Niall Ferguson, senior fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Fundamentally, I get the most value from the big brains who focus on consequences rather than capabilities. They help inspire my own thinking about which assumptions about my business stop being true because transformative technology exists. One of the most important voices I follow is Niall Ferguson (LinkedIn, X). He’s a historian, not a technologist, which is precisely why he’s valuable. Technology changes quickly.

Institutions, markets, and power structures change slowly. Understanding the gap between the two is where many of the biggest opportunities and risks emerge.