Week in Review · Issue 51

Hi Reader,

First, I want to thank you for reading this. I know you get lots of emails every day and I am grateful you take a moment, scan the things I share and if you like it, click on through and be informed or entertained. If you do like the Future Proof substack post, the Think Forward Show and/or the Future Proof Community please hit subscribe. It doesn't cost anything and it means so much.

This week started with an AI system cheerfully insisting that two plus two equals three, and it turned into a much more interesting question than I expected. Not about the machine, about us, and about how often we mistake sounding sure for being right. My conversation with Gabe Cervantes this week was genuinely one of my favorites in a while. He is funny, generous with what he has learned, and refreshingly unbothered by not having all the answers, which turns out to be the whole point. Here is everything from across the network.

This week's issue was a fun one to write, mostly because it let me poke at a habit I catch in myself all the time. Confidence is genuinely useful and people need it from whoever is leading them, so the interesting question is not how to have less of it but how to keep it honestly connected to what you actually know. That turns out to be a learnable skill, and this issue is about how it works. Here is everything from across the network this week:

FUTURE PROOF · ISSUE 51

Confidently Wrong

The most dangerous voice in the room is not the one that does not know. It is the one that is certain and incorrect. This week's issue is about why confidence and correctness came apart, what happens to a room when the most senior person walks into it, and two habits for catching your own overconfidence before it gets expensive.

THINK FORWARD · EPISODE 149

FROM THE COMMUNITY

This week we asked: name one thing in your work you currently present with total confidence that, if you are honest, is really just an educated guess. Not a lie, not incompetence, just certainty dressed up beyond what the evidence actually supports.

Future Proof: Design Your Future in the Age of Disruption · open to anyone

Talk soon,
Steve