You know that feeling when you study super hard for a test and then none of the questions come up? That frustration, like it was all for nothing? Thats how I felt when I walked out of a podcast with a major bank in Sandton where I had prepared for more than two weeks to deliver my insights on AI. Of course the bank only needed to produce a 20-minute piece who is realistically going to listen to anything longer than that but still, the moment just felt like a cliffhanger.
I sat in an Uber on my way back home that day and emailed someone in publishing on LinkedIn it turned out we had mutual connections. I then got introduced to an agent. I wrote a book proposal in 30 mins on Gmail, no attachments. Five emails and six weeks later, I signed a book deal with Penguin. I guess I found my way to finish my podcast!
Look, Ive been writing for a while. I love writing. I write on many different topics. I thought my first book deal might be on spirituality or philosophy, topics closer to my heart. But Ive also worked in Silicon Valley for many years, including working at Googles headquarters. So I have learnt a lot about how to think for the future and make sense of how the world is unfolding with respect to new technologies, business models and cultural evolutions.
Im not an AI expert, and who is these days anyway, but its also not rocket science to contextualise a new technology and draw patterns from past revolutions and sci-fi films to make sense of what to do next whether thats in business, education or your personal life.