🗝️ Doom is having a moment
"Pessimists sound smart. Optimists make money." — Nat Friedman
🔑 This issue at a glance (2-second summary)
Bad news spreads faster than good news. Use that to your advantage, but also filter your inputs.
A tale of two attitudes toward innovation
Last week I spoke to a group of high-net-worth investors about AI for freedom. The host opened with a line I loved: "If you aren't using your money to generate freedom, what are you doing?"
For two hours, that room leaned in. They enthusiastically asked how to build AI teams. How to secure them. How to use AI for health, investment analysis, vacation planning, and more. Optimists, every one of them.
This made me think back to a few weeks ago, when I experienced the opposite. I was picking my daughter up from a summer program, and one of the other dads asked about my Meta glasses. The conversation revealed that I teach AI and automation. Then he proceeded to unload on me about how he hates AI. He turns it off wherever he sees it. He said it ruins the environment, replaces jobs, and that people won't think for themselves anymore. Doom, doom, doom. Blah, blah, blah.
I shrugged and said, "Whoever invented the ship also invented the shipwreck" (a quote I borrowed from French philosopher Paul Virilio).
Whoever invented the plane also invented the plane crash.
Whoever invented the car also invented car crashes...
But did we go back to horses and buggies? No.
Every advancement in tech carries both good and bad outcomes. Over time, advancements reduce the bad parts.
I keep noticing something: the most successful people approach new tech with an attitude of curiosity and optimism.
The least successful people approach it with pessimism and hate.
Doom is having a moment. Marvel knows it. Robert Downey Jr. is playing Dr. Doom in the next Avengers movie.
The media knows it too. That's why the past few weeks of AI headlines read like this:
"OpenAI says its AI went rogue and launched 'unprecedented' cyber attack"
"OpenAI loses control of its models"
"Congress introduces the AI Kill Switch Act"
What the headlines skip: the "rogue" models were in a controlled security test. OpenAI disclosed it themselves. They paused the model that crossed their own threshold. The system worked.
"Company follows its own safety protocol" doesn't sell. Doom sells.
Winners take action
Every notification on your phone is someone else deciding what deserves your attention. Turn off all notifications that are not urgently family or business-related. If the news matters, it will find you.
Then replace the noise with a signal. You don't need all the news; you need the news that matters. Stop giving your attention to other people's fears (unless you are going to use it strategically...see below).
The tools you need
Problem: Most of your feed is a distraction and has nothing to do with your business or productivity.
System: Have your AI agent filter your news to what's relevant, daily.
Try this prompt in your main AI assistant (10 minutes):
"Create a recurring task that runs daily at 8 AM. Search the web for news from the past 24 hours about: (1) my industry [name it], (2) issues my ideal customer is facing [ ask me to describe my ICP if you don't know it already], or (3) my investments [list them]. Give me only stories with a practical impact for me, each with one line on why it matters and one suggested strategic action play for me. If nothing meets that bar, just say: Nothing worth your attention today."
This week on the pod
This week on King Moves -- Why Bad News Wins (and What You Can Do About It) | Ep. 144 -- Justin and I get into lab-grown diamonds, De Beers pausing their biggest mine, why pessimism sounds smarter, and why the most interesting people in any room are the curious ones, not the cynical ones.
Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money and The Art of Spending Money, came up on this pod, and later in that room of wealthy investors too.
Bad things happen fast. Good things happen slow.
A crash is a moment. Compounding is a decade.
Tune in to hear how all of this pertains to you.
Stop playing life on hard mode. Automate your success.
Until next week,
Ethan King
A.I. Automation for Business Growth
Keynote Speaker | Author | CEO | Strategist
P.S. TOMORROW: The Agentic Advantage: How to Build Autonomous AI That Works While You Sleep. 90 minutes live on Zoom, where I walk you through The 6 Levels of AI Autonomy and teach you how to build agents. This is a practical masterclass for business owners ready to move beyond chatbots. Hosted by Basic Bananas.
Monday, August 17, 8:00pm PT (Tuesday the 18th, 10:00am AEST for my Australia crew). The replay is included if you can't make it live. Grab your seat here.
P.P.S. Speaking of Dr. Doom, I'm a huge Marvel fan so I'm stoked about the new Avengers Doomsday trailer that dropped this week. Did you see it?
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