!["Suddenly your risk is timidity. Your risk is lack of courage. The danger isn’t necessarily building the wrong thing, because you’ve got 50 shots [a year] to build the right thing. The danger is not building enough things toward a larger vision that is really transformative for the customer." - Nate B Jones - AI News & Strategy Daily](https://i0.wp.com/globaladvisors.biz/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/20260115_18h01_GlobalAdvisors_Marketing_Quote_NateBJones_GAQ.png?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1 "20260115_18h01_GlobalAdvisors_Marketing_Quote_NateBJones_GAQ")
“Suddenly your risk is timidity. Your risk is lack of courage. The danger isn’t necessarily building the wrong thing, because you’ve got 50 shots [a year] to build the right thing. The danger is not building enough things toward a larger vision that is really transformative for the customer.” – Nate B Jones – AI News & Strategy Daily
This provocative statement emerged from Nate B. Jones’s AI News & Strategy Daily on 15 January 2026, amid accelerating AI advancements reshaping software development and business strategy. Jones challenges conventional risk management in an era where AI tools like Cursor enable engineers to ship code twice as fast, and product managers double productivity through prompt engineering. Execution has become ‘cheaper’, but Jones warns that speed alone breeds quality nightmares – security holes, probabilistic outputs demanding sustained QA, and technical debt from rapid prototyping.1,2
The quote reframes failure: with rapid iteration (50+ attempts yearly), building suboptimal products is survivable. True peril lies in hesitation – failing to generate volume towards a bold, customer-transforming vision. This aligns with Jones’s emphasis on ‘AI native’ approaches, transcending mere acceleration to orchestration, coordination, and human-AI symbiosis for compounding gains.3
Backstory on Nate B. Jones
Nate B. Jones is a leading AI strategist, content creator, and independent analyst whose platforms – including his Substack newsletter, personal site (natebjones.com), and YouTube channel AI News & Strategy Daily (127K subscribers) – deliver ‘deep analysis, actionable frameworks, zero hype’.2,7 He dissects real-world AI implementation, from prompt stacks enhancing workflows to predictions on 2026 breakthroughs like memory advances, agent UIs, continual learning, and recursive self-improvement.5,6
Jones’s work spotlights execution dynamics: automation avalanches make work cheaper, yet spawn trust deficits from ‘dirty’ AI code and jailbreaking needs.1 He advocates team ‘film review’ loops using AI rubrics for decision docs, specs, and risk articulation – turning human skills into scalable drills.3 Videos like ‘The AI Trick That Finally Made Me Better at My Job’ and ‘Debunking AI Myths’ showcase his practical ethos, proving AI’s innovative edge via breakthroughs like AlphaDev’s faster algorithms and AlphaFold’s protein atlas.3,4
Positioned as ‘the most cogent, sensible, and insightful AI resource’, Jones guides ventures towards genuine AI nativity, urging leaders to escape terminal-bound agents for task queues and human-AI coordination.2
Leading Theorists on AI Execution, Speed, and Transformative Vision
Jones’s ideas echo foundational thinkers in AI strategy and rapid iteration:
- Eric Ries (Lean Startup): Pioneered ‘build-measure-learn’ loops, validating Jones’s ’50 shots’ tolerance for failure. Ries argued validated learning trumps perfect planning, mirroring AI’s cheap execution.1
- Andrew Ng (AI Pioneer): Emphasises AI’s productivity multiplier but warns of overhype; his advocacy for ‘AI transformation’ aligns with Jones’s customer vision, as seen in AlphaFold’s impact.4
- Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution): Referenced by Jones for pre-AI decision frameworks now supercharged by AI critique loops, enabling ‘athlete-like’ review at scale.3
- Sam Altman (OpenAI): Drives agentic AI evolution (e.g., recursive self-improvement), fuelling Jones’s 2026 predictions on long-running agents and human attention focus.5
- Demis Hassabis (DeepMind): AlphaDev and GNoME exemplify AI innovation beyond speed, proving machines discover novel algorithms – validating Jones’s debunking of ‘AI can’t innovate’.4
These theorists collectively underpin Jones’s thesis: in AI’s ‘automation avalanche’, courageously shipping volume towards transformative goals outpaces timid perfectionism.1
Implications for Leaders
| Traditional Risk | AI-Era Risk (per Jones) |
|---|---|
| Building the wrong thing | Timidity and lack of volume |
| Slow, cautious execution | Quality/security disasters from unchecked speed |
| Single-shot perfection | 50+ iterations towards bold vision |
Jones’s insight demands a paradigm shift: harness AI for fearless experimentation, sustained quality, and visionary scale.
References
1. https://natesnewsletter.substack.com/p/2026-sneak-peek-the-first-job-by-9ac
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td_q0sHm6HU
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isuzSmJkYlc
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOb0pjXpn6Q
6. https://natesnewsletter.substack.com/p/my-prompt-stack-for-work-16-prompts
7. https://www.youtube.com/@NateBJones
