This is the first books I’ve read that deals so specifically with the role of leadership in what’s increasingly becoming an era of algorithms and ML.

Mike Walsh’s value offering in the book is advice on how to be smart, when machines are smarter than you.

The book is split into 3 sections, further subdivided into 10 individual principles to work with.

Section 1: Change your mind

  1. Work backwards from the future
  2. Aim for 10x, not 10%
  3. Think computationally
  4. Embrace uncertainty

Section 2: Change your work

  1. Make culture your operating system
  2. Don’t work, design work
  3. Automate and elevate

Section 3: Change the world

  1. If the answer if X, ask Y
  2. When in doubt, ask a human
  3. Solve for purpose, not just profit

While the book is full of good reflection and points, it doesn’t fall into my focus area at the moment, so I’m going light on the details here.

The principle-chapters end with a short-and-sweet list of summary points, and a pointed question to consider for yourself or your organisation. This makes the book easy to return to in the future, and perhaps at that time, this will turn into a deeper review.

For now, my main behavioural adjustment is that I’m more certain than ever that I do have to develop my skillset in ML and some basic scripting. I don’t have to be a data scientist, but I do have to understand enough to have a qualified conversation with what’s going to be a standard set of employees in any business in 10 years – the data scientists and ML specialists.

Fascinating read, deserves more justice really – these are just a few notes that let me come back to the book more easily.