admin

Reddit saw an opportunity to turn years of human conversation into valuable AI data. But the answers people once visited Reddit to find could now reach them without a visit, and now Reddit is trying to figure out how to undo the decision and bring people back to its platform. 

In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin use Reddit’s AI dilemma as a case study to explore how leaders make business decisions under uncertainty. A decision can make sense at the time and still create problems as circumstances change. The challenge is knowing when to revise your strategy, and how to leave yourself room to do so without walking away from a worthwhile opportunity.

From cybersecurity staffing and travel planning to a graduate program’s approach to AI, Cindi and Geoff examine the consequences of acting on assumptions, why human discretion is actually becoming more important, and the difference between planning for disruption and overreacting to it. For founders, executives, and managers weighing their next AI decision, this conversation offers a useful question: Are you responding to what is happening…or to what you fear might happen?

You’ll learn:

  • How profiting early off of AI has left Reddit with fewer visitors now
  • Why a smart business decision can become a problem without having been a mistake
  • When uncertainty is a reason to favor shorter commitments and preserve flexibility
  • The jobs that are unexpectedly making a comeback with AI
  • How preparing for AI disruption can turn into sacrificing opportunities too soon

Watch This Episode on YouTube:

The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World:

→ Get your copy here. 

Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox:

→ Sign up for our newsletter and get a FREE chapter of The Uncertainty Playbook.

Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading:

Join Our Community & Follow Us: 

– Youtube Channel 

– LinkedIn

– Instagram

-Facebook

-TikTok

– Website

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Can a good business decision become a problem later?

Yes. In this Management Muse episode, Cindi Baldi argues that a decision can be reasonable when made and still create problems as circumstances change. She uses Reddit’s AI data opportunity to distinguish the logic of the original decision from its later consequences. Her point is that leaders need to revisit decisions as new information emerges, rather than assume a difficult outcome proves the original choice was a mistake.

Discussed at 07:20.

2. How should leaders structure commitments when AI’s impact is uncertain?

Cindi Baldi suggests that high uncertainty is a reason to be cautious about long contracts. In the discussion on Management Muse, she argues that shorter commitments can leave businesses more room to adapt when they do not yet know how a technology will be used. While she doesn’t claim to know the specific length of Reddit’s agreements, the takeaway is a general principle about strategic flexibility.

Discussed at 07:42.

3. How can leaders prepare for AI disruption without overreacting?

Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin distinguish planning for a possible threat from making decisions as though that threat has already arrived. Cindi recommends scenario planning: thinking through how your company would respond to different scenarios and setting “trigger points” for when to act. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing that a threat may be distant or may not materialize and not overreacting in anticipation. Geoff emphasizes taking time to understand what is happening and seeking second opinions before reacting. Together, their advice is to prepare a response, preserve flexibility, and avoid costly decisions based solely on a feared outcome.

Discussed at 21:38.

4. What does real community offer beyond an AI-generated answer?

Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin describe Reddit’s value as more than retrieving information. Comments, ongoing exchanges, shared interests, and a sense of belonging can make participation valuable in its own right. Their distinction is between receiving an answer and connecting with people who understand your interests. They discuss how human connection is a potential advantage for communities whose information is also accessible through AI.

Discussed at 05:43 and 19:02.

Full Episode Transcript:

MANAGEMENT MUSE — REDDIT, AI, AND DECISION-MAKING UNDER UNCERTAINTY
Hosts: Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin

Geoff (00:00)
I get what Reddit would have answered, but I never actually go to Reddit. What seemed smart two years ago now isn’t.

Cindi (00:08)
I knew Reddit was like a really good data source and they would have a huge opportunity in selling their data. As a result, AI has been largely trained by Reddit.

Geoff (00:17)
Now people aren’t going to Reddit because I have my answer.

Cindi (00:20)
Right. I don’t think Reddit making the deal with AI was a mistake in the very beginning. I think it can be the right answer and still be a problem today because nobody knew.

