Leadership End Of Week Reflections

The Real Competitive Advantage: Leaders Who Actually Think

Looking at my LinkedIn feed over the last weeks, I realised how shallow the landscape has become. No offence, but most of it is “evergreen sludge”. People are unlearning how to be original. That’s a symptom of something deeper: our professional society is less and less willing to actually put in the time to master things.

AI plays a role here. But it’s not AI that is harming us; we do that ourselves.

In tech leadership, we already know that strong discipline and real practice, like we learned from Extreme Programming or Continuous Delivery, create a good harmony with AI agents. For well-developed individuals, AI becomes a natural extension of their capabilities.

But what about the people who are supposed to develop into those individuals?

Most of them don’t use AI to deepen understanding. They use it to shortcut. And not even a hard shortcut – a low-effort one.

What is more important to you?

1. Being able to create a lot of output?

2. Or understanding the underlying foundations?

Point 1 is delivery. We think we will become successful as tech leads, fractional CxOs, or coaches simply by pushing out more “stuff”. But in reality, companies are looking for people who understand things in a way that allows them to take ownership and responsibility maturely. People worth hiring, worth trusting, worth following.

What I see instead:

• More people are posting and commenting

• Shallow posts clearly generated or padded by AI

• Comments that are just summarised versions of your own content

And at the same time, I see fewer people actually becoming visible as originals.

• Fewer real speakers evolving

• Fewer deep interviews or conversations between professionals

• Fewer people are digging seriously into complex matters

Everything gets thinner. And it feels like a downward spiral.

Why?

Because the tension of things like the LinkedIn algorithm is unusually high right now.

• Far more people are posting because of AI

• Far more AI slop is flooding the feed

• Real creators burn out because they can’t sustain that pace for the tiny bits of attention they get in return.

Our current digital society doesn’t value real human work the way it used to. The incentives are misaligned.

So what can we do?

First, let’s be clear: AI does not fix your actual problems. It doesn’t build your character, your focus, or your courage. You still need to become a better person every day, more skilled, and your habits still need to be actively shaped. That part hasn’t changed in thousands of years.

What has changed is this: real interaction on social media is becoming less meaningful.

So shift your focus.

Focus on your real connections; your peers; the people you are building with. If you don’t have them yet, go and find them – people you can genuinely collaborate with, not just exchange likes with. Do not forget that you are human and that the path to becoming a better version of yourself has been the same for a very long time.

We need to challenge ourselves in the presence of others. Then we need to reflect on that and decide what to improve. Most of the advice you get on social media is not optimised for your growth; it’s optimised for reach and impressions. That’s the game. That’s fine. But don’t confuse it with real help.

You are still responsible for becoming the better version of yourself. And there is less and less “free” high-quality help out there in the noise.

One practical step I recommend:

Start journaling.

Write about who you were yesterday, who you want to be today, and what you want to commit to. Take back control over the only thing you truly own: your mind. A trained mind leads to an intentional life and will help you find the right people and companies to work with.

But it starts with you.

Doom-scrolling won’t save you. You’re watching a landscape of people silently crying for help while trying not to drown in a sea of shallow posts.

Aim to thrive again. Find and follow your own purpose.

—Adrian

Recommended Reads

Today I want to recommend taking a look at two new publications that I really like. Colin Gautrey, Victoria (@corporatejungle) & I am Full of Shit (@claudiamesegue) made me think a lot this week. Thanks for that ❤️🙏

I recommend subscribing if you are looking to become a better leader.

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