Carnegie Mellon math professor and former U.S. Math Olympiad coach Po-Shen Loh argues that as AI surpasses humans at logic and language, the most important skill young people can develop is autonomous thinking. He warns that using AI to do school writing is 'like driving a car one mile for exercise,' explains why AI now solves original Olympiad problems he couldn't, and lays out a win-win-win education ecosystem that pairs middle schoolers, high-school math talent, and Broadway-caliber acting coaches to teach kids how to generate their own ideas, empathize, and think critically in an age of biased information.
In this short, heartfelt talk, comics legend Stan Lee tells the true (and hard-to-believe) story of how Spider-Man was created. He recounts being asked by his publisher to invent a new superhero, spotting a fly crawling on a wall, and landing on the idea of a wall-crawling, web-slinging teenager with real-world personal problems. His publisher rejected the idea outright, so Stan quietly slipped Spider-Man into the final issue of a dying magazine, Amazing Fantasy. When the sales figures came back, the character was a runaway hit. Lee turns the anecdote into an inspirational message: if you have an idea you genuinely believe in, don't let anyone talk you out of it, and always do your best work by doing what you want, the way you think it should be done.
Eddie Shleyner is a conversion copywriter and the founder of VeryGoodCopy, a newsletter of short 'micro-lessons' on writing, persuasion, and creativity read by millions of people a year. A former Copy Chief at the software-review company G2, he turned a private Google Doc of notes-to-self into one of the most-followed copywriting brands on the internet, a HackerNoon 'Email Newsletter of the Year,' and a 2024 book collecting 207 of his lessons. He works and lives in Chicago.

David Kadavy is a bestselling author, designer, and creative productivity expert who reverse-engineered design principles for developers, advised a startup that Google acquired, and built a location-independent career from a Nebraska cubicle. His books - including Design for Hackers, Mind Management Not Time Management, and Digital Zettelkasten - have sold 100,000+ copies in 13 languages. He lives in a cabin outside Medellín, Colombia, publishes his income reports publicly, and argues that creativity is about managing your mind, not your calendar.

Seth Godin is a marketing legend, author of 29+ bestselling books, and the internet's most consistent blogger - writing every single day since 2006 for over a million daily readers. The man who coined 'permission marketing', sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for $29.6 million, and changed how the world thinks about standing out (purple cow, tribes, linchpins), Godin is now focused on helping people 'make a ruckus' through his Akimbo learning platform, daily blog at seths.blog, and the climate action project The Carbon Almanac.

Tara McMullin is a writer, podcaster, and business philosopher who helps small business owners build sustainable, humane companies. Formerly known as Tara Gentile, she spent a decade building a formidable reputation before reclaiming her own name in 2018. She is the founder of What Works, a digital platform and podcast downloaded over 2 million times, co-founder of YellowHouse.Media, and author of books including 'What Works' (Wiley). Drawing on feminist theory, critical sociology, and media studies, she challenges conventional business wisdom with intellectual rigor and a sharp editorial voice.