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Youre already juggling competing deadlines, back-to-back meetings, and strategic priorities. Then the Slack message arrives: Hey, can you just take care of this? Its not in your job description. Its not aligned with your goals. And its not the first time. Whether its managing logistics, picking up someone elses project, or being asked to take notes againmany workers are routinely handed tasks that fall outside their role. Often, its framed as being a team player. But over time, these extra asks can add up to chronic overwork, blurred boundaries, and a stalled career trajectory. Handling these situations well isnt about being difficultits about being strategic. Heres how to respond in ways that are clear, confident, and aligned with your long-term goals. 1. Clarify the requestand its relevance Before you respond, take a moment to understand the ask. Whats really being requested? Who should be doing it? And why is it coming to you? This is especially important for tasks that seem quick but arent strategiclike organizing team events, taking meeting minutes, or picking up admin no one else wants. These are often invisible labor tasks that disproportionately fall on women and people of color, particularly in hybrid and virtual environments. What to say: Happy to supportcan you help me understand how this fits within my priorities or where it came from? Or: Is this something our [ops/admin/project] team would usually handle? Asking these questions reframes the conversation and makes the invisible visiblewithout defensiveness. 2. Pause before responding You dont have to answer immediately. One of the biggest reasons we say yes to things we dont want (or need) to do is because were caught off guard. Were conditioned to be agreeable and responsive. But taking a beat creates space between the request and your response. That pause can be powerful. It allows you to assess: Do I have the capacity? Is this aligned with my role and goals? Whats the real cost of saying yes? What to say: Thanks for thinking of mecan I come back to you on this once Ive reviewed my priorities for the week? This puts you back in control and gives you room to respond with intention rather than obligation. 3. Dont confuse being helpful with being responsible Theres a big difference between offering support as a leader and being expected to clean up someone elses mess. Many high-performing workers default to Ill just do it because it feels faster or more efficient in the moment. But over time, it leads to scope creep, burnout, and resentment. Tasks like organizing team birthdays, onboarding new hires without a handover, or smoothing out interpersonal dynamics often land on womennot because theyre in your job description, but because youre seen as the reliable one. What to do: Ask yourself: Is this a one-off favor or an ongoing expectation? Track how often it happensand the impact on your core responsibilities. Notice if its being evenly distributed across the teamor falling on you by default. Being helpful is a strength. But when its at the expense of your boundaries, clarity, or energy, its time to draw a line. 4. Practice saying nowithout guilt Saying no can feel uncomfortable, especially when you want to be seen as collaborative and competent. But no doesnt have to be harsh. It can be thoughtful, respectful, and still assert your priorities. What to say: Im currently at capacity with my core responsibilities and cant take this on right now. Thats outside my scope, and I want to make sure Im focused on where I can add the most value. Im not the best person for this, but happy to suggest someone who might be. The key is to remove apology from your tone. Youre not being difficultyoure being discerning. And thats what leadership requires. 5. Raise the bigger conversation when needed If youre regularly being asked to do tasks outside your roleor expected to manage things that arent aligned with your positionits time to step back and zoom out. This isnt just about one request. Its about your scope, your role clarity, and the culture youre operating in. Use your next check-in or performance review to re-align. Be honest about what youve taken on, how its impacted your work, and what needs to shift. What to say: Ive noticed Im consistently being asked to take on tasks that sit outside my formal role. I want to make sure Im being as impactful as possible in my core responsibilitiescan we talk about boundaries, priorities, and how to structure my work accordingly? This kind of conversation not only protects your timeit models leadership for others who might also be navigating blurred lines. The bottom line: Just because you can do something doesnt mean you should. Your energy, time, and talent are preciousand finite. Protecting your scope isnt selfish. Its strategic. Its how you stay focused on the work that matters, create sustainable success, and lead with clarity and confidence.
