The AI Great Leap Forward
In 1958, Mao ordered every village in China to produce steel. Farmers melted down their cooking pots in backyard furnaces and reported spectacular numbers. The steel was useless. The crops rotted. Thirty million people starved.
In 2026, every other company is having top down mandate on AI transformation.
Same energy.
Backyard Furnaces
The rallying cry of the Great Leap Fo...
The strongest version of this narrative is its sharp critique of how ideological fervor—whether Maoist industrialization or corporate AI adoption—can blind institutions to practical realities. The article effectively highlights the dangers of top-down mandates that prioritize optics over substance, drawing a compelling historical parallel. It rightly points out that AI adoption metrics are often gamed, and that rushed implementations can create long-term technical debt. The piece also astutely o...
