Vol.037 — New Tech Always Costs to Learn. Manage It Better Each Round.
Date: 2026-06-02 | Newsletter
Key Summary
This week’s LinkedIn loop — AI is replacing people, AI is shockingly expensive, AI may cost more than the humans it replaces — feels new and scary, but Zenta says it isn’t new; it’s how every powerful tool sounds in chapter one. He tells the story of a roughly US$1 million, one-week Yahoo brand-panel bet at a Japanese internet-mortgage company in 2004: the response was extraordinary, but their operations couldn’t catch the flood, so on conversion that first week looked like a failure. It wasn’t waste — the channel was real; the million was tuition, and the skill they actually bought was knowing how to run the next campaign. Every new technology costs you to learn it, so the useful question isn’t “is AI too expensive” but “are we getting better at managing the learning each time?” What compounds isn’t the tool but your ability to absorb one. For those who can’t burn a million: expect it to cost, size it so you survive, and get a little better each round. Do it simple — every new tool costs you to learn it, so get better at managing the learning each round.