Torchinsky Executive Insights

In 1960, a cargo ship needed 45 crew. Today, the same job takes 13 engineers — and you can't just pick up a replacement at the next port. What happened to shipping over 60 years is happening to companies right now, in about 5 years. As AI automates more, teams shrink and everyone who remains becomes irreplaceable.

So who's actually responsible for keeping those people? Mike Torchinsky on a role that most companies don't have yet — but will need.

In January 2026, Elon Musk made his first appearance at Davos. The applause was so weak that Larry Fink had to ask the audience to try again. Why does Musk trigger such a visceral reaction from educated elites? It's not the tweets. It's not the politics. It's something more uncomfortable — and it has to do with redundancy, mirrors, and the future most people would rather not think about.

There is a question that has been asked billions of times in hiring interviews around the world. And every single time it is asked, neither side can answer it honestly. In this episode, we look at what decades of research actually tell us about how people get hired, why the tools HR relies on fail to predict what they promise to predict, and what the only genuinely reliable alternative looks like. Based on the research of Schmidt and Hunter, Kahneman and Tversky, and others.

One in three senior executives hit a wall when changing jobs — a non-compete clause they never saw coming. In this episode, we break down how these agreements work, which jurisdictions favor employees, and how to protect your career before you sign.