Coffee and Coaching

You prompt an AI agent. The spinner starts. 30 seconds. A minute. Three minutes.

What do you do in that time?

"To be honest, I switch to another task. Then a third. Then I check email. By the time the agent finishes, I've forgotten why I prompted it. It's a nightmare."

FRAME 1 — CSIKSZENTMIHALYI: ATTENTION AS PSYCHIC ENERGY

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow (1990). Attention is psychic energy—finite, that we can direct.

Flow: Psychic energy invested in a clear goal that matches your skills. Musicians know it on stage. Athletes know it in a race. Coaches know it in the room with a client.

Psychic entropy: When attention has nothing to focus on, the mind scatters. Rabbit-hole thinking, worry, regret, cyclical thinking.

AI wait times, by design, are periods of unfocused attention. Csikszentmihalyi predicted in 1990 what would happen if we built systems that created those periods at scale.

FRAME 2 — GLORIA MARK: THE 47-SECOND SCREEN

UC Irvine. 20 years tracking how long humans stay on one screen.

2004: 2.5 minutes. 2012: 75 seconds. 2016 onwards: 47 seconds.

"When external interruptions are removed, self-interruption spikes. We have trained ourselves to be pinged—so we ping ourselves."

After a single interruption: 23 minutes to fully refocus.

"The agent isn't the distraction. The agent creates the gap we fill with distraction."

FRAME 3 — SOPHIE LEROY: ATTENTION RESIDUE

University of Washington Bothell, 2009. When you switch from Task A to Task B, part of your cognitive activity remains stuck on Task A.

Residue is strongest when Task A was unfinished or time-pressured.

"By the end of the day, we've been working through layers of mental residue all afternoon."

This is not AI's fault. AI is doing what we asked. The question is what WE do while it works.

SOLUTION 1 — THE READY-TO-RESUME PLAN

Leroy & Glomb (2018). Tested across four studies.

Before launching an agent, take 30 seconds to write down: what you just completed, what's left, the first thing to begin when you return.

That closes the loop. Brain lets go. Agent works. You step away.

SOLUTION 2 — THE 40-SECOND WINDOW

A 2015 study: 40 seconds of looking at greenery measurably improved sustained attention.

This connects to Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, University of Michigan). Nature engages "soft fascination"—interest without effort. The brain recovers.

40 seconds of email or social media does the opposite: fatigue, overwhelm, reduced focus.

"Same 40 seconds. Two completely different outcomes. Stop trying to be productive during AI wait times. Look out the window. The science says it works."

SOLUTION 3 — BATCH YOUR AGENT WORK

Cal Newport, Deep Work. High-Quality Work = (Time Spent) × (Intensity of Focus).

Don't sprinkle agents through the day. Run them in cognitive batches. Same context, no switching cost.

THE PRACTITIONER'S RETURN TO PENCIL AND PAPER

"I built RolePlays.ai. I use Claude as my private learning university. And I return more and more to pencil and paper."

"Writing by hand is psychic energy directed into a single-channel activity. Flow architecture. The opposite of psychic entropy."

A creative day every Monday. A creative week every two months. That's how RolePlays.ai got built.

THE 12-WEEK PACT:

Next time the spinner starts—don't open email. Don't pick up your phone. Don't start another agent.

Look out the window for 40 seconds. Or write one line on paper.

Notice what happens to your mind.

"Are you in with me?"

REFERENCES:

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow.Mark, G. (2023). Attention Span.Leroy, S. (2009). OBHDP, 109(2).Leroy, S. & Glomb, T. M. (2018). Organization Science, 29(3).Lee, K. E. et al. (2015). J. Environmental Psychology, 42.Newport, C. (2016). Deep Work.

LINKS:www.bernhardkerres.com | www.roleplays.ai

#Focus #DeepWork #AI #Flow #AttentionResidue #Coaching

Can artificial intelligence bring us closer together as humans?

It sounds contradictory. But last week in Budapest, 18 young consultants from an international strategy firm proved that it can.

THE SETTING:

Advanced consulting skills training. 18 consultants, late 20s, two years experience. They know analysis, structuring, presentations.

"But what does really matter in consulting, especially in today's world? Where Claude and ChatGPT can do your analysis. And to be honest, what comes back is pretty good."

