How To Thrive On Turbulence, Combinatorial Ideation, Generative Music, And More

November 20, 2023

“It is a wonderful feeling to recognise the unity of a complex of phenomena that to direct observation seem to be quite separate things.” - Albert Einstein

At the center of my “Humans + AI” framing is the belief that we should be using AI to think better, to amplify our own capabilities. As Doug Enbelbart put it, “Intelligence Augmentation”.

Building on my book Thriving on Overload with all my work and research this year, I’m running a cohort course starting December 5 on AI-Enhanced Thinking & Decision-Making. Check it out, if you’re interested you can use NEWSLETTER to get a 30% discount. Let me know if any questions!

Ross.

📖In this issue

  • Tutorial on Combinatorial ideation

  • Generative music ramps up; every employee has an assistant

  • Vulnerability as a strength, collaborative learning loops, high performance cultures, and amplifying team capabilities

  • Applying Bayesian thinking for filtering information, deeper insight, and better decisions

🤸🏽In practice

In an exclusive for our newsletter readers here is an instructional video on using AI to amplify your creative abilities using Combinatorial Ideation techniques! It includes demos of how to use these approaches, hope you find them useful.

👩🤖What you need to know in Humans + AI

Applying AI to teaching and better thinking  

“AI partners could be used to lead students through a problem step by step, stimulate critical thinking or… enhance users’ creativity and broaden the possibilities being considered. Jules White, director of the Initiative on the Future of Learning and Generative AI at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, calls ChatGPT “an exoskeleton for the mind”.”

OpenAI may have made leaps in reasoning ability

Reports that an OpenAI project named Q* had made substantial progress in maths reasoning, a step towards AGI, were linked to Sam Altman’s firing by the board. The reports haven’t been confirmed and it’s not clear how much of a breakthough this was, but it’s safe to believe OpenAI continues to make significant progress in its research.

AI will be like a God that many will worship

A detailed survey of software developers provides a generally positive view of the potential of AI on their work, but most expect their role to be transformed in the coming five years, senior tech executives the most

🎙️Latest podcast episode

Graham Winter and Martin Bean on vulnerability as a strength, collaborative learning loops, high performance cultures, and amplifying team capabilities (AC Ep19)

🧑‍🎓What you will learn

  • Adapting leadership strategies in response to unprecedented challenges (03:31)

  • Importance of understanding and managing emotional reactions in leadership (07:54)

  • Persisting through adversities as key strategies for success and personal growth (10:22)

  • Emphasizing a feedback culture and reflection in team dynamics (17:02)

  • Challenging of feedback vs. seeking of insights (20:40)

  • Creating a culture of learning and discipline in teams (22:15)

  • Development of partnering relationships and creating synergy in decision-making (29:38)

  • Importance of team leaders transitioning to a coaching approach while prioritizing their own self-care (30:46)

Applying Bayesian thinking for filtering information, deeper insight, and better decisions

“One of the most valuable shifts we can take in our thinking is to shift from convictions to probabilistic thinking.

Instead of deciding whether something is correct or incorrect, we should always attribute a probability to it. That might be close to zero or 100%, but it should never be either.

Bayes Theorem can be very usefully applied to improve our thinking.”

Thank you for reading!

Please do let us know any feedback and what you’d like to see in the newsletter. We’ll be working to continue making this better and more useful for you in coming weeks and months.

How To Thrive On Turbulence, Combinatorial Ideation, Generative Music, And More