June 2025 was marked by a lot of commuting time, one lost flight, and one iPhone dropped on the train tracks.
With Convert.com, we were lucky to cover two Experimentation events in Europe, Experimentation Elite in Birmingham and GMS in Frankfurt. We've spoken to many people and asked them a few questions on camera.
We asked around to define what a toy and a tool are in the context of AI.
Artificial intelligence, the big kahuna.
Some people think it's a big productivity tool, others think it's a simple toy with limited practical use, however, everyone has an opinion.
While Abi Hough created a more sarcastic version of her with GPT to have conversations with herself, leveraging the power of AI in her personal and professional life, we heard people using it as a co-pilot software for back and forth, using AI to self-educate about artificial intelligence and its ramifications (and high praise to Juliana Jackson for reminding us that it's not all about LLMs!), admin and “donkey” work, our industry uses it in different ways to make the work more efficient.
Some people deserve extra quotes:
Craig Sullivan reminds us that using AI as a toy is what makes us find the right tools:
“The playtime is important […]. If I'm not continually playing, I won't notice the moment at which something important I need to do in my job is suddenly possible.”
Georgiana Hunter-Cozens reminds us that, instead of panicking, we should apply ourselves to learning how to use AI as we use any other tools that have existed for years:
“Apply yourself to the AI and just use levity to it. I think the big thing to me, though, is it's not going to completely take over everything.”
Iqbal reminds us to solve past puzzles with AI to find out things that pass by our eyes unseen:
“Going back to basics, with problems that you think you already solved with specific tools, go back with the lens of AI and see whether or not the AI lens can add a different perspective or an additional layer of usefulness.”
AI was a major topic of conversation everywhere. An extra layer of AI was introduced by the TLC summit, which discussed how seniors and juniors utilize AI differently: while seniors apply and explore their existing knowledge to achieve deeper insights, juniors use it to learn things faster and climb the ladder more easily.
Read more: AI evolution for Product work.
“Trusting your entire workflow in AI will set you up for failure” was the consensus we found when interviewing people. We all know that, but sometimes the obvious needs to be said.
AI can be both a toy and a tool for everyone, depending on the context, their proximity to it, and how it can be integrated into their routine. After talking to our industry, the result is: use it to save time and work on things that truly matter, but don't dwell on tools all the time, and take it with a grain of salt.
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The stock market during H1
It's the end of H1, and the portfolio is back in green territory year-to-date. Although this doesn't matter in the grand scheme of long-term investing, it feels good. As I take a step back to write the quarterly report on portfolio performance, I start H2 with two things in mind:
On my round trip across the Atlantic, I finished One Up On Wall Street. I'll publish the curation summary soon, as Lynch's checklist from Chapter 15 was particularly helpful.
In this issue, I will keep it simple and reflect on the rule of the ten best days.
The second quarter bounce-back
The rapid rebound in May prompts me to ponder the "rule of the ten best days."
You get dramatically lower returns if you miss the best ten days in the market. Take the S&P 500 return since 2015, +12%, which I'd be happy with any day of the week. However, missing those ten best days would result in a 10% decrease in performance.
It turns out that during turbulent periods, doing nothing can pay off.
Howard Marks calls it emotional discipline, not brilliance or IQ, but the rare ability to do nothing when others panic.
In investing, as in life, sometimes the hardest thing is also the right thing: to stay the course.
Don't miss
Women in Experimentation 2025. It is FREE to attend, online, and delivers enough value to warrant the time you might spend binge-watching your favorite Netflix series. Save your seat for July 9th.
Up next
Summer Fridays are here, and July should be a calmer month.
John is up for cycling in Den Haague for a weekend runaway paired with a Kendrick Lamar live concert in the Ajax stadium in Amsterdam.
Marina will enjoy the Polish summer vibe for the first time, going to Masuria, a lake region, to get a tan and barbecue.
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