Transcript

Advice for grads in the age of AI from Reid Hoffman, Spencer Rascoff & more

0:01 The very best founders I know are brilliant at building systems. They connect teams, they remove bottlenecks, and they eliminate single points of failure. And yet When it comes to their own wealth. Most are running a disconnected stack. A tax accountant here and a state attorney there, a wealth manager who doesn't talk to either one of them.

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0:53 Hey folks, Jeff Berman here. I am thrilled to share some of the new names who will be joining us at this year's Masters of Scale summit. This may be our biggest stage yet. Reed Hastings, Meredith Whitaker, Van Jones, Amjad Masad, and more. Will be there with us October 20th through 22nd in San Francisco. If you're building something great, or you want to build something great, We want you there with us too.

1:20 Join us at masters of scale dot com slash apply twenty six. That's mastersofscom slash apply. Twenty six. Hi folks, Jeff Berman here. We have something a little bit different for you today. It's that time of year when so many people graduate into a new phase of their lives, their careers. For me, it's an especially big graduation year as my oldest just graduated from high school and delivered a banger of a commencement address.

1:58 We realized that there was an opportunity to share Nuggets of wisdom from some of the most remarkable people we've had on Masters of Scale. So you're gonna hear this episode from a dozen incredible founders and CEOs, and we're gonna start with our founding host, Reed Hoffman, who's gathered some questions from young people graduating this year, and we're gonna get to hear some advice from him to them. Alright. Let's jump into the first question.

2:28 Hi, my name is Denise. And I'm a student at the University of Oxford. My question is Should I take a job I don't love after graduation just to get started? You know, typically like in commencement speeches, the answer is never.

2:41 But of course, the real answer is sometimes. Because what you should be is you should be strategic about what you're doing. You should be thinking about Where do I might We wanting to go two, five, ten years from now. How would this job

2:56 possibly get me there? And by the way Doing a job versus not doing a job is always a better way to ultimately be getting to a Much better job two, five, ten years.

3:08 Oh. So The answer is sometimes. you're sometimes mistought that you should only be looking for what you're passionate about. And that's the most important thing. Now, of course, your passion is important. If you hate the job, if you're bored with the job, it's very hard to do that job well. So there is an important component of passion. But for example, you can go ask a whole bunch of people.

3:32 For example, a bunch of people say, I love playing video games. Should you be making video games? Not necessarily. What's the right path for you, what are you really good at?

3:42 What does the market need? And how do you respond to that? And sometimes it's take that job that you're kinda mediocre on. Because you have a plan. for how you're evolving.

3:55 And keeping that plan in mind. is the central thing. I read my name is Mike Glasnarino. I'm a junior at Wesleyan University. And my question for you is what can students be doing to truly get ahead of AI right now? Not just learning how to prompt.

4:12 But learning how to use it in ways that create real value. I love this question. Because in part It's saying, hey, I'm already engaging, because you're thinking about what the prompting landscape looks like. Now the first thing for everyone is

4:26 Don't Discount. How important prompting skills will be. One of my own personal beliefs right now is that No one is prompting in particularly good ways. So we're all like five percent users. Like there's this old myth that we only use like three or five percent of our brains. Well, I think we're at best at that and our current prompting skills. And so developing prompting skills are.

4:48 always be learning. It's one of the things that I ask people constantly when I am engaging with people who've been using AI is, well, how are you using it? What have you thought about in terms of how to prompt these things in better ways? And so every single time That I Actually, in fact, and talking to someone who is engaging. It's one of the things that I'm constantly learning. And I could spend An hour.

5:13 going through all of the strategies and tips and tricks and all the rest of that. And I think that's really important to do. Now The other part

5:24 Think about how to use AI strategically. So it's not just okay, I'm prompting. But which problems could it be applied to? How could it be applied to those problems in ways that is interesting and unique? It could generate particularly good content. Cause this is one of the ways that the world of work will be Changing.

5:45 Within you know two to five years All of us will be using AI co pilots. Along with what we're doing. And it's a question of how do we use them smartly. What's the game we're playing? What's the theory of that game?

5:59 What's the strategy to do that? My question is Will AI replace a lot of the careers that exist, like web designers or web developers.

6:11 One of the things is the career landscape has actually, in fact, always been dynamic. It's always been changing. I mean, for example, I know this reveals my age a little bit, but Web designer. Actually, in fact, was a new job that came up during my lifetime. When I was in college, There was no thought about becoming a web desig or what the skill within web design are. And AI is just amplifying.

