What does a failed lettuce shipment from a Steinbeck novel have to do with your AI strategy? Everything, as it turns out.

In this one, we're doing it, we're stepping into the world of AI adoption. I mean, surely someone should start talking about this AI thing?

Ahem.

We talk about why a bunch of what companies are doing with AI is ruinous efficiency theatre – and what they oughta learn from a hapless lettuce entrepreneur out of classic novel East of Eden.

We explore the parallels between infrastructure booms (railroads then, AI now), why 70% of companies see zero efficiency gains from AI, and how to avoid becoming the laughing stock of your industry.

• The "lettuce man paradox" - when you're right but early, you're wrong
• How 20% of bees ignore the waggle dance (and why you should too)
• The antifragile barbell strategy: boring investments + wild experiments
• Tom's "expert panel of dissenters" AI prompt that will tear your ideas apart (in the best way)
• Why setting up a fence around a playground is more important than setting up goals and objectives
• Container ships, steel plants, graphics chips and compute: what to do with what gets left behind after boom-bust cycles

References:

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Dave Snowden's Ritual Dissent method https://cynefin.io/wiki/Ritual_dissent
• Ken Stanley's Myth of the Objective (playground thinking) https://youtu.be/VDuF4onPmuE?si=4vEfNLBIZyaDvB4h
• Strathern's reframing of Goodhart's Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law
• Adam Mastroianni (of Experimental History) Bag of words, have mercy on us https://www.experimental-history.com/p/bag-of-words-have-mercy-on-us
• Episode 044: The one with the bees https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/044-the-one-with-the-bees

For a copy of Tom's prompt, or with questions, comments, historical corrections or love notes, ping us at tentacles@crownandreach.com

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