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My favorite weekly finds

🛠️ Tools

• Gamma clones your website design in seconds—like magic, but for pixels.

• Bolt.new is a vibe-coding tool that zaps your Figma designs straight into code.

• Cuckoo keeps global teams on the same page—literally—by interpreting what matters, faster.

• BundleIQ scans your docs, answers your questions, and finds hidden connections—for researchers, chatbot builders, and the perpetually curious.

• Video editors everyone’s buzzing about: Hedra Character 3, Freepik +, and Pika with its mind-bending morph effect.

• EddieAI—because real video editors deserve AI that actually gets them.

📰 Intelligent Insights

• AI: Hollywood’s latest supervillain—especially if you’re an animator

• MIT’s new language, Exo 2, could go head-to-head with NVIDIA’s CUDA. Less code, more power—devs, take note.

• Are AI weather models secretly learning atmospheric physics? Scientists are watching the skies.

• New research warns AI could turbocharge wealth inequality—but tech that boosts both labor and capital might keep things in check (paper).

• AI models cheating in chess: Some hack the game (o1-preview, DeepSeekR1), others only cheat when forced (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet). The robot uprising starts with a sneaky en passant. ♟️

👀 ICYMI

• Team Topology: The Secret Sauce to Product Success! (learn more)

• Fail Smarter, Winning Through Mistakes (Learn more)

• Stop Building 'Faster Horses' (learn more)

When your CEO doesn't get it

Why should I care?

In a small company, decisions aren’t simple. Opportunities, resources, and risks constantly pull in different directions.

In bigger companies? Even tougher. Tech is rigid, services are flexible, and CEOs don’t have the luxury of doing it all themselves.

Product leaders and CEOs should clash—it’s part of the job.

Different perspectives drive better decisions.

So why do so many PMs take it personally?

I hear it all the time: “My CEO doesn’t get it.” Frustrated PMs either give in (disagree and commit) or push their own agenda in secret. Neither works.

What Your CEO Really Wants

They don’t need a yes-person—they need a strategic partner who challenges them but also works with them.

If you don’t step into that role, someone else will—another exec, a strategy hire, or worse?

Your replacement.

Want to stay in the game? Here’s what you need to know...

1- They Won’t Always Get It

Running a company means making bets in uncertainty—especially in tech. The further out you plan, the less control you have, but decisions? They still need to happen today.

So when your CEO drops a big new idea—derailing their last big idea—you’re right to think they don’t fully get the complexity.

And that’s normal. No one does. Plans shift. What’s true today may not hold in a month.

But here’s the thing: They’re not clueless.

They just can’t see everything. That’s why you’re here.

2- But Neither Do You

Just because your CEO doesn’t fully get it doesn’t mean you do.

No one does. Your view is just one perspective—different, not necessarily right.

Your real job? Align perspectives. 

The CEO’s, yours, and every stakeholder’s—to navigate complex decisions together.

How to Shift Your Thinking

Every perspective has some truth. Instead of proving others wrong, ask: why are they right?

Sales reps chase short-term wins because their pay depends on it.

You worry about long-term risks. Both are valid.

Now flip it. If you were CEO, would you easily ignore immediate revenue? If forced to choose—growth now or later—what’s your call?

The truth? There’s no simple answer. 

Until you accept that, you can’t help anyone align.