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The Generalists

The Generalists

By: Raz Kotler and Michael Smith Jr.
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 The hosts Raz Kotler & Michael Smith Jr., interview people around how they arrived in Singapore, their careers, their personal journeys and how the concept of being a Generalist influences their life and career. All episodes currently filmed F2F in the Poddster Singapore studios.Raz Kotler and Michael Smith Jr. Career Success Economics
Episodes
  • Why Asia Is Becoming the Next Digital Content Hub (ep 60)

    Why Asia Is Becoming the Next Digital Content Hub (ep 60)
    Dec 17 2025

    From print journalism and radio to global sports media, digital platforms, and venture strategy, Unmish Parthasarathi has spent three decades operating at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and commerce. In this episode of The Generalists, he explains how cross-disciplinary careers are built in practice, why the most effective leaders today are deep generalists, and how Asia is emerging as a key center for new content and digital business models.

    Unmish introduces his Content × Code × Capital framework, showing why innovation happens in the overlap between disciplines rather than within silos. He shares the career moment that forced him to define his true craft, why he left traditional television at its peak, and how that decision led to early work in short-form digital video at the International Cricket Council. The conversation spans sport, media, gaming, education, and technology, while also touching on leadership, empathy, cultural nuance, and the life philosophy that continues to guide his decisions.

    📖 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

    • The Content × Code × Capital framework and why innovation happens at intersections
    • What it means to be a deep generalist in fast-changing industries
    • The career question that forced Unmish to define his true craft
    • Why storytelling is both an emotional capability and a business skill
    • How sport, gaming, media, and education share common structural patterns
    • The economics of short-form video before social platforms existed
    • Why Asia is becoming the center of gravity for new digital and content models
    • How cultural nuance shapes platforms, products, and monetization strategies
    • Lessons from building careers across London, New York, Johannesburg, Dubai, and Singapore
    • Why judgment, character, and luck matter more than credentials alone

    🔔 Subscribe for more strategy, career insights & global operator stories

    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast
    • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4?si=a25c777a19854616
    • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-generalists

    👥 Hosts

    • Michael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp
    • Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/

    👤 Guest

    • Simon Davis ⁠⁠:https://www.linkedin.com/in/simondavis/⁠⁠

    🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned🚀 Companies & Platforms

    • ESPN Star Sports: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN_Star_Sports
    • Fox Sports: https://www.foxsports.com
    • News Corp: https://newscorp.com
    • The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com
    • The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk
    • The Times (UK): https://www.thetimes.co.uk
    • The Australian: https://www.theaustralian.com.au
    • International Cricket Council (ICC): https://www.icc-cricket.com
    • IMG: https://img.com
    • Celebrity Cricket League (CCL): https://www.celebritycricketleague.in
    • Sports Works (India): https://www.sportsworks.in
    • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com
    • Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv
    • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com
    • Twitter (X): https://twitter.com
    • Kajabi: https://kajabi.com
    • Coursera: https://www.coursera.org
    • M1: https://www.m1.com.sg
    • StarHub: https://www.starhub.com
    • Singtel: https://www.singtel.com
    • Emirates: https://www.emirates.com
    • SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship: https://iie.smu.edu.sg
    • Singapore Institute of Directors (SID): https://www.sid.org.sg
    • INSEAD: https://www.insead.edu
    • University of Cambridge: https://www.cam.ac.uk

    📚 Books & Documentaries

    • Moneyball (Michael Lewis): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393324818
    • Andy Murray: Resurfacing (Amazon Prime): https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Andy-Murray-Resurfacing
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    47 mins
  • 🎙️#59 Why Legacy Game Studios Are About to Be Disrupted by AI

    🎙️#59 Why Legacy Game Studios Are About to Be Disrupted by AI
    Dec 10 2025
    From the frontlines of modern game development, Mighty Bear Games CEO Simon Davis shares a blunt reality: the traditional way of building games is collapsing — and AI-native studios are already pulling ahead. In Episode 59 of The Generalists, Simon breaks down how his team canceled Unity, rebuilt their entire pipeline, and now generates 90–95% of their code, images, animations, and audio with AI.He explains how artists with no coding background now ship fully playable mini-games in days, how Mighty Bear’s internal agentic system called Nexus blends open-source models with custom workflows, and why AI transformation keeps failing inside large enterprises while small, aligned teams accelerate. Simon also dives into why Telegram may be the next major gaming platform, how Singapore’s culture of experimentation gives his studio an edge, and why generalists — not specialists — will thrive in the next decade of game creation.It’s a rare, inside look at what an AI-native game studio actually looks like today, and why the next wave of global gaming companies won’t be built with yesterday’s tools.📖 What You’ll Learn in This EpisodeWhy Unity no longer fits an AI-accelerated development workflowHow 90–95% of Mighty Bear’s code, art, audio & animation is now AI-generatedHow Nexus integrates Stable Diffusion variants, Claude Code & custom agentsHow artists now build complete mini-games without writing codeWhy AI transformation fails in large enterprises but succeeds in small teamsWhy generalists outperform specialists inside AI-native companiesWhy Singapore outpaces Europe in AI adoptionWhy Telegram is becoming the next major gaming distribution channelHow to build a capital-efficient AI-native game studio from Southeast Asia🔔 Subscribe for more founder stories, startup wisdom & AI insightsYouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast⁠Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4?si=a25c777a19854616⁠Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-generalists⁠👥 HostsMichael Smith Jr.: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/⁠Raz Kotler: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler/⁠👤 GuestSimon Davis ⁠:https://www.linkedin.com/in/simondavis/⁠🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned🚀 Companies & PlatformsMighty Bear Games: ⁠https://mightybeargames.com⁠Unity: ⁠https://unity.com⁠Stable Diffusion (open-source): ⁠https://stability.ai⁠FAL (Inference Tooling): ⁠https://fal.ai⁠Telegram: ⁠https://telegram.org⁠📚 Books MentionedChip War-Chris Miller⁠: https://www.amazon.com/Chip-War-Fight-Worlds-Critical/dp/1476717975⁠I, Claudius-Robert Graves⁠: https://www.amazon.com/I-Claudius-Robert-Graves/dp/067972477X
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    45 mins
  • 🎙️ #58 From Analyze Asia to Reinventing ERP: Bernard Leong’s Double Life

