I have a friend, who has done well in life aka- Triple Digit Millionaire. They are based in Europe. I asked them what was on their bucket list that they were most happy about checking off. Their response. "Hire a professor to hang around & spend time with them, so they could learn new things"

What a fantastic bucket list item when you can afford it. It only happens when you can admit to your self you are not the smartest person in the room.

This was arguably more different than most folks who have attained commercial success, most go after shiny things. New cars, better homes, more vacation villas, 5 star vacations, personal chefs and the list goes on. But not my friend. When they had optimized for cash, they wanted to optimize for time, what better use of time, than to have some one smarter than you to spend time with. You get a new perspective, you get an outside in view, you get judgement free insights and if it even helps you get 1% better you can literally re invest those learnings to scaling further.

But not every has this desire, far less people execute on it. 

Here is a thought, you really dont have to be making millions to upgrade your intellectual surroundings. If you are in college spent 1:1 time with the topics and professors that interest you. At work, find managers and mentors who have advanced understand/degrees on items that you find engaging. As a young professional seek out academics to work on projects that interest them and you. Nothing is stopping you from increasing your chances to identify, engage and learn from the best. You are your own limiting factor. This is the easiest hack to upgrade your intellectual circle and walk away from doom scrolling and consistent news based negativity. Will you take action to enhance your intellectual outcomes?

The way things are headed on the AI front plus where the economic conditions are globally, structural un employment is coming first to the West then in a trickle down fashion to the rest of the world. Why do I think that? Right now, thousands of companies are asking the top consultants of the world like Bain, Deloitte, KPMG etc "how can I change my business to reduce my headcount using offshore providers and AI + software + no-code". No one has it figure out, but they will soon enough. In their quest for efficiency this is coming to an employer near you.

The flip side is what excited me, from a developing world stand point. If you read the hypothesis clearly, the top consulting companies will have to create structure, process, governance and delivery capability offshore on the following asks " AI + software + no-code" The question to ask your selves is, how do we fit in to this?

Individuals, companies and groups that figure this out fastest, will enhance their outcomes. Those who do not build services, process, governance to embrace this change will be left out. The beauty is, that all these things are available to you to get started, the quicker you can demonstrate your process optimization, resource arbitrage and no-code automation type skills the higher the likely hood that the global layoffs help you create a service line that helps fill the void the big consultants will identify. Are you ready to enhance your outcomes to win at this structural un employment problem?

A 'munchy box' is a popular take away food item in Scotland typically consisting of kebab meat, fried chicken, pizza, chicken tikka, samosas, onion rings, chowmein noodles, pakora, naan bread, garlic bread, coleslaw, other fast foods and sauces such as curry sauce.

Chrome extensions. I have been an ardent promoter of these, but now for a new reason. ChatGPT chrome extensions that save you time and bring you prompt engineering on steroids.

Check out the thread below and invest the time to get the extension. You will thank me later.

https://alicent.ai/

I recently read a post some where(still trying to recall where) but had made a note of the blurb... it goes like this

1) Buying books and reading books are two very different hobbies. 2) Reading books and applying books are two very different activities.

So this week this is what you should be reading..

The New York Times bestselling author and human performance expert tests his knowledge and theories on his own aging body in a quest to become an expert skier at age fifty-three. Gnar: adjective, short for “gnarly,” def: any environment or situation that is high in perceived risk and high in actual risk. Country: noun, def: any defined territory, landscape or terrain, fictitious or real. Cutting-edge discoveries in embodied cognition, flow science, and network neuroscience have revolutionized how we think about peak performance aging..

This is a must read for everyone. It will challenge all the common thinking around aging and what we really know through science on the limitless potential of our minds. There's so much more greatness out there for all of us. We can enhance our outcomes at any age if only we commit to it.

By over indexing on focus. As some one who works with many companies and many people across verticals, the repeating theme of shiny objects, is the systemic risks that kills more businesses than a lack of original ideas.  The way to monetize your time.

• Have a decade perspective (Think global foreign policy mandates)

• Narrow focus

• Getting Shit done > Ideas

• Measure everything*

• High-performance culture without being discriminatory

*Don’t measure EVERYTHING Measure the RIGHT things (contradictory but its not, you need to have a culture of measurement in every thing you do but also the intellect to measure the right things)

The way the world is moving there was bound to bias in algorithms. For you to better understand how you are being manipulated, you must watch this. Consumer Reports’ “Bad Input” is a new series of short films about biases in algorithms and data sets.

As you build some thing new, or use some thing new, be sure to understand both your rights as a consumer and the liability as business as you go down the rabbit hole of AI driven selection and optimization.

Must-read: International Intrigue is a newsletter created by former diplomats who scour 100s of sources daily. Some one sent me a referral, so I subscribed for global news from people whose credentials far surpass the average doom and gloom tv network or  from those who “traveled around Europe for a little bit after college” level of expertise on twitter and social media. Hard hitting, interesting and totally relevant to enhance your outcomes. This is important as it lets you understand things outside of your context as you build new systems.