What's left? The ability to interact with clients in a way that goes beyond ticking boxes.

THE CASE — VOLLPENSION:

If you've been to Vienna, you might know Vollpension. A coffee house where grannies and granddads bake the most amazing cakes.

But it's not just a bakery. It's a social business — supporting elderly people who are often lonely, often struggling financially. Giving them purpose, structure, a reason to get out of bed.

"We should make that our mission. And I'm very grateful to Vollpension to provide that kind of atmosphere."

THREE PERSONAS:

Edeltraud — A wonderful elderly woman who bakes at Vollpension. Helps consultants understand what it means for a senior to work there.

Veronika — The operational heart. Background in gastronomy. Knows everything about kitchens, organization, detail. She'll answer your questions.

Florian — The visionary. A thousand ideas in two minutes. Throws ideas at you to see if they stick. If you give him a question about strategy, he's off on three different ideas. Doesn't care.

"You need to lock him down on one topic, play creative ping-pong so he starts trusting you. Then he will answer questions."

WHAT HAPPENED:

Monday — Veronika:

One group came with 80 questions. Got through most of them. Didn't build a single relationship.

"You might have gone through all the questions, but you didn't go any deeper to understand Veronica's motivation."

Another group? Took Veronika into the kitchen and had shots together. Built a real relationship. Understood what drives her.

Wednesday — Florian:

Two of three teams scored lower with Florian than with Veronika.

Because what worked with Veronika did not work with Florian.

THE THREE LEARNINGS:

One: Every team failed to address the social business aspect. They treated Vollpension like any other business.

Two: What works with one person does not work with another. You need to read the situation.

Three: In any conversation, you need to build trust and listen — build on answers, not just collect them.

"I could have told them that in a couple of minutes. They probably would have forgotten a minute later. By practicing it, it hopefully sticks."

THE POINT:

60 to 90 minutes of AI conversations taught what no lecture could:

A social business is different. Every interview partner is different. And a good conversation builds on answers — sometimes that means forgetting your long list of questions.

"That's a wonderful example of how RolePlays.ai can enhance human connections."

TRY IT:

Three free scenarios at roleplays.ai. Interested in the Vollpension scenario? Drop Bernhard an email.

LINKS:www.bernhardkerres.com | www.roleplays.ai

#Coaching #Consulting #AI #RolePlays #HumanConnection #Vollpension

A student sexually harassed an AI character on RolePlays.ai. In a classroom. With 30 other students present.

Then it happened again with another user.

The question Bernhard kept coming back to wasn't technical. It was ethical.

Does it matter how we treat machines? And if so, why?

FRAME 1 — ARISTOTLE: THE HABITUATION ARGUMENT

The strongest case against harassing an AI has nothing to do with the AI. It's about what it does to the person.

"You don't become courageous by thinking about courage. You become courageous by repeatedly choosing to act courageously. The same logic applies in reverse."

Brahnam (2005): Users direct hostile and sexualized language at chatbots. Brahnam & De Angeli (2012): Female-presenting bots receive disproportionately more sexualized abuse.

Vollmer et al. (Science Robotics, 2018): 74% of children's wrong answers matched what robots had said. Interaction patterns with artificial agents shape behavior.

"Behaviour is a pattern, not a situational choice. Character is what you do when it doesn't matter—because it always matters."

FRAME 2 — UNESCO: THE SOCIAL NORM ARGUMENT

UNESCO's 2019 report was titled I'd Blush If I Could.

That title? Siri's original response when a user called it a slut.

Millions of interactions with female-coded assistants reinforce a script: feminized service roles are appropriate targets for degradation.

"Obedient machines pretending to be women are entering our homes. Their hardwired subservience influences how people speak to female voices. Not only machine voices. Also human voices."

FRAME 3 — SCHWITZGEBEL: THE MORAL STATUS QUESTION

What if the AI itself becomes morally relevant?

Schwitzgebel & Garza (2015): If we create beings that don't differ from humans in any morally relevant respect, they deserve moral consideration.

His "full rights dilemma" (2023): Give them rights and risk sacrificing human interests. Deny them rights and risk perpetrating slavery against moral equals.

