Podcast: "AI or Die" – A Powerful Call to Action for Navigating the AI Era

I am a big podcast listener and I plan to regularly share some of the most interesting episodes I come across.

So I’ll admit—this title was designed to grab attention. But AI or Die is more than just clickbait; it’s a call to action. I recently listened to this episode of Invest Like the Best (a fantastic podcast in investment), and by the end of the hour, I was nodding along, jotting down notes, and, frankly, rethinking a lot of my own assumptions.

The guest for this one, Ravi Gupta from Sequoia Capital, didn’t just talk about how businesses should embrace Generative AI (GenAI)—he explored how AI is fundamentally reshaping competitive advantage, not just for companies but for individuals, too.

Many of Ravi’s insights resonated with me deeply (though I don't agree with each and every PoV). Below, I’ve pulled together some "quotable quotes" that can help all of us, as individuals, navigate an AI-driven world. As you read (or better yet, listen—I highly recommend it), try replacing words like companies and businesses with people. You might be surprised at how seamlessly the same lessons apply.

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-"Anything that reduces your agility is a massive problem."

-"So many companies are held hostage by what they said to their team or what they said on an earnings call or what they said is going to happen. And this willingness or this desire to be consistent with their past selves is preventing them embracing the biggest technological change that we've probably seen in our?lifetimes."

-"The anecdotal experience of AI not changing your life is really dangerous right now because if you're "meh, if you want to be contrarian right now and be the models, they're not that great."

-"Anytime you have a convenient belief on something important, you should really examine it."

-"Context is going to grow even more important here. And then they get better and better with the more work that they do alongside of you."

-"I am not a world-class predictor, but I am a world-class reactor."

-"Maybe (clients) are just going to say "I want this piece of work done and I want to pay just for that piece ?of work done. "Well that is a massive and dramatic shift if you're a big company to move away from the pricing model that got you there.?"

-"SMB doesn't stand for small and medium businesses anymore. It stands for small and mighty businesses."

?-"The best companies are going to be worth more and the mediocre ones are going to be worth less. I just think the gap is going to widen and that is exciting and intimidating ?because you better get it right."

-"The ghost is out there and you get a chance to play against them. But you gotta embrace it and you gotta go do it because the ghost is good."

-"What is the scale of your ambition? This moment you can go and pass 15 cars in front of you and remember, you get to decide what race you're in."

?-"(For the next generation): We have to make sure that they're ambitious, we have to make sure they're curious. We have to make sure they're resilient, adaptable, and they're high agency."

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