I help organizations build AI fluency and governance that actually changes behavior — not the kind that lives as a PDF on a Notion page. 19 years onboarding humans to strange new places (startups, scaling tech, enterprise agencies like GroupM and WPP) gave me a head start when AI showed up as just another strange new place. The TL;DR is my biweekly newsletter for leaders thinking through what AI means for their people.
The TL;DR, With a Fresh Start
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A bi-weekly roundup of ways to rethink 2025 November 30 - December 13 (SO SPOOKY) Fresh Starts They Are A Comin'Most people seem to fall into two camps regarding New Years Resolutions
I'm trying out something new here: I'd like to see YOUR vote in the poll! You'll see the poll results immediately after submitting your answer.
(Here's what I expect to see in terms of results: according to YouGov, in 2024 about 34% of U.S. adults planned to make resolutions. For the 18-29 year old bracket, that jumped to 52%, and the 30-44 bracket was 44%. Two months into 2024, 70% of those who made NYR stuck with them.) Whether you want to or not, 1/1/2025 will inspire you to have a fresh start. It's science: temporal milestones like New Years, birthdays, Mondays, etc. encourages us to start a new "mental accounting period" that makes it easier to put the past behind you and look ahead to the future. Not only that, but the way the calendar fell this year there's even more fresh start jujj:
The vibe for December's back half is going to be unproductive at best. With an unproductive December, a workforce coming back from a well-earned break, and the January 1st temporal landmark, 2025 is going to kick off with gusto. Resolutions be dammned, you're going to be feeling Big Fresh Start Energy in January. Entertain for a moment if you harnessed this energy and gave yourself permission to indulge that fresh start. THIS COULD BE YOU:
I would be remiss to mention that I timed the Black Friday Small Agency Assessment offer to ride this wave. It's a good business practice to get a neutral third-party's eyes on your plans and the Small Agency Assessment is a low-cost way to do that at a time of the year that will do the most good. One of MY fresh starts is to rethink this newsletter. Not end it, but improve it. Make it more meaningful. Feature more of you and less of me. Potentially rename it. Help me shape the future of this newsletter by sharing your thoughts in a 3-question survey. I'll be doing a drawing for a $25 gift on December 25th: fill out this short survey to be entered to win!
A TL;DR from the CROMy 2025 New Years Resolution is to spend a little more time each week on my appearance. -Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer New Blog Post: Turning "Wants" into Actionable Strategic Plans Through an OffsiteWhen the holidays are over and a fresh year stretches before you, how can you strategically set your year up for more success than the last one? With an offsite! Here's how... I went to a board game convention last weekend and I did myself a favor by getting all my work done before I flew to Philadelphia on Thursday. I had a few hours of unexpected downtime, and since I had gotten my work done I indulged myself: I took a look through some old newsletters from other creators that I subscribe to but rarely read. Being in a different city with unexpected time and a folder of new ideas got me super motivated. I realized how much fun I have writing this newsletter but had put so little thought into growing/evolving it. If you've enjoyed reading this or previous TL;DRs, then I'm asking you for one more thing: upvote this post on LinkedIn talking about this newsletter. Embracing change this holiday season, Dan from Learn to Scale Opt-out from the newsletter | Unsubscribe from all emails | Update your Preferences | www.learntoscale.us, Boston, MA 02119 PS. Who knew that humans were so Incredibly difficult to jiggle? |
Dan Newman
I help organizations build AI fluency and governance that actually changes behavior — not the kind that lives as a PDF on a Notion page. 19 years onboarding humans to strange new places (startups, scaling tech, enterprise agencies like GroupM and WPP) gave me a head start when AI showed up as just another strange new place. The TL;DR is my biweekly newsletter for leaders thinking through what AI means for their people.
A bi-weekly roundup of big tech trying to snooker our data, like they always do October 17 - October 30 We Shall Fight On The Beaches (against Muse, Pulse, and Duet) Yesterday I made pulled pork in a homemade pepper-jelly over rice, topped with pickled onions. It was a recipe that Toddlywonks, my Muse AI, had generated after I had scanned in my pantry and the frozen meat. TL;DR- it was incredible. But what was not incredible was how annoying Toddlywonks was during the process. This was a sous...
A bi-weekly roundup of depreciating skills October 3 - October 16 Stop trying to make 'Prompt Engineering' happen. It's not going to happen! I remember when I was advised to list "Proficient in Microsoft Word" on a resumé. If I did that today, I'd probably look like a doorknob. It's pretty obvious that some skills have become so fundamental in today's workforce that calling them out would work against you, but when will "Proficient in AI" become the new Microsoft Word? Is that day already...
Hi friends, Learn to Scale turns SEVEN today! In dog years that's 49, which CRO Roman Noodles says is old enough to know better but young enough to choose otherwise. Every October 10th I give a present to everyone who has ever crossed paths with Learn to Scale and this year I made YOU a special treat. It's called AI Bootcamp and the whole thing is built around doubting your AI. I made it for one teammate (Kiki) this spring, people kept asking for a copy, and now it's for everyone. In Kiki's...