Money Lessons with Andrew Temte, PhD, CFA

AI, AI, AI. Everyone’s talking about the challenges and opportunities that individuals, corporations, institutions, and governments face as artificial intelligence tools gain prominence in our daily lives. I’m amused by the shock and dismay that surrounds the debate in many circles—as if the rise of the efficacy of tools like ChatGPT 4, Bard, Bing, Chatsonic, etc., just arrived on the scene out of left field. We either knew or should have known that continued reductions in the incremental cost of computing, coupled with advances in natural language processing (NLP) experiments would yield offspring such as the large language models (LLM) we see today.

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I get asked periodically how companies will maintain and grow healthy corporate cultures in an environment of hybrid and/or fully remote work. The argument goes something like this: If my people aren’t together everyday, how can culture thrive? Sometimes, this question is a mask for unspoken undertones like damnit, I’m paying for this physical office space, I want it full of busy humans, or I don’t trust that the work is getting done if I can’t see it happening in front of me.

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Today, we’re talking about one of the most important questions we must ask ourselves. That question is: Am I Adding Value? Am I adding value at work? Am I adding value to my friend group? Family unit? The board I’m a member of?

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I love puzzles that test my mind. My go-to right now is Sudoku at the “Beware: Very Challenging” level. I find the task of searching for patterns within number grids both soothing and energizing. It may sound odd, but I like working through the frustration of a difficult puzzle, in part because I’ve learned enough about brain science to know that I’m making new neural connections within the ball of gray matter that sits between my ears. I’ve also learned enough about brain science to know that puzzle diversity is the key to a healthy brain—much like muscle confusion has been shown to be an essential element of physical fitness.

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Last week, we outlined the pre-conditions to effective self-reflection and introduced the concepts of self-awareness, cognitive (unconscious) bias, and taming the negative voices that swirl within our heads—what Jane Pike calls our “itty bitty shitty committee.” Now lets get into the logistical specifics of an effective self-reflection session.

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In my previous writings, I talk a lot about the benefits of engaging in constructive self-reflection. In my Personal Planning Guidebook, which is a free download on my website, the ability to self-reflect is an integral part of the personal planning process. But what is self-reflection and how can you get the most from it? We’re going to discuss the art of self-reflection over the next two weeks. Today, we’ll focus on the pre-conditions for successful self-reflection, and next week we’ll get into specific recommendations for self-reflection sessions.

Giving versus taking. This is one of, if not the, most important balancing acts we play throughout our lives. We come into this world naked and completely dependent on our parents and caregivers. Throughout our youth, we are, by definition, net takers. As we age, we build and refine a portfolio knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes (a.k.a., competency) with the goal of providing for ourselves, our families, and contributing to our employers and communities.