AI Advisors, Agency Behaviours, and Social-media induced 'Shortness of Life'
Edition #39
This post could be a long read. As I found quite a few interesting reads in the last 1 month or so. I also took a holiday to Kerala, India and I was glad to take some good pictures there. Without too much intro, I’d like to dive straight into some of the best articles I read in recent times.
The Rise of Virtual Personal Board of Directors (advisors) using GenAI
In this thought-provoking piece by MIT-Sloan (register to read), CTO and Chief Product Offer reimagines the traditional "personal board of directors" by leveraging generative AI to create a virtual council of legendary leaders, strategists, and creative thinkers. Instead of relying solely on real mentors—whose wisdom is often bound by time, geography, and human limits—executives can now simulate on-demand advice from icons like Buddha, Steve Jobs, Oprah, and Sun Tzu using persona modeling in tools like ChatGPT. These AI-powered advisers provide diverse perspectives across strategy, innovation, ethics, and storytelling, delivering candid, scalable guidance without ego or schedule constraints. The result is a hybrid “MVP Board”: virtual thinkers complementing real-life peers to challenge assumptions, spark creativity, and deepen decision-making. The article illustrates how such a board broadened the author's thinking on a complex business dilemma, ultimately leading to richer insights.
The key takeaway: blending AI and human counsel offers leaders a richer, more adaptive support system—one that democratizes access to world-class insight and prepares leaders for an unpredictable world. If you are keen to explore a virtual board of your own, check out the article and keep the guidance (best practices) in mind. I found the idea and it’s application very intelligent and perhaps it is now the path to a smarter and more reflective leadership.
High Agency vs. Low Agency Behaviours
One of the emails I received from Maven had an interesting post on our attitude and behaviour towards situations, tasks, and challenges shape our mindset and sow the seeds for success. The author of this post - Satish Mummareddy - shares a neat framework which captures them into high agency behaviours and low agency behaviours. Here is a visual summary of what the behaviours look like.
The author is hosting a free webinar on this topic on August 22nd, 2025. Check it out.
You are still you… when everything changes
This fantastic post begins with a wise truth:
“Sometimes, life presses pause on the things we thought defined us.”
I have been grappling with some career related challenges off-late. And I know that I am not alone. There are so many people who are dealing with far more complicated difficulties than I am. There are a few, who I personally know, are trying to juggle few things while still facing some career adversities. And it isn’t easy - to stick the neck out and try to keep everything afloat in a storm.
In between all the madness, this post came across as a gentle reminder on still having that perspective.
“It’s tempting to measure our value by what we do, how much we earn, or how many people notice us. However, those things can shift in an instant, often for reasons beyond our control. And when they do, it can feel like you're free-falling into the abyss. But the truth is the most important parts of you—the way you notice the world, the questions you ask, the small choices you make—are still yours”.
We tend to get carried away by the monkey chatter in our mind. But it is posts like these, which bring us back to the center.
How Social Media Shortens Your Life
A very good post that makes a strong argument about social media impacting our perception of time and mortality. Social media doesn't just consume your time—it actively warps how you experience it, effectively shortening your remembered and lived life:
Mechanisms of Time Theft:
Social media platforms are engineered—like casinos—to keep you engaged, disoriented, and unaware of how much time passes.
Features like infinite scroll and autoplay are “curvilinear mazes”—they remove natural pauses (“right angles”) that would snap you out of passive consumption.
Push notifications and unrelated links further fragment your attention and make it harder to form lasting memories.
The feed is not a story; it’s a jumble. This erodes your sense of narrative—the very thing that gives life continuity and meaning.
Effects on Life and Mind:
Time spent on social media is underestimated in the moment and almost forgotten after.
Both awareness and memory (short and long-term) are weakened, making days blur and meaning leak away.
Fragmented attention leads to anxiety, disrupted sleep, faster aging, and a sense that life slips away unnoticed.
Antidotes & Solutions:
Seek novelty and story—choose experiences you’ll remember, like adventures and books.
Practice mindfulness and focus on the emotional texture of your life.
Live deliberately, not on autopilot; make intentional choices and break routines.
Use reminders of your mortality (memento mori) to stay aware of time’s value and the need to savour each moment.
The author’s closing takeaway:
To expand your life, fill it with right-angle turns—moments of novelty, story, and genuine emotion—rather than passively drifting through the curvilinear maze of endless feeds and distractions. Living long is about making both the days in your life and the life in your days count.
Pictures from Kumarakom, Kerala, India
