James Raybould’s Post

We’re about 2-3 years from our personal AI Agent “digital doubles” fully updating and owning our LinkedIn profiles: - They’ll know exactly what we’re up to in terms of roles we’re doing, teams we’re leading, results we’re driving etc. - They’ll know exactly what skills we’re actually using and developing, from our digital exhaust across all the apps we use every day and listening in to all our meetings - They’ll know our exact voice and tone from all our writing in both our personal and profesional lives, as well as our existing human-written existing LinkedIn profiles - They’ll know what great LinkedIn profiles look like from scouring so many of them; and we can guide them that “I’d love mine to feel like X’s profile” For a few years we’ll be the editor of what our digital doubles suggest and then we’ll quickly realize their output is far better than ours and we’ll go into full auto-pilot mode And, yes, this will soon carry over to LinkedIn posts like this one too: as our digital doubles are fully embedded into every aspects of our lives, they’ll be able to post “our” perspectives as if we’d penned them ourselves I’ve been reading a bunch of books on our AI future lately - from Ethan Mollick, Sal Khan, and Ray Kurzweil - and am just starting to get my arms around how different (and better) our lives will soon be thanks to literally exponential improvements in compute and capabilities

Figma released Slides (and a lot more) this morning at Config! Over the past 6 months at Speak and WisdomAI, I've spent the majority of my time in Figma or Notion (and Slack). Including creating slides in Figma, which was a bit of a learning curve initially, but now I'm converted. Although they've taken different approaches so far, Figma and Notion are going to increasingly converge as we look forward: both chipping away at different parts of Microsoft Office, Google Docs/G Suite, and Slack/Teams too. My dream scenario would be Figma and Notion merge and combine forces: they add Slack-like collaboration, spreadsheets, and email (a necessary evil), and we all get to spend most of our working day in products we truly love. Figtion would even be an epic company name to convey creativity ;) https://lnkd.in/dSffvh7F #Figtion

At peak Wintel - Microsoft and Intel - in the late 1990s, learning that in 2024 Microsoft would be surpassed by a chip company as the most valuable company in the world would have come as little surprise. What would have come as a surprise is the following list of the most valuable US-based chip companies as of mid-2024: 1) Nvidia - $3.1T 2) Broadcom - $790B 3) AMD - $260B 4) Qualcomm - $240B 5) Texas Instruments - $180B 6) Intel - $130B All six companies existed in the late 1990s, but boy have their fortunes changed over a quarter century. To adapt Ferris Bueller, “life moves pretty fast in tech cycles.”

I love it when a company launches with a novel approach to a problem that's already led to a huge market opportunity, in this case, CRM Congrats to the Day.ai team on their launch today! Excited to be backing Christopher Douglass and Michael Pici as part of Stage 2 Capital Catalyst in their work to make setting up, managing, and using a CRM as natural as having a conversation. https://lnkd.in/d7fa-uyw

Blueprint #16: It's Who Knows What You Know What you know is important. Who you know is important. But far more important than either of these individually is WHO knows WHAT you know. Who knows what you know not only drives your promotability but also your ability to be in the "deal flow" for new opportunities coming to you, whether for internal or external roles. With partner-in-crime John Mayhall, we had a bit of 1990s movies-inspired fun digging into what's now Blueprint #16, also throwing in a few 2000s movie references to Taken and Training Day as well. https://lnkd.in/dm8gtwda #Blueprints #WhoKnowsWhatYouKnow

I’m almost two years post leaving LinkedIn, but whenever somebody next to me on a flight immediately opens the LinkedIn app, I still feel the same delight and pride as I ever did

Blueprint #15: What Do You Need To Believe? Should we hire employee X, launch product Y, acquire company Z etc.? Do-it-or-do-not decisions are among the toughest decisions we make. What Do You Need To Believe invites us to first identify the 3-5 foundational elements that must prove true for any larger decision to be true; and then asks us to test how much we believe each of these elements will prove true. Testing sub-elements is not only much easier than testing our overarching decision, but it also makes it much easier to collaborate with others, for example, delegating testing different sub-elements to teammates. Just as a parent isn't supposed to have a favourite child, an evangelist (with partner-in-crime John Mayhall) for dozens of great frameworks isn't supposed to have a favourite one. That said, What Do You Need To Believe is definitely in my all-time Top 3, and is probably the #1 framework I've relied on most over the years. A big thank you to Bain & Company and numerous wonderful colleagues, many of whom who also joined LinkedIn, for instilling it in me many moons ago. https://lnkd.in/dCR3NsDh #Blueprints #WhatDoYouNeedToBelieve #Bainie4Life

Blueprint #14: What Answer Do You Want? Who’s seen this play out: an exec asks an offhand question in a meeting, and the team fire drills for several days to get her a perfect answer. Only to hear back, “Oh, ok, thanks for this; sorry, I wasn’t really expecting any follow-up, I was just thinking out loud.” My Blueprint partner in crime, John Mayhall, and I have seen this play out far too often. What Answer Do You Want is our favourite solution. Because it aligns the exec’s expectations with her team’s: does she want the 2-minute Answer? The 2-hour Answer? 2-Day? 2-Week? 2-Month? etc. Getting clear on the level of rigour and precision she expects in the answer gets the exec and her team on the same page. And, yes, insert joke about 2-Second James being your preferred version of me :) https://lnkd.in/daceabiN #Blueprints #WhatAnswerDoYouWant

Nvidia is up $2T+ in market cap - about 500% - since ChatGPT launched in November 2022 (18 months ago); it's the #3 most valuable co in the world and within shouting distance of Apple and Microsoft. AI FTW.

Anybody who knows me well knows Rafael Nadal is easily my favourite athlete of All-Time. The closest thing to an idol I've ever had. This is a great NYT read, where it got me thinking about who's better at anything than Rafael Nadal is at playing at the French Open (14 Titles, 3 losses EVER). Where the gap to #2 is like a canyon. A few thoughts: - Other sports: Simone Biles at Gymnastics, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky at Swimming, Kelly Slater at Surfing, Wayne Gretzky at Hockey, Don Bradman at Cricket - Media: John Williams at writing film music, Meryl Streep at acting, Oprah at TV hosting, Stephen King at writing horror, J.K Rowling at writing for kids - Business: Jim Simons at investing, Elon Musk at transforming industries - Other: Mother Theresa as a humanitarian, Marie Curie as a scientist, Joey Chestnut at hot dog eating (NOT a sport!), Queen Elizabeth II at reigning Who'd I miss? #VamosRafa