Cindi (00:33)
Welcome to Management Muse.

Geoff (00:35)
Because everybody deserves a better manager.

Cindi (00:39)
Hey everyone, thanks for joining us today on Management Muse. I’m your host, Cindi Baldi, and over there across the room is the lovely Geoffrey Tumlin. And today we are going to talk a little bit about Reddit. So back at the point where Reddit was going to offer its IPO, I was interested in it because as social scientists, we have experience with how expensive and troublesome it is to get data. I knew Reddit was like a really good data source, and they would have like a huge opportunity with AI and selling their data. And that over and above the users and whatever money streams they have that way, that seemed to me like their business model was selling their data to AI companies. And it happened. The AI picked up.

Cindi (01:37)
Reddit made a lot of presumably a lot of money off of it and

Geoff (01:42)
They sold their data early.

Cindi (01:44)
Yep, they sold it early. As a result, like AI has been largely trained by Reddit. They were one of the few legitimate uncopyrighted sources that actually train the AI. And then I started noticing, and apparently there’s been a recent article that Geoff read, that now when you do like a Google search.

Geoff (02:04)
For the stuff that regular people are using AI for, like where should I go on my vacation? What’s the best pizza in Texas? Now people aren’t going to Reddit. Because I have my answer.

Cindi (02:18)
Right. It’s already there in the AI, like the AI for Google. It’s there. Like it’ll say Reddit and you’ll get the headline and know what they’re talking about.

Geoff (02:27)
So stock price basically Yeah.

Cindi (02:29)
Tanked 40%.

Cindi (02:32)
Because as you lose the people going to Reddit for these answers, you lose people being on the platform and providing the data. And so as a result, Reddit is trying to unravel their relationship with AI. To basically make the platform

Geoff (02:52)
Encourage people back.

Cindi (02:54)
And so that’s the Reddit story.

Geoff (02:57)
And so we can’t fault the leadership of Reddit.

Cindi (03:01)
No, they what they did was genius at the very beginning. It was like that totally makes sense.

Geoff (03:07)
It made them millions, probably tens of millions. And so it seemed smart. Their stock price is my recollection was it went up was favorable to that. And it was, you know, that’s that was a good gamble. That was a good strategic choice then. And now you play out again, two years ago, nobody knew how people gonna use this. People do use it some at work, but a lot of AI use is basically clean up this email and where should I go for dinner? 

And that latter category, where should I go on my vacation? What’s the best place to visit right now on Labor Day weekend that’s not going to be too hot in America for under $300 each way from Houston, Texas? That’s going to be in many of those cases, that is a Reddit answer that people will not go to Reddit to get.

Cindi (04:04)
Yeah.

Geoff (04:05)
Yeah. And if I’m on Reddit doing it, number one, I’m on Reddit. And number two, it takes me maybe twenty minutes to go through all that. If I just type it in, it takes me 20 seconds. I get what Reddit would have answered, but I never actually go to Reddit. And so they what seemed smart two years ago now isn’t. And now they’re having to figure out how do we get people back on this amazing unique platform that literally in there are answers to millions of questions that people have. The answers are in there. And how do we get people back engaging with the platform so that it doesn’t become

Cindi (04:53)
Commoditized.

Geoff (04:54)
or or, you know, forgive me, Wikipedia nerds, but static like Wikipedia. Like that’s– Wikipedia’s what happened in the old days. I mean, you know, the analogy to that one is a book, but Reddit is like a live conversation.

Cindi (05:13)
Like you like the ski board. Instead of having the AI version because you actually want the live update.

Geoff (05:19)
Love it. I wanna know right now where’s the best snow, what’s happening, this mountain and all this and yes

Cindi (05:26)
If you wanna learn that, you know, a great restaurant in Greece, that’s probably not changing as frequently as ski conditions. And so for that reason, you can get it from the AI the answer from the AI and be satisfied. Yeah.

