Three questions to Oli

Before we dive in Oli, tell us a little bit about you

I'm from Bristol in South West England but currently deciding where to set up a permanent home. I love the balance of my weekly schedule and learning about the many different topics I need to successfully work and invest. Night owl. Going cycling out in nature is what fills my cup.

What’s something you’ve changed your mind about recently?

Working in paid employment... As someone who has tended to be a skeptic of existing power structures–whilst I still don't feel completely comfortable "working for the man" and not being my own boss–I have seen some great net positives for my mental health by being part of a team and focussing on a shared goal. I think human nature lends itself better to collaboration vs. competition. And feeling like you have value to add to people/an organisation can be immensely powerful for your sense of self worth too (as long as you don't tie your identity solely to your job, given the likely AI disruption that's coming!). I think it demonstrated to me the importance of assessing all angles of a decision, and not defaulting to existing cognitive biases

Who is someone you admire, and why?

Maybe a controversial one, as he's a very polarising figure, but Elon Musk. Putting aside some of his questionable moral decisions, I just think his ability to see the bigger picture and connect the various dots of his businesses, whilst simultaneously boiling complex problems down to first principles thinking, is second to none. He's playing 5D chess whilst most of us play checkers! His latest thoughts about AI data centres being best placed as satellites in orbit (so they're closer to the sun for optimal energy consumption) was an a-ha moment for me.

If you had to give a TED talk tomorrow, what topic would you choose and why?

Not that I'm really an expert on it (yet!), but probably on the convergence of agentic AI, automation and blockchain/tokenisation, as that's what my current job is focussed on... Defining experiences and services at this nexus. I think agentic based commerce is a really interesting space to watch in the coming years. I'd just have to do a tonne more homework before I could stand up on stage and talk about it with any credibility!