Phyl Terry
Author of Never Search Alone and founder and CEO of Collaborative Gain, which runs councils for senior product leaders and GMs; earlier CEO of the product consultancy Creative Good and on the founding team of the first company Amazon acquired.
Phyl Terry did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsThese layoffs came from a failure in strategy and customer experience. Netflix’s strategy for the last two decades has been to create/provide a high volume of TV shows and movies, using algorithms to dictate creative direction and selection. But this strategy stopped working several years ago when new competitors for people's viewing time – especially YouTube and TikTok – started redefining everything.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Oct 21, 2026createsend.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsLook, I have a lot of empathy for Netflix leadership. It is emotionally hard to change a strategy that has made you successful. They've known about the problem. But recognizing a problem and doing something about it are two different things.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Oct 21, 2026createsend.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Companies that lay people off should take responsibility for their mistakes and apologize.
Their wordsHow companies conduct layoffs matters. Certainly it matters if they provide severance and other support. But taking responsibility for mistakes and apologizing matters too. When companies do NOT do that, then laid-off employees can feel like they did something wrong.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Oct 21, 2026createsend.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsThe moral of this part of the story is not that if you write to 60 computer companies, one will say yes. It's that if you have a support group, then they will help you come up with ideas to try. Some work. Some don't.
- 12 days earlier
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Our reading
Many billionaires would benefit from Buffett's habit of drawing his circle of competence narrowly.
Their wordsOne of the things I most love about Buffett is that he draws his circle of competence very narrowly. He knows what he knows, and he knows there are plenty of things he doesn't understand. I can think of many billionaires who could benefit from Buffett's example.
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsThere is no scientific basis for assigning a number like 10% to the probability that AI will wipe out the human species. At the bottom of this email, I say a bit more about why extinction risk is ridiculous.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Sep 9, 2026createsend.com 1st of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsThere need to be safeguards and limitations placed on this technology. But when we start talking about AI like it is some kind of magic voodoo that might suddenly become alive and destroy the entire human race, those real problems get lost.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Sep 9, 2026createsend.com 2nd of 5 in this piece
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Our reading
Lost professional jobs reflect companies' uncertainty about AI more than AI replacing people.
Their wordsMany people in the AI world will tell you the answer is obvious. AI is replacing all these people. Except there is very little evidence for that. Economists are looking, but cannot find real evidence (there's some 'speculative' evidence but nothing concrete yet). Instead, what I see when talking to executives and professionals every day is uncertainty.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Sep 9, 2026createsend.com 3rd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsWe should not solely depend on the people running or working in AI companies to tell us what AI is going to do to the world. They are hopelessly conflicted. They are raising money. They are selling products. They are competing with each other.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Sep 9, 2026createsend.com 4th of 5 in this piece
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Our reading
AI is not the cause of college graduates' trouble finding jobs; underemployment predates it.
Their wordsHere's what you may not know. 40% of students graduate into jobs that they could have gotten in high school. And that has been true for decades now. It pre-dates AI. AI fearmongering and uncertainty may be making it worse, but it's not the cause.
↗Rolling Across My Desk - Sep 9, 2026createsend.com 5th of 5 in this piece