Tom Schmidt

what matters is becoming the leader in your industry in a way that is incredibly specific to that industry and in such a way that your business benefits from, instead of being threatened by, abundant improvements in general purpose technologies like AI and batteries.

Commission teaches lessons in days, and omission teaches lessons in decades

When you experience someone else’s genius work, a little part of you feels, “That’s what I could have, would have, and should have done!”

Someone else did it. You didn’t.

They fought the resistance. You gave in to distractions.

They made it top priority. You said you’d get to it some day.

They took the time. You meant to.

When this happens, you can... See more

generates a brief for them to follow to execute that idea, complete with framing—contrarian, narrative, practical, philosophical, etc.—for maximum impact

"Your first task is to find what feels effortless to you.

Your second task is to put maximum effort into it."

hey'll be uniquely human abilities: asking better questions, seeing connections across domains, applying ethical judgment, building relationships, and imagining new possibilities.

Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.”

The most fragile resource in an AI-abundant world isn't energy or food — it's unoptimized human attention , and this world treats it as sacred.