EP280 Faster Than a Generation - Ian Alden Russell on Change That Outruns Us

This episode skips the tools, the prompts, and the latest model release. It goes somewhere more philosophical.

Ian Alden Russell started out as an archaeologist and anthropologist. He was the kid who loved museums and Indiana Jones. Since then he has worked across history, contemporary art and culture in Dublin, Istanbul, Beijing, Hong Kong, Pittsburgh and Doha. Now he works as a strategist helping organizations make sense of complexity and line up around change.

His starting point is that change itself is old news. Humanity has absorbed huge technological shifts again and again. The new part is the speed. Transformations that used to take generations now happen inside a single career, so the people living through them have less shared ground than any generation before.

From there, host Susan Diaz and Ian cover why the big AI companies benefit from us picturing one all-powerful AI and why Ian expects the opposite. They talk about what email revealed about how we communicate, and why he thinks every skeptic in a room is right about something. Ian also explains why turning copywriters into editors is a promotion, and why freed-up time doesn't come with the skills to use it.

They finish with an argument for putting your C-suite and your dev team in the same room to talk about the stories they grew up on.

About Ian Alden Russell Ian Alden Russell is a strategist working at the intersection of culture, commerce, technology and leadership. He helps organizations make sense of complexity and line up around change. He trained as an archaeologist and anthropologist and holds a PhD in history from Trinity College Dublin. He has led galleries and cultural programs at Brown University, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, K11 in Beijing and Koç University in Istanbul. He is currently writing about how cultural differences will shape AI regulation and business frameworks around the world.

What we get into (01:15) From archaeology and Indiana Jones to strategy work

(02:50) Why the US, Europe and China will build very different relationships with AI

(04:21) Tangible and intangible culture, and why the same tool serves different purposes in different places

(06:25) Why the tech giants benefit from us picturing one all-powerful AI

(07:30) The 16-year-old who builds their own model in their spare time

(09:54) What email revealed about how we communicate