A dataset describes what has been. A person can do something that does not follow from their existing data. I often saw this in human resources: if you decide solely on the basis of a CV, you get only what has already been documented. Sometimes it takes someone who sees what a person could still become.
Direct link to this question: What does “You Are Not Your Data” mean?
Back to the book
Questions on my mind
On artificial intelligence, Viktor Frankl, authorship, and what we should keep doing for ourselves.
Yes. I began this book with that sentence. Not because the machine will take over the world tomorrow. My fear is quieter: that we will start making ourselves obsolete long before the machine tries. The question is not how we stop AI. It is: what are we happy to hand over to it, and what do we keep?
Direct link to this question: Are you afraid of artificial intelligence?The decisions that shape who I am. I am happy to delegate research. Exploring alternatives, too. But at some point I have to say: this is what I believe. This is what I stand for. The machine can give answers. It cannot take responsibility.
Direct link to this question: What would you not want to hand over to AI?About AI itself: nothing. He died in 1997. Turning him into an AI expert would be absurd. But he spent his life thinking about a question that is relevant again today: is a human being only what can be measured? His answer was no. Between an assessment and a decision, a gap remains. That is where freedom begins.
Direct link to this question: Why Viktor Frankl? What can he tell us about AI?Yes, AI was involved in the wording. I do not want to downplay that. My thoughts, experiences and earlier texts formed the basis. I selected, rejected, rearranged and ultimately decided what I was willing to put my name to. That is what authorship means to me.
Direct link to this question: Did AI write this book?Because composure does not mean having no fear. Frankl was afraid of heights and went climbing. To me, composure means taking my fear with me and acting anyway. Not reassurance, but firm ground beneath my feet.
Direct link to this question: Why should this book help us feel more at ease?“The question is not what AI cannot do yet. The question is what we do not want to hand over to it.”
Explore further
Human beings & AI
Material gets replaced. People do not. If my work consists only of finding and summarising information, AI will take that over. It does not follow that human beings become worth less. Perhaps we have confused our worth with our performance for too long.
Direct link to this question: Will AI replace human beings?A great deal. Search faster, remember better, put into words in seconds what takes me hours. That is the first wing. But finding is not choosing. Choosing is not putting something into practice. And putting something into practice is not taking responsibility. Nobody flies with one wing.
Direct link to this question: What can AI do better than we can?We train our bodies even though cars exist. Why not train our thinking, too, when machines do more and more for us? A thinking space can be small: an hour without autocomplete. Answering a question ourselves first. Putting up with boredom. Not because the machine could not do it better. But because I want to remain able to do it myself.
Direct link to this question: What are “thinking spaces”?The book & Viktor Frankl
Not giving yourself up. Rather, for a moment, I am not occupied with how I come across. Something else calls on me: a task, another person. Frankl says fulfilment does not arise when we pursue it. It comes as a side effect of devotion.
Direct link to this question: What do you mean by self-forgetfulness?How this book came into being
If being an author means typing every sentence on your own, then this book came into being differently from my first. To me, authorship also lies in where a book comes from. The experiences are mine. The outlook is mine. I think it is more honest to disclose that than to pretend there was no help.
Direct link to this question: Are you still the author, then?Sometimes, yes. And that is precisely the experiment. Of course a tool changes my thinking when it presents me with a finished draft. AI shortened the writing to seven days. The thinking behind it took not seven days, but decades. One of those things will become very cheap. The other will not.
Direct link to this question: Did AI not do the thinking for you?If those seven days were the whole story: too fast. But they are not. My first book took years. The material, the engagement with Frankl and leadership, was already there. AI gave it a new form very quickly. I find that fascinating, and unsettling.
Direct link to this question: Why seven days?Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz & me
No. I advise Red Bull and Mark Mateschitz. On this website, in my books and in interviews, I speak only for myself, from my personal experience. I do not comment on current internal matters or make official statements on behalf of the company.
Direct link to this question: Do you speak for Red Bull?A major one. I joined Red Bull in 1995 and stayed for almost three decades. Dietrich Mateschitz shaped my working life more than anyone else. There I saw what trust can make possible. That responsibility is not the same as control. This is not a Red Bull book. But without those years, I would not have written it in this way.
Direct link to this question: What role does Red Bull play in your thinking?I do not know. And I do not want to put an opinion into his mouth. I knew him as someone who was very curious about new possibilities, and who placed an unusual amount of trust in people. The development of young people mattered to him. He was deeply committed to it, particularly through sport. I think he would have liked the idea of thinking spaces, by analogy with sports grounds. I would not presume to speak for him beyond that.
Direct link to this question: What would Dietrich Mateschitz say about AI today?