Building Things to Predict the Future

Brett Taylor believes the most successful leaders wake up every morning asking: "What is the most impactful thing I can do today?" This mindset has guided him through roles as CTO of Meta, co-CEO of Salesforce, and chairman at OpenAI. Rather than defining himself narrowly as an engineer or executive, he sees himself as a builder who adapts to what each situation requires.

This flexible identity approach came from a pivotal conversation with Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook. When she saw him editing a presentation himself rather than managing his team effectively, she challenged him to stop conforming jobs to what he enjoyed and instead focus on what would drive the most impact. This reframing changed everything: "When I reoriented the job that way, I did different things. And the biggest pleasant surprise was that I liked it."

Beware Your Default Problem-Solving Mode

Leaders often become "single-issue voters" based on their skill sets. Engineers see engineering solutions to every problem; designers see design solutions; business development people see partnership solutions. Brett cautions that "if you think the thing you've been doing your whole career is the way to fix your problem, it's at least 30% likely that you've chosen that because of comfort and familiarity, not truth."

This tendency creates blind spots. At FriendFeed, Brett's team of brilliant engineers focused exclusively on product quality while Twitter was recruiting celebrities and public figures. "We totally lost for no reason related to product at all," he reflects. The lesson: surround yourself with people who will challenge your default thinking patterns.

Systems Thinking Matters More Than Coding Skills

While Brett believes computer science remains valuable to learn, he sees the act of coding transforming from typing into terminals to "operating a code generating machine." The differentiator will be systems thinking - understanding how components interact to create outcomes at scale.

He illustrates this with Facebook's newsfeed design: mockups looked beautiful with perfect photos and grammatically correct posts, but the real challenge was designing a system that produced a delightful experience with messy, unpredictable user-generated content. This systems perspective is what AI can't replace.

The Agent Revolution Will Transform Business Models

Brett predicts the entire software market will shift toward agents (autonomous AI systems that accomplish specific jobs) and outcomes-based pricing. Unlike traditional productivity software that's hard to measure, agents deliver concrete, attributable results - like resolving customer service calls without human intervention.

At Sierra, his company prices based on resolution rates rather than usage: "If the AI agent solves the customer's problem, they're happy with it, and you didn't have to pick up the phone, there's a pre-negotiated rate for that." This aligns vendor and customer incentives completely, transforming the relationship from vendor to partner.

For leaders building AI products, Brett advises choosing your go-to-market strategy based on who actually buys your product, not just what feels comfortable. Many AI companies need direct sales approaches because "the buyer and the user are not necessarily the same person," even if product-led growth seems more appealing to technical founders.