Sense & Signal: Leading Through Sensemaking

Hosted by Daniel Tarker and Jodah Jensen

Business Management

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Jan 2024

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About the show

Tne Sense &; Signal: Leading Through Sensemaking Podcast is hosted by Jodah Jensen and Daniel Tarker. The show explores contemporary issues in organizational leadership through the sense of sensemaking. Find out more at http://Danieltarker.com https://tarker.substack.com

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January 15, 202439 min

The Metacrisis, John Steinbeck, & Non-Teleological Thinking

In this episode of the Sense & Signal Leadership & Sensemaking podcast, co-host Dan Tarker delves into how non-teleological thinking can help leaders navigate the metacrisis. He spends time defining what the meta crisis is, investigating the concept of moloch as defined in the Bible and Allen Ginsburg's poem Howl, and how these concepts inform our response to global crises like the war between Israel and Hamas. He then provides a history of John Steinbeck and Ed Rickett's trip on the Western Flyer that resulted in the book "The Log From the Sea of Cortez" and the 14th chapter where they present their ideas on non-teleological thinking. After defining non-teleological thinking, he connects it back to the metacrisis and complexity theory to begin to lay a foundation for non-teleological thinking as a sense making tool in our complex times.

January 1, 202423 min

UW Chancellor Fired for Pornographic Side Hustle

Joe Gow has been fired as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse after the Board of Regents learned that he and his wife Carmen Wilson had been publishing pornographic content on OnlyFans and PornHub. In this micro episode of the Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking podcast, Dan recaps the Joe Gow pornography scandal, discusses other scandals Joe Gow and his wife Carmen Wilson have been involved with, considers the role of a college chancellor in the board of regents decision to fire him, explores issues around freedom of speech especially in regards to matters of public concern, and fumes about how much time this enterprise must have taken Joe Gow to work on. He also provides a brief review of Joe Gow and Carmen Wilson’s cringy cooking with porn stars YouTube show.

November 27, 202332 min

Fallen Binance Founder CZ's Leadership Advice

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is going to jail and his cryptocurrency exchange - the largest in the world - is paying 4 billion dollars in fines to the US Justice Department. I’m this episode of the Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking podcast, Dan explores what leadership lessons we can learn from Changpeng Zhao’s Icarus like fall. Dan reviews the charges against Changpeng Zhao and Binance, assesses Changpeng Zhao’s personality through a dark quadrad lens, and reviews some of the leadership approaches Changpeng Zhao shared on various Binance blog posts. Some of the Binance founders recommendations include keeping meetings short, publicly criticizing employees, shuffling teams at work, not praising employees, and acting ethically - and the irony of the last one isn’t lost. Dan also reviews some of the criminal activities Changpeng Zhao and other Binance management knew was taking place on the Binance exchange including money laundering for criminal and terrorist organizations, dark web transactions, transferring profits from ransomware attacks, and letting individuals and states under US sanctions transfer money. Ultimately, we find ourselves facing a complicated leader in Changpeng Zhao or CZ. Some of his leadership principles were effective in growing the Binance platform into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. But Changpeng Zhao clearly should have listened to his own leadership advice on ethics.

November 27, 202324 min

Influence Leadership in the Age of AI

What is influence leadership and how can leaders use influence to move their teams forward? Is there something we can learn from leader influencers like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Bill Gates, and Sam Bankman-Fried? In this micro episode of the Sense & Signal leadership & Sensemaking podcast, Jodah and Dan delve into the definition of influence, discuss how leaders can develop influence by building relationships and trust, explore why knowing your audience is important when trying to influence people, touch on the importance of influence in this age of artificial intelligence and distributed organizations, and consider the importance of emotions when influencing others. They also discuss Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure to distinguish between Machavellian type influence versus Lao Tzu’s more invisible influence leadership approach. Finally, they touch on the emergence of social media influencers / organizational leaders such as Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Sam Bankman-Fried.

November 25, 202316 min

Sam Altman Re-Hired at Open AI. Are We Doomed?

