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Leadership is a mutual influence process that happens outside formal authority. It’s not a corporate title or rung on a ladder. If one is a leader, that’s a sta

Leadership is a mutual influence process that happens outside formal authority. It’s not a corporate title or rung on a ladder. If one is a leader, that’s a status informally conveyed by the leader’s voluntary followers.

deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
spacechild1 2mo ago
Exactly. For example, you can be the leader of an open source project.
jnovek 2mo ago
These are different definitions of the same term. Yes, “leadership” is a stupid word to co-opt, but it’s been used this way for 20+ years and I suspect that you know what the author means. There’s a very interesting conversation here that apparently HN doesn’t want to have today about how LLMs seem to respond to the same sorts of process structures as humans, I don’t know why we’re hung up on semantics.
- Jare 2mo ago
  > how LLMs seem to respond to the same sorts of process structures as humans Pattern recognition to be sure, and structured communication conveyed with proper contextualization and emphasis, are common to both humans and LLMs. (at least if you want to get anything done)
phil21 2mo ago
Yep a leader is simply someone people follow. That’s it. That’s all it is. All the books, leadership courses, etc. are lipstick on that pig. I suppose it can happen, but I’ve never seen someone who is a terrible leader educate themselves into being a great one. It’s pretty close to a natural skill you can build on and develop. The term has been usurped by the usual suspects, but the definition is still the same on the ground. LLMs require zero leadership skills. They do require strong management skillsets. These are not remotely the same thing.
- 7952 2mo ago
  I think at some level that "following" bit requires a certain sacrifice or loss of autonomy that people don't strictly have to suffer. And good leaders tend to be able to get people to accept that willingly without needing to invoke authority. An LLM is making no sacrifice, they don't value autonomy so there is no leadership.
- AuthorizedCust 2mo ago
  VOLUNTARILY follow. That part’s crucial. Your manager isn’t a leader simply by nature of being a manager because your followership isn’t voluntary. And there’s other crucial parts of leadership, mainly having a vision and motivating people to that vision.

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

spacechild1 2mo ago

Exactly. For example, you can be the leader of an open source project.

jnovek 2mo ago

These are different definitions of the same term. Yes, “leadership” is a stupid word to co-opt, but it’s been used this way for 20+ years and I suspect that you know what the author means. There’s a very interesting conversation here that apparently HN doesn’t want to have today about how LLMs seem to respond to the same sorts of process structures as humans, I don’t know why we’re hung up on semantics.

Jare 2mo ago
> how LLMs seem to respond to the same sorts of process structures as humans Pattern recognition to be sure, and structured communication conveyed with proper contextualization and emphasis, are common to both humans and LLMs. (at least if you want to get anything done)

phil21 2mo ago

Yep a leader is simply someone people follow. That’s it. That’s all it is. All the books, leadership courses, etc. are lipstick on that pig. I suppose it can happen, but I’ve never seen someone who is a terrible leader educate themselves into being a great one. It’s pretty close to a natural skill you can build on and develop. The term has been usurped by the usual suspects, but the definition is still the same on the ground. LLMs require zero leadership skills. They do require strong management skillsets. These are not remotely the same thing.

7952 2mo ago
I think at some level that "following" bit requires a certain sacrifice or loss of autonomy that people don't strictly have to suffer. And good leaders tend to be able to get people to accept that willingly without needing to invoke authority. An LLM is making no sacrifice, they don't value autonomy so there is no leadership.
AuthorizedCust 2mo ago
VOLUNTARILY follow. That part’s crucial. Your manager isn’t a leader simply by nature of being a manager because your followership isn’t voluntary. And there’s other crucial parts of leadership, mainly having a vision and motivating people to that vision.