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A blog on the art & science of creative action.

Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Diversify Your Bets

Finance 101 says diversification — holding a broad range of investments from safe bonds to growth equities — is the best way to reduce your risk and maximize return. So why is your AI strategy all municipal bonds?

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Close the Loop

A senior executive called to tell me my talk was "one of three ingredients in the best idea I've ever had." That almost never happens. Here's why it should.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Your Board Can't Imagine the Future

If your board members haven't personally experienced what AI can do, they cannot exercise their fiduciary responsibility. Fiduciary duty used to mean financial oversight. Then it expanded to include strategy, risk, culture. Now it includes imagination.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

You're Not Tired of AI. You're Scared of It.

Everyone's “exhausted” by AI talk, or at least, that’s what I’m hearing. But there’s a more nuanced undercurrent. When I asked a room full of executives to show me what they'd actually built, everybody froze. That's not fatigue. It's something else entirely.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

The First Time AI Blew My Mind

Standing in my hallway surrounded by broken glass, I asked AI for 10 terrible ways to respond. What came back changed how I think about parenting—and about AI.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Stop Being a Hypocrite

Here's what I've noticed over the past year. (And yes, I include myself in this.) Leaders are really good at telling their teams to embrace AI. They're much less good at embracing it themselves.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

The Advisor You Didn't Know You Had

A generation ago, you had to be independently wealthy to have access to intelligent assistance. Not anymore. I’ve got a team of advisors at my fingertips. And so do you.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

If You Were an AI, I'd Think You Were Terrible

There’s a dangerous double standard that's killing our AI collaboration: abrilliant friend makes an honest mistake? We easily overlooked it. But if AI had done the exactly same thing we’d be furious. We'd conclude AI is either incompetent or broken. Our loss.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Malpractice

Last email: did AI help? Last presentation: did you get AI feedback? Last difficult conversation: did you practice with AI first? If you're answering "no" to most of these, you're not behind on AI adoption. You're committing professional negligence.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Update Your Priors

If the MIT study of AI failure rates surprised you, you need to update your priors. Innovation is about shots on goal, not perfect plans. Time to recalibrate how many attempts you’re making.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Be the Prompt: The One Thing AI Will Never Do (And Why That's Your Competitive Advantage)

AI can do almost anything you ask—faster and better than you imagined. But it will never do the one thing that makes you irreplaceable. Here, I share how a piece of career-saving advice from my dad, a billion-dollar insight from Sam Altman, and lessons from leaders like Meta’s Josh To reveal the skill that keeps you indispensable in an “agentic” era.

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Guest User Guest User

Don’t Be Fred! 8 Bad Habits to Lose in 2025

You know that moment when someone tells a story so perfectly out-of-step with the times that you laugh—then realize you're guilty of your own version? That's exactly what happened when Brice Challamel, Head of AI at Moderna, shared the origin of their company AI transformation mantra, "Don't be Fred".

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