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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natesnewsletter.substack.com/subscribe Last week in Davos, Elon Musk told the World Economic Forum that we’re approaching “abundance for all.” Ubiquitous AI, ubiquitous robotics, an explosion in the global economy “truly beyond all precedent.” Dario Amodei predicted half of entry-level white-collar jobs would disappear within five years. The abundance narrative echoed through every panel, every fireside chat, every après-ski conversation in the Swiss Alps. Then Cognizant released its research: AI could unlock $4.5 trillion in U.S. labor productivity. But there was a caveat that got less airtime. That value would materialize only “if businesses can implement it effectively.” And as Fortune reported, most businesses have not yet done the work of restructuring operations or reskilling workforces to capture AI’s potential—a gap Cognizant’s CEO Ravi Kumar emphasized when he noted that “turning that investment into meaningful results takes more than raw technology power.” There it is. The gap between the abundance narrative and reality. Not capability—implementation. Not potential—capture. The AI exists. The trillion-dollar value doesn’t flow automatically. This is the story everyone is missing while they debate AGI timelines. The interesting question isn’t whether AI creates abundance. It does. The interesting question is: where are the bottlenecks? Because that’s where value concentrates. That’s where leverage lives. That’s where fortunes will be made and lost in the next decade. Abundance is hand-wavy. Bottlenecks are specific. And specificity is where strategy happens. This briefing covers: * The logic of bottlenecks. Why the binding constraint—not any constraint—determines actual throughput, and how every dominant organizational form in history emerged to dissolve a specific one. * The physical layer is back. How atoms, not bits, have become the binding constraint on AI capability—and what that means for infrastructure strategy, site selection, and workforce planning. * The trust deficit. Why verification doesn’t get cheaper as generation costs collapse, and how trust is becoming infrastructure for coordination in the same way capital became infrastructure for commerce. * The integration gap. The $4.5 trillion sitting unclaimed because organizations can’t bridge the gap between general AI capability and specific organizational context. * The talent implications. How the dissolution of old individual bottlenecks is creating new ones—and what that means for hiring criteria, workforce development, and organizational design. * The question that matters. A diagnostic for identifying where scarcity has migrated in your organization and whether you’re positioned to solve the constraints that actually bind. Executive Circle members enjoy all these Sunday briefings! Curious? You can easily change your plan here