WSJ: “If you’re asked to picture a successful leader, what do you see? If you’re like most people, you imagine somebody who is decisive and in control. Somebody who seems to have little doubts about his or her actions. But that kind of thinking has it backward. In more than two decades of research into how leaders’ decision-making has an impact on organizational success, I’ve uncovered a surprising insight: The most effective leaders aren’t the ones who seem to have all the answers. The most-effective leaders are those who question themselves. They are, in other words, ambivalent. They feel and exhibit conflicting emotions—and are tolerant of them—and can hold two contradictory thoughts or feelings in their head.”
Kevin Roose: “I believe that over the past several years, A.I. systems have started surpassing humans in a number of domains — math, coding and medical diagnosis, just to name a few — and that they’re getting better every day. I believe that very soon — probably in 2026 or 2027, but possibly as soon as this year — one or more A.I. companies will claim they’ve created an artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., which is usually defined as something like “a general-purpose A.I. system that can do almost all cognitive tasks a human can do.” I believe that when A.G.I. is announced, there will be debates over definitions and arguments about whether or not it counts as “real” A.G.I., but that these mostly won’t matter, because the broader point — that we are losing our monopoly on human-level intelligence, and transitioning to a world with very powerful A.I. systems in it — will be true.”
FT on the rise of AI Apps: “In the early days of the cloud, start-ups had a built-in advantage against incumbents, which had technology and business models tied to a different delivery method. But software’s AI era is really more an extension of the cloud than an entirely new computing platform, points out Byron Deeter, a veteran software investor at Bessemer Venture Partners. That reduces the disruptive potential. Another difference has been the red-hot growth; this has made the most successful newcomers look more like consumer apps than traditional enterprise software, says Deeter. It isn’t clear yet whether they will retain consumer-like characteristics as they mature, for instance leading to higher churn rates than are typically seen in the business software world. The financial profile also looks very different. The AI-app companies face a significant cost of goods, in the form of fees paid to LLM companies each time their services are used. Many are choosing to swallow those costs for now in the hope that LLM usage fees will continue to plunge.”
Vivek Wadhwa: “Students believe that an expensive degree will catapult them into corporate success. But in today’s world of accelerating technological change, an MBA is little more than an overpriced badge that adds little real value. The tens of lakhs of rupees students pour into tuition, living expenses, and lost income will never be recovered. And even those who manage to secure coveted spots at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are struggling to justify their investment.”
The Daily Economy: “A deficit is an annual shortfall of revenue, compared to spending. The difference is financed by borrowing, or “selling” US Treasury bonds. The reason investors are willing to buy bonds is that they are “discounted”: a $1,000 bond is sold at a price of $909.09; it will be worth $1,000 in a year, implying a 10% interest value, or rate of return. Treasury bonds are “auctioned” to ensure that the government pays the lowest rate to finance the deficit. The opposite of a deficit is a surplus, where revenue exceeds spending. Over time, the sum of the accumulated deficits and surpluses is the debt, or the total amount owed to bondholders… Deficits Are Future Taxes (DAFT).”
