I just finished former Navy Seal Jocko Willink's book Extreme Ownership.

It’s a great book about taking radical responsibility for our actions. Like many leadership principles, it only works if the leader follows the program too. A leader who expects extreme ownership from their subordinates without truly following the wisdom themselves is a tyrant.

When reading, I couldn't stop thinking about how Extreme Ownership is essentially the same book as How to Win Friends and Influence People but with wildly different packaging.

It’s also the same book as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. And the Tao Te Ching. And Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard's Almanack. And Seneca's letters to Lucilius two thousand years ago.

The core message is always the same: Take radical responsibility for your own actions. Listen more than you speak. Meet people where they are, not where you wish they were.

Jocko says "there are no bad teams, only bad leaders." Carnegie said "any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain — and most fools do." Seneca wrote "If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich." Lao Tzu taught that "the wise leader does not push; he lets things happen." Marcus Aurelius reminded himself daily: "you have power over your mind, not outside events."

It’s always the same story, isn’t it?

Jocko's version is for people who respond to discipline and direct orders from someone whose voice is hoarse from decades of screaming. Carnegie's is for people who respond to warmth and social grace. The Stoics wrote for people who respond to philosophical reflection. Lao Tzu wrote for people who resonate with paradox and gentle stillness.

The wisdom hasn't changed in 2,500 years. The packaging changes because the audience changes.

And this is exactly what I see happening in AI right now.

In my podcast, dozens of tech founders echoed the same core ideas about implementing AI: automate what's repeatable so humans can focus on what requires judgment.

I for example, have learned that my time is best spent judging which of several objects is, in fact, cake.

But one version of this timeless story is wrapped in bro hype and rocket emojis. Another is dripping with fear and "your job is disappearing" mortal terror.

Same medicine. Different bottles.

The question isn't whether you have the right AI strategy. It's whether you can make the people who need to execute it actually understand what you're asking them to do and why they should do it. And you need to be intellectually honest enough to know and admit why you’re really doing what you’re doing.

The chief problem of our time isn’t one of technology: it’s one of translation, accountability, and communication.

And it's been the same problem for 2,500 years.