Vikram Mansharamani, Fortune 500 Consultant: The Importance of Thinking for Yourself

My guest today is Dr. Vikram Mansharamani, who is currently a lecturer at Harvard University and advises several Fortune 500 CEOs. He has a Ph.D., two Masters degrees from MIT, and a Bachelors degree from Yale University.

In this episode, we discuss his new book, Think for Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence. He explains when to rely on experts for help, the importance of focus in today's age, the downside of being constantly overwhelmed with options, and why being a generalist or taking a generalist approach to problem solving may be favorable to relying on experts. He also touches on some of the interesting stories from his book, including how Phil Jackson applied these principles during his coaching career and why President Abraham Lincoln built his cabinet with people who all disagreed with each other.

Show Notes:

(1:40) —Episode begins with what led Vikram to write this book

(3:26) — Why information overload led us to blindly rely on experts

(4:50) — How Phil Jackson applied some of these ideas when coaching the Chicago Bulls

(9:10) — Why we force specialization on young people when it’s not always best

(11:05) — President Lincoln’s ‘Team of Rivals’

(14:48) — Why using a pre-mortem is helpful

(17:40) — Hiring based on generalists or specialists (and background on why General Electric developed more CEOs than any other company by developing generalists)

(20:30) — Deciding whether or not to specialize within your own career

(23:30) — What to consider when getting an opinion from someone

(26:03) — What to consider when asking experts for their opinion

(34:25) — Encouraging disciplined disobedience within your organization

(40:15) — End of episode questions

End of Episode Questions: 

1.What’s 1 book every coach should read?

• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power Shoshana Zuboff
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

2. Who is one person you’d want to hear as a guest on this podcast?

• Nassim Taleb (listen to Nassim Taleb discuss how probabilistically thought about COVID as it grew in China on this podcast here)

3. What’s one area you’re looking to improve in over the next year?

• Learn more about artificial intelligence and machine learning

4. What’s popular advice you hear people say that you think is wrong?

• Specialize, specialize, specialize!

5. What advice do you have for young coaches who are listening to this?

• Own your career and think about it in a longer-term perspective and think of each role as a tour of duty.

6. What’s the darkest moment you experienced professionally and how did you overcome it?

• He lost his job right before one of his children got sick and realized he didn’t have healthcare insurance. He overcame it by taking a step back, slowing down and thinking about the situation and being more calibrated that both highs and lows aren’t long lasting. 

Favorite Quotes: 

“It’s hard to remain mission-oriented when you’re constantly being managed by influences outside of you.”

“Seek out disconfirming evidence rather than confirming evidence.”

“If you want to know where someone stands on an issue, look at where they sit.”

“If you’re facing an uncertain, dynamic future, then I find it’s really critical to bring multiple perspectives together; you need to triangulate. And the reason you need to do that is each perspective is limited, biased, and incomplete.”

“Generalists naturally develop an appreciation for what they don’t know; specialists naturally develop an appreciation for what they do know.”