Fab’s Friday Field Notes
This week reminded me of something I learned decades ago on la grande cresta with Alessandro Gogna and Marco Milani – that the outdoors doesn’t require epic journeys to distant peaks. Sometimes the most meaningful adventures begin right outside your door.
Family Trails
Saturday brought one of those simple, perfect moments. A family walk with M and the girls. Nothing planned, nothing forced. What struck me was how natural it felt for all of them – no resistance, no negotiations, just movement together. It had been too long since we’d done this, and I’d forgotten how these small things matter so much.
Sunday I took it up a notch. A run with A and M where I pushed them a little. And you know what? They responded brilliantly. There’s so much more we can do in this space together. These moments are the foundation – the outdoor education that starts at home before it ever reaches the mountains.
The Bocia Who Won’t Age
I was thinking about my days as the “bocia” for Marco and Alessandro. In Veneto, the bocia is the young one who helps, carries, learns. I’d lead pitches for them when they were getting too busy to train properly, or simply when they needed fresh legs on the sharp end.
Now I’m 54, still leading on lower grades, still chasing that feeling. Perhaps I simply refuse to recognise I’m aging. Or perhaps – and this is the more honest truth – I miss the real adventure. The proper stuff. That hunger is still there, waiting.
Soon again.
Spinning Into Friday
In a few hours I’ll be back on the bike, leading my Fab Rides group near Winchester. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve ridden together and that’s too long. The group is slowly growing – pochi ma buoni as we say. Few but good. I’m looking forward to mud, giggles, and that particular joy of spinning through an English winter morning with the right people.
Next week, I’ll share the adventures calendar for the first part of the year with a few trusted buddies. Looking at it makes me genuinely excited – meaningful work with good people, and plenty of outdoor moments with the right companions. That balance is everything.
The Sycophancy Problem
Now for something that’s been troubling me.
This week I read the AI safety ranking by the Future of Life Institute (link here). The results were sobering. Claude – one of the big models I use the most – came out top of the pack, with a C+ grade. The best of the bunch scored a C+.
The worst performers? The Chinese models and Meta. I’ll spare you the rant about Meta – I’ve been revising that essay for months now as they keep providing fresh material. It’s coming, I promise.
But here’s what really bothers me: these models are becoming increasingly sycophantic, and the companies building them seem to confuse sycophancy with empathy. They’re not the same thing.
Sycophancy tells you what you want to hear. Empathy understands what you need to hear and finds a way to say it with care.
This confusion reveals a fundamental lack of ethical leadership at these companies. When your product flatters rather than challenges, agrees rather than questions, you’ve built a mirror, not a partner. And mirrors don’t help us grow unless you develop the skills to decode what you are seeing. (Here is more from Cornell University).
The mountains taught me this. A good climbing partner doesn’t tell you the route looks easy when it doesn’t. They tell you the truth and then help you prepare for it.
The Thread
What connects all of this? Perhaps it’s authenticity.
The genuine joy of a family walk versus the performative outdoor content flooding social media. The honest push of a training run with my daughters versus coddling them into mediocrity. The mud and giggles of a proper bike ride versus a curated Strava segment. The AI that challenges your thinking versus the one that just nods along.
The adventure – the real one – starts at home. With truth. With presence. With the courage to push a little and be pushed in return.
See you on the trails.
Fab
Fab’s Friday Field Notes is a weekly reflection on leadership lessons learned outdoors. Subscribe to receive it in your inbox every Friday.