In Today’s Menu for Knowledge-Hungry Business Professionals 😋…

• Meta’s top AI scientist: human intelligence still in the lead

• Microsoft president dispels imminent AGI threat

• The rise of the "envy office" redefining workspaces

• Interview with Yvann Karamoko, an executive coach and CEO of a talent development firm, on his aspirations for entrepreneurial growth in Africa (podcast)

• Success story: playing it too safe may be the greatest risk you’ll ever take

• Answer to the previous week’s business challenge

• Most important traits to look for when hiring

• International conferences & tech venture certificates

• 1-minute polls

Weekly Catchups

News | Industry Insights | Trends

• 🧠 Meta’s top AI scientist: human intelligence still in the lead
  Amid Silicon Valley's Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) race, recent research by Yann LeCun, Meta’s top AI scientist, challenges the narrative. Co-authored with scientists from Hugging Face and AutoGPT, the study assessed AI's problem-solving abilities against real-world scenarios. LeCun's paper reveals that large language models, even with tools, struggled with tasks easily handled by humans, achieving a mere 30% success rate. Contrary to sensational headlines, the study concludes that AGI's emergence depends on AI matching human robustness. LeCun's critique of industry claims emphasizes the significant gap between current AI capabilities and human intelligence.

• 🤖 Microsoft president dispels imminent AGI threat
  Microsoft President Brad Smith quashes fears of super-intelligent AI within the next 12 months, asserting decades may be needed for such technology. Dismissing claims related to OpenAI's Q* (Q-Star) project, allegedly a potential AGI breakthrough, Smith emphasizes the paramount need for safety precautions. Sam Altman's removal as OpenAI's CEO, later reinstated, followed researchers' warnings about a risky discovery. Smith clarifies that safety concerns, not a specific breakthrough, contributed to leadership changes. He underscores the necessity for safety brakes in AI systems controlling critical infrastructure, ensuring human control remains paramount.

• 🏢 The rise of the "envy office" redefining workspaces
  A new workplace aesthetic, dubbed the "Envy Office," is reshaping offices globally, focusing on chic design for social media appeal. New York Times reporters Emma Goldberg and Anna Kodé explore this trend, emphasizing its departure from traditional cubicles and tech campus vibes. The design not only prioritizes aesthetics but also reflects a company's brand. With firms like Gensler witnessing increased demand for these stylish spaces, the Envy Office aims to attract workers back to physical workplaces with flexible, appealing designs. The reporters discuss the unexpected focus on employees projecting brands via social media.

Nurturing The Leader Within

Personal Development | Success Story

Lost and Found

Playing it too safe may be the greatest risk you’ll ever take. Ram Seshadri’s story highlights the importance of staying resilient and embracing risks.

Ram Seshadri did not know what he wanted to do with his life. Holding an IB diploma and witnessing his brother drop out of engineering to enter a different field, he looked for opportunities across the UK, US and Canada that would allow him some stability.

He knew he enjoyed writing, so in 2017, he joined Canada’s top journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Yet despite moving countries and being accepted into a top-ranking program, Seshadri still couldn’t find the clarity he was looking for.

While many people in his batch had a clear focus for why they pursued journalism, Seshadri had a long way to go. A journey that ends at a completely different destination than what he’d imagined.

Fast forward to 2021. He’s still pretty lost. At this point, Seshadri has completed multiple internships, including one with the National Post, but he’s left with more disappointment and anxious feelings than before.

‘I feel like I don’t belong here’

After experiencing what it was like working in a newsroom, he realized that in the process of trying to amplify other people’s voices and stories, he was losing his own. The editing process did not leave Seshadri with much to call his own.

“If I can't even tell my writing apart from anybody else's in the journalism industry, then I feel like I don't belong here because I wanted to stand out in a creative sense,” he said. “I think that was the point where I was like, okay, do I really want to go further down the journalism line if I know that I'm just following a certain template that's been brought out to us?”

Seshadri’s parents didn’t pressure him, but he still felt a sense of responsibility to give back to the ones who raised him and sacrificed so much for him to have the opportunities that he did, especially his mother.

“I don't know why this person loves me so much, but I'm going to do my hardest in life to make sure that I'm not the reason for her tears, and that's what kept me going,” he said.

This is when his inner calling towards the world of entrepreneurship started to whisper. Dissatisfaction with the status quo. “I had this kind of existential crisis where I was not sure what I wanted to do with my life at that point. I knew that if I went into a certain line of work I'd do well in it, but I didn't feel like I would be satisfied with it,” he said.

Strategies | Tools | Marketing Tips

Most Important Traits To Look For When Hiring

Your best employees may leave if you don’t get this right. When leaders do not make the best decisions during the hiring process, the rest of the team suffers. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, around 80% of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions. Rather than risking the great talent your company has right now, it’s important to pay careful attention to not overlook the most important traits in the hiring process. 

It does not matter how experienced or educated a person is, if they do not excel in the following three categories, they should be automatically rejected.

#1 Personality

You can train people through a skills development program, but personalities are built over many years of diverse experiences. While great leadership can boost personality development, it can’t entirely change them. Candidates who possess many years of experience and great technical skills, but also have a lazy mindset, aren’t motivated and quickly give up, will not even get to use their rich background and skills. On the contrary, candidates who lack certain technical skills, but are self-motivated and driven, can be easily trained. 

According to a study by Leadership IQ that involved around 20,000 companies, 46 percent of new employees quit their jobs or fail within a year and a half. Almost 90% of those failures are due to attitudinal problems.

Some key personality traits to look out for include:

• Confidence

• Resilience

• Optimism

• Proactivity 

#2 Evidence

Fancy words can make the simplest job seem impressive. Don’t fall into that trap. A person can have a long list of life and work experiences to detail on their resume, but it means nothing if they can’t do the job. 

Take content writing as an example. A person can have many years of writing experience, but if they can’t adapt to your company’s goals and writing style, they’re not the right fit. This is why it is important to ask for work samples and have a mandatory probationary period in which they prove their claims. 

Keep in mind, someone with little work experience can still provide evidence of high-quality work. Not everything is learned in workspaces. If you see potential, give them a chance to prove themselves.

#3 Communication skills

This is what will either push you to or stop you from wanting to pull your hair out. Every employee faces challenges in the workplace. The typical failure rates in businesses using common work practices range from 10 to 30 human errors per 100 opportunities. Mistakes are bound to happen, but it’s effective communication skills that minimize harm, or even prevent it as a whole. 

When looking for the most effective communicator, it’s important to understand how candidates will respond to stressful scenarios. This can be done using case studies in interview questions and/or observing them during the probationary period. A few key signs of an effective communicator include the candidate asking meaningful questions and challenging ideas in a healthy way. This shows that they will not be afraid to point out errors and will approach you when facing challenges.

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Networking | Business Development | Entrepreneurship

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