Mark Cuban loves to learn. He just enjoys learning new things. He likes to build a foundation of knowledge which he then can use to build businesses. The premise is, you have to have a basic understanding of what you are going to do business with.
In an interview, he talks about how he is studying Machine Learning and AI. I didn’t expect him to go into something so far outside his experience. But I do perfectly understand his passion for learning and won’t be surprised if he takes advantage of AI in new business.
In my character strengths profile survey, love of learning came out as my #1 strength. Hearing him explaining how important his love of learning is in his career, was reassuring to me.
For a while, it seemed to me that I had no particular strength. Having such a wide range of interests even seemed bad for me in today’s ever more specialized world. Then the startup happened and suddenly my wide range of knowledge became useful. But that’s a topic for a separate post.
Also, the book The Self-made Billionaire Effect thought me about Producers & Performers. Performers being highly specialized individuals able to perform in a specific area. Producers are those with the ability to synthesize a wide range of ideas and knowledge, take risk and spot new opportunities in the market. There is an upcoming summary of this book.
When asked about AI Mark replied:
I mean if they if you truly believe that AI is going to change everything, how are you going to understand what people are doing to change everything unless you at least have a foundational understanding of it.
…Right I mean there’s nothing that AI won’t impact as big as the M… so having been around a while I saw the impact of PC’s then I saw the impact of local area networks, then I saw the impact of wide area networks, then I saw the impact of the internet, then I saw the impact of mobile, then I saw the impact of Wireless you know now I’m seeing the impact of artificial intelligence and it Dwarfs any of those things…
If you like learning from Mark, check out How to Win at the Sport of Business.