How to Move Up When the Only Way Is Down: Lessons from Artificial Intelligence for Overcoming Your Local Maximum - Hardcover

by Judah Taub (Author)

Break new ground in problem-solving and decision-making by learning from AI

A well-paid executive feels trapped in her very respected but unsatisfying job. A startup founder has paying customers, but knows that unless he 'fires' them and pivots the business, his startup won't make it. A senior government planner is tasked with undoing the nation's reliance on outdated infrastructure.

These are all examples of individuals stuck in a Local Maximum; we've reached a peak, but not the one that fulfills the highest potential. In order to move up in our pursuits, we must first move back down - a realization which can lead to frustration, decision-making paralysis and lost opportunity.

In How to Move Up When the Only Way Is Down: Lessons from Artificial Intelligence for Overcoming Your Local Maximum, Judah Taub draws from his perspective guiding early stage AI startups, his years serving in military intelligence, and various experiences leading innovation throughout his career. With his off-the-beaten path perspective, Judah shares insights into how humans can achieve better decision-making by learning how AI overcomes local maximums.

What tech engineers already know is that with the rise of AI, we've developed new ways of addressing these limitations. These techniques, employed to save billions of dollars for global giants like Amazon and Google, are equally applicable to each of us.

To show how, Judah shares a variety of real world examples, involving Olympic high jumpers, the transition of Ethiopian immigrants from gas station attendants to high tech engineers, the evolution of playing cards into Nintendo, the development of ChatGPT, the link between wildfires and hedge fund managers - and much more.

Explore:

• How to anticipate and identify Local Maximums
• How to overcome psychological Local Maximum blocks and biases
• How to build skills and apply strategies to succeed in complex decision-making
• How Local Maximum thinking can help overcome major global challenges

The book is equipped to benefit anyone facing complex decisions, or obstacles to their personal or professional goals. How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down is designed to transform readers' decision-making by recognizing Local Maximums and skill building based on lessons from AI.

Front Jacket

In 1968, an engineering student broke high jump records around the world, not by being stronger or more agile than everyone else, but by fundamentally changing the way he leapt over the bar. In 1987, a newly-formed advertising agency supercharged the marketing of a young brand called Nike by introducing a fresh tagline: "Just Do It."

Both pioneers had unwittingly discovered something critical about problem-solving that eluded their less creative competitors. It's not just about how you climb the mountain; it's about correctly choosing the mountain you decide to climb.

In How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down: Lessons from Artificial Intelligence for Overcoming Your Local Maximum, one of Israel's leading early-stage venture capital firm founders, Judah Taub, delivers an insightful new take on problem-solving and decision-making in business and research--applicable to issues as big as global challenges and to our own personal lives.

"What got your business here won't necessarily take it to the next level. Judah Taub guides you with fresh and creative insights from the worlds of tech and military intelligence so you can take your business to new heights."
--JOSHUA MARGOLIS, James Dinan and Elizabeth Miller Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

"Brilliant and original. Judah Taub reminds us how we are limited by conventional wisdoms and accepted practices; our own minds can be the biggest enemy of invention. He invites us to consider a fast-approaching future when artificial intelligence doesn't replace human thinking, but reinvigorates it. We learn from the way machines think--or, at least, put the pieces of the puzzle together. Optimistic, contrary and hugely readable, a book for everyone interested in what happens next."
--JAMES HARDING, Editor and Founder, Tortoise Media

"This book is a must-read. Judah Taub presents a thought-provoking and insightful exploration of practical lessons for how businesses and innovators can recognize and surpass the plateaus that hinder progress. By drawing parallels between mathematical theory and real-world challenges, Taub offers a fresh perspective on the importance of courage, ingenuity, and the willingness to venture beyond the known in order to achieve groundbreaking advancements."
--BARONESS JOANNA SHIELDS, Member of the House of Lords of the UK, and Founder & CEO, Precognition

Back Jacket

YOU CAN'T CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN RIGHT, IF YOU'RE NOT CLIMBING THE RIGHT MOUNTAIN

In every field of endeavor--from business to sport, from global challenges to our personal lives--we risk putting in strenuous efforts to reach the peak, only to discover that we could have achieved even greater heights if we had only climbed a completely different mountain. This trap, or "local maximum", can stop us from moving forward.

In How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down: Lessons from Artificial Intelligence for Overcoming Your Local Maximum, Judah Taub argues that we can all benefit from the same new approaches developed by tech giants using AI and data science to avoid local maximums and release our full potential. Taub uses vivid examples from business to the battlefield to outline practical tools for enhancing our strategic thinking and reaching new heights in our professional and personal lives.

FOREWORD BY DR. JONATHAN ROSENFELD, Head of Fundamental AI group at MIT FutureTech

"Drawing upon his vantage point at the cutting-edge of Start-Up Nation and experience inside Israel's elite technology units, Judah Taub has a unique perspective on how to avoid the major pitfalls that everyone from starting entrepreneurs to big companies find themselves in. How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down offers a refreshing blueprint for tackling the toughest challenges in business and beyond."
--SAUL SINGER, Co-author of Start-Up Nation

"How to Move Up When the Only Way is Down serves up an original take for leveraging creative thinking to overcome the decision-making traps we often set ourselves. By flipping the script--and learning from the methods AI uses to push through computational obstacles--the book reimagines how we can all do a better job achieving our true maximum potential."
--SCOTT KUPOR, Managing Partner, Andreessen Horowitz and author of Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It