Geoff (05:42)
That’s right. And that’s, you know, part of the Reddit problem is they used to be a community. Or let me say it differently. One of their distinguishing features was that community feel. Like the, you know, we you and I, we talked about this a little bit. I have an obsession for two things, skiing and Neapolitan pizza. And the other people who are obsessed about skiing, they’re on Reddit. 

And I haven’t looked because I’m trying not to spend all my time only thinking about skiing and pizza. But I’m pretty sure that the where all the freaks are who love Neapolitan pizza is Reddit. And that’s my tribe. And Reddit wants me engaged with that tribe. But what’s happened in the last two years is that I can get 80% of my, maybe more, 90% of my questions answered.

Cindi (06:38)
You can get your informational needs answered on AI.

Geoff (06:41)
And it’s coming from Reddit. Yeah. And then I don’t have to join the tribe.

Cindi (06:48)
For the social element. Yeah.

Geoff (06:50)
And so then it be it begins to lose some of its

Cindi (06:54)
Yeah. You’re basically getting the informational part at the cost of the social part.

Geoff (06:59)
Right. And to Reddit, they’ve only make their money once from selling the data. Whereas every second of the day, you know, metaphorically, they make their money if people are actually on the board.

Cindi (07:13)
Well they also need people on the board because they need the contribution. So it’s definitely in a jammed situation. That’s the…

Geoff (07:21)
…Dilemma for Reddit, and it illustrates the bigger point of how difficult it is to make a prediction about, especially about something that absolutely nobody understands, how this one thing that is playing out right now is going to play out.

Cindi (07:42)
Well, and I think that like, you know, in terms of like business lessons from that, I mean when there’s high uncertainty, that’s probably a pretty good reason to not have extremely long contracts because like you you know that you don’t know. Yeah. And so it would be better like I don’t think Reddit making the deal with AI was a mistake in the very beginning. I think it can be the right answer and still be a problem today.

Because nobody knew and Reddit needed to have some way some means of making money. It like my recollection is that until they started selling their data, they were struggling for a business model. Yeah. Which I mean, that’s happened with like all the social media companies. How do you actually do the monetization? 

And and so that can be the right answer then, but recognizing that there’s this level of uncertainty where we just don’t even know how it’s gonna be used is probably a pretty good indication that even if you’re making a deal, it should be on the shorter term. I don’t know how long they lock them in for, but…

Geoff (08:56)
Didn’t seem that it was that long because they’re, you know, again, I have sympathy for all these companies affected by AI. And to be clear, I you I don’t think this is controversial. We’re two years in. Most companies are not existentially impacted by AI. Most companies are continuing on, and these there may be job losses.

But they haven’t happened yet.

Cindi (09:27)
Well, and the job losses that have happened are being undone. Like I just had a conversation with somebody who’s in cybersecurity, and basically the person was like, Well, yeah, my company jumped on laying pff and this is another good lesson with yeah, technology and uncertainty. My company jumped on, we don’t need them anymore, we have AI and let a ton of them go. Right now.

And now needs to rehire them because the what is obvious in retrospect is Yeah.

Geoff (10:00)
The AIs can hack

Cindi (10:02)
If you’re if you’re if your cybersecurity is only as good as AI can code, then anybody can break the code. Yeah. And so now they have had to try to get them back on for a lot more money.

Geoff (10:16)
Sure, I’m sure it’s at a premium. Yeah, it’s like I, same thing couple weeks ago I was reading an article about travel agents and the numbers going up and they’re making more money.

Cindi (10:30)
Okay, you’re gonna have to tell me about that one because I definitely missed that.

Geoff (10:33)
And so

Cindi (10:34)
I I used my boyfriend “Chat” to plan all of our trips.