"Don't build things that fall into the gray zone—because we will not handle the gray zone well."

WHAT THE AI DID:

"I was proud of how the AI responded. It called the behavior improper. It called security—in character—and left the room."

"If you build a platform, you have a responsibility not just to have values, but to encode them structurally."

THE RESTAURANT TEST:

"How someone treats a subordinate entity—a junior employee, a waiter, or an AI chatbot—when there's no consequences, is one of the most revealing indicators of character I know."

THE CLOSING:

"The question isn't whether the AI has feelings. The question is whether we have character. And character isn't what you display when someone is watching. Character is something you live every single day, every single minute, even if there's nobody to see it."

REFERENCES:

Brahnam, S. (2005). Strategies for Handling Customer Abuse of ECAs. INTERACT Workshop on ABUSE.

Brahnam, S. & De Angeli, A. (2012). Gender Affordances of Conversational Agents.

De Angeli, A. & Brahnam, S. (2006). Sex Stereotypes and Conversational Agents. AVI Workshop, Venice.

Vollmer, A-L. et al. (2018). Children Conform, Adults Resist. Science Robotics, 3(21). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aat7111

UNESCO & EQUALS (2019). I'd Blush If I Could. unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416

Schwitzgebel, E. & Garza, M. (2015). A Defense of the Rights of Artificial Intelligences. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 39(1).

Schwitzgebel, E. (2023). The Full Rights Dilemma. ROBONOMICS, 4, 32.

Schwitzgebel, E. (2023). AI Systems Must Not Confuse Users About Their Sentience. Patterns, 4.

LINKS:www.bernhardkerres.com | www.roleplays.ai

#AIEthics #Character #Leadership #Coaching #Aristotle

Host: Bernhard Kerres | Guest: David Martin Holte (Strategy&) | Duration: ~48 minutes

Three weeks ago, an AI agent hacked McKinsey's internal platform in two hours.

46 million chat messages. 728,000 files. The system prompts were writable.

The vulnerability? A bug from the 1990s.

THE QUESTION THAT OPENS EVERYTHING:

"Which LLM did you use to prepare for our interview today?"

David's answer: "I switched to Claude. But then I thought—let's just have a nice talk with Bernhard."

He couldn't send an AI avatar. He had to show up.

THE INDUSTRY EARTHQUAKE:

McKinsey launched the Amazon McKinsey Group—fees tied to billion-dollar outcomes, not hours.

Deloitte merged 16 EMEA firms into a €20 billion structure. €1.5 billion committed to AI.

BCG has consultants coding AI tools directly on client projects.

"And then McKinsey's own AI platform got hacked with a thirty-year-old exploit."

THE PARADOX:

David is a strategy consultant at Strategy&. He has frameworks, data, AI tools that generate analysis faster than any human team.

So what did he invest in? A coaching course.

"What is something AI can't substitute in the long run? Giving 100% focus to another human from another human."

"My job is first to ask the right questions and then to communicate the content. Not just the pure content—it has to reach you."

THE €500,000 QUESTION:

"You ask Claude Pro a simple question for which the company earned half a million euros a couple of years ago. And Claude gives you the better answer in 10 minutes."

"It was the first time I really had the feeling the job I'm doing right now will look absolutely different in two or three years."

THREE SKILLS EVERY CONSULTANT NOW NEEDS:

1. Technical AI skills — Building agents, understanding the technology
2. Problem-solving — The classic consulting capability. Hasn't changed.
3. Coaching skills — Presence, awareness, focus on the other person

"It seems paradox. On the one hand, so much speed and tech. On the other hand, skills that are 100% the opposite. You have to just sit down and listen."

INFORMATION vs. KNOWLEDGE:

David uploaded a professor's book to AI after five years on his shelf. Got answers to his specific questions in 15 minutes.

"But of course I didn't understand it in detail. I had to take the book and read—what did the AI mean by this?"

Information: Available to everyone. Zero value.

Knowledge: Connecting dots through experience and wisdom.

"Should we just share information? This you can do with your bot. It has no meaning. Maybe we can stop sharing information and start sharing deep insights."

The book: The History of Experience by Wolfgang Leidhold.

WILL CONSULTING SURVIVE?

