Table of Contents

• Best Reads of the Week

• Why AI Is A Disruptive Technology And What You Can …

  • The Disruption Nobody Can Afford to Ignore

  • The 5 Monkeys Experiment: Why Your Best Practices …

  • The Choice: Wait and Imitate or Risk and Disrupt

    • 1. Low-Risk, Low-Reward: Wait for AI Commoditizati …

    • 2. High-Risk, High-Reward: Act Fast, Disrupt First

  • Conclusion

• Closing Loop

Best Reads of the Week

• You Burn $50K a Sprint - Act Like It - Stop speaking in story points when your sponsor is counting cash, a good reminder for everyone.

• What I do when I have no clue - Told you, the only “framework” you need is the scientific method

• David Cope: Composer, computer scientist and pioneer of computer generated music - This article reflects on the life and work of David Cope, the composer behind Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI), a project that challenged perceptions of creativity and authorship.

• Make shitty products to unlock new markets - An interesting take, use vibe coding to create shittier products at the fraction of the costs.

• “Do More with Less” – Data-Driven Economics is Rewriting the Value Curve - Check this one out if you like or are curious about Causal AI.

Why AI Is A Disruptive Technology And What You Can Actually Do About It

Remember when the mobile revolution hit and some established companies dismissed it as "just another channel"? Many of those same organizations watched helplessly as their business models collapsed within years. History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme.

The Disruption Nobody Can Afford to Ignore

AI isn't just another technological evolution; it's a full-blown paradigm shift. If you're building an AI solution “just in case” and still treating it like the next shiny object, you're already behind. AI is the asteroid. The current incumbents? The dinosaurs.

But what does it actually mean to call AI a "disruptive" technology? We throw that word around so casually these days that it's lost its teeth. Let me be clear: We're not just talking about incremental gains or optimization here. We're talking about a complete restructuring of industries, business models, and entire skill sets. Think Uber to taxis, Netflix to cable, iPhone to Blackberry.

The 5 Monkeys Experiment: Why Your Best Practices Might Be Useless

There's a well-known (and exaggerated) “experiment” involving five monkeys, a ladder, and a bunch of bananas. Here's the gist:

1. A group of monkeys is placed in a room with a ladder leading to some bananas.

2. Every time a monkey climbs the ladder, the entire group is hosed with cold water.

3. Eventually, the monkeys learn not to climb the ladder.

4. Over time, the original monkeys are replaced one by one with new monkeys. None of the new monkeys have ever been hosed, but they all follow the group norm: don't climb the ladder. Why? Because "that's the way things are done around here."

This is how a lot of companies approach AI today, operating on second-hand best practices that were built for a different era. You can see it constantly: teams religiously following "best practices" that were actually developed 20 years ago or never fully adopted by their own creators. Need an example? Spotify doesn’t use the “Spotify model”.

They are working off playbooks that were never designed for the AI landscape (or even for reality) and they are enforcing norms based on other people's outdated experiences.

Your 2-week sprint full of “ceremonies” might just be a monkey-see, monkey-do exercise that's keeping you from the bananas.

The Choice: Wait and Imitate or Risk and Disrupt

So, what do you do? You have two choices, and each with its own risks and rewards:

1. Low-Risk, Low-Reward: Wait for AI Commoditization

• What it Looks Like: You wait until AI solutions become standardized, accessible, and more user-friendly. Think of it as buying off-the-shelf tools instead of building your own.

• Upside: You minimize risk. By the time you jump in, there are proven frameworks, cheaper tools, and more case studies to learn from.

• Downside: You're a follower, not a leader. Your "differentiator" will be a cosmetic twist on what everyone else is already doing.

2. High-Risk, High-Reward: Act Fast, Disrupt First

• What it Looks Like: You leverage AI to create something fundamentally different: a new category, a new process, a new customer experience. You invest in R&D and bet on your unique point of view.

• Upside: You could own the narrative and set the standard. You become “that phone without a keyboard”, not Blackberry.

• Downside: You risk getting it wrong. You spend more, move faster, and may need to pivot multiple times before hitting the mark.

Conclusion

Look, I get it. AI is scary. It's complex. It's moving too fast. But sitting on the sidelines isn't a strategy; it's surrender.

You can either follow old rules or write new ones. If you're playing it safe, know that the field is crowded. If you're ready to disrupt, remember that the first move isn't about finding bananas. It's about questioning why the ladder exists in the first place.

So, what's your choice? Follow the monkeys, or try your chance to get your banana?

Closing Loop

That’s it for this week. If there’s one thing to remember, it’s this: AI isn’t just another tool, it’s a fundamental reset. The game has changed, and so have the rules. You can wait for the market to settle and imitate the “best practices” of the past, or you can be the one writing the new playbook.

More to explore:

• The Only Framework That Hasn’t Lied To You Yet

• Learning to Listen: The Art of Uncovering Demand for AI Solutions

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