Across reading, observation, and experience, one pattern becomes difficult to avoid: whenever people coordinate in groups, some form of power is present. Not as an exception, but as a structural necessity. Without it, coordination does not scale; decisions stall, and direction fragments. A state of nature, you might say.
Continue readingAuthor: David Alade (Page 1 of 18)
I am a student of the world. I learn, build and share.
Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic — three of the most important competitors shaping the present and future of AI. What do they have in common? They are all building international presence and making London, particularly King’s Cross, their home.
Continue readingThere is a great deal of research on leadership effectiveness and leadership styles in the workplace. Some of these studies are contradictory or inconclusive. At best, many rely on constructs that are difficult to measure cleanly. Nevertheless, we still show up at work every day, leading in various ways and at different levels, trying to move our organisations forward and achieve common goals.
Continue readingMany years ago, I read Derek Sivers’ post titled “Don’t Be a Donkey.” The premise of the post was that if we think long term, we realise that we can do many of the things we want to do in a lifetime, just not all at once.
Derek argued that “If you’re thirty now and have six different directions you want to pursue, then you can do each one for ten years, and have done all of them by the time you’re ninety.”
Continue readingThe Israelites, during Passover, usually recite the poem Dayenu, translated as “It would have been enough.”
It is a poem they recite to remember their history, what God did for them at critical moments, and for the purpose of praising God.
Continue readingIn an article published on my blog, “3 Frameworks to Figure Out What to Do with Your Career,” I wrote that most of us wrestle with two broad categories of questions in our careers — what to do and where to do it. I concluded that what to do is the more demanding of the two.
Continue readingIn my application essay for my Masters in Finance programme, I wrote that a major reason for applying was to explore the questions of “what to do next” and “where to do it.” In my mind, there were two options:
Continue readingWhen I started my career at PwC, one of the core messages I took away from the orientation month was that “your career is in your hands.” I also understood that consultancies are highly competitive environments where you can do incredible work with intelligent people and, more importantly, where grit, energy and creativity are well rewarded.
Continue readingJanuary’s news of the month centres on economic growth and the ecosystem in which it actually happens: a bold, ambitious one.
In a raw and unusually candid note about his time as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak wrote that political pressure motivated him away from a strategic focus on economic growth and towards what he termed “affordability”. His own verdict was that this was a “[costly] mistake”. The note itself was written to draw the current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer’s, attention to what he believes are the same errors being repeated (link below).
Continue readingOver the years in my career, I’ve watched people sacrifice things I wouldn’t. I’ve also sacrificed things that, to others, made little sense to give up. I’m at peace with those choices — more than that, they are the source of the deepest satisfaction I take from my career.
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