6:35 This fact, the fact that it's changing faster, it's changing in more directions, and It highlights the fact that You need to be dynamic. And evolving. Yeah.

6:44 You know, part of the way to do that is to say, Well, okay Be learning. But also be embracing. These AI tools. We know that the AI tools are gonna be central. So as a specific example

6:57 Think about how Web Designer is going to change. The code that you learn with web design will You know, no longer be as relevant. The fact that you know all the tags, that you know all the coding that you could produce, the website design coding for Dummy's book.

7:13 no longer matters as much'cause AI can do all that. What it does is it changes what Web design. could mean in terms of What you have to bring to it is your creativity, your originality, your, hey, this would be some way that it would strategically map onto.

7:28 the kind of goals of the company, organization, entity, person that's doing it. This is something you could try that's different, that other people using AI tools might not think the same way you do or might may not be able to to bring it into focus the same way you do. My name is Keisha Wattel and I'm a rising senior at Washi U, and my question is what advice would you give to students who feel like their major is becoming less relevant as AI advances? Given that things are so disruptive.

7:59 It's very natural. To feel anxious about did all the things I just learned? Are they not relevant anymore? No. The good news is

8:08 Is that what you should Take Ford from your college degree. isn't necessarily the thing you learned in X one oh one. It isn't specific degrees, specific courses.

8:20 even necessarily specific skills that are relevant to you. It's your capacity to learn. It's your capacity to say, Hey, here is the new tool set, here's the new challenge. And that is actually what the future work's gonna look like. So one thing is to not focus on the degree.

8:38 but to focus on how you learn and to be continually learning. The other part of college that's super important that you should not forget is that life is a team sport, not just an individual sport. So the people That you became friends with, that you shared experiences with that are out there in the world with you. You can help each other. And this is, of course, one of the reasons why I built LinkedIn, because the whole idea is it's not just an individual career. It's a, hey, what do you know that I don't know? Do you know of a good opportunity? Hey, have you found a good way to use AI to do this yet? Hey, I'm kind of confused, and I may feel like I'm at a dead end. What might shake up that dead end?

9:17 And Now, of course, not just think about maintaining the friendships and and network that you have from college. But also think about how you build that. As you go forward. So my two primary questions for you are Will AI make my degree or skill set less valuable by the time that I graduate?

9:37 And I'm also concerned that AI will make it even harder for me to find a job since I don't have that much experience yet. Yeah, it's a legitimate worry. The thing that You shouldn't Always keep in mind, and this is part of the kind of entrepreneurial mindset.

9:52 Is how do you convert challenges into opportunities? How do you take something that could be a negative? and possibly turn it into an advantage. And that's part of the reason why I wrote the startup review. But in this particular case you think about okay.

10:07 AI is changing the landscape may make Entry level jobs, harder to get to. May make it Employers uncertain about who they're looking for in employing. Then you say, Well, okay.

10:18 How do I use the current circumstances, the disruption, to make this better? How do I use AI To identify what possible new opportunities might be, to map me to those opportunities, how to use AI to make myself stand out. And what's more And this is one of the kind of driving themes that I have is very strong advice for young people to say. You are

10:41 generation AI. You are AI native. So Bringing the fact that you have AI in your tool set is one of the things that makes you enormously attractive. And so you say, Okay, look, on this side, It's

10:55 Transforming the work space. Entry level work, employer's confusion. But on this side. It's making you Able

11:03 Your Unique capabilities. That You know, with a environment of a bunch of older people, you might be able to help them out. And that of course

11:14 is part of the magic. It's been great being in this dialogue, but part of the reason it's a conversation is because it's dynamic and it's ongoing. This is in fact. Just the beginning.

11:28 of these questions that we should be asking, these questions that we should be learning together. So For everyone. including the class of twenty twenty five. I wish you the very best on this journey as we discover and make this future together. Outstanding insights there from Reed and thanks to those students for their questions.

11:46 In just a minute, advice for graduates from a dozen more incredible founders and entrepreneurs. Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show. Because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the Rapid Response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find, just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there.

12:33 Oh Humans will never be more intelligent than AI. There's gonna be two types of companies. Those were great at AI and those that went out of business because they weren't. How do we build a future? That is human centered.

12:48 I'm Rana El Chaoyubi. On my podcast Pioneers of AI, we answer that question and so many more. As an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor, I know what it takes to build AI that works for everyone. Every week, I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future. And we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in. Welcome back to Masters of Scale.

