Stop serving the compliment sandwich. Startups vs incumbents in the AI era. Play long-term games with long-term people.

Journal of discoveries - 17th of February 2024

Welcome to a new issue of the newsletter, “Journal of discoveries.”

Each week, I check a list of hundreds of sources of inspiration to spot exciting articles, videos, podcasts, and books on personal development, leadership, management, technology, and innovation.

While this newsletter will remain a free resource, you might consider becoming a paid subscriber if you want to support my curation work. Thanks!

And now, let’s dive in!

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One “must” for this week

“Stop serving the compliment sandwich” by Adam Grant.

Giving a compliment sandwich might make the giver feel good, but it doesn’t help the receiver.

When people hear praise during a feedback conversation, they brace themselves and wait for the negative, and when it comes, it makes the opening compliment seem insincere. Plus, even if we avoid that risk and manage to be genuine about the positives, they can drown out the negatives, or perhaps the negatives might be discounted.

Personal development

• Play long-term games with long-term people

• The complexity trap

• Feynman's obliquity

• Commitment and consistency bias

• We all know people who seem to attract fun: here’s how you can do it too

• Learn from others people's mistakes because life is short

• The letter to your future self

• How to strengthen your curiosity muscle

Innovation

• Startups vs incumbents in the AI era

• Five things to know about AI and emerging tech at Davos

• Gen-AI: artificial intelligence and the future of work

• Five key trends in AI and data science for 2024

• Design thinking

• How to describe your business as an equation

• Global Risks Report 2024

• How to measure the accuracy of forecasts

Leadership and management

• Stop serving the compliment sandwich

• How to improve team collaboration

• Five levels of leadership

• Learning from the bees

• Be more assertive with customers

• Culture

• Body language dos and dont's for virtual meetings

• Offboarding: the importance of the exit interview

One book

“Thinking in bets” by Annie Duke.