Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
With my father visiting for the Christmas holiday, it was a great opportunity to visit one of the most interesting attractions in the Bay Area, the Walt Disney Family Museum. You may be wondering, “What was Walt’s connection to the Bay Area?” There isn’t one. The Walt Disney Family Museum was created by Walt’s daughter, … Continue reading Learning From The Life of Walt Disney
In 1996, I was home for the holidays. Just months prior, I had started working for D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. in its Cambridge, Massachusetts office, and had endured my first encounter with a New England winter. As a child growing up in the Los Angeles area, I had always dreamed of living somewhere … Continue reading George Clooney and AI Magic
Since nothing attracts clicks like KPop Demon Hunters, I thought I would use the movie to illustrate a point about AI. Like many a KPDH fan, I’ve gone down the YouTube rabbit hole of “Golden” cover versions. Eventually, I found an “almost” heavy metal cover, which I quite enjoyed. Then when I read the comments, … Continue reading What AI Covers Of KPop Demon Hunters Songs Teach Us About AI
Too many companies confuse buying AI with adopting AI. A new report from MIT’s NANDA initiative (Networked Agents and Decentralized AI) analyzed 300 public AI deployments, and found that only 5% saw rapid revenue acceleration (mostly at startups). This issue isn’t technology. It’s adoption. The majority of AI application budgets are going to sales and … Continue reading Don’t Confuse Buying AI with Adopting AI
Ever since I hit my 30s, I’ve made it a practice to make younger friends (in a non-creepy way of course). I was glad when people like Ramit Sethi or Ben Casnocha came into my life. (Conversely, I was also glad to meet older friends like my friend Don Yates.) At the time, I was … Continue reading Make Younger Friends
I knew the day would come when I would lose my friend Don. When you become friends with someone who is four decades older, you have to realize that you’ll be saying goodbye sooner rather than later. But it was still a sad moment when I heard from his daughter Sharon that he had passed … Continue reading Remembering my friend Don Yates
The #1 question I’m asked by audiences is how parents should prepare their kids for the age of AI. My response is: “Seek understanding, not just answers.” Using AI to get answers is like peeking at the answer key for a test–you might get a good score, but you won’t learn anything. If you use … Continue reading Seek Understanding, Not Just Answers From AI
Apple TV+ has done an amazing job of finding and funding buzz-generating TV shows. While critics initially worried that Apple would simply use its financial power to buy its way to success (take, for example, the very mixed reviews of and reactions to “The Morning Show” and “Foundation”; the former spending on star power like … Continue reading How To Be A Compelling Protagonist
While it is true that entrepreneurship (and startup investing) require risk-taking, this focus on risk-taking can lead entrepreneurs to neglect the critical task of risk reduction. During a recent meeting with some founders, I walked them through some of the key ways that they could reduce the perceived risk of investing in their company. They … Continue reading The Importance of Reducing (Perceived) Risk
One of the dangers that has folks worried about the heavy use of AI is the possibility that our cognitive skills will atrophy from lack of use. Wall Street Journal tech reporter Sam Schechner recently wrote an essay describing how reliance on ChatGPT had eroded his skills (here’s a link to a non-paywalled article about … Continue reading The Coming Importance of Deliberate Cognitive Exercise