Lead Prompt Podcast

This week I will provide a summary of the CrowdStrike global outage, and why we are so vulnerable to such issues. Notes: This week I will be doing a deep-dive of the CrowdStrike outage, to provide you with a summary of this global outage. Last Friday, the business world woke up to the news that CrowdStrike, a large cyber-security firm who provide products widely used by many businesses, had releas...

The worst management anti-pattern is promising up, and blaming down. Notes: In my experience, the number one management anti-pattern is promising up, and blaming down. Using this approach, a manager is making all kinds of promises to senior stake-holders, while blaming their own team if those promises are not met. It is toxic, but sadly quite common. I especially see it with inexperienced leaders,...

As leaders our instinct is to help others we see failing, however you cannot help someone who refuses your help. Notes: Today I want to talk with you about why, sometimes, you need to step back and let people fail. When I first started to study karate, one of the black belts I was sparring noticed I was eager to attack, instead of waiting to defend. He paused and told me "John, don't feel obligate...

We are all convinced that we are right, but when we disagree then someone must be wrong. Notes: Today I want to talk to you about the truth, and our many blind spots associated with establishing it. We are all convinced that we are right, but when we disagree then someone must be wrong. Nobody has a monopoly on the truth. If nothing else, in the interests of fairness, somebody has to be wrong. Per...

Increasingly I believe that the most important trait for a leader is mental resilience. Notes: Last week I had a difficult week. In one week: My team were unfairly blamed for something others decided to do. One of my senior guys quit. I had a high-pressure martial arts test, which was physically and emotionally bruising. As a leader you are constantly dealing with problems and challenges, most of...

Ten years ago I wrote about my desire to ease back from Twitter, now I feel the same way about X. What has really changed? Notes: Recently I have become disillusioned about posting content on X, because the engagement rate is so low. For example, I can post on X and get 50 views in 24hrs from 9k followers, or post a short video on YouTube with 20 subscribers and get 500 views in the same period. F...

In the early days of the Internet, we thought it would bring enlightenment via free knowledge, instead we have hate, division, toxicity. Notes: In the early days of the Internet, we thought it would bring enlightenment via free knowledge, "the greatest library ever known". Instead we have hate, division, toxicity...where did it all go wrong? The optimists need to regroup. I still remember the firs...

As an engineering leader, I'd like to share some harsh truths about managing engineers. Notes: As an engineering leader, I'd like to share some harsh truths about managing engineers. If you are a young engineering leader listening this this, you may not be ready to agree with all of these yet, but it will challenge you to think about things differently. Firstly, the engineers in your team are not...

The new knowledge acquisition bottleneck is accessing silos of private content that can be used to train modern AI models. Notes: Decades ago when I was working on expert systems, which were an early kind of AI, one of the main issues facing us was the "knowledge acquisition bottleneck". Expert systems were rule-based engines, and those rules where defined based upon input from domain experts. The...

By asking why, repeating back, and sticking to first principles: you can drive your team towards a truthful outcome. Notes: During the week I posted the following on X: "How to get to the truth: Ask why. Repeat back what they just said, so they hear how stupid it sounded. Stick to first principles." Some of that post was borne out of recent frustrations in my day job (hence the use of stupid), but...

After twenty plus years in the tech industry, you start to spot patterns. One such situation is when a new leader joins an organization. Notes: After twenty plus years in the tech industry, you start to spot patterns. Some of those are positive, but many are pointless or even harmful. For the negative ones, tech people like to use the term anti-pattern, which according to Wikipedia is defined as:...

The amount of authority figures you defer to in your life should be a very short list indeed. Notes: Recently I seen Dune part two, and it got me thinking about deference again. According to the dictionary: "deference - respectful submission or yielding to the judgement, opinion, will, etc., of another." Ref: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/deference The Dune story acts as a warning for us not t...

