What's it about? What is Intelligence? (2025) repositions AI not as a looming alien mind, but as a natural continuation of life’s long, messy story of evolution, cooperation, and prediction. It weaves together bacteria, brains, cities, and neural networks to show how intelligence emerges wherever systems learn to model themselves and their world. It takes us through the past, present, and future of AI, while describing our place in it. As the title suggests, in this lesson we’re going to take a big-picture look at the concept of intelligence. But not only that. We’re going to lay out the author’s bold message, which is that modern AI isn’t some clever imitation – it’s a real expression of intelligence, built on the same underlying principle that drives all living minds: prediction. The main argument is that intelligence shouldn’t be thought of in terms of biology, but rather computation. Understanding prediction as the engine of intelligence reframes everything – from how life beg...

What's it about? What’s Your Dream? (2025) explores how having a personal dream can become a powerful internal engine for motivation, direction, and resilience. It challenges the myths and assumptions that keep people from pursuing what they truly want, and lays out a simple process for uncovering an authentic dream by asking three foundational questions. It then shows how to turn that dream into reality by removing financial and mental barriers, taking the first concrete steps, securing an initial customer, and ultimately committing fully to the venture. Many people move through their lives feeling like something is missing. Days blur together, routines take over, and philosophical questions – “What do I really want?” and “What am I here to do?” – get pushed aside by practical obligations. Yet beneath all the responsibilities, there’s often a sense of possibility, nudges that are directing you toward a life that feels more meaningful. That sense isn’t a fantasy or a flaw; it’s a...

What's it about? Charlatans (2025) examines why smart people fall for obvious scams by dissecting the psychological drivers and technological vulnerabilities that make everyone a potential target for exploitation. It explores how digital-age charlatans use the same basic playbook as historical con artists but now operate at a viral, global scale through social media and emerging technologies. You live in the most educated, connected, and information-rich moment in human history. You can fact-check anything in seconds. You have access to more knowledge than entire civilizations possessed. Yet somehow, this is also the golden age of charlatans. Ponzi schemes that would have fooled dozens now rob millions. Religious fraudsters build billion-dollar empires from promises of miracle cures. Conspiracy theories that started as internet jokes end with mobs committing insurrection. The tools that should protect you from deception have instead become weapons in the hands of those who un...

What's it about? The Age of Extraction (2025) argues that dominant digital platforms have shifted from creating value to extracting it from users, suppliers, and the wider economy. It traces how weakened antitrust enforcement and data-driven network effects allowed monopoly power to entrench itself across sectors, from retail and media to AI. It sketches a path to rebalance power – through tougher competition policy and utility-style rules – so innovation and prosperity are more widely shared. You use them every day: the Amazon marketplace that steers shopping, the search-and-ads engines that mediate the web, and the social platforms – YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and X, formerly known as Twitter. Places where attention, content, and behavioral data are collected and sold. They feel helpful and convenient, yet they’re privately owned venues that set the terms for the people and businesses relying on them. Increasingly, they’re layered with AI assistants like Siri and Alexa and l...

What's it about? Team Intelligence (2025) exposes a paradox: great leadership isn’t about the leader at all – it’s about building teams that operate as something greater than the sum of their parts. In its exploration of what makes a team intelligent, it reveals why teams of superstars often underperform and how figures like Steve Jobs achieved extraordinary results without traditional leadership qualities. It also outlines the specific habits that allow collective genius to emerge. What makes a team truly successful? Experience, star talent, proven strategies. At least, that’s what the teams behind some spectacular business failures believed. The collapse of the streaming service Quibi illustrates this perfectly. The company raised nearly two billion dollars with Hollywood heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg at the helm and former HP CEO Meg Whitman running operations. Even with premium content and massive marketing spend, the service folded in just six months. Then there was Googl...

What's it about? Trust at a Distance (2025) explores how as a leader, you can build and sustain trust with teams who work remotely, in hybrid setups, or across multiple locations. Drawing on research and real-world cases, it outlines six practical strategies you can use to strengthen communication, alignment, accountability, predictability, connection, and support so that dispersed employees stay engaged, confident, and effective. Remote work isn’t a temporary experiment anymore. Your team might be scattered across cities or time zones, yet you’re still expected to hit targets, keep people engaged, and make good decisions. The upside is real: broader talent pools, less commuting, more flexibility, and clearer records of decisions and commitments. Done well, this way of working can make organizations stronger and more inclusive than a building ever did. The hard part is trust. Heated arguments over home-based work, tense return-to-office demands, and doubts about who is “really w...