I didn’t write much on LinkedIn in the past week due to many IRL adventures, so I’ll kick off with the Sunday essay first about wrestling with AI and yourself.
Photo of the week
June 29 2026, Bishan, Singapore
Sunday Essay
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I like this quote a lot, and you don’t need to possess a first-rate intelligence to hold contradictory views. I mean, if I were a Megamind, I’d be building space rockets instead of writing this newsletter…
Anyway, back to contradictions: I believe in the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, but I also believe that the world was made in six days, then God rested on the seventh day. I have no qualms in saying this in public, even though I know that there will be people who will mentally recoil and think I’m either crazy or stupid.
Life is full of puzzling contradictions and mysteries. You may also be shocked to know that I believe in the existence of ghosts and demons, and only because I’ve experienced them when growing up next to a Chinese temple and experiencing impossible things with my senses. (That’s a story for another day.)
Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it isn’t true. And now we have the new mystery of AI Disruption and there is much hand-wringing around it because there are so many inherent contradictions.
As I tell school teachers in my workshops: “Isn’t it strange that we are asked to embrace a technology that can make our students think less?” They always nod in agreement when they hear this from a Gen AI coach. I too, partake in their suffering of grading student assignments for many hours. In such workshops, I often spend an hour discussing the contradictions in using AI for teaching before we actually do any hands-on AI exercises.
To deal with the rapid advancement of AI and how it is permeating our lives, we need to wrestle with AI and ourselves.
In every workshop, I like to bring participants through the earlier iterations of AI such as machine learning and deep learning, and show them how they have already disrupted our world. For example, the auto-tagging of photos when you upload them to Google Photos or iCloud has already eliminated your concept of user privacy. Google knows your behaviour better than you do, all from your online browsing and shopping actions over the years. You probably don’t know this unless you are in digital marketing but it’s been happening for a long while.
Generative AI is the most disruptive change because it shines a harsh light on our human abilities and thinking processes. Gen AI generates output in a probabilistic manner, guessing each word or pixel based on the data it can access. But do humans not guess at what to say in every scenario, based on the data in our heads? How do
you come up with the next sentence you are about to say to someone?
While AI has no feelings or morals, its ability to produce words and content is not really different from how our brains work. This should cause us to reflect on how we think and behave, and what should we do with our minds instead.
Long before Gen AI appeared, ATMs removed many bank tellers from their jobs. I always felt sorry for the bank tellers, because they looked so stressed counting the bills. It was a job better left to machines. And today, self-checkout machines have replaced many supermarket cashiers. How did you feel about those workers when they were replaced by machines? Now, what if you were in their shoes, will people think about you every time they scan their purchases?
These days, you will hear that warnings about job losses from AI are just doom mongering by AI influencers or AI companies. I beg to differ. Just because you haven’t done coding with AI doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. Just because you haven’t generated a Word document with proper tables and charts with AI, doesn’t mean that it cannot be done. If bank tellers can be replaced by machines with 20th century algorithms, what about office workers when we have 21st century AI? You may not believe the headlines or my ramblings, but you can go read reddit posts about people who have been replaced by AI.
Ask yourself – are you wrestling with AI? Not in terms of trying to wrangle perfect output from it, but coming to terms with the nature of the Alien Intelligence that keeps learning from us and improving at rapid speed. What does using AI tell you about yourself, your capabilities, and your value in your workplace? Is it possible to see it both as an augmentation tool and an existential threat?
And therein lies the dual nature of all human-made technologies – whether it is a knife, a book, a computer, or software. They can be used in extreme ways, for good or evil, and it is all about who wields them. Do you see a knife as a weapon or a kitchen tool? Why not both? And how will you use the knife for your needs?
I’ve been saying this to many people I meet: We all need to develop our own philosophy about AI. There is no right or wrong stance to take, but you need to understand it wholly, wrestle with it, and in the process, wrestle with yourself.
Weekly recap
A quiet indicator that someone has used AI to generate his LinkedIn post.
I was on MoneyFM 89.3 radio to talk about how Gen AI is being used in political campaigning, namely the ongoing Johor elections.
I have completed my masters degree! I also have at least 8888 followers!
We completed the latest run of the ST Masterclasses this week. Here’s a tweaked photo from the Fundamentals class.
If you’re a guy and you’re balding, just cut your hair off lah.