Methods of the Masters

A blog on the art & science of creative action.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Update Your Priors

If the MIT study of AI failure rates surprised you, you need to update your priors. Innovation is about shots on goal, not perfect plans. Time to recalibrate how many attempts you’re making.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Admit You Don't Know: Reverse Mentorship With An AI Sherpa

Most leaders think credibility comes from having all the answers. In the AI era, it's the opposite—credibility comes from admitting you don't know and doing something about it. Here's how to become the kind of leader who can actually drive organizational change instead of just demanding it.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Be the Prompt: The One Thing AI Will Never Do (And Why That's Your Competitive Advantage)

AI can do almost anything you ask—faster and better than you imagined. But it will never do the one thing that makes you irreplaceable. Here, I share how a piece of career-saving advice from my dad, a billion-dollar insight from Sam Altman, and lessons from leaders like Meta’s Josh To reveal the skill that keeps you indispensable in an “agentic” era.

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Don’t Be Fred! 8 Bad Habits to Lose in 2025

You know that moment when someone tells a story so perfectly out-of-step with the times that you laugh—then realize you're guilty of your own version? That's exactly what happened when Brice Challamel, Head of AI at Moderna, shared the origin of their company AI transformation mantra, "Don't be Fred".

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Hire Yourself

Much ink has been spilled about the plight of college graduates. Because of all the hand-wringing about entry-level positions disappearing and AI automation stealing opportunities, no one is saying the quiet part out loud:

No one wanted a "job" to begin with. In that sense, there's never been a better time to enter the job market.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Stop Fighting AI Glazing

Everyone’s panicking about “AI glazing.” But what if it’s a feature, not a bug? The creative industry's most successful practitioners understand something the rest of us are missing.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Train An AI Twin to Practice Difficult Human Conversations

I’ve been working on a radical new course at Stanford, which I’m excited to share more details on soon. In the meantime, sharing an early iteration of my thinking on the topic, in the form of my WSJ piece co-authored with the brilliant Kian Gohar.

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The Simple Power of Joy and Delight

Special guest post by Brendan Boyle, one of Stanford’s most beloved professors, acclaimed toy inventor, and founder of IDEO’s Toy Lab. He’s taught me more about play than anyone other than my own children.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

The Ultimate AI Playbook: From Measuring Adoption to Delivering Impact

In five years, no one will care how many people logged into ChatGPT. They'll care about who used it to transform their work. The organizations that understand the difference between more use and better use are quietly outperforming their competitors-while everyone else celebrates meaningless "adoption" metrics.

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Ask for More (Collaborating With GenAI for New Ideas)

“Think:Act Magazine” was curious about how I incorporate AI into my own creative process as a writer, so they visited my home studio to observe my workflow. What followed was a fascinating exploration of how I use multiple LLMs as collaborative partners rather than just tools. Fun to be featured alongside heroes of innovation like Astro Teller, Amy Edmondson, and the legendary design duo Charles and Ray Eames!

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Don’t Opt Out of AI

A recent study by American Management Association revealed that 58% of professionals feel "behind" in their AI adoption journey. While most folks know me as "the Beyond the Prompt guy," here's what you might not know: I struggle with this stuff too.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

It's Not An AI Problem. It's A You Problem.

Last week, I proposed a simple but fundamental shift: we need to stop thinking about AI as a technology rollout and start treating it like a new teammate. What I didn't fully explain is that this isn't just a semantic distinction. It produces measurably better results.

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Jeremy Utley Jeremy Utley

Teammate, Not Technology

I’ve been seriously thinking about AI for over two years now, and I’m finally hitting my stride when it comes to my point of view. The fundamental shift I believe everyone must make is from thinking of AI as a technology, to thinking of AI as a teammate.

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