Geoff (10:38)
Yeah, I’m completely like, I mean, do I think AI is going to be extremely important? Probably, in the same way that the internet was important. But it took years to figure out how and in all the ways that the and there was a lot of these things that happened along the way about the internet that we didn’t expect. But nobody knows what’s gonna happen. The experts don’t know what’s gonna happen. The regulators don’t know what’s gonna happen. The people creating the companies don’t know what’s gonna happen.

Cindi (11:10)
No, that’s the beauty of innovation.

Geoff (11:12)
It’s the beauty, but it’s also what gives people gray hair and wrinkles. Because this is if you’re Reddit and you made a good call early, it seemed like, selling your data, and now it’s not a good call, or you’re TripAdvisor, and TripAdvisor is an even worse jam than Reddit.

Cindi (11:31)
yeah, we never use TripAdvisor now.

Geoff (11:34)
Because it’s their answers too, are going. I don’t know if they paid if they were given money for it or whatever, but you can see the little icons when you punch it in the chat, and it’s pulling up TripAdvisor to give you the answer for again, what are most people using it for? Where should I eat dinner and where should I go on vacation? And that’s your AI revolution, by the way, is you know, where’s the best pizza in town? And so this that

Cindi (12:03)
Hey, when the personal computer first came out, one of the the major uses that was cited for it was recipes. A place to store recipes with an order. So I mean, food and porn often lead the way.

Geoff (12:17)
I get it. It’s humbling because nobody knows what’s going to happen. And to varying degrees, we’re either working in companies or people are leading companies that to varying degrees are being buffeted by AI. To be clear, most companies are not in any danger today of AI putting them out of business. But there are some, like Reddit, like TripAdvisor, and they’re having to they’re having to struggle. There are others, as you mentioned, companies that may have laid off some of their cybersecurity because we can do this all now with AI, and now they’re having to hire them back. 

And then there’s unanticipated things happening, like as I mentioned, there are now more travel agents in America than there were two years ago because at the higher end of travel, the upper middle class and above, they actually want everything put together.

Cindi (13:25)
Well, and I think that is partly how Reddit has an example over TripAdvisor. So yes, I get that like the whole put together aspect of it, but I think it’s also like the high touch, the human touch of it. And and so, you know, we basically have used travel agents of a variety to figure out like tours in countries that- 

Geoff (13:49)
Yeah, in very distant, confusing, (meaning long way away) countries.

Cindi (13:55)
Right. Well, that’s partly because we’re cheap, so we only do it when we absolutely need to. But I mean, like the feedback on it, well, you just came back from family vacation and the feedback on it was this is amazing. Yeah. Like to have somebody basically pick you up at the airport and take you everywhere you need to go and everything is, it’s amazing. And that’s that human touch that AI can’t do. 

But and that’s that part of Reddit that’s community that if they can figure out how to get back to it, that is what protects that. Now, TripAdvisor, that’s a different story. TripAdvisor, it’s not community. Yep. It’s a list.

Geoff (14:35)
They’re in trouble. Yeah. TripAdvisor’s in trouble like Fedors and the Zagat. Yeah. All those are in existential trouble in the same way that you know, go back 30 years, in the same way that Want Ads were in trouble with the internet and Craigslist. And so that’s existential.

Cindi (15:01)
Yeah, and they’re actually kind of analogous to Want Ads.

Geoff (15:04)
Sure. Yes. And my only point about AI. So again, we’re two years into AI. Everybody’s worried about the job losses. They may come. They have not come yet. Everybody’s saying all this work is gonna go away. It hasn’t yet. It’s it may, but it it’s not showing up in any of the numbers of employment or productivity in the country. It’s not making AI is not moving the needle in companies, in the vast majority of companies yet. 

Period, next statement, that doesn’t mean that it won’t in the years that come. And it’s going to probably roll out in some ways that are uncertain, that we can’t expect, or that we that we can’t anticipate, in the same way that we couldn’t anticipate that social media quite possibly may turn out to be a net negative for the world and not a net positive.