13:20 For the last couple of months, Reed and I have been asking our guests what advice they'd give if they're giving a commencement address this year. First up, you'll hear from Andrew Yafee, the CEO of the massively popular YouTube channel turned Media Empire Dude Perfect. It's traumatic for me because in my commencement speech it was pouring rain and we sat out and the speaker who I shall not name started by saying, I was given forty five minutes and I'm gonna use every single one of them. Oh, this is not not good. I don't have I don't have uh warm and fuzzy memories about commencement speeches, but So the advice of the speaker is be brief. You know, I think what I'd say is

13:59 There are a lot of people who tell you to follow your passions. And then there are a lot of people who tell you to Do something you're great at. And I don't think either of those things is It's true. I think it has to be

14:10 Both. I'm someone personally who I need to love what I work on. You can look at my my resume and it it speaks to that that I

14:19 would work at the NBA and then I'd go home and watch MBA basketball. That motivation And that passion for The product was critical to me being highly engaged and excited and motivated to get to work. At the same time. I tell people all the time.

14:34 Don't work in sports, just to work in sports. It is not an industry, as one would define it. You are selling sponsorships or your marketing or your creating content. When I was running strategy, it was still PowerPoint and Excel. And so if I Wasn't motivated by the business problems. that I was working on as the head of strategy for the NBA.

14:56 I wouldn't have been good at it. following your passion doesn't get you anywhere if you're not really narrow on what are the things that get you out of bed in the morning to make you excited and that you're really good at. Next up, advice from the therapist, author, and game maker, Esther Perel.

15:15 I just did a whole conference with Twenty five hundred therapists and coaches and the likes. And I had a phenomenal surprise. At one point I said, How many of you Ar in the field as a second career.

15:31 Now that used to be a tiny fraction of people that would answer and Probably half the people in the audience. And I thought, wow, this is like a transformation of my field that used to be something totally secret, something hidden away, tucked in a room, nobody talked about it. It's fascinating how that has shifted. So I would say to the young student, where you start. І знаю, норю ен.

16:02 It doesn't really matter where you start. Start by finding people who will teach you To work. To think to solve problems. Because it's like a teacher in college. You can be

16:16 passionate about a subject, if you have a bad teacher they'll ruin it for you. But if you have a subject you know nothing about and couldn't care less, but you have a teacher who can pique your curiosity, they will open an entire world to you. So go for the teacher, don't go for the topic. Go for the particular manager, don't go for the company.

16:40 Next up is Aaron Levy, founder and CEO of Box, the cloud based file sharing platform valued at over four billion dollars. My biggest advice right now is truly become an expert in AI. Not how the models are trained, but in using AI for daily work, like If you are not an expert in Just incredible prompt engineering. How to write the perfect prompt for doing a research project or analyzing a set of data or generating marketing materials or producing code.

17:12 That is a liability in this job market. You wanna be incredible at using AI to get work done. That does not mean that every company you join will Afford you that. ability right now. But For the companies that do, you will be able to stand out relative to basically every other employee in that organization. You will seem like you've come from the future.

17:35 into this company. And so the more that you can look like a time traveler right now. because you're kind of like perfectly set up to do that. Because you have a larger proportion of your life with AI than anybody else. In the job market. So there's no excuse to not be incredible at this stuff and just know your way around these tools, you know, flawlessly. And then, you know, I think understanding things like human judgment and analysis and creativity, because these are the things that will always be the X factor on top of using AI.

18:07 So On top of Getting the response. is what judgment did you apply to that response from the AI to lead to a better outcome. So Analytical skills, critical thinking, judgment, creativity, get incredible at that, but also be amazing at using these tools and you will stand out in this environment.

18:29 Let's hear next from Stacey Brown Phil Pot. She's the founder of a new fund, Cherry Rock Capital, the former CEO of TaskRabbit, and a longtime leader at Google. My eighth grader is graduating. She's going to ninth grade. Big moment. And she said to me, She said, Mom. After I graduate from high school

18:49 Then I have to go to college and then What am I going to do? I have to become an adult. And I said, Yes, you do. So my advice anyone's graduating.

19:02 From college. Become an adult. Yes, you can. What does that mean? Do the work. Part of what you've accomplished.

19:10 Up until this point is because somebody put an infrastructure in place. called an education system. To help you get there. Create your own. How are you going to continue to learn?

19:23 And do the work. to fulfill whatever it is that you want to accomplish in life. Create a vision. And do the work. Achieve some goals. Do the work. Start a family.

19:35 Do the work. Have fun. Do the work. Next up the CEO of the ride sharing app, Lift.

19:44 Here's David Risher. My advice for a new graduate would be to look at the decade of your twenties. as a decade of maximal experimentation. It's such an opportunity for you.

