Akaash Nanda

🏃🏾‍♀️ Left stability behind to try something new.
✈️ Travel | 👨🏾‍💻 Learning Prv. @RealFlyhomes, @Micros

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@Jason I'm in

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@DCinfoscaling Send

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@ankurnagpal Would love the link!

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@ryan_waas Great thread - DM'ed!

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@HelenGuo_ @Mikethelummox interview

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

"The courage to start.
The discipline to focus.
The confidence to figure it out.
The patience to know progress is not always visible.
The persistence to keep going, even on the bad days.

That's the formula."

— @shaneparrish

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

So true.

[Mitchell Baldridge @baldridgecpa]

The only remaining stablecoin

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@balajis akaashnanda.eth

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

When one of the greatest athletes of all time says this to the most significant builder/dev of late #TheTablesHaveTurned

[Tom Brady @TomBrady]

What’s up Vitalik! You may not know me but just wanted to say I’m a big fan of yours. thank you for everything you’ve built in the world of crypto, otherwise @Autograph wouldn’t have been possible. Hope I get to meet you some day you’re the 🐐

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@rinkydoofinance I think prenups are horribly misunderstood. We assume they're rooted in suspicion or bad faith when, in fact, a perfectly valid prenup can involve protection of assets attained pre-marriage and establish shared ownership of any wealth attained after marriage is in place. Sensible

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@Codie_Sanchez has some seriously good tactics on newsletter creation. Pummeling through her newsletter course and convinced we've seriously underestimated this market. Thx for being unabashed in sharing your strategies, Codie!

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@awilkinson Clinkle
https://t.co/J1OLqnIirC

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

@Jason Is this a cruel mindgame? We make a racket to learn what Racket is? 🤷🏼‍♂️
Here's me - will follow back:
https://t.co/Z4tI5tAe98

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

This will be the coolest thing to happen in ed-tech in my lifetime so far!

[Chrisman @chrisman]

Trying out something new for @synthesischool. We share these clips with parents to show them the kind of thinking going on in session. Here's some impressive leadership from 10yo Emmett:

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

If there was any doubt about how NFTs will change the music industry, today's Square / Tidal deal pretty much crystallizes it. Prediction: Tidal will be the first major digital music platform to render labels obsolete + embrace fair & decentralized payment to artists

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

Hot take: Publicly elected officials should only be allowed to invest in index funds, no individual stocks or equities.

What’s the downside?

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

Clubhouse has helped me realize how much I miss strolling down a convention center hallway during conferences, ducking in and out of rooms based on whatever topic sounded interesting. Didn't think it could be recreated online, but I stand corrected. Amazing execution by the team!

[Akaash Nanda @akaashn]

I'm a fan of online communities. It's interesting how social networks are starting to resemble the early days of unions and collective bargaining. Demanding (and engineering) certain outcomes over traditional mainstays of power (Wall Street , political machinery, the Fed, etc.)