We may in the grand sweep of history, usually the people who study technology suggest that the technology, if it’s truly disruptive, it will in the end create more jobs.

Cindi (16:16)
Mm-hmm.

Geoff (16:18)
Go back to and I’m not saying this is gonna happen with AI. I think we do need to keep more of an eye on it. We should learn from social media and keep a little more of an eye on AI than we did about social media. Which I’m saying just to make a crude example, social media we thought was great and we were excited, and now we’re fifteen years into social media. And Yeah.

Cindi (16:40)
The data shows damage to certain groups specifically.

Geoff (16:43)
It’s it’s it’s messy, but like I feel like the social media companies have lost a PR war. And so they can say scientifically you can’t really prove a causation, but they I think they’ve lost a PR.

Cindi (16:58)
Yeah, that that’s their argument. But

Geoff (17:01)
Anyway, you go back to the travel agents in America. Travel agents have gone up since AI came out. Why? Because there’s more demand at the higher level for putting the whole thing, the whole package thing together from stem to stern. How are the travel agents able to do it? They’re using AI. Yeah. And so, in again, a very humbling to me, this is all very humbling, because I wouldn’t have predicted any of this.

I don’t have any idea what’s gonna go on, but I can read I can read the news when it comes out of where we are today. And there’s more travel agents now than there were two years ago. I understand why. We’re using them more than we ever have.

Cindi (17:45)
Yeah, us as individuals.

Geoff (17:47)
Yeah. And so okay, also it has this idea of face validity we talk about. And then I understand why these agents are able to do this. It’s because AI is enabling it. And so in a completely backwards world, AI, at the same time that it’s wrecking TripAdvisor, Zagat, and all of these printed or online static-y, “this is the best place”. It’s wrecking all of that. It’s actually creating livable jobs for people to be tour guides, or not tour guides, tour organizers. I would never have predicted that. 

Well, that’s the grand sweep of history. That’s what the many of the people who are AI boosters will say. Not only can it help cure diseases and it in theory could help us have a much better life. Also that in the long run, there will be more jobs created from this disruption. It’s possible that this time is different, but I wouldn’t have put a dollar on a bet that there would be more travel agents two years into the AI era as there actually are. And so it’s humbling. Don’t know how it’s gonna work out.

Cindi (19:16)
Well, yeah, and I think to the extent that you can give something that AI can’t give, those are the areas that are flourishing. So to the like even though AI is facilitating the tour guy, the travel agents creating these tours, yeah, it’s the people who help to execute them. Yeah. And the- how well planned they are, sure. Yeah. But it’s the people and that experience of being taken care of in a place where you would naturally have a very difficult time getting around because of language barriers and culturally yeah really have a hard time catching up fast enough.

And so to the extent that whether the job is facilitated by AI or not, but to the extent that you’re offering that social component that AI can’t offer, that’s probably the direction that you need to go in. And I do think that, I don’t know how it transpires with Reddit, but I do think that Reddit has an advantage over these other websites

Geoff (20:22)
TripAdvisor, Zagat.

Cindi (20:25)
in that yeah there is like there is a magic that happens when you’re on Reddit. Like it’s not just the post, it’s all the comments and the interactions back and forth on those posts and you’re just like, you know, like there’s there’s a part that’s a human connection in there.

Geoff (20:42)
And you can find your freak thing, whatever your

Cindi (20:45)
No, let’s not advertise that.

Geoff (20:47)
Well, I mean it’s seriously, but that’s what that’s part of the community. You can use your term, but you can find your little tribe and they’re gonna get you and you’re gonna get them. And it’s-

Cindi (21:02)
You’re back to pizza.

Geoff (21:03)
My AI doesn’t give me that. It gives me the answer of where the best pizza is. It gives me the answer of where the best snow is. But it doesn’t show me the person who made their entire summer vacation about going from pizza place to pizza place, which sounds amazing, but only to me and this person and this board. And it it’s yeah, it’s completely different. I tell you, I got one more AI story for you, and then we can wrap this up.

