AI Corporate Stall

Apple recently said AI might replace the iPhone in 10 years. That's a fucking statement. It speaks to something I've been noticing more and more in conversations with founders and execs: a creeping paralysis disguised as prudence.

Pull up the classic trope of the indecisive CEO—the one who won't make a call because, hey, making a decision means owning the consequences. Enter our fresh new excuse. Enter Godzilla AI: this looming, transformational force that could upend everything... someday...maybe...or maybe not...I don't fucking know. So why decide anything now? Why commit to a direction if AI might render it obsolete?

That logic becomes the perfect corporate justification for inaction: "We're waiting to see how AI plays out." "We're monitoring developments." No, you're afraid. And you've found a socially acceptable monster to hide behind. "The inflationary economy" being a damn good excuse for across-the-board price increases a few years ago comes to mind. It's not my fault! It's points to external monster.

Yes, the pace of change is insane right now. Yes, things will break. But that doesn't get you out of the responsibility to act.

The Cynefin Framework is helpful here. When you're in a novel problem space—when you literally don't know what's going to happen—you don't analyze your way to clarity. You act. You sense what's working. You respond to feedback. It's messy. It's nonlinear. And it's the only way through.

So yeah, you're going to make some wrong calls. But stalling will not save you. It will just ensure your irrelevance.

Make a fucking decision.