by John Macdonald | May 30, 2026 | AI, Human, Leadership, The250
An interesting paper from the Wharton School at UPenn defines the term “Cognitive Surrender.” It means adopting AI outputs with little to no scrutiny, and in so doing, bypassing human intuition and deliberation. Nailed it. We’re living in a time of cognitive... by John Macdonald | May 29, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
As teenagers, most of us desperately wanted to fit in. Nerds, jocks, band geeks, popular, druggies. Somewhere. That’s our deep human need for connection combined with our hormone-raging teenage biology. As an adult, you likely fit into several groups. You may even... by John Macdonald | May 28, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
I have a rule on my teams. We never use the phrase, “That’s not my job.” That’s because I want to foster attitudes of ownership, providing value, and a sense of “we’re all in this together.” However, there are some things that aren’t my job. I can’t make you... by John Macdonald | May 27, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
A chicken with no head isn’t thinking. Its muscles and nerves are firing due to stored energy. The spinal cord just randomly triggers until that stored energy runs out. There is no rhyme or reason. No purpose. Plus, that energy runs out quickly. Running around like a... by John Macdonald | May 26, 2026 | AI, Human, Technology, The250
AI agents overshare. They create more documents, more paragraphs, more explanations, and more words. And if they’re writing code, they create more code, more comments, more tests, and more review items. More, more, more. So much so that you can’t help but say, to... by John Macdonald | May 25, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
It feels good to have everyone on board. And that’s the right thing to do sometimes. But also, real change might require pushing through when not everyone is on board. In fact, you might want to look for the kind of change that not everyone is on board with. Somebody...