Kyle Steinike

“Never sacrifice momentum. I might know a better path, but if we’ve got a lot of momentum, if everyone’s united and they’re marching together and the path is O.K., just go with the flow. I may eventually nudge them down a new path, but never stop the troops mid march.”

I’m happy to let my thermostat automatically turn my heat on and off or to let an AI drive a car or optimize the traffic lights in a city. I’m less sure about an AI that sets tax rates, or corporate regulations or foreign policy. Or an AI that tells us that it can’t explain why, but strongly urges us to declare war—right now.

It turns out that reality has a surprising amount of detail, and those details can matter a lot to figuring out what the root problem or best solution is. So if I want to help, I can’t treat those details as a black box: I need to open it up and see the gears inside. Otherwise, anything I suggest will be wrong—or even if it’s right, I won’t have... See more

My work identifies four fundamental organizational forms: the personal organization, like an entrepreneurial start-up; the programmed organization, like McDonald’s with its standardized processes; the professional organization, like a hospital, which relies on the expertise of its professionals; and the project organization, like a film company or... See more

“So many advantages come from being willing to look like an idiot in the short term.

You stay silent in an important meeting, afraid to voice critical thoughts and watch the project fail. You don’t write the novel because you’re afraid people might not read it. You don’t admit you were wrong and repeatedly make the same mistake. You don’t ask the... See more