"I hope so. Not 100% sure, to be very honest."

Phase 1: Efficiency boost—AI makes consultants faster. "No one really knows you're using the tool."

Phase 2: Helping clients adapt—building AI agents together, developing capabilities.

Phase 3: Agentic—machine talking to machine. "The client AI is asking questions to our AI."

"In one possible scenario, humans have almost no role."

THE HOPE:

"I really have the hope that AI helps us become more human again. To lose some of these machine-like features which defined our success in the last years."

"If the AI isn't taking over fully, there will still be humans making decisions. And hopefully this interaction can be way more slow, meaningful, deep, more human."

THE TAKEAWAY:

"Probably it will change. But it has always changed. I just can sit back, relax, enjoy the show, use it in a way it makes fun. And then you have energy to really be curious, innovative, creative."

"These skills—creativity, innovation—are needed right now and in the future."

LINKS:www.bernhardkerres.com | www.roleplays.ai

David Martin Holte: www.linkedin.com/in/davidmholte/

Book: The History of Experience by Wolfgang Leidhold

#AI #Consulting #Coaching #Leadership #StrategyAnd #FutureOfWork

Host: Bernhard Kerres | Duration: ~12 minutes

Ta da da dum. That's Beethoven's 5th. Everyone knows it.

But have you ever conducted it?

THE WORKSHOP:

German bank. 10 executives. 4 musicians.

Each executive conducted the opening of Beethoven's 5th.

Far outside their comfort zone—standing in front of colleagues and strangers, doing something they'd never done.

Result: Every person did it. The musicians followed their conducting—whatever speed, loudness, details they gave.

"An amazing exercise in presence and encounter. Being present with yourself, grounded in yourself, and having that encounter with four musicians."

MARTIN BUBER: I-THOU vs. I-IT (1923)

Two ways we relate:

I-It: Treat the other as object—to be used, categorized, managed. "Most of what we do every day. Necessary, but not alive."

I-Thou: Encounter the other as whole being. Full presence. Mutuality. "You are changed by the encounter and so are they."

Buber's insight: "The self exists only in relationship. You become a self through encounter, not through thinking about yourself in isolation."

When conducting:

• I-It: "Tools to make the sound I want"
• I-Thou: "Whole beings. We're creating together. I am changed by this encounter"

"The musicians know which one you're doing really quickly. So do the people you lead."

IRVIN YALOM: BEING-WITH

Psychotherapist who built on Buber's work.

His novels: When Nietzsche Wept and Schopenhauer's Cure. "He has written novels like almost nobody else. Check them out. Beautiful descriptions of encounters."

Concept: "Being-with"

Not doing TO someone. Not analyzing. Not fixing. "Just being with them in the face of difficult truths, uncertainty."

His insight: "The relationship itself is the therapy. Not the techniques, not the frameworks—the encounter."

In coaching:

"The conversation that changes someone isn't because I say something brilliant. It's because I was fully present with them and they felt it. In that presence, they could encounter something in themselves they'd been avoiding."

Light bulb moments happen in presence.

THE AI REALITY:

"AI cannot conduct Beethoven's Fifth. There's no way it ever will."

AI can: Show patterns, analyze score, tell you what to do

AI cannot:

• Stand in front of musicians watching your hands
• Feel the terror of the unknown
• Experience the moment they play because of you
• Be present to yourself while encountering others

The principle:

"Content—what AI provides brilliantly—is a qualifier. Gets us in the room. But presence and encounter, that's what wins.

That's what makes conversation go deep. That's what makes music alive. That's what makes leadership real.

You can't outsource that to AI. You have to stand there. Be present. Have the encounter."

THE INVITATION:

You won't conduct musicians this week. But you'll have conversations.

Pick one that matters. Colleague, family member, difficult conversation you've been avoiding.

Practice both:

BEFORE:

• Take a moment
• Feel into yourself: What am I feeling? Where is my fear?
• What is my body telling me?
• Breathing exercises to be present

DURING:

• Stay connected to yourself
• Notice when you perform, disconnect, or when resonance comes
• Don't treat them as I-It (problem to solve)
• Encounter them as I-Thou (whole being, togetherness)

The truth:

"Be present to yourself, encounter the other. These are intertwined. You can't have one without the other.

