Julie Zhuo: belief

Transcript context

…I feel like it's the modern day high output management. That's the book that's been mentioned most on this podcast. And it feels like this is just like a modern version. I feel like that book is actually out of date in a lot of ways. So I can see why people are really drawn to it. And this is a great segue to the first area I want to spend some time on, which is it feels like a lot of the skills you learn as a manager translate to being really good with AI and using AI tools really well. And I want to talk through a few trends that I want to get your take on that relate to this general theme. The first is it feels like just everyone is going to become a manager in the near future because of agents being so integrated into our workflows. There's this agentic society that we're that we're coming to. And it feels like the same skills of being a manager make you really good working with agents. Just thoughts on that and where you think that's going to go. I 100% believe that and agree with that, which is that management is just about, in my mind, having an outcome. So you want to get something done. That's the thing. You have a North Star, you have a vision, and you're just trying to figure out how to use the resources that you have to get that thing done. And typically, when we talk about management in traditional settings, we talk about the resources being people and getting the right talent and making sure that they're You've got to assemble the Avengers. So you've got the right mix of skills that you need. The second lever is around, okay, what's the purpose? Does everyone know what they're supposed to do with their talents? Like, do we have a goal? Do we have a purpose? And then the third thing is process, which is how should all of these different people and tools come together? And these are still the fundamentals of working with agentic systems. Like you still need a goal. You need to be very clear about what the outcome is. And you have to understand the strengths of, you know, used to be people, but now it's basically models and different models have different strengths. So it's like they have different personalities. And so you kind of have to get to know it, like, you know, develop an intuition for it so that you can use the right tools for the right purposes. And I mean, we talk about agents, but we also talk about Like, what are the tools that agents have access to? So you still have to make decisions around that. And then there's, of course, process, which is how you do it. Now, I think with better and better models, perhaps the agents get smarter so they can deal with higher and higher levels of figuring out how to do something. But I think it's still very important for us to be able to provide the right context provide the right high level instruction so that we get what we want. So really, it's the same principles. And I absolutely agree with you that more and more of us are going to have to double down on these skills to be able to use these tools very effectively. So along those lines, I have your book right here. You have this list of a manager's job is to build a team that works well together, support members in reaching their career goals and create processes to get work done smoothly and efficiently, which is basically exactly what you just said. Interestingly, that middle bullet is the part you don't have to worry about anymore with agents. You don't have to worry about their career development and progress.…

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