Sam Altman has been re-hired at Open AI after a Succession level coup attempt by the nonprofit Open AI board. In this micro podcast of the Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking podcast, Dan and Jodah discuss the implications of this soap opera unfolding at Open AI. What does it mean for the future of artificial intelligence that Sam Altman was restored as CEO of Open AI? What is the future of the nonprofit Open AI board? Is Sam Altman now unstoppable? And what does it signal that Larry Sommers was appointed to the Open AI board? They ultimately determine the future of AI foundation models like ChatGPT will be unchecked without government regulation which will likely post a risk to many jobs and our future economic stability.

November 20, 202329 min

The Fog of Firing -Sam Altman Fired: Tensions at Open AI

In this micro episode of the Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking podcast, Jodah and Dan explore the sudden firing of Sam Altman from Open AI, the organization that brought the world ChatGPT. While Dan cheers this move by Open AI, Jodah wants to dig deeper. They discuss two fundamental tensions that may have led to Sam Altman’s firing from Open AI. The first is the governance structure of Open AI. Is it sustainable for them to try to be a mission driven nonprofit and a for profit tech company at the same time? And how will they reconcile the tension between people who want to accelerate getting artificial intelligence products like ChatGPT to the public versus those like Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati who are on the cautious and safety side of the debate. They also discuss whether Open AI’s board may be spooked by a sudden advancement in artificial intelligence, Open AI’s recent Dev Day event as an inflection point, and a possible deal with the Chinese to develop a new AI chip as possible causal factors for Sam Altman’s firing by the Open AI board.

November 20, 202316 min

Fears About AI Revealed. ChatGPT and Manufactured Viruses

Last week the Biden adm8nistration released an Executive Order addressing the safety, security, and trustworthiness of artificial intelligence. In this Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking micro podcast, Dan takes a dive into this executive order on artificial intelligence - especially where the administration fears danger. He discussed the section on dual use foundation models like ChatGPT, cybersecurity, AI model weights, and threats of AI models like ChatGPT being used for bio-terrorism if their weights are released. He also looks at some research on spicy AI models that provided people with the ingredients to recreate the Spanish influenza virus. He also weighs whether our fears of artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT are justified or not. Briefing on the Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence Safety: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/ Weighs, dual use, and biological weapons https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZuzK2s4JsJcexBJxy/will-releasing-the-weights-of-large-language-models-grant

November 15, 202316 min

LinkedIn Drama - Servant Leadership

Dan explores LinkedIn Drama on this Sense& Signal micro podcast. Is servant leadership lazy or micromanage - or neither?

November 15, 202314 min

Who is to blame for Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX scandal?

Who is to blame for Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto crimes? Is he to blame? Is it the system? God? His parents? The spaghetti monster? Dan begins to unpack this question in this Sense & Signal micro cast. He discusses the essay Sam Bankman—Fried’s mother Barbara Fried wrote on blame and moral responsibility in the Boston Review, the concept of hard determinism versus libertarian free will in terms of the Sam Bankman-Fried case, interrogates Barbara Fried’s position that there can be no blame if there is no free will, shares dissenting comments about Barbara Fried’s stance on determinism and free will from Princeton philosophy professor Gideon Rosen, and reflects on the literary level of irony of this article in light of the criminal charges Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents face. Barbara Fried’s article on blame and free will: https://www.bostonreviewu.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blame-moral-responsibility-philosophy-law

November 11, 202315 min

What Are the Ethics of the Beatles Song "Now & Then"?

In this segment of the Sense & Signal podcast, Dam reflects on the new and possible last Beatles song “Now & Then” and the ethical issues around AI and dead artists. What are the ethical implications of using AI to create new art from the work of dead artists like John Lennon and George Harrison. There is a reflection on the impact the Beatles had on our culture, their history of innovation, the deaths on John Lennon and George Harrison, the process of creating this new song “Now and Then”, the creativity and leadership lessons learned from Peter Jackson’s documentary on the Beatles “Get Back”, and the artistic merit of the song “Now and Then.”