamin Zander’s Ted talk his capacity to “move” people. Note how he delivers his talk, how he brings attention and accent to different parts of it, how he uses stories, how he makes it so inspiring and emotional. His stories were meant to make people emotional, so that the impact is far greater. At the end it shows how leadership is about moving others to action....

‘Cover image’

Serenity Prayer

The Serenity Prayer in bullets: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. This prayer combines so well with these words in the I Ching (translation of Brian Browne Walker): Ebb and flow are inherent in the nature of life. When difficulties arise, accept this and hold firmly to what is correct. Good fortune returns to those that remain calm and detached....

Logotherapy

Viktor Frankl wrote his experience to endure and survive four concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. The viennese psychiatrist wrote “Man’s Search for Meaning” in just 9 days and intended to publish it anonymously. He was surprised by its success as an international bestseller, and saw in it the symptom of the “mass neurosis of modern times” since the title promised to deal with the question of life’s meaningfulness. The first part of the book recounts his experience in dealing with the worst and cruelest conditions a human being can think of, and how still some of them managed to survived....

‘Cover image’

Tu Trabajo va a desaparecer

Does technology create or destroy jobs? What jobs will be done by people in a world of robots? Should robots pay taxes? Is Universal Basic Income a feasible solution? What future should we prepare our kids for? Tu trabajo va a desaparecer is a book published in 2017 in Spanish which provides answers to those questions and new perspectives on the future of work.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution or the Innovation Economy

In 1990, the top 3 automakers in Detroit had a combined: market capitalization of 36 billion dollars revenue of $250 billion 1.2 million employees, out of which 5% worked in innovation In 2014, the top 3 companies in Silicon Valley had a combined: market capitalization 30 times bigger: more than 1,000 billion dollars! same level of revenue: $247 billion 10 times fewer employees: 137,000, with more than 80% of them working in innovation In the Digital Age, ideas, and not material goods, become the main source of wealth....