Cindi (21:33)
Well, I did add one more point. So I think that the other takeaway from Reddit is that not only can you be right initially and then find out new material later, but that we see the opposite happening. Where under this threat, like companies have made huge assumptions about like the dire straits they’re in really before so they like they’ve they’ve given up opportunities really before the threat has materialized.

Geoff (22:09)
They pulled forward a problem they didn’t have.

Cindi (22:11)
Yeah, the threat is in their head. Now that it doesn’t mean that like you don’t do like some scenario planning and think through, okay, if this happens, like how do we like let’s start thinking about that. But A, it could still like it could happen, but it could still be a really long way off. Yep.

Cindi (22:30)
B, Reddit shows you there may be money to be made in the meantime. Yep. and C, that threat might not happen.

Geoff (22:37)
Yeah. Yeah, I’m reminded of COVID. We had clients that at the beginning of COVID, healthcare clients that fired huge chunks of their workforce and other clients that held everybody, held on to everybody. And the people that acted-

Cindi (22:54)
Who acted too fast on the negative-

Geoff (22:56)
They were punished later.

Cindi (22:58)
‘Cause you’re that cyber company who has to hire everybody back at top dollar ’cause they’re pissed that you fired them and you broke the trust.

Geoff (23:08)
Yeah, it’s like they say about the most commercial airliners that wreck, it’s pilot error. Because you know, the complicated machines and all this. But again, most of them don’t wreck, but the ones that do, it’s often pilot error. And inside the pilot error, it’s often overreacting. It’s that so they train the pilots. Wait. If you don’t know what’s going on, wait. And as long as you can still fly the plane, see if a little more time, you run through these processes, you call for assistance and second opinions and see if you can sort through this. But a lot of aircraft crashes are actually exactly what you described. Over it’s something is happening. We don’t know exactly what. We feel this urge to act quickly, and we’re wrong. And there can be a cost to that. 

So here’s an AI story. You want to hear an AI story?

Cindi (24:06)
Let’s hear it.

Geoff (24:07)
And so yesterday I’m talking to a good friend of ours. He’s just been accepted to graduate school. Great school, amazing school, one of the best in America. And new program, small program. And so there’s 15 people that they enroll in this program. And so they start them in an orientation, mandatory orientation, a day and a half. A couple of people drop out before the orientation because they get the syllabus and it’s too much and it’s blah, blah, blah, blah. So they’re down from 15 to, I think, showed up at the orientation, 12. 

So 12 people show up. We got a dirty dozen at the orientation. And within the first 90 minutes of the orientation, they have a faculty member come and basically scare them about AI. And the faculty member, so these are working professionals, graduate school in their 30s and 40s, you know, people who are doing significant jobs in healthcare and they’re going for a graduate degree. And they basically say, I you I’m simplifying, but basically everything you submit, we’re going to put through a little AI checker. And if it comes up that you’re using AI and you’re passing any of this off as you, we’re going to throw you out. Okay. And you’re not going to get any of your money back. And they scare the group.

And by the end of the first day, they’re down from twelve to nine.

Cindi (25:35)
Really, that scared them?

Geoff (25:37)
Yes, because who wants to be a professional? Your company knows you got into this prestigious program. You don’t know AI. You’re haven’t been to school in 10 years. You know AI like most most people, what they know about AI is me. They can help with my email. Where do I get a good pizza? And where’s the good snow right now? Like basic

Cindi (26:03)
But I mean if you’re not going into AI and asking it to write one of your papers for you, then I’m failing to see the risk.

Geoff (26:12)
They scared these people into basically like, okay, I can’t use AI. I’m okay with that, but how am I going to get this work done? I still have a job. This is more than I thought. And now I basically they took this entire tool off the table, which they shouldn’t have taken off the table. It’s the as my buddy said, like, they’re going to regret me not having my stuff cleaned up with AI, you know, have it, but he’s not even going to use it.