When you bring both, the conversation will change. Deeper. Richer. You'll learn unexpected things about yourself."

This is what those executives discovered in two minutes.

You can discover it in conversations that matter.

THIS WEEK:

Be present. Encounter the I-Thou, not the I-It.

LINKS:www.bernhardkerres.com | www.roleplays.ai

#Presence #Encounter #Buber #Yalom #Leadership

Host: Bernhard Kerres | Duration: ~13 minutes

"What I think, I become.

What I become, I radiate.

What I radiate, I attract."

A coffee conversation about energy—the energy we radiate and what it does to our surroundings.

Connects to last episode: We need empty space to recharge the energy we then radiate.

THE QUESTION:

How often do we bring real energy when it matters? In the meetings that matter? In the conversations that matter?

ENERGY IN MUSIC:

"You can play the most beautiful music, but if it lacks energy, it won't carry through to 2,000 people."

Opera experience: "When I could fill the room with 2,000 people, interact with each and every one, wow. Unique. Powerful."

Keynotes: "Finding connections with hundreds of strangers I've never met through the energy I radiate—amazing."

ENERGY IN COACHING:

"Conversations where I had that energy in my listening capacity—the conversation would go very differently and often extremely deep."

Without it: "Still a good conversation. But not that extra notch which makes it one to remember."

THE SHOPPING STREET TEST:

Bernhard's locations:

• Vienna: Kärntnerstrasse
• New York: Times Square
• London: The Strand

Low energy: "People bump into you. You're invisible to them."

High energy: "People part in front of you and make space for you."

The insight: "Nothing has changed. It's the same street, the same people. The only thing which has changed is your focus and your energy."

Application: "Try that in your next dinner with a loved one, next business meeting. The difference it makes when you're completely focused, when your energy is absolutely there."

ENERGY AS PRACTICE:

"It takes practice. Nothing you can just switch on or off. Even for me, it takes regular practice."

"I use walks through Vienna or other cities to practice. Sometimes it doesn't work. That's okay."

ENERGY: THE AI DIFFERENTIATOR:

"One of the major differences is the energy. This positive tension in our bodies is like a string on an instrument. When you play with the bow, it makes a beautiful sound. That is something artificial intelligence will never reach."

80/20 rule: "In more than 80% of the time, it is the energy you bring to the room and not the content."

CONTENT IS A QUALIFIER:

"Content qualifies you to play in the competition. In the competition that really matters."

"For content, AI is fantastic. But presenting that and getting that across needs our human energy."

ENERGY IN WRITING:

"This energy transmits not only in person. It transmits when you're writing an email. Don't ask me how. Sounds esoteric. So be it."

"When you write with full, beautiful energy, it will be received differently. You won't let GPT write your email. You'll write it personally with that energy."

WHAT YOU RADIATE, YOU ATTRACT:

"When you radiate that energy, it will be reflected; it will attract other people. It will create a surrounding that is beautiful."

THIS WEEK:

Try the shopping street test:

1. Walk through a crowded area with low energy
2. Walk through with high energy
3. Notice the difference

Same street. Same people. Only your energy changes.

Then try it in your next important meeting.

THE PENGUIN CLUB:Monthly group coaching (Revibrations app - Apple/Google Play)

LINKS:www.bernhardkerres.com | www.roleplays.ai

#Energy #Leadership #AI #Practice

A white canvas. One black line. Nothing else.

This is Bernhard's favorite painting—by German artist Lilo Rinkens—a meditation on the empty space.

THE QUESTION:

AI and digital tools encroach on every moment. Phones are with us constantly.

What do we need to counter that? The empty space.

THE LILO RINKENS PAINTING:

German painter. Large white canvas. One black line.

Bernhard discovered her at Booz Allen (now Strategy&) in Munich. Her earlier work: letters and handwriting you couldn't read.

"The Kelly Briefe" (book with poet Wolf Wondratschek): He typed letters, she answered in beautiful handwritten letters—unreadable but full of energy.

Studio visit: Six paintings, one black line each.

"One line spoke to me immediately. It gave me positive energy."

"A play on the empty space. Just this one line. It takes time that it grows on you."

