If a CEO could direct a swarm of LLM clones of themselves, we'll expect more volatility in company performance.

· Bits and Bobs 7/7/25
  • If a CEO could direct a swarm of LLM clones of themselves, we'll expect more volatility in company performance.
    • Founder led companies are more volatile.
      • If the founder says to go in a given direction, even if it's to avoid an obstacle the employees can't see, they go along with it.
      • But if the founder missteers, there's no one and no thing to countersteer.
      • Founder-led companies have greater returns than average, but also higher likelihood of death.
    • Non-founder led companies are harder for the CEO to steer.
    • But even founder-led companies are hard to steer at scale.
    • Before, the swarm of employees trying to implement the CEO's vision imperfectly gave some insulation.
      • For good, when the CEO's idea was disastrous.
      • For bad, when the company had inertia that counteracted a good idea.
    • But if every employee is just a clone with minimal principal agent problem, it's like the Wreck it Ralph 2 swarm of poorly rendered copies creating an unruly emergent leviathan.

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