I didn’t leave last week’s Silicon Slopes with a tidy list of takeaways. I left with tension. And that mattered more.
Because when you’re building anything meaningful — a company, a career, a body of work — creation has a real cost. If there’s no friction, nothing new emerges. That idea threaded through nearly every conversation, keynote, and side hallway exchange I had over the week.
This wasn’t a conference about hype. It was about reckoning.
Tension Is the Point
One of the most grounding moments came during a deep‑breathing and reflection session led by Eric Espinosa of DeepLife. The prompt was simple and uncomfortable: What have you been carrying that’s holding you back — and are you ready to let it go?
I gave myself 48 hours after the conference to sit with that question. No productivity theater. No pretending I could out‑optimize it.
Just honesty.
Super hard in practice but that set the tone for everything else.
The Resume Is Dead. Values Aren’t.
We talked a lot about resumes — not as documents, but as signals.
Not titles. Not credentials.
Values. Behavior. Decision patterns.
The people who stood out weren’t optimizing for the next role. They were acting like the CEO of their own career — clear on what they stand for, how they work, and what kind of problems they’re willing to own. Author and LinkedIn editor Lorraine Lee spoke to this movement.
That framing is transformative. Especially now.
AI Isn’t Taking Jobs — It’s Exposing Them
There was no sugarcoating the AI conversation.
We’re in a 3–10× acceleration cycle for software change. Horizontally, there’s almost no defensibility anymore. Vertically — chips, semiconductors, infrastructure — everything is being reconstituted. The stock market collectively plummeted this week as a result of AI investments among FAANG companies and software was put on notice – if AI isn’t driving it forward.
A few things landed hard:
- Salesforce was one of many stocks to slide this week but Salesforce Ventures’ Rob Keith detailed that its Agentforce augmentation service is already producing over $1 trillion and there’s more happened behind the scenes on the AI front.
- Founders are becoming more technical again — not because they want to, but because learning velocity is the product.
- Individual contributors who can think, build, and iterate are outpacing managers of process.
- Product management as a standalone role is shrinking.
- Customer success is becoming AI‑native.
- CRM key functions are quickly being reinvented
- Workforces will be half human, half agents — sooner than most companies are ready for. Right now you can build an agent-workforce to fill roles across the typical role spectrum for a cost fraction.
- Humanoid robots in 5 years will be 95% there physically emulating movements.
“This year feels like the GPT‑3 moment — but for everything” (Ethan Choi, Khosla Ventures).
That’s not doom. It’s a filter.
Tools Are Table Stakes. Judgment Is the Edge.
Yes, we saw the tools:
- Image‑to‑video workflows outperforming text‑to‑video.
- Voice cloning and speech‑to‑speech becoming trivial.
- AI music generation that’s already “good enough” King Willonius gave us a live demo on how he made music videos that have churned up massive virality.
- Agent‑based coding environments changing how software is built.
But tools don’t win markets. Judgment does.
Domain understanding. Taste. Context. Ethics. Soft skills.
That’s the real defensibility now.
Soft Skills Are the Hard Advantage
Here’s the quiet truth that kept resurfacing: the more technical the world becomes, the more human the winners are.
- Teaching your team how to talk about their work matters.
- Storytelling isn’t fluff — it’s trust‑building.
- Transparency plus aligned self‑interest is credibility.
- Sales isn’t manipulation. It’s clarity.
You don’t get to opt out of selling — your ideas, your vision, or yourself.
And authenticity isn’t aesthetic. It’s operational.
Doing Well by Doing Good Isn’t Optional Anymore
Some of the most powerful conversations centered on healthcare, transparency, and human suffering. Mark Cuban of Costplusdrugs.com battled Chris Klomp, Director of Medicare on this principle and stage.
65% of people live with a chronic condition.
Healthcare remains the #1 cause of bankruptcy.
Pricing opacity is morally offensive and brought on by big insurance.
And yet — we now have the tools to fix parts of this system in days, not decades.
Not because it’s profitable.
Because it’s necessary.
Help human suffering. Help one another. Do well by doing good.
That wasn’t a slogan. It was a challenge.
So Where I Landed
Silicon Slopes didn’t make me more certain.
It made me more clear.
Clear that:
- Speed matters, but direction matters more.
- Specialists will struggle. Integrators will thrive.
- Learning velocity beats pedigree.
- Building things — and selling them — is still the path.
- The future belongs to people who can learn, connect, and serve. There were so many great vendors and individuals represented who were trying to live that Silicon Slopes motto. Highlighting one in Keep the Adventure Alive for those battling arthritis.
And clear that the work ahead isn’t about chasing trends.
It’s about choosing problems worth solving — and having the courage to stay with the tension long enough for something real to emerge.
If any of this resonates — if you’re building, re‑building, or re‑thinking where you’re headed — I’m always open to thoughtful conversations. Not pitches. Not noise.
Just real work, done with intention.
TRUE NORTH TEAM CONSULTING 