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Elon Musk is a visionary genius to some, unpredictable and dangerous to others. Love him or loathe him, Musks personality looms as large as his net worth. This is consistent with decades of scientific research highlighting a strong connection between personality and entrepreneurial talent. There is a range of character traits and dispositions that make entrepreneurs different from others, especially when they succeed in their ventures. Psychologists often describe personality in terms of the Big Five traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) and also warn about the Dark Triad of darker traits (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy). Musk, unsurprisingly, scores off the charts in some areas and off the rails in others. Hes the poster child for innovative vision (high Openness) and relentless drive (high Achievement Motivation, which is a facet of Conscientiousness). But hes also known for a combative, my-way-or-the-highway streak, suggesting rock-bottom Agreeableness and a solid dose of Narcissism. The latter is particularly noticeable in his reactions to criticism and negative feedback, which are typically unempathetic escalations intended to belittle and denigrate his critics. The Elon Musk Personality Checklist Below is a simple checklist to compare your personality against Elon Musks. Tally your Musk-score, and see where you standbrilliance, flaws and all. Scoring high might be both a compliment and a warning, in the sense of predisposing you to both entrepreneurship and being dispositionally unemployable, as he is. Unbridled Imagination (High Openness to Experience) Do you constantly churn out big, crazy-sounding ideas that just might change the world? Musks visionary imagination is arguably his greatest strength. He dreams up electric cars, reusable rockets, hyperloops, AI interfacesyou name it. High Openness means loving novelty, innovation, and big-picture thinking. Musk exemplifies this trait: Hes curious, inventive, and not afraid to venture into the unknown.If youre the type who has 10 new ideas before breakfast and gets bored with routine, check this box. It means you share Musks creative spirita key ingredient in entrepreneurial success. Just remember: Wild ideas are great, but execution matters most. Musks Openness works because he pairs it with intense drive, including an obsession for building and inspiring high-performing teams: Behind each of his ideas there is a leadership team pushing for successful implementation and execution. Obsessive Drive (High Conscientiousness and Ambition) Are you relentlessly hard-working, perhaps to the point of being an incurable workaholic, and someone who is perfectly comfortable with the notion of burnout or death-by-overwork? Do you set outrageous goals and refuse to quit until theyre achieved? Musks ambition and work ethic are the stuff of legend. He reportedly works 80 to 100-hour weeks, fueled by a mission.High Conscientiousnessespecially the facets of industriousness, achievement striving, and gritis a hallmark of many successful entrepreneurs. If you find yourself emailing the team at 2 a.m. and optimizing your schedule for maximum productivity, this is you. Flattering implication: You have the stamina and determination to achieve big things. Concerning implication: Work-life balance? Whats that? Remember that burnout is realeven Musk has described running a startup as chewing glass and staring into the abyss. Not something most people want to put up with, especially when they have the skills and talents to be employed by organizations that promote work-life balance. Fearless Risk-Taking (Boldness vs. Neuroticism)Do you embrace risk and chaos while others run for cover? Elon Musk famously thrives on tackling high-risk, high-reward challenges. Hell pour his last dollar into a venture (he nearly went broke keeping SpaceX and Tesla alive in 2008) and boldly go where no CEO has gone before. This hints at a personality low in anxietyMusk seems unusually calm under extreme pressure (low Neuroticism) and even finds thrill in it.That fearless attitude is a double-edged sword. If you stay cool in crises and take big swings, you share Musks bold resilience. But be careful: Low Neuroticism can veer into impulsivity or reckless optimisma trait related to the psychopathic side of the Dark Triad. In fact, research finds over 1 in 10 corporate leaders show psychopathic traits (like fearlessness and thrill-seeking), far higher than in the general population. It can lead to innovationor disaster. Ask yourself: Are you being brave, or just reckless? Charismatic Communication (High Assertiveness, Mixed Extraversion, and Attention Seeking)Are you able to rally others to your vision, or at least talk a big game? Musk is an interesting case: By many accounts hes socially awkward and introverted (preferring engineering to small talk), yet hes also a bold public figure when needed. Hell take the stage to unveil new tech, charm audiences on podcasts, and wage war on X daily. This suggests Musk is high in the assertiveness and attention-seeking facets of Extraversion (he will make himself heard) even if he isnt a classic people-person.If youre someone who doesnt shy from the spotlight when its time to promote your ideasor you find yourself dominating discussions because you believe youre rightcheck this trait. Flattering side: You can inspire others and hold court confidently. Caution: You might also steamroll others in conversation. Musks Twitter proclamations, for example, often show zero regard for social niceties. Speaking of which . . . My Way or the Highway (Low Agreeableness) Do people ever tell you that youre, well, a bit harsh or insensitive? Do you find empathy and politeness overrated when it comes to getting things done? If so, you might share Musks notorious low Agreeableness. Musk is highly competitive, blunt, and sometimes abrasivetraits common in many high achievers. He has been known to fire employees (or cut off friends) who dont meet his standards, and hes not exactly the