Just Thoughts #11: Talking to your AI-self, The nature of highly effective teams and baking your own bread.

In this weeks Just thoughts I analyse Reid Hoffman talking to himself, reflect over feedback trainings delivered and the nature of highly effective teams. I also baked some bread.

The content in this article is “handwritten” and only co-piloted with Grammarly’s spell-checking and re-phrasing for the desired tone of voice. I’m dyslectic, so using it removes my cognitive impediments.

I hope this publication remains independent in a world of conflicting interests. For the goal to endure, I hope this publication stays reader-supported. Subscribe to get the entire archive of thoughts, and by supporting this publication, you endorse independent thinking.

Reading these thoughts, you are either inspired or not. The first rule of reading these thoughts is asking yourself: Why should I think this way?

The highlight of the week: I made my first sourdough bread ever, and it was perfect.

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Just Thoughts is for modern-day leaders who want to think better about business, life, leadership, and entrepreneurship every week.

Weekly blog posts with ideas, progress, and thoughts from the business world as experienced by Nicolas Dolenc and featured guests.

Nicolas hails from Helsinki, Finland, the home of the most radically different entrepreneurs, the most interconnected startup network, and Slush, the most founder-focused event globally. To understand his biases, values, and way of looking at the world, upgrade to paid to read his bio in Just Thoughts #2

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My reflections and what I have learned since last week’s publication.

I’m back with a year on Grammarly. I didn’t get many comments about grammar mistakes, but I could sense I was failing on sentence structuring without a writer co-pilot.

I’ve not ditched the daily habit of posting in a LinkedIn group because it was one-directional. I am switching and re-using content on Substack notes and LinkedIn public posts. My writing style will start with more emphasis on the reader's perspective instead of using writing to help me think.

My inflated sense of self-importance likes to think I’m thinking about the world in very complex ways, trying to simplify them. I am also mindful of not using words in vain in front of others and letting others do the talking. That leaves me at the end of my weeks with many thoughts I’d like to share but never do. I am leaving them here for others to read when they have the time.

The thought of leaving them here also forces me to write thoughts that could be as green as possible instead of trying to convey the thoughts on the latest news. However, I recognize the value of leaders getting a perspective on timely issues when aiming to form and share their judgments within their sphere of influence. I do not aim to be correct. I merely aim to be a point of reflection.

In my last publication, I got feedback on using ableism without pointing it out. That was the quote from the movie “Tropical Thunder” and the word “retard”. What you want to be using is “cognitively impaired”. Moreover, the actual scene is about an actor, who is acting as a black person as a white, talking to another actor about when acting as an impaired person: “Everyone knows you never go fully impaired”. The irony is he’s acting “fully black”, while talking about never acting entirely anything.

The reflection here is that there is room for a media outlet of someone just depacking movies and their problematic nature for societal issues. I’m a fan of film, and I used to spend most of my weeks just watching movies. Nowadays, it’s more like a couple of movies a week, most weeks its less than that. I’ll add reviews whenever I do, but I won’t focus on the issues of DEI within it.

I went back to pay. I spend significant time writing and would like to do so at least part-time, and more than anything, it’s the retirement plan in the country where I don’t expect myself ever to be able to rely on the government for a pension the way things are going. I’m not looking forward to retirement; I’m merely looking to be able to do what I love to do for as long as I can. My grandmother is 80+ years old and works five hours as a private English teacher—something she’s done her entire life. Sharp as a razor, she still travels the world even if her legs have difficulty carrying her.

I love to write, and most people I’ve met have found value in it. It also gives people a way to support the thing I love. I haven’t been actively promoting it, as it has been taking shape, but I will start getting more aggressive with putting it out there.

The pricing reflects the bare minimum of substacks currently available. I benchmarked a few I follow (check my reads). The midterm is to generate enough volume to sustain, at the very least, monthly podcast content, hoping to get it every week. My network includes profiles that would have valuable insights, but I won’t do that exercise without the help of a proper team who are the best in business. Why? My strengths and patience don’t align with that exercise other than having deep, meaningful discussions with individuals. I would instead stick to my writing strength until I gather the resources for a larger production team.

Finally, I’m taking the book project I soft launched to the next level. We aim to do an event in June that is not just a book launch but an Art exhibition. Book launch events are incredibly dull and do not force the audience to actually “Think.” I imagined something valuable to every participant, even without me having to say a single thing—more about this next week.

To add value to the paid version and as a new habit, I will be sharing one of my poems from my poetry collection, which you can buy on Gumroad here, with some thoughts on when and why I produced that particular piece.

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Paid Content In Short:

This week, we cover Reid Hoffman talking to his AI self, mainly discussing whether or not it’s just two AIs talking to each other. In addition, I give you the summary compiled by Fathom of a feedback training I delivered this week and some thoughts on improving the content. I also watched the movie Civil War, and I can tell you it’s worth all the raves it’s receiving and not forgetting how to bake the perfect loaf of sourdough bread.

Finally, we’re inches away from being able to share the full extent of the revised operational model and template presented in earlier writings of Just Thoughts. However, I won’t be sharing that just yet.

1. You are talking to your AI self.

2. Feedback training summary.

3. The nature of communication of highly effective teams.

4. Movie Review: Civil War

5. The highlight of the week: Bake your bread.

6. Poem of the week.

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