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Why AI Adoption Is Burning Out the Leaders Meant to Champion It
Nearly seven in ten C-suite executives report being seriously close to leaving their roles for reasons tied to their well-being (Silverglate & Fisher, 2022). That survey predates the current wave of AI adoption, but a more recent study gives the pattern a name and a mechanism. Researchers at Boston Consulting Group surveyed nearly 1,500 full-time workers and found that intensive AI oversight, rather than AI use itself, is driving a distinct form of mental fatigue they call "A
Jul 225 min read


What New Research Reveals about Sustaining Cognitive Performance Past 60
Most executives treat exercise and diet as variables they will optimize later, once the quarter closes or the deal clears. A major clinical trial published last year suggests that the “later” instinct carries a measurable cost, and that the fix is far more specific than the general advice to “eat well and move more” that fills most wellness content aimed at leaders. The study is the U.S. POINTER trial, a two-year, five-site randomized controlled trial run by the Alzheimer’s A
Jul 176 min read


Timeless Patterns Beneath Modern AI
That which is old is new again. The thought has crossed my mind repeatedly as I have watched generative AI models emerge, improve, and regenerate over the past several years, and it has returned with particular force as I write the third edition of The AI Whisperer. Stephen Covey's counsel to begin with the end in mind, offered to business readers in 1989, turns out to be precisely what is needed in this new age of specification. The humble terminal window, brought to life mo
Jul 157 min read


Tokenmaxxing the Weekend: Three Days with Claude Fable, and What Spending Tokens Like Fuel Taught Me About Priorities
Optimizing AI Token Spend, while Minimizing Expense This past weekend I conducted an experiment on myself as much as on a machine. Anthropic's new Claude Fable model had been available to me for three days, and the announcement had already come down that access would soon move out of standard subscription allowances and onto metered usage credits today. The clock was running. Rather than ration my remaining allocation cautiously, I decided to do the opposite. I resolved to sp
Jul 97 min read


A Declaration of Independence from AI Token Waste and Excess Charges
Last week, the United States marked two hundred and fifty years since its founding, and it is worth remembering what actually provoked the founders. The colonists who boarded ships in Boston Harbor in December 1773 were not protesting a large tax. The duty on tea was three pence a pound, and the Tea Act had in fact made tea cheaper. What they refused was the arrangement itself: a small, metered charge on every pound, levied by a distant monopoly, with no voice in the terms, a
Jul 76 min read


Composing with a Machine: A 5-Step Guide to Creating Music with AI
For most executives, artificial intelligence has already proven its worth as an analyst, a drafter, and a sounding board. Fewer have discovered what happens when the same conversational fluency is pointed toward something far less utilitarian: music. The same discipline that produces a sharp board memo or a clear strategic brief also produces something unexpected when redirected toward melody, instrumentation, and lyric. Leaders who engage seriously with AI music creation ten
Jul 16 min read


What Two Hundred and Fifty Years of America Can Teach Us About Building Something That Lasts
This week the United States turns two hundred and fifty years old. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in the summer of 1776, and so this Fourth of July marks the semiquincentennial, the two hundred and fiftieth year of the American experiment. Two hundred and fifty years is a long time to hold an idea together, and as families gather and fireworks trace the sky, that span deserves more than ceremony. It also deserves a closer look, because this anniversary offers a b
Jun 2911 min read


Anthropic Academy: Six Ways to Build AI Fluency, Free
Most executives now accept that artificial intelligence will reshape how their organizations operate. Far fewer have a structured way to build the judgment required to use it well. In March 2026, Anthropic addressed that gap directly by launching Anthropic Academy, a free learning platform built by the company that develops Claude. The Academy is a working curriculum, hosted on Skilljar and linked from anthropic.com/learn, that spans twenty courses across three tracks: AI Flu
Jun 263 min read
Thinking out loud, rigorously.
The ideas that didn't fit in the books. Longer thoughts for executives with shorter patience for noise.
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