Every Saturday morning, I carve out an hour for something that’s become a sacred ritual — sitting down with a cup of tea, reflecting on the past week, and browsing through scientific articles or discoveries I wouldn’t normally encounter in my day job. I find it grounding. Sometimes it leads nowhere, but more often than not, it nudges my thinking in ways I carry into Monday.

This past weekend, I came across something that caught my attention: an article by evolutionary biologist Mauricio González-Forero, who posits that one of the key reasons for the massive growth in the human brain was... fermented food. Yes, fermented food. 🥬

But let’s break that down, and more importantly, what it means for those of us leading teams, building companies, or trying to navigate the messiness of modern tech and work.

The Evolutionary Advantage: Smarter with Fermentation?

Here’s the gist: early humans evolved to redirect energy from basic bodily processes (like heavy digestion) to support the energy-intensive demands of the brain. One catalyst in this transformation? A shift to more easily digestible, fermented food. That freed up energy and helped our species unlock cognitive growth — putting us on the path to becoming the most intelligent species on the planet.

To me, this isn’t just evolutionary trivia. It’s an elegant metaphor for leadership.

Automation = The Fermented Diet of Modern Organizations

The most precious currency in modern organizations is not headcount. It’s energy. Not just raw energy, but how it’s spent — by your people, systems, and leadership teams.

Just like our evolutionary ancestors had to find a way to make digestion more efficient to fuel brain growth, we too must find ways to make operations more efficient to free up space for innovation, deep thinking, and strategic bets.

Enter: automation.

Whether it’s through workflow orchestration, internal bots, or AI-led prediction models — automation is our organizational fermentation. It simplifies the boring (but essential), allowing our teams to spend calories on building products that matter.

• Reducing manual work is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s an evolutionary advantage.

• Implementing ML & predictive analytics gives us the cognitive horsepower to think beyond the moment — to anticipate, adapt, and act with confidence.

Strategic Leadership = Evolved Intelligence

Another key evolutionary shift was learning to tackle complex problems. In organizations, that still holds true. You don’t grow just by automating. You grow when you bring in people who’ve been through tough cycles — who know what chaos looks like and how to shape clarity from it.

That’s why I still believe in hiring leaders who’ve cracked ambiguity.

In my own life, I’ve seen this pattern play out. When I joined Microsoft after leaving a cushy leadership role, I did so because I knew I needed to “relearn” how scaled engineering really works. Taking a title cut didn’t matter — growing did.

And in every company I’ve led since — whether building recommendation engines at Amazon, transforming telco stacks at Visible, or now shaping the future at Property Finder — I’ve seen the magic that happens when experienced leaders mentor, not just manage.

When you have a system that feeds back into itself — experienced people coaching rising talent, automations freeing up human capacity, and a culture that values learning — that’s your flywheel.

Feedback Loops: The Brain of a Company

Great teams function like a well-adapted brain.

They have:

• Clear signals (feedback)

• Fast adaptations (agility)

• Intentional pathways (strategy)

Whether you’re running a product team or a global tech organization, building these feedback loops is key. Regular retros. Pulse surveys. Listening sessions. Data dashboards. All of it matters. Because your systems are only as smart as what they choose to notice — and what they choose to ignore.

My Favorite Himanshu-ism: Human-powered AI and AI-powered humans

As we dive deeper into AI-driven tooling, I’ve come to appreciate that there’s no replacing the human context. The best AI is built with humans, not instead of them. At Property Finder, we’ve built our roadmap with this principle at the core — we’re not chasing trends. We’re building the garden where talent and tech can thrive together.

The metaphor I shared recently with my team is:

👉 Human-powered AI (AI that benefits from human nuance and intention)

👉 AI-powered humans (teams that become more effective, more creative through well-placed AI)

Both sides must evolve together.

Parting Thoughts: From Brains to Boardrooms

The next time you feel overwhelmed by complexity — by the need to scale, hire, transform, or pivot — remember our evolutionary ancestors.

They didn’t become brilliant by doing everything manually.

They became brilliant by learning what to simplify, what to automate, and what to feed.

Your job as a leader isn’t to do it all. It’s to evolve how things are done.

If we make smart bets today, free up the right kind of energy, and create positive reinforcement in our orgs — we may just build a smarter species of company. And maybe that’s how we evolve… not just as workers, but as leaders.

Until next Saturday. — Himanshu