Between the Lines of Leadership · A Headhunter's Picks (60)
This weekend I watched a YouTube video that struck me as unusually sharp. It's from a creator I've followed for a while, The MIT Monk, a channel that mixes tech, AI and critical thinking with something that's in short supply: calm, depth and judgment.
He's not chasing quick likes or doomsday headlines. He's actually trying to understand what's really going on… and these days, that alone sets you apart.
The video hooked me because it lined up so well with how I think about cultivating talent: less hype, more compass. Less obsessing over the tool, more focus on how to navigate this new world heading our way.
And above all, because it used a powerful metaphor: the difference between being a wave… and being the water.
The mistake of obsessing over the wave
Right now it feels like everything is about riding the right wave:
- the right tool
- the right technology
- the right narrative
Waves rise fast. They give you visibility. They give you the feeling of being "on the cutting edge".
The trouble is that waves break.
AI is a massive wave. Maybe the biggest we've ever seen. But it won't be the last. There were others before it. There'll be more after.
If your professional identity hangs on one specific wave, you live in permanent tension.
The water always stays
What's interesting about the video is the opposite idea: don't obsess over the form, obsess over the substance.
And here I couldn't help thinking of Bruce Lee and his famous line: "Be water, my friend."
Water doesn't compete with the wave. It contains it.
It adapts, surrounds, seeps in, waits. And when the environment changes… it's still there.
In the professional world that's coming, I think this image explains everything.
The big AI paradox
Artificial intelligence is going to generate:
- content
- analysis
- code
- proposals
At a scale and speed we've never seen.
What it can't generate is trust.
And the more automatable everything becomes, the more valuable the things that aren't:
- real listening
- empathy
- judgment
- relationships built without rushing
Trust doesn't come from saying brilliant things. It comes from someone feeling seen.
Less scrolling, more conversation
We're hyperconnected, but barely present.
We consume a ton of information, but we generate very little depth. And without depth there are no solid relationships.
The big decisions, the key moves, the real opportunities… they still happen in human conversations. Not in prompts.
Let's bring this down to earth: the RAIL test
So far it all sounds good. But if we don't ground it, it stays Sunday-morning philosophy.
After watching the video I asked myself an uncomfortable question: how do I know whether what I'm doing with AI, or with my career, is taking me to high ground or into the floodplain?
Here's where a very simple, very unglamorous framework shows up: RAIL.
R, Revenue
Is anyone actually paying for this?
If the answer is:
- "we're in pilot"
- "we'll see down the road"
- "we're still validating"
It's not a business. It's an expensive experiment. And it'll be the first thing to go when the cuts come.
A, Acceleration
Does this accelerate something now, in weeks, not months?
AI makes sense if it:
- removes friction
- saves time
- improves the speed or quality of a decision
If it doesn't accelerate anything real, it just gets in the way.
I, In-market (real usage)
Is anyone actually using it?
Even internally. Even if it doesn't directly bring in revenue.
If nobody uses it, it's not an asset. It's a hobby with a budget.
L, Learning
Are you learning from real usage?
One week watching customers use (and break) your product teaches you more than six months of internal testing.
This is where the people building a business split off from the ones just playing at looking innovative.
The 3 R's: the high ground of people
RAIL is for filtering projects. The 3 R's are for filtering careers.
When AI replicates almost everything, your value concentrates right here:
Relationships
Who picks up the phone for you without wanting anything in return? Who have you built trust with when there was no need to?
That's not something you improvise. You cultivate it.
Reputation
Not what you say about yourself. What others say when you're not in the room.
AI amplifies messages, but it doesn't fix inconsistencies.
Results
Not promises. Not potential. Real impact, sustained and recognizable over time.
Without results, no amount of trust holds up.
The combination that matters
RAIL without relationships → a fragile business. Relationships without RAIL → a nice story with no future.
RAIL + 3 R's = high ground
It works for projects, for companies… and for your career too.
To close
Don't obsess over being the right wave. Waves change.
Obsess over being water:
- useful
- adaptable
- reliable
- present
Because when the next flood arrives, and it will, the problem won't be the water level. It'll be what you leaned on to build.
Be water, my friend.
