How Accidental Intelligence Outsmarts Artificial Intelligence

I once found $1.8 million sitting on a chair. I wasn’t looking for it. I needed somewhere to sit.

A small college was going broke. Big universities had already lent it money. They had read the same numbers I had. They were ready to lend more to keep it afloat. They asked me to review the school’s projections.

Everyone was looking at the spreadsheet.

I went to see the CFO. The only empty chair was covered in papers. I asked if I could move them. He told me to put them on the desk.

3 bank certificates of deposit in bold letters at the top. $600,000 each. All in the name of an investment company with the 3 initials matching the CFO’s name.

Those CD numbers were not in the spreadsheet. I knew the spreadsheet cold.

I asked him what it was. “Don’t worry about it,” he said.

I told my client. The CFO’s stories kept changing. Then a board member asked the only relevant question.

“Is this the school’s money?”

“Yes.”

They told him to put it back and get a lawyer. He straightened up in his chair and told the board member to go F%#k himself. The CFO said the school would never make it public.

He was right. No charges. They paid him to leave.

The theft isn’t what stuck. The chair did. Smart people looked where they were supposed to look. The money was three feet away.

Law firms do this every week.

The client looks fine on paper. Then the general counsel stops joining the call. A small job goes to another firm. Nobody asks why.

Asking might mean something is off. So nobody asks. Six months later, the real work is gone. The common metrics still say everything is fine.

I found $1.8 million because I needed a seat and moved some papers. Not a result of a search or deep dive. But, Accidental Intelligence has just as much – and sometimes more – value.

Pull up all the chairs you can. Move the papers. You don’t know what you’ll find.