A few years late, but I finally got around to listening to Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey’s memoir. Read by the author himself, the book is filled with wildly attention-captivating stories, and also bits of wisdom. It’s obviously not about data. It’s not really about business either. He scatters “bumperstickers,” (which is one word, he insists) throughout the book — random words strung together to create a memorable, if not wise, sayings.

One has stuck with me, “Less impressed, more involved.” McConaughey only briefly covers this in the vignette of his father’s passing. These four words are meant to symbolize the coming-of-age moment when one realizes it’s time to be more present, more responsible, and more accountable to those in our lives.

I’ve been thinking about this as I prepare for a training that I am set to give to managers later this week.

“Less impressed, more involved.” I think it applies to AI practitioners everywhere. Yes, the technology is incredible, and yes, we are starting to see early signs of agentic AI being Production-worthy. However, by and large, we’re still seeing a lot of hype and awe - not pragmatic and reliable - applications. AI evangelists, often spurred by LinkedIn and news reports of sky-high startup valuations, make bold claims about all-agentic futures. And maybe those times are ahead. Forecasts would seem to suggest so.

But for now, as technical people, I think most of us would do well to be less impressed, and more involved. Rather than tinkering with the latest AI demo showcasing a stock-analyzing agent, we ought sit with the middle manager asking,

“How do I set standards for AI across my 20-member team?”

“How do I measure the quality of the output?”

“Where is my company data going?”

Don’t get me wrong - I love great documentation and demos as much as the next engineer - but I am only rarely seeing these demos translate to being scaled and fully autonomous in the real world. Here, leaders need assurance, security, reliability, and accountability; they’re responsible for the performance of their organizations.

As the technologists, we need to meet these leaders in this moment — we need to be less impressed, and more involved.

👂More involved in listening to real challenges.

🎯More involved in creating reliable outputs.

🧑 + 🤖 More involved in designing human plus AI workflows.

🧪More involved in measurement.

👷 More involved in front-line empowerment.

✨ And more involved in getting the absolute best out of the people and the technology.