To me, this is a cautionary tale. So let me so again, this is the back and forth. This is why you and I have jobs. And so you’re a program, you’re trying to create a new degree. You’re a prestigious school. You’re you need more than 15 people to make this work. You bring in one of your faculty members to put the spook treatment on these people about AI. And in so doing, you go down from 12 to 9.

That three people leave your program because they’re worried, not about am I gonna cheat? No. They’re worried about well now I can’t use this at all. It’s another tool. It’s a tool that I can’t use. I have to do this whole program analogue. I quit.

Cindi (27:35)
I’ve often because you know, we used to be professors, I’ve often thought about how I would handle the AI issue in a classroom. And I basically settled on well, there would definitely be no take home writing. Like it’s in the class.

Geoff (27:50)
Do it in the little notebook.

Cindi (27:51)
That’s right. You’ve got you’ve got fifty minutes, make it and how is that any different than saying to them, Yeah, you’re not using AI to write papers ’cause we’re gonna be putting it through an AI detector and you’ll get kicked out.

Geoff (28:05)
They scared my buddy so much that he won’t have his stuff proofread.

Cindi (28:11)
I probably wouldn’t send it to somebody. Because I’d be afraid they’d put it through AI.

Geoff (28:14)
Right. And so I again I’m not minimizing the problem that-

Cindi (28:20)
I’m just saying I don’t disagree with them.

Geoff (28:24)
And I’m just saying you can agree and they still have a problem. They’re still trying to get a they’re still trying to get a program off the ground and they are, in my opinion, overcorrecting. It’s the tension between, you know, one of the gigantic tensions in higher education is that most and now and I’m moving ever so slightly over, but most online.

Geoff (28:53)
Is a devil’s bargain. And the students want it because it’s a zillion times more convenient.

Cindi (29:02)
It’s convenient not to have to really learn.

Geoff (29:04)
All of the studies, all ALL, all of the studies suggest that almost no one, except a tiny sliver of the population, about five percent, can actually learn online because of attention spans and actually sticking with it and not having enough back and forth, all these things. I mean, if you need if you need any verification check on that, remember COVID.

And a full year lost for every child in school. We shut them down. They all went online. They learned nothing for a year. Nothing. And so this tension exists between the convenience of online or executive programs or trying to do things.

Cindi (29:54)
Executive programs aren’t necessarily online.

Geoff (29:56)
This one that our buddy’s in has online components, but they have to be there. But if you- it’s this balance of you want busy people in your program, in this case, the graduate school we’re talking about, it’s prestigious, but it’s new. They’re trying to make a a place for it. Then you have to try to be responsive to-

Cindi (30:21)
Yes. You have to be responsive to the time demands, not necessarily the difficulty level. You could structure it so they can feasibly make the time demands while still being like, yeah, you’re not using AI. Like you’re supposed to be learning this stuff. This stuff needs to come from your head.

Geoff (30:40)
Yeah. Very hard job. I think we left right in time. I wouldn’t want to be a college professor right now.

Cindi (30:46)
Well let’s not tell Spencer that.

Geoff (30:47)
I know. Spencer, good luck. He just started a new job two days ago.

Cindi (30:52)
In the middle of having a baby.

Geoff (30:54)
Yeah. Good luck, Spencer. You’re gonna be a great professor.

Cindi (30:57)
He is. Yeah.

Geoff (30:58)
Hopefully he’s not listening to you to the last.

Cindi (31:00)
He’s a little busy right now. This one might slide under the radar.

Cindi (31:06)
That’s it. I think we’re done. Thanks for joining us today on Management Muse and we appreciate likes, shares, comments. All of it. Everything that you’re willing to do. Subscribe. Thank you.

Geoff (31:19)
All right.