During most of my weeks, I meet totally amazing and wonderful people that could accomplish outrageous things that really would put a dent in the universe and make life much better for all of humanity. And yet, they don’t. They are held hostage. They work at companies in a specific role that is carefully designed to fit as a cog in a much larger machine and even though they know that the machine could be much better if they could optimize it, they are held hostage by the system and all their energy and good ideas go to waste. In fact, entire companies are held hostage by their business ecosystem with partners and downstream customers threatening to abandon them if they adjust their approach to business in response to new technologies, such as AI, or other forces. In the end, modern companies, industries and society at large is built around the notion of repeatable processes that can be optimized to the point of fragility where the smallest disruption causes the house of cards to come crashing down. My reminder for myself and you today is: don’t be held hostage. Seek freedom!