After the pandemic, it feels like we are all online avatars now. Do you truly know anyone anymore? Notes: After the pandemic, it feels like we are all online avatars now. Do you truly know anyone anymore? We even hard a short-lived marketplace for unique NFT avatars, which was a strange time. Remote work has reduced us to online avatars, that are designed to represent us on Zoom or Microsoft Teams...

A marketplace for high-quality training data models for AI is about to emerge, and it will be extremely lucrative. Notes: A good data model is supposed to represent something in the real world. However, many data models are based on data exclusively from the internet. Just image the downstream consequences of that. For example, a data model based upon social media user-generated content will be fu...

Today I want to talk to you about the Google Gemini fiasco, the latest bad product launch by Google. Notes: Today I want to talk to you about the Google Gemini fiasco. Gemini, formally know as Baird, is their answer to ChatGPT. You may be unaware of this, but internet search is moving to a new model, with AI chatbots replacing the old "ten blue links" model of the past. I have spoken about this be...

Humans being fooled into thinking AI is sentient is the same as birds thinking a bug is a leaf. Notes: Take it from a computer scientist: AI will never be human, and that's okay. Furthermore, humans are terrible at determining mimicry from the real thing: this is why camouflage exists in nature as a successful strategy. Humans being fooled into thinking AI is sentient is the same as birds thinking...

If your ideology prohibits you from accepting objective reality, you are probably in a cult. Notes: Today I want to talk to you about cults, or tribal mentalities in general. If your ideology prohibits you from accepting objective reality, you are probably in a cult. Firstly let's define what a cult is (source - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult ) : a religion regarded as unorthodox...

Leaders, if you help create a blame culture via your own example, do not act surprised when you get blamed. Notes: Leaders, if you help create a blame culture via your own example, do not act surprised when you get blamed. Blame goes full circle when it becomes the cultural norm, and it will return on you once it gathers enough momentum. Blame is a boomerang effect. The blame game is an anti-patte...

Today I want to convince you that you should start using scripted automation before complicated AI. Notes: Computers are automation machines, and the ultimate expression of automation is AI. However, you should start using scripted automation before complicated AI. Sometimes a cron job and a script is all of the automation you need. In terms of automating existing manual processes, the steps are:...

Today I want to talk about getting better at sales, which is fundamentally about story telling. Notes: I'm a few weeks late due to a flu. Today I want to talk to you about sales, which is a fundamental skill we all need to learn. Sales is primarily story telling. Therefore in my opinion, the best sales people come from countries or regions with a deep culture of story telling. Some cultures are gr...

Today I want to talk about automation, specifically how you use technology to automate your life. Notes: A new year, and a new weekly sequence starts! Today I want to talk about automation, specifically how you use technology to automate your life. Let's begin with some questions: When you are offline, do you have online technology working for you independently? How many of your daily tasks are au...

Wrapping up 2023 trends in technology, business, and the economy, and making 2024 predictions. Notes: Wrapping up 2023 trends in technology, business, and the economy, and making 2024 predictions. 2023 trends: Online search pivoting from ten blue links to AI chat bots. No large-scale return to the office. Social media algorithms remain broken, AI is making it worse. The political Left are rejectin...

So many careers, especially in content creation, are already at the mercy of algorithms. Notes: Running late (again)! So many careers, especially in content creation, are already at the mercy of algorithms. Whether those algorithms are AI or not is largely irrelevant. It all started with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but it has gone much further than that now. In the past, the advice was "just...

Grok AI from X is a chat bot with a cool personality that is fun, but I want more utility. Here is my list of requested features. Notes: Running late! Recently I started to get prompts from X to upgrade to their new Premium+ plan, from my existing Premium one. As part of that upgrade, I get access to their new beta AI named Grok. I started to look into Grok to see if it was worth doubling my subsc...

The problem with firefighting in an organization is that it requires a steady stream of new fires, and fires are bad. Notes: Recently I suggested to another senior manager that we should get out of firefighting mode, and his genuine response was that would require us to fire our executive team. It sounds like a joke but he was serious: he genuinely felt that firefighting was fine, as our executive...