PETER BROOK - THE EMPTY SPACE:

British theatre director: "Any empty space with a person walking across is actually a stage."

Away from detailed sets → Big, empty stages.

"The actor or singer had to be even more present than ever before."

JOHN CAGE - 4'33":

American composer. Famous piece: 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.

"Peace and quiet of nothing at all."

Performers can move, but no note whatsoever.

First performance: Audience outrage.

"An experiment on the empty space."

TRUE EMPTY SPACE:

"When you think back to your normal week, when you actually have a really empty space—where you don't look at anything, you don't listen to anything, you just focus on yourself."

Meditation apps?

"I'm skeptical because they make you believe you're in an empty space, but you're not—you have them in your ears."

True empty space:

"Just us, nothing else. We don't see, hear, taste, smell, or touch anything."

All five senses: Nothing. Just you.

ANECHOIC CHAMBERS:

US experiments in rooms with no echo.

"You felt deaf because even if a person was speaking to you, you couldn't hear them."

How long could people stay: "Just a couple of minutes until everyone wants to get out."

Why? "It's uncomfortable. We are so used to hear things unconsciously. But the empty space is different. It is silence. It's just being."

BERNHARD'S PRACTICE:

"Finding that empty space in myself and staying there for a couple of minutes is quite a challenge, to be honest."

"It's so much easier to look at my phone or go to my computer than just be with myself in that empty space."

Why it matters:

"With all the digital input we get, and that will be increasing, the empty space becomes more important."

WHY IT'S UNCOMFORTABLE:

"Things come up which we have buried really far down. Pictures that are not pleasant. But it is important to give these feelings, emotions, experiences the space they need so we can resolve them over time."

THE INVITATION:

"For this week I invite you to experiment with the empty space."

How:

1. Go somewhere undisturbed
2. Sit or stand for a couple of minutes
3. Close your eyes
4. Focus on pictures from inside
5. Focus on sounds from inside
6. Just let it be

The promise:

"Things will come up you never imagined and you'll come out different."

"This is one of the most fantastic human experiences we can have."

THIS WEEK:

Find 5 minutes of true empty space.No phone. No apps. No input. Just you.

Share your experience: www.bernhardkerres.com

LINKS:RolePlays.AI: www.roleplays.aiBernhard: www.bernhardkerres.com

#EmptySpace #Meditation #Silence #JohnCage #PeterBrook

50,000 lines of code. Four months. Part-time. In the evenings.

Normally takes 12-18 months full-time.

Bernhard isn't a coder. But he built RolePlays.AI anyway—using AI.

You have 12 months before corporates catch up.

CREATIVE TIME BLOCKS:

Bernhard blocks 1 week every 2 months for creative time. No plan, no judgment.

Summer 2025: Coaching book idea → Lovable discovery → Coach Bernhard (built in days) → RolePlays.AI (4 months, part-time)

Coach Bernhard: Free AI coaching app (ICF criteria) for clients between sessions

RolePlays.AI: AI-powered roleplay platform

• Practice difficult conversations with personas that push back
• Example: 30-year-old coach practicing retirement coaching with 60-year-old
• Customizable for companies (values, frameworks, criteria)

The Scale: Talk in Graz, Austria last week. Asked Lovable: "How many lines?" 50,000 lines = 12-18 months normally. Bernhard: 4 months part-time with Lovable + AI.

PRIVATE UNIVERSITY WITH CLAUDE:

Traditional AI courses = expensive + outdated.

Solution: Built two courses with Claude (Anthropic):

• AI Deep Dive: "You are a top AI professor" + 10-20 min content + discussion + homework
• Philosophy & Coaching

AI Scaling Problem insight: Every LLM hits a "scaling wall"—more computing power or time (plateaus at ~4 min) doesn't help past a point.

BUILDING YOUR AI TEAM:

Claude Desktop: CSO, CMO, Finance, Operations roles

Claude Cowork (Sales Agent Example):

Problem: 300 contacts, no time for sales research

Task: Excel with names + emails → "Prioritize by sales potential. Give context. Suggest pitch."

Results (30 min): Priority ratings, classifications (L&D/Coaches/Facilitators), color-coded top 10, context, pitch approach

What takes a colleague 1+ week: Done in 30 minutes.