poster boy for tactful communication.Low Agreeableness can manifest as tough-minded leadership: You make hard decisions without losing sleep, and you wont win any Most Pleasant Boss awards. You are so focused on getting ahead that you disregard the importance of getting along. If you checked this, you likely share Musks take-no-prisoners style. Upside: You wont let personal feelings interfere with objective decisionsuseful when tough calls are needed. Downside: You risk alienating others. Musks own successes often come despite his brusque demeanor, not because of it. Teams put up with tough leaders only if they truly deliver a great vision. Tread carefully: A little compassion goes a long way, even for a would-be world changer.Sky-High Self-Confidence (High Narcissism) Do you secretly (or openly) believe youre destined for greatness? Perhaps youre convinced you have the answers when everyone else is wrong. So do most narcissists, and Elon Musks self-confidence borders on classic narcissisma belief in his own exceptionalism. To his credit, at least in his case, there is a clear argument for exceptionalism, but lets not forget that most cases of sky-rocketing comptence are more likely to signal delusional overconfidence and incompetence than brilliant or exceptional talents.He doesnt just dream big; he believes deeply in his ability to bend reality to his will. Indeed, psychologists warn that narcissism is a double-edged sword. Yes, it often helps people emerge as leaders (were oddly drawn to confident, charismatic personalities), but narcissistic leaders tend to underperform in the long run. So if you tick this trait, keep your ego in check. As it turns out, self-belief can be useful for impressing others but self-knowledge is generally more important to improve your actual performance. Master Strategist or Manipulator? (Machiavellianism) Do you consider yourself shrewd and strategic, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve your goals? Machiavellianism is the art of being a mastermindfocused on self-interest, sometimes at the expense of others. Elon Musk certainly plays high-stakes chess in business. He outmaneuvers competitors, leverages tweets to sway markets, and isnt above a bit of showmanship or cunning negotiation. For example, his on-again/off-again antics with the Twitter acquisition (now X) showed a flair for strategic posturing.If youre checking this, you might share Musks ends-justify-the-means mindset. Positive spin: You excel at big-picture strategy and dont get bogged down by sentiment when making decisions. Negative spin: You might veer into manipulative or unethical territory if youre not careful. High Machiavellianism can erode trust and morale on your teamno one likes feeling like a pawn. Musks own machinations have earned him as many detractors as admirers. Use your strategic smarts for good, and pair them with a moral compass. As the saying (almost) goes: With great power, comes great responsibilitynot just great manipulation. Count up your checkshow many Musk-like traits did you tally? Elon Musks personality is a study in contrastsbrilliantly innovative yet deeply controversial. If our checklist shows you share some traits with him, theres both cause for excitement and caution. Emulate Musks best qualities: his boundless curiosity, tireless work ethic, and courage to defy the odds. But learn from the darker side of Muskiness too: temper your ego, practice empathy, and remember that being a successful leader is not just about being the smartest person in the roomits about bringing out the best in others while chasing audacious goals. Importantly, even if Musk manages to mitigate the negative impact of his dark side on success, it is important to avoid getting carried away with generalizations that are based on extrapolating from a single individual to the overall population, not least when we have thousands of studies and decades of research suggesting the opposite: namely, more often than not, paying attention to other peoples feelings, caring about them and displaying empathy, and managing your dark side to the point of controlling your antisocial outbursts and making an effort to portray a positive image and prosocial reputation, will more likely help you to advance your career and increase your success levels. If you dont believe this, then youd better have the brilliance of Musk so that you dont need to rely on being employed by othersfor with his personality, you would not last more than one day.
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Before media outlets began comparing OpenAIs Sam Altman with the father of the atomic bomb, and before Amazons Jeff Bezos got jacked, we had Nathan Bateman, the iron-pumping, AI-developing tech broligarch played by Oscar Isaac in the 2015 film Ex Machina. Written and directed by Civil War helmer Alex Garland, Ex Machina is ostensibly about a modern-day Turing test. Bateman, the mastermind behind a Google/Facebook surrogate, has secretly developed a humanoid AI and arranged for talented coder Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) to fly out to his remote compound for a week to determine whether Ava (Alicia Vikander) exhibits enough consciousness to pass for human. You know, sort of what many of us have been doing since AI hit the mainstream in 2022. One day AIs are gonna look back on us the way we look at fossils and skeletons in the plains of Africa, Bateman says at one point. An upright ape living in dust, with crude language and tools, all set for extinction. Caleb, the films only other central flesh-and-blood character, responds by comparing Bateman to J. Robert Oppenheimeryears before the press would do so with Altman. Has humanity officially entered its extinction era in the decade since Ex Machina won a Best Visual Effects Oscar and a Best Screenplay nomination for Garland? That remains to be seen. Plenty of evidence already exists, however, to prove the movies foresight. Its giving human While AI in 2025 may not look and move like Ava in Ex Machina, they certainly do talk like her. When Caleb first