Inspired by The Wisdom Letter and a push from a friend, this week’s Move Fast, Think Slow will focus on three things to consider. The aim for this week’s newsletter is to take the reading time from 10 minutes to 4 minutes or less. Sorry, I have a lot of thoughts!! 😆 And without further ado, three things to consider this week with MF/TS.
1. Wisdom: Become who you are 🧙♂️
“Some 2,6000 years ago the ancient Greek poet Pindar wrote, “Become who you are by learning who you are.” What he meant is the following: You are born with a particular makeup and tendencies that mark you as a piece of fate. It is who you are to the core. Some people never become who they are; they stop trusting in themselves; they conform to the tastes of others, and they end up wearing mask that hides their true nature.” - Robert Greene from the book Mastery
Follow-up Thoughts & Questions
Acclaimed writer Robert Greene believes your greatest super powers lay in who you were naturally as a child. He encourages you to go back to your childhood to examine what you were most interested in.
Who were you when you were a child?
What interest did you have and why?
Are you still dabbling in those interest? If not, why not? And how do you get back there? To who you were and what you were most interested in were growing up.
2. AI Trendlines 🤖
The AI ecosystem is settling into three layers: applications (Duolingo, Netflix, Tesla), AI models (Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI), and infrastructure (AWS, Google Cloud, Nvidia). Two companies dominate. OpenAI has doubled its annualized revenue to $3.4 billion in the past six months. And its ChatGPT accounts for 56% of premium LLM subscriptions, i.e., people pulling out their credit cards. Over the past 12 months, Nvidia has reported $96 billion in revenue — 4x its 2022 total. I look at peer-reviewed research to evaluate whether a technology is enduring: Nvidia chips are cited in 19x more research than those of its competitors combined. For two companies to dominate a technology this early is extraordinary.
Follow-up Thoughts & Questions
In reading quotes from the leading CEOs and thinkers in the AI space the consensus is clear. AI is going to make major strides in 2025. Advancements in autonomous systems, increased adoption in various industries, and a shift towards more sophisticated and context-aware AI applications.
I find myself using Claude.AI, Perplexity, and Midjourney AI for my day-to-day. I do wonder about the energy costs to use AI and how that might have negative impact, just like this Goldman Sachs analyst cited last year. I also think the tangible IRL value will be how AI becomes the go-to for elderly care as displayed in this little yet mighty movie called ROBOT & FRANK (2012).
How are you adopting AI into your day-to-day or work lives?
What do kind of impact do you think it will have on our day-to-day and the world at large?
3. One brand marketing thing: GloRilla & Progressive Insurance 👩🦰
This guy loves to go on how people don’t watch TV or pay attention to ads but riddle me this: why is Progressive’s Flo is a go to Halloween costome for a number of people in America? The above is up and coming (already a juggernaut) rapper GloRilla (28M monthly listeners on Spotify). This was from last year’s Halloween. Progressive is an Insurance brand. And influential people like GloRilla dress up as the main spokesperson / masot of the brand for fun. If that isn’t TV influencing the culture then I don’t know what is.
Questions & Considerations
Why is Progressive in the culture? Is that good for their business? What is the value of sticking to one creative world for years on end?
Recent research shows the brands that are committed to the same creative platform for years on end are more positively receievd and familiar to potential customers, which is the point of marketing (stay top of mind).
“Research can’t help you much, because it cannot predict the cumulative value of an idea, and no idea is BIG unless it will work for 30 years.” - David Ogilvy
Visuals of the Week
Go forth.
Stay safe.
Ride the wave.
-Mitch