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Weve all seen the AI-generated Jesus cradling the late conservative pundit Charlie Kirk in his arms and carrying him to the gates of heaven, right? According to a number of Facebook posts, everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Bob Dylan supposedly paused to honor Kirk after the right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder’s assassination in Utah earlier this month, Rolling Stone reports. Of course, the tributes are just as fake as AI Jesus. One post, from a Facebook page titled US News, shows a distraught Springsteen laying flowers at a Kirk memorial. He took a deep breath, looked toward Kirks young daughters, and said through shaking words: Ive buried friends, Ive buried heroes . . . but watching children lose a father cuts deeper than any song Ive ever written, the caption reads. This never happened. Another post claims Bob Dylan performed outside Turning Point USA headquarters, surrounded by weeping crowds, candles, and flowers. Witnesses say he played a trembling acoustic version of ‘Blowin in the Wind’ before whispering, Give me back my brother, the caption reads. This never happened. Rolling Stone also identified a post alleging that Led Zeppelins Robert Plant stopped his Nashville show mid-set to dedicate a performance of God Bless America to Kirk. Again, never happened. None of the musicians depicted in these memes has commented publicly on Kirks death. The aftermath of his assassination has been a maelstrom of misinformation, much of it taking the form of AI-generated slop on platforms like X and Facebook. (Fast Company has reached out to Meta and X for comment.) How many MAGA grandmas are believing this and sharing it? wrote one Facebook commenter. So far I’ve seen the same thing from Bob Seger, John Fogerty, Rod Stewart, Metallica, and now Robert Plant, another added. Who’s next? Elvis Presley? For anyone willing to think longer than a split second, these posts are obviously fake. Yet with the internet drowning in slop and misinformationmuch of it far more convincing than Dylan performing at a vigilit has become second nature to question everything online. Even the official White House statement mourning Kirks death sparked conspiracy theories, with some users pointing to Donald Trumps left pinky as proof the scene was fabricated. These days, its AI until proven otherwise.
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E-Commerce
Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, delivered a TED Talk in 2010 on the power of vulnerability thats since been viewed nearly 70 million times, making her a self-help guru and something of a cultural icon. Since then, 150,000 leaders across the globe have taken her workshops on leading with courage. Her new book, Strong Ground, delves into lessons from these workshops. At the 11th annual Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York on September 17, Brown discussed with senior editor Jon Gluck why we need strong leaders now more than ever. Here are her top three insights on leadership she shared at the event: 1. Were in the middle of a collective AI panic attackand need to take a breath. Brown said that when it comes to AI, most CEOs are like 5-year-olds playing soccer, kicking the ball every which way, going, Okay, what do we want to do? I don’t give a shit, just have a strategy. We might be in the middle of an AI wave, after allbut that doesnt mean companies are being thoughtful or strategic about how they are deploying AI. According to research from MIT, more than 95% of AI investments are not profitable. Companies are failing to align AI investments with business strategy. We need to get the ball, look down the pitch strategically, take a breath, and pass the ball, Brown said. We’re going too fast. . . . We’re scared. [Photo: Eugene Gologursky for Fast Company] 2. Real organizational transformation requires breaking things. Were burned out on buzzwords like transformation because most incremental changes are marketed as transformations. But Brown said actual, meaningful change that can reinvent companies requires breaking shit. The hardest thing about a real transformation is you’re going to need to break some shit. You’re going to need a very serious assessment of what is working in your organization: the systems, the processes, the people, she said. You also need a very real assessment of whats not working, and let it go. And what you have to put on the chopping block with transformation is some of your darlings, Brown said. 3. Want people to listen to you? Be preparedand honest. Brown said shes been told she has executive presence (a term she called a cover for shitting on introverts and women). But she says what others call a certain presence is really all about preparation. Before a meeting with executives, Brown will put in hours listening to the investor calls, researching the points she doesnt understand, and watching interviews with the CEO so she can ask incisive questions. I try to be prepared. That may be over-functioning from being the only woman in a lot of rooms in my career, she said. But in addition to doing her homework, she also prioritizes being truthful, even if its unpalatable. I try to not give a shit whether you like me or not. I’m honest. I try to just be very truthful. And I think if people listen to what I say, maybe it’s because they trust that I’m going to tell the truth, she said. And if I can’t, I don’t talk. Watch the whole interview here.