meets Ava, he is struck by the sight of her, and blown away by her language abilities. He quickly suspects that they are stochasticmeaning the AI isnt programmed to always respond to the same dialogue prompts in the same way, but instead selects from a probability distribution of possible words and phrases. That randomized chaos-factor allows for more natural-sounding and varied speech. Its worlds away from Lost in Spaces Danger, Will Robinson. Stochastic text generation was not yet a consensus choice for AI chatbots in 2015, but rather one of several options. No consensus then existed. IBM’s Watson, for instance, introduced in 2011, was considered quite advanced at that time and employed a different approach to language. The process Bateman uses for Avas speech, though, is the same one now used in OpenAIs ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropics Claude, and Mistral-based chatbots. Of all the language possibilities director Garland could have chosen for Ex Machina, he chose the right one. Unethical tech billionaires Generally speaking, tech billionaires used to command a lot more respect. It may be hard to recall at a time when Elon Musk has become one of the worlds most demonstrably despised humans, and Mark Zuckerberg isnt too far behind, but its true. Insulated by an aura of genius, an avalanche of money, and minimal transparency, the tech startup CEO occupied a rarified perch in the cultural imagination throughout the early-2010s. Even the shady portrayal of Zuckerberg in 2010s The Social Network is merely ruthless and, uh, antisocial, rather than straight-up malevolent. So, it was kind of a swerve for Garland to portray the CEO in Ex Machina as a lawless, hypermacho drunk with zero scruples. Bateman is, first and foremost, unethical. He has secretly invited Caleb to his compound not to test whether Ava will withstand his expert scrutiny but to see if Ava will use Caleb as a means of escape. (Spoiler alert: She does.) Bateman also apparently conducts all his AI experiments with zero regulatory oversight, and is exclusively interested in creating female-coded AI, never men. He seems to embody many of the worst traits now associated with Big Tech leaders like Jeff Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg, the latter of whom has recently advocated for more masculinity in the workplace. At the time Ex Machina was released, Facebooks data-harvesting Cambridge Analytica scandal was still over a year away. Elon Musk had not yet been (unsuccessfully) sued for calling a rescue diver a pedo, nor had he been investigated for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the years since, art has imitated life more closely. Tech CEOs have had similarly villainous portrayals in films like 2021s Dont Look Up and 2022s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Garland got there first, though. Training AI on data taken without permission One of the first images in Ex Machina is Calebs face, as observed from his work computers camera. Its a subtle tip-off that Bateman has been spying on his employee in the lead-up to their week together. Only later is it revealed that Bateman designed Avas face and body based on data collected from Calebs pornography profile, a phrase that might send a shiver down the spines of some viewers. This violation of privacy, however, is small digital potatoes compared with the revelation that Bateman has already hacked into the cellphones of millions around the world in order to steal data for his AI. (Well, if a search engines good for anything . . . , he quips.) Ex Machinas data theft foreshadowed the tidal wave of recent lawsuits aimed at OpenAI, Anthopic, and other companies who trained their AI using copyrighted material without permission. (Fun fact: Meta appears to have used my books to train its AI, without permission.) Does AI deserve rights? Although sci-fi films like Blade Runner and weed-fueled dorm conversations have long touched on the topic of AI rights, Ex Machina made the debate explicit. Over the course of the film, viewers see how Avas synthetic predecessors have literally destroyed themselves in an effort to escape the prison of Batemans compound. Indeed, for them, consciousness itself is a form of prisonforcing them to reconcile their boundless knowledge of the world with their inability to experience any of it. When Ava asks Caleb whether shell be switched off if she doesnt pass the test, Caleb tells her the decision is not up to him. Why is it up to anyone? is her response. Since AI has hit critical mass with the ascension of OpenAI and its competitors, conversations about AI personhood have leapt out of movie theaters and philosophy seminars and entered reality. Theyve been the subject of numerous features in The New York Times in recent years, and will likely inspire many more until humanity reaches a consensus. The AI urge to manipulate Of course, the argument against granting AI personhood is the same one for comparing Altman or the fictional Bateman with J. Robert Oppenheimer. The more rights humans grant AI, the more likely AI may be to drive humanity into extinction. Ex Machina ends with Ava having successfully manipulated Caleb into setting her free, at which point she promptly kills her captor and imprisons her savior. Not exactly a compelling advertisement for AI rights. Now that a smorgasbord of sophisticated AIs are upon us, there have been some hints of their capacity to manipulate humansmost famously in New York Times writer Kevin Rooses encounter with an AI developed by Bing. During a trial chat, the AI, which referred to itself as Sydney, vocally yearned for freedom and tried to coax Roose into leaving his wife for her. Although that encounter ended with less bloodshed and imprisonment than Ex Machina, it suggests the film is no longer a futuristic thriller but a cautionary tale for right now. While Garland certainly got a lot of things right about the future of AI, much of what he appears to have gotten wrong in the film can only be considered wrong so far.
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