    🎙️ #58 From Analyze Asia to Reinventing ERP: Bernard Leong’s Double Life
    Dec 6 2025
    From years inside the world of enterprise systems, Bernard Leong has reached a sharp conclusion: the core of every ERP is finance and it’s the part most broken. In Episode 58 of The Generalists, Bernard breaks down why he’s focusing Dorje.ai entirely on finance automation before even touching the ledger and why generative AI is making it possible to rethink ERP architecture from the ground up.He explains how he spent years building workflows outside traditional ERPs like SAP, Oracle, and NetSuite, and why a passing comment from a VC, “never pitch me an ERP” , became the spark for a contrarian opportunity. Bernard goes deep into AI-driven workflows, agent architectures, event-driven ledgers, enterprise readiness, kill-switch design, and why counter-positioning matters when taking on incumbents.📖 What You’ll Learn in This EpisodeWhy finance is the true heart of every ERP systemWhy ERP implementations fail across SAP, Oracle, NetSuite & DynamicsHow generative AI and AI agents enable customizable financial workflowsHow event-driven ledger architecture could replace today’s ERP foundationsHow counter-positioning helps startups compete with incumbentsWhy Dorje.ai uses a pay-as-you-go model deployed fully on the customer’s cloudHow enterprise data privacy, kill-switch controls & audit trails must workWhy problem-market fit matters more than product-market fit in early enterprise SaaSHow to build capital-efficient B2B in Southeast AsiaWhat 495 episodes of Analyze Asia taught Bernard about storytellingWhy podcasting is a non-zero-sum game and how discovery really worksHow AI can eliminate grunt work and accelerate creativityBernard’s personal mental & physical routines for sustainable performance🔔 Subscribe for more founder stories, startup wisdom & entrepreneurial insights.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2apfGY403NGr1EyTNkJfG4?si=a25c777a19854616Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-generalists👥 HostsMichael Smith Jr.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/Raz Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/razkotler👤 GuestBernard Leong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardleong/🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned🚀 Companies & PlatformsDorje.ai: https://dorje.aiSAP: https://www.sap.comOracle: https://www.oracle.comNetSuite: https://www.netsuite.comMicrosoft Dynamics: https://dynamics.microsoft.comAWS: https://aws.amazon.comGoogle Cloud: https://cloud.google.comAzure — https://azure.microsoft.comDatabricks:https://www.databricks.comSnowflake: https://www.snowflake.comDatadog: https://www.datadoghq.comMongoDB: https://www.mongodb.comRead.ai: https://www.read.aiOtter.ai: https://otter.aiFathom: https://fathom.videoGlean: https://www.glean.comXero: https://www.xero.comQuickBooks: https://quickbooks.intuit.comCohere: https://cohere.com📚 Books MentionedHow Not to Invest (Barry Ritholtz): https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Invest-Mistakes-Investors/dp/164782788XA Conflict of Visions (Thomas Sowell): https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Visions-Ideological-Origins-Political/dp/0465002056The Half-Life of Facts (Samuel Arbesman): https://www.amazon.com/Half-Life-Facts-Everything-Information-Constantly/dp/1591844933SAP: Inside the Machine (Andrew Park): https://www.amazon.com/SAP-Inside-Machine-Andrew-Park/dp/0471753976📚 Concepts & Frameworks7 Powers (Hamilton Helmer): https://7powers.comEvent-Driven Architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event-driven_architectureAgentic AI / Reflection Pattern: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_agentCounter-Positioning (7 Powers): https://7powers.comProblem-Market Fit vs Product-Market Fit: https://review.firstround.com/the-new-pmfit-frameworkKill-Switch & Audit-Trail Design Patterns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audit_trail
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    56 mins
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