Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
David Barrett of Expensify is a smart entrepreneur and leader, which is why it is interesting that he recently declared, “The office is dead.” Unlike most public figures who have picked a side in the remote vs hybrid vs traditional office debate, David actually put his money where his mouth was, and conducted an experiment … Continue reading Attract People To The Office With People and Purpose, Not Perks
The answer, as always, is money. Former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott bet on creating the Pac-12 cable network. That failed, which left the Pac-12 in a bad position when it came to TV rights. In addition, with the existing TV rights expiring after this season, there was no penalty to leaving the conference. Seeing the … Continue reading What The Hell Is Happening With The Pac-12?
The critical error that many supporters of capitalism make is to assume that unfettered capitalism produces the “best” results. Capitalism is an amazing tool for allocating capital and creating wealth, but a wildly imperfect tool for distributing that wealth. I’ll put it in terms that might resonate with ardent capitalists: Pure capitalism is like a … Continue reading “Pure” Capitalism is Bad for Business
Alisha and I took part in a special session of Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy for the members of the Silicon Guild and their spouses. Due to some unfortunate complications, several of the Silicon Guild members had to drop out in the weeks leading up to the session, which left us with 12 participants (plus … Continue reading Visiting the Modern Elder Academy
My mother Grace passed away yesterday. It is still difficult to grasp the reality of that statement. A month ago, I saw my mother when we picked up our daughter from her freshman year at USC. She seemed frailer than before, but no one in the family had any thought that she would pass away … Continue reading A Tribute To My Mother, Grace Yeh
When people talk about using AI to augment their own intelligence, they’re missing the real point. While it is certainly a positive move to augment one’s own intelligence, a far more powerful approach is to amplify your own efforts by increasing the number of intelligences working on your behalf. We often ascribe superhuman intelligence to … Continue reading The Power of AI Isn’t Augmentation, It’s Amplification
I have had the good fortune to experience a lot of cool things in my career, but today was certainly a highlight. I attended an event with a private cello performance by Yo-Yo Ma, and was sitting in the front row less than 10 feet away from him as he played his 1712 Stradivarius. It … Continue reading Witnessing Greatness
Elon Musk is a genius. He has a remarkable ability to defy conventional wisdom and do what others consider impossible. We should be grateful to him for revolutionizing at least two different important industries (Tesla/automobiles and SpaceX/space) and for tackling many others (Starlink/telecommunications, Hyperloop/transportation). However, being a genius does not mean being omniscient/omnipotent. Elon Musk’s … Continue reading The Secret To Elon Musk’s Success (and why many of his new efforts will fail)
When I was young, some of my favorite books were written by Roald Dahl. Far too often, children’s literature is bland and boneless. Dahl’s stories were filled with grotesque figures, tart-tongued narrators, and real danger and consequences. Which is why I feel some sadness that new editions of Dahl’s work have been edited to remove … Continue reading Editing Roald Dahl (However Dumb) Isn’t Wokism, It’s Capitalism
When a new technology arrives, people often focus on the first-order effects of that technology. These are important, and should be taken into account, but to get ahead of the crowd, consider the second, or even third order effects. This general principle will likely be true about AI as well. A lot of people have … Continue reading Prediction: AI will lead to a Cambrian explosion of comics and graphic novels