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E-Commerce
Mike Hayes is the former commanding officer of Navy Seal Team Two, leading a 2,000-person Special Operations task force in southeastern Afghanistan. He was also a White House Fellow, Director of Defense Policy and Strategy at the National Security Council, and has served in several C-level roles in the private sector. Currently, he is managing director at Insight Partners, a software investment firm. Whats the big idea? A life of purpose wont fall into your lap. People who spend their time reacting to events and sudden opportunities are at risk of feeling empty and starved of fulfillment. To find meaningful achievement, you must put in the work of identifying your mission and then go after it. Below, Mike shares five key insights from his new book, Mission Driven: The Path to a Life of Purpose. Listen to the audio versionread by Mike himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Who is the foundation for what Ive had a lot of jobsfrom a dishwasher at a local restaurant when I was 16, to the Seals, the White House, the C-suite, and beyond. While the details of each role (what I call the what) absolutely matter, the who (the person you are, regardless of the role) matters far more. Its a shame that all too often we start conversations by asking people what they do instead of trying to learn about who they are, because its the who that will take you to your ultimate destination. When I talk about the who, Im talking about the you deep down and the life you want to live. This is a level up from what you spend your time doing. Your who is formed by the principles that guide you; its the aspirational person youre hoping to see when you look in the mirror. Are you the community builder who brings everyone together? The class clown, ensuring that people are always laughing? Are you the personality hire who may be half a step slower intellectually, but the one individual who can unite the whole office? Are you an adventurer and explorer? A dreamer? A doer? A caregiver? You may be all of these, or none of them, but you are composed of a set of ideas and ideals, interests and passions, goals and guiding lights. The what changes throughout life, but understanding your whodeeply, meaningfully, powerfullyis the only way to land on the right what. The gap between your who and your what is where your disappointments and frustrations lie. The wider the gap, the emptier you feel, and the more you want to run away from your life and start again. Narrow the gap, and then you feel whole, satisfied, and mission-driven. 2. Make sure ambition is pushing you in the right direction Ambition is the concrete application of our who: It means having a goal were working toward and a level of determination around attaining it. The intensity around that desire is ambition, which makes ambition a great thing when its taking us to the right place, and potentially a harmful quality when it leads us astray. Ambition is the fuel that drives the train faster, so we want to be sure its headed to the right station. High-performing individuals fall into a dangerous trap when they act without having a crystal-clear destination in mind. Their ambition can move them quickly, but who knows where theyll end up? It can become far too easy to work toward anothers definition of success instead of your own. But that wont feel like true success in the end. It can become far too easy to work toward anothers definition of success instead of your own. One of the masters of ambition I had the privilege to work with was Pat Gelsinger, the former CEO of VMware and Intel. When he was at VMware, where I served as chief digital transformation officer before later becoming chief operating officer, Pat held people to an ambitiously high standard and pushed them to accomplish even more than they ever imagined. Many people would say that his pushes were impossible, and sometimes they were. But sometimes they werentand extraordinary breakthroughs were achieved. Pat knew that if he didnt push, no one would. When he left VMware, Pat urged me to continue to set and uphold high standards. Without that pressure, the companys performance will be mediocre. He was right. Ambition can help provide the pressure we all need to succeed. 3. Giving pays off in the short run and the long run Most of us understand how giving pays dividends in the moment. Visiting wounded warriors when I was in the Seals was ostensibly for their benefit, but I always left those visits profoundly moved, inspired, and energized to be and do more. But I make the case that it pays dividends in the long run even more. Giving pays off in the collective sense because a world in which we are all oriented toward giving is a better world. And individually, it pays off because if you make yourself worthy of being invested in, people will invest in you. Helpers recognize those same impulses in others; they understand who has the same orientation to give back and who does not. You start out doing it because its the right thing, and once you recognize that helping yields a great return, you keep on doing it. It does not diminish the service you provide if you act strategically. It does not make you a craven individual if you give in ways that you imagine might lead to opportunities in the future. The giving still counts. Helping my friends son get an internship still counts, even if, as I make those phone calls, I use them as opportunities to remind the people Im calling that I exist and that I am always here to help them. It still counts if I use it as a chance to network an introduction to someone I might have never otherwise had a chance to meet. It is perfectly okay and entirely reasonable to invest in giving activities that are more likely to come back to you in positive ways. 4. A job search should be top-down, not bottom-up Our best professional opportunities are found within the intersection of what gives us energy, what we are good at, and what the world needs. But you have to figure out where that takes you and not just react to the jobs that fall into your lap. So many Seals struggle when they transition from the military because they dont truly know what theyre looking for. The life of a Seal is so focused on the day-to-day of being in the military that theres little room to do bigger-picture thinking. It doesnt matter what opportunities are out there unless theyre the right ones. Ive seen too many ex-Seals start their job search with an open-ended call to their network, hoping an opportunity comes throughbut thats a prime example of bottom-up thinking. You take the cople of choices youve been given and pick the best of them. Sometimes thats fine, but oftentimes none of what emerges from a haphazard process like that is going to be the right fit. You might end up with a decent job, but is your mission going to emerge in this way? The better way to find what will achieve your mission is far more often top-down: It doesnt matter what opportunities are out there unless theyre the right ones. You need to direct the search, know what youre looking for, and take intentional action to generate the very best, most targeted opportunities for you. 5. We can all strive to change the world In the corporate arena, there is a scoreboard: stock price, revenue growth, net profit, and individual salary. But feeling valuedand feeling like what you are doing has value to your community and the worldis about more than a number. We have to ask ourselves: Are we having the kind of impact we want? Is our mission the right one? You should never spend time pursuing a mission where you dont see the ultimate value, whether that value is lifting up others through an issue you care deeply about or giving yourself the financial flexibility to live the life you want. Having a purpose when I was a Seal was easy; the impact was often quite clear, life-and-death, solving tangible problems around the globe. But finding purpose when it isnt quite so obvious can be challenging. The important part isnt what we do, but that we do something, or lots of somethings, getting off the sidelines and taking ownership of some small piece of this great nation and planet. You should never spend time pursuing a mission where you dont see the ultimate value. Everything is steered by someone, and so we just need to be one of those someones steering society in the direction we want it to move in. The world cant just be made up of takerspeople responding to decisions and events. Someone is causing those events, actions, and reactions, and theres no reason it shouldnt be you, me, all of us. In the Seals, we say a person dies two deaths. One is physical, and the other is the last time anyone on Earth says their name. I personally work hard to #neverforget to keep my great teammates, in some small way, alive. But I push you to ask yourself: Who will keep your name alive when youre gone? Every day, can you do something to expand that list? This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
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