What We Learned This Week | 7-20-25
State of AI from developers. Labor Market Effects of GenAI, How LLMs got better at reasoning, AI talent war, Career Advice They don't Teach you at School, and more...
Below are some of the articles and podcasts which caught my attention past week. As always, welcome your feedback and ideas.
Articles
State of AI | Vercel | While OpenAI is the leading provider, developers are actively testing alternatives and focusing on real-world value
The Labor Market Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence | SSRN | LLM adoption at work has increased rapidly from 30.1% as of December 2024, to 43.2% as of March/April 2025, and 45.6% as of June/July 2025
How LLMs got better at reasoning | Rama Ramakrishnan (MIT) | A non-technical explainer
Hypercapitalism and the AI talent wars | John Luttig | The AI talent wars have taken a hypercapitalist turn, breaking down the existing rules of engagement between employees, companies, and investors
22 Pieces of Career Advice They Don't Teach You in School | Sahil Bloom | No matter where you are on your career journey, this list has something of value for you
Podcasts/Videos
Perplexity CEO: Browser Wars, Taking on Google, White Collar Jobs and More! | Mathew Berman | Why Comet, The argument against Google, AI & humans
Introduction to ChatGPT agent | OpenAI | Demo of unified agentic model in ChatGPT
New POV on Veg Mgmt | Energy Central | A roadmap for utility leaders who want to redefine their vegetation management approach to go from reactive to proactive
America’s Energy Problem | a16z | How America’s grid fell behind, Why we "forgot how to build" power infrastructure, The role of batteries, solar, nuclear, and software in reshaping the grid, How AI is both stressing and helping the system, What it’ll take to build a more resilient, decentralized, and dynamic energy future
AI’s Enterprise Adoption | a16z | How enterprise adoption of AI is different from the consumer wave, why incumbents may be better positioned than people think, and how the role of the individual contributor is already shifting from executor to orchestrator
A Book We are Reading in July
The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines | Matt Beane | A technology researcher shows how AI and robots threaten the traditional skill-development model and outlines how challenge, complexity, and connection remain essential for building expertise.
A Quote We Are Pondering This Week
"Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy.
Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder.
Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder.
Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder.
Easy has a cost."
- James Clear
Upcoming Interesting Data & AI Conferences
Ai4 2025 | 8-11 to 8/13 | Vegas
Northeast Utilities Credit and Collections | 9/10 - 9/12 | Atlantic City, NJ
Boston AI Week 2025 | 9/29 - 10/3 | Boston
UA Week 2025 | 10/28-10/30 | Austin
AWS re:invent 2025 | 12/1-12/5 | Vegas
#LetsGrowTogether