20:00 To explore. And not yet be asking yourself the question what is my career gonna be or how do I do this thing to get to this thing, to get to this thing, to get to this thing. I think people who worry a lot and get stressed a lot about that.

20:16 You know, narrow their thinking. quite early in life. And Most successful people that I have met.

20:25 have gone through periods of sort of active exploration. And I think particularly now. I think you know, twenty or thirty years ago, there was sort of a career track that you sort of felt like you kind of needed to be on because it was kind of the default. I don't really think that's the default right now, or it doesn't need to be. You know, there are opportunities that that are literally haven't been even created yet. You know, we don't even know what the job is gonna be two or three years from now, right? Because AI will will change so much and so forth. So you have to do something. that satisfies your economic reality. I mean let's be clear, I'm not being naive. But I wouldn't optimize for that. And I wouldn't optimize for the long term career. I really

20:58 I'd said a floor, an economic floor, but I'd say above the floor, I think it's really about exploring. I think if you if you have that mindset for the next couple of years at least, you'll almost certainly end up in a Happier, better place. Next up, Ben and Guido Toyber, the brothers who now run the board game company Katan that their father started thirty years ago. First

21:21 Let's hear from Ben. Something I learned in game development is that if you wanna really make a good game, it takes a lot of patience because you'll have One iteration after the next, and it Will be bad very often. So patience is one of the things that um you should always test yourself and failure is never the end result.

21:41 And now his brother Guido. Stay curious. And obviously fulfill your dreams, you know, shoot for the moon. But also Be empathetic and be kind.

21:53 Take failure and strides. So When you play a Catan game. It is In itself a game where even the person who loses gets some victory points.

22:06 Next, it's Zillow alums and co founders of Picasso, Spencer Raskoff and Austin Allison. Here's Spencer. Put yourself in a situation where you can learn. So optimize for growth, not compensation early in your career.

22:23 surround yourself with people that you can be a sponge. And learn from. Especially early in your career. And here's Austin's advice. My

22:33 One piece of advice would be around surrounding yourself with Great people. But that's such a I think well well documented piece of advice at this point that I'll offer one other one, which would be to Live in the moment.

22:46 and be present. You know, life passes us by really quickly. And when you're looking back on time, many of the what felt like big struggles end up being the most enriching part of company building. And life. So try to embrace the struggle and and live in the moment. I talked with Buddy Media Founder Mike Lazaro recently at South by Southwest, and here's what Mike offered.

23:11 To me, it's so simple. It's basically Large platforms that have aggregated audience. AI And

23:22 the no code development platforms. So check out Lovable. Build me an app. Or a website. And it's like

23:31 It opens it up and it walks you through how to connect it to a database, right? And so all of a sudden we have the democratization of engineering with the largest productivity hat the world has ever seen. AI And access to consumers that we have never had access to like this.

23:52 Right, and I'm not talking about just Facebook and Instagram. And whatever that Twitter X thing is. But also Shopify and Etsy and Yeah, all these other Incredible platforms. And so

24:06 I just think Figure out Um Idea that should exist. And even a journalism student can build it now.

24:17 And here's Rachel Botsman, author of several books on trust, including her latest, How to Trust and Be Trusted. I've actually given a commencer speech, but I didn't give I didn't say these words. And I always think about the redo. And I would stand up there and say There are three words. That have served me well in my career.

24:37 And I wanna pass them on to you. I Don't No. The three most important words in the English language, perhaps, yeah.

24:47 They are the three most important words that will serve you so well in your career. Be confident with humility. But also those words. Then what

24:58 makes me a deeply curious person, right? Like it's like so much of education. Is about knowing and it's about those positive capabilities and it's about achievement and performance and outcomes. And the

25:14 earlier you can be comfortable in that space of unknowing and complexity and uncertainty. The more you'll be able to handle life, but the more valuable be you'll be in organizations. So that's my that's my do over. Thanks to all these folks for offering up advice for graduates and to Rapid Response host Bob Safian for helping gather some of these interviews. I'm Jeff Berman. Thank you for listening. Masters of Scales await what original.

25:51 Our executive producer is Eve Tro. Our senior producer is Trisha Bobita. The production team includes Masha Makutunina and Brandon Klein. Our senior talent executive is Stephanie Stern. Mixing and Mastering by Aaron Bastanelli and Brian Pew.

26:07 Original music by Ryan Holiday. Our head of podcasts is the tall melad. Visit masters of scale dot com to find the transcript for this episode and to subscribe to our newsletter.