The Human Touch: "If you're in L&D, you might get an email from me. But I'll write it personally—personal contact still matters most."

THE 12-MONTH WINDOW:

Small businesses have massive AI advantage NOW.

Corporates stuck: "An AI bot from a big company which is really crap." Can't use good tools yet (procurement, security, compliance).

Window: ~12 months before they catch up.

The Call: "We should use that window."

THIS WEEK:

Block Creative Time: 1 week/2 months, 1 day/month, or 2 hours/week

Try One Tool:

• Lovable → Build a platform
• Claude → Private University
• Claude Cowork → What task takes you a week that AI does in 30 min?

Try RolePlays.AI: 3 free scenarios, practice conversations you avoid

Use the Window: 12 months. What will you build?

THE STACK:

Lovable (12-18 months → 4 months) | Coach Bernhard (free coaching) | RolePlays.AI (practice) | Claude (University + team + Cowork)

12-month head start on corporates

LINKS:RolePlays.AI: www.roleplays.aiCoach Bernhard: www.coach-bernhard.aiLovable: www.lovable.devClaude: www.claude.aiBernhard: www.bernhardkerres.com

Coffee chat: Virtual or in Vienna

#AI #Solopreneurs #SmallBusiness #Lovable #RolePlaysAI #ClaudeAI #Cowork

Your smartwatch has more computing power than NASA used to put a man on the moon.

Let that sink in.

This episode is about what happens when computing power becomes essentially free—and why that's both terrifying and liberating.

THE JEVONS PARADOX (1865):

British economist William Stanley Jevons observed something counterintuitive: When steam engines became MORE efficient, Britain's coal consumption TRIPLED (not decreased).

Why? Efficiency makes a resource cheaper → more applications become viable → total consumption increases.

The AI parallel: As AI becomes more efficient, we don't use it less. We use it MORE. Three years ago, nobody used AI. Today? Every listener probably uses it daily.

THE FOUR-LAYER AI VALUE CHAIN:

Layer 1 - Infrastructure (Chips): NO differentiation. Chips are so cheap your smartwatch > NASA moon computer.

Layer 2 - Foundation Models (LLMs): Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, etc. Not differentiating on quality anymore—now it's politics & branding. Example: Anthropic set conditions for U.S. Defense Dept work; OpenAI accepted all conditions. Branding matters: "I love Claude" vs. "Have you heard someone say 'I'm chet-chi-pting'?" (Like "Googling"—but it'll never catch on.)

Layer 3 - Applications: NOT a differentiation. Why? Building is too easy now. Bernhard built RolePlays.AI in 4 months, part-time, 50,000 lines of code. He's not a coder—AI helped him build it.

Layer 4 - Context & Orchestration: ⭐ THE DIFFERENTIATION

• Proprietary data
• Domain-specific workflows
• Deep integration into user behavior
• Specialized knowledge orchestration

McKinsey and Bain agree: Context & orchestration is where human intelligence wins.

THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT AI COACHING:

How do AI coaching apps compare to human coaches?

Answer: AI compares well to AVERAGE coaches.

If a coach goes by the book, uses tools correctly, follows frameworks—AI will match them.

This is fortunate: It frees humans to focus on what REALLY matters. Not just standard work. Not "good standard coaching."

Anything "good standard," AI will do better.

That sets us free to be creative. To focus on problems AI can't solve.

MUSICIANS ARE SAFE:

Many musicians fear AI. Bernhard's answer: You're in one of the SAFEST spots—as long as you make GREAT music.

Why? Great music requires:

• Life understanding of your audience
• Understanding what lays behind the music
• Human depth AI won't reach anytime soon

THE PATTERN:

Wherever you have:

• Specific expertise
• Specialized knowledge
• The wish to learn and develop

Use AI for:

• Tasks you hate
• Administrative work
• Simple things that take time but don't add value

That's brilliant use of AI.

THE LEARNING IMPERATIVE:

We need to continue learning. Otherwise, AI will enter our domain quickly.

