Brian Balfour

Break the AI Hamster Wheel with Dual-Track Exploration

Oof. I feel like I’ve been on an AI hamster wheel. 🐹 I think a lot of others have as well. I’m experimenting with a couple of ways to get out of it… The AI Hamster Wheel 1. New AI improvements come out. 2. I add them to my list to try out and implement. 3. But then I have a long list of existing work/goals that consume my time. 4. More new AI improvements come out. The result? My list only grows and my adoption can remain surface-level in a lot of places. No time to truly step back and think about how I might do something completely differently. And I think I’m probably in the top 10% in terms of my own adoption of AI. So, how do you break out? I think you need dual tracks: 1. Continuously try new things in your day to day work flows. 2. Create periodic dedicated containers to go deeper and take higher risk exploration swings. #2 is extremely hard. I’m a Founder/CEO. I’m a father of two young, very demanding boys. I’m in my early 40’s, trying to maintain my health. But honestly, it feels like if I don’t do it, I’ll be that irrelevant 45-year-old in tech talking about the good ol’ days at HubSpot from two decades ago. So in January, I’m organizing a long weekend with about 6 friends. We are going to stay in a nearby Airbnb. In the morning and early afternoon we are all going to go deep on something. In the afternoon/evening we are going to do a show and tell. My hypothesis on this: - I get to go deep on something but also learn from others. More juice in the squeeze. - I think the group environment will help on accountability. - Changing my physical environment will help me get in a different head space than my day to day. The same principle applies to teams. I think you need dual tracks: 1. Your core team needs to be continuously trying things in their day to day. 2. You need to create a separate, dedicated container to create focus and take higher risk swings. Some teams have done hack weeks, etc. I don’t think it will be enough for most. The most effective orgs I’ve talked to have a completely separate team, dedicated to experimenting ways to do things with AI. The second team is needed because: a. It creates dedicated time, people, and space to take bigger swings. b. You can create the right environment to take riskier swings c. You can choose the right people for the task (because not everyone is well suited for this) To getting off the hamster wheel!