Zero to AI

Every era of business runs on an invisible set of rules. Rules about what is scarce, what is expensive, and what can and cannot be done at scale. For decades, reasoning lived in people. Experience accumulated slowly. Decisions were localized and difficult to transfer. Organizations, incentives, and business models evolved to manage those constraints. With the advent of generative AI, something fun...

The architect Louis Sullivan had a famous principle:  form follows function . If the function changes, the form must change with it. For a century, the function of a company was to execute repeatable processes efficiently. So we built organizations, business models, and economics around that function. Hierarchies for command-and-control. Products as artifacts. Revenue as units sold times price. Bu...

There’s a haunting pattern in business history: companies see the future, understand its implications, invest heavily—and fail anyway. Kodak was the first to invent the digital camera in 1975. Blockbuster had the capital to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000. Nokia’s executives knew the iPhone would change everything. They didn’t fail because they were blind or lacked capability. They failed beca...