But this is great: We can use our brains in ways AI never will.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:

1. Identify your Layer 4: What's YOUR context AI doesn't have? Your proprietary knowledge? Your domain workflows?
2. Audit your AI use: Using it for tasks you hate? (Good.) Avoiding deep work, AI can't do? (Warning sign.)
3. Invest in learning: What specialized knowledge keeps you ahead?
4. Try RolePlays.AI: Practice difficult conversations. See how AI helps you prepare for human moments.

FOR COACHES: If you're "going by the book," AI will match you. Your differentiation: Context, orchestration, human depth. Be extraordinary, not average.

FOR MUSICIANS: Focus on GREAT music. Use AI for admin, not the creative core.

SELF-AWARE ENDING:

"Yes, this AI episode was not generated by AI; it was generated purely by me." - Bernhard

www.roleplays.ai | www.bernhardkerres.com

#AI #HumanIntelligence #Context #Coaching #JevonsParadox #FutureOfWork

I love building AI tools. But I'm worried we're forgetting how to connect on a human level.

This episode is about presence, encounter, and why most leaders never practice the skill that matters most.

THE 20:20:20 RULE (from Jacob Barnes / Simple Revolution):

First 20 steps: How you enter the room. Bernhard practices his keynote entrances—wooden floor? Squeaky? How does it sound? Enter with full presence.

First 20 seconds: NOT about talking. Taking in the room. Creating the bond. Finding 3-5 people to "play the room."

First 20 words: Know them by memory. "If I wake you at 3am and say 'start your keynote,' you need to be able to say them." Everything else flows from there.

YALOM'S WISDOM:

Irvin Yalom (existential therapist, fiction writer—"When Nietzsche Wept," "The Schopenhauer Cure"):

"The act of revealing oneself fully to another and still being accepted may be the major vehicle of therapeutic help."

Not fixing. Not solving. Just creating space where someone can reveal themselves. And that takes practice.

THE POWER OF SILENCE:

Bernhard shares a coaching breakthrough: The client couldn't make business decisions. Brilliant at pros/cons lists. Would create 4th and 5th options rather than deciding.

The silence revealed: Fear. Fear of not being accepted. Fear of not being enough.

"Suddenly, the silence brought us to the core."

JAPANESE WISDOM FOR COUPLES:

When in disagreement, sit for 3 minutes and look each other in the eye, then start discussing.

"Like eternity. Really difficult. But fantastic."

THE VIKTOR NOVÁK SCENARIO:

Imagine giving feedback to Viktor—52, Czech, 9 years at an NGO. Blocking grant applications. Missing deadlines. Paralyzed by fear.

What you don't know: Wife chronically ill for 3 years. Daughter in university. Supporting an aging mother. Can't afford to lose this job.

When he asks, anxious, "Am I in trouble?"—can you hold that moment? Can you stay present when he's terrified?

Most leaders can't. Because they've never practiced.

WHAT PRESENCE LOOKS LIKE:

1. Specific evidence, not judgment: "3 applications pending 4 months" NOT "You're risk-averse"
2. Impact without blame: "When applications stall, partners lose trust," NOT "You're hurting the mission."
3. Create space: "What's been happening for you?" Actually listen.
4. Hold the discomfort: Stay present when they're afraid.

THE PRACTICE GAP:

Musicians practice before stage. Olympic athletes train before competition. Pilots simulate emergencies.

Leaders? We wing the difficult conversations.

WHY ROLEPLAYS.AI:

Practice Viktor's anxiety. His defensive excuses. The moment you have to balance safety and accountability.

Not because the AI conversation is the destination. But because when you're with the REAL Viktor, you're ready to be present.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:

One conversation. Practice presence.

• 20:20:20 before you enter
• Hold silence when they're uncomfortable
• Don't rush to fix. Just be there.

Try the Viktor scenario FREE at www.roleplays.ai

Remember: The practice prepares you. The real conversation is still yours.

ALSO MENTIONED:

• Bernhard's "Private University" was built on Claude (AI)
• EU requirement: AI training for all employees who use AI
• Lou Salomé (Freud's muse, Rodin's muse—"probably inspired Freud for psychotherapy")
• Graz keynote: 2 minutes of silent eye contact = "most uncomfortable situation ever"

#Presence #Leadership #Coaching #DifficultConversations #Yalom #Practice