Between listening to podcasts castigating tariffs and ducking LinkedIn's sea of sameness, I stumbled on the always excellent Harry Dry's late-night confession: "Big ideas are less about creativity and more about conviction."
AI: The Comfort Blanket Problem
Our team just published a guide on avoiding AI-generated blandness. But Dry's insights cut deeper – AI doesn't threaten creativity, it threatens courage.
"A tagline isn't a big idea. A trend isn't a big idea. A moodboard isn't a big idea," Dry writes. "All this crap is stuff you talk about when you don't have a big idea."
Sound familiar?
Life Preservers That Sink You
"No, they are the life preserver that sinks you," Dry warns about our reliance on tools.
Without the struggle, we miss the breakthroughs. Without the pressure, we settle for safe. The shiny tools promising to "free us up for big thinking" often just free us from the discomfort that forces big thinking.
When was the last time comfort led to breakthrough?
The New Question
AI isn't going anywhere. Neither are deadlines, client expectations, or competitive pressure.
The real challenge is using these tools to enhance conviction rather than replace it. To amplify boldness instead of enabling mediocrity.
Our new metric for AI tools: Does this strengthen our conviction or weaken it? Does it push us toward boldness or mediocrity?
Your Turn
How are you balancing AI efficiency with human courage? Ever found yourself hiding behind tools when what you needed was conviction?
Reply with your thoughts on AI tools. What works for you. I'm curious.
Trolling the Trolls
The wild, wild frontier of political discourse is the testing ground for social media engagement (outrage vs affirmation). Alistair Campbell, Rory Stewart, and Anthony Scaramucci explore how trolls and bots engage with their tweets.
We Made This
Crafted for our good friends at Curran Daly +Associates, the Executive Compensation Compass 2025 exposes a juicy truth: transformation leaders earn up to 39% more than their button-pushing counterparts. 51 pages, 17 charts, 7 sections...it's a great wrapper for Curran Daly's awesome thought leadership.
AI, Enriched Copy & Paste
TabTabTab is one of those frisky little apps that brings AI magic to your keyboard — transforming copying and pasting into a superpower.
AI Dominates LinkedIn
Wired notes that +54% of posts on LinkedIn are AI-generated. It’s just that the corporate-speak style of AI writing on the platform can be tricky to distinguish from genuine human-penned Thought Leader Blogging.
Maybe Commenting is Real(er)
Engagement lives in comments — except X where bots and trolls rule the land. Laurent François dives into commenting with an insightful post. [Commenting]..."has become media within media."
What We're Reading
On my reading list: "A.I. Snake Oil" by Narayanan and Kapoor. When job candidates get penalized for not having bookshelves in Zoom interviews and AI recommends sending asthmatic pneumonia patients home, it's time to reconsider which tools actually enhance human conviction rather than replace it.
