Writing.
Observations from the front line. Practical thinking on how teams get more from AI without losing what makes them effective. The occasional uncomfortable question.
21 essays · Updated weekly
Filter21 results
- № 015 May 2026JudgmentThinking Out Loud, or Just Approving?The real risk from using AI isn't that your thinking gets worse. It's that your thinking stops happening while your outputs stay the same.→
- № 0214 Apr 2026Working smarter with AI: a builder's guide to staying in controlAI tools are powerful. But if you don't understand how they work, you'll burn through context, lose coherence mid-session, and wonder why your builds keep going sideways. Here's how to work with the grain of the tools, not against it.→
- № 0331 Mar 2026The Prototype Is Not the ValidationVibe-coding has removed the natural friction that used to kill weak ideas quietly. Teams now need a different kind of pushback.→
- № 0426 Mar 2026The Code Quality Question Nobody Is Asking ProperlyAI-generated code forces us to separate the standards that protect outcomes from the ones that protect identity.→
- № 0524 Mar 2026Building Fast Is Easy When Nobody's Depending on It YetAgentic coding workflows are compressing timelines in real ways. But most of the posts celebrating this share a variable they consistently leave out.→
- № 0624 Mar 2026The Canvas Is Not a FeatureI switched from ChatGPT to Claude and haven't looked back. Except for one thing, and it's worth being precise about what that thing actually is.→
- № 0722 Mar 2026Late to Claude Code. Or just in time.Feeling late to a new tool is rarely the right frame. What transfers matters more than what's new.→
- № 0821 Mar 2026Democratising AI Is the Easy PartGiving everyone access to AI tools solves the wrong problem if the knowledge those tools need stays locked in people's heads.→
- № 0919 Mar 2026AI Gives You the Ability to Run Ten Things at Once. That's Not Always a Good Idea.AI expands what you can run in parallel, but cognitive load doesn't scale with capability.→
- № 1017 Mar 2026The Bar MovesThe real risk of AI in the workplace isn't replacement — it's that the bar for what one person delivers quietