The Monsters in your boardroom

"He was playing like a man possessed!"

"He's been a machine, churning out these hits."

“Ask him for help, he’s a beast at this.”

"“Did you see how fast he finished that? He’s a monster.”

I yearn to be called a demon, and my heart bubbles with pride when someone refers to me as a robot. Should I be concerned?

Monsters, beasts, demons and machines are known to be distinctly inhuman, and they are the enemy in myths and narratives.

It is evident why so much of our words of praise revolves around these creatures of adversity. Being successful and achieving great things requires one to go beyond their human impulses and emotions.

And that is not necessarily a bad thing. Discipline is a virtue, and someone who remains enslaved by their human impulses can achieve very little.

Origins of Beastmode - Animals in sports and business

In sports, particularly, where athletes push to break the boundaries of what they thought was humanly possible, going to a place of inhumanity is essential, and this is where the usage of of these terms has originated. 'Beast Mode' was a phrase adopted early on by fans and game commentators to describe a flow state where players became unstoppable.

Even terms like 'animal' and 'workhorse' are used to describe athletes who maintain extraordinary consistency in training to break records, win tournaments and cement their names in history.

Likewise in the corporate world, single-minded dedication to tasks is required to complete excellent projects, and the terms 'beast' and 'machine' are thrown around to describe someone with an admirable level of focus.

The rise of the Machines

But what happens, when we find ourselves in competition with actual machines?

Artificial Intelligence's rise has been thrilling. It has the power to supercharge our output, being inhuman to a level that even the top athletes and professionals cannot hope to reach.

As these real machines settle themselves into our offices and homes, being called a robot could become less of a compliment.

There is a glimmer of hope that AI's prevalence will make us start to value each other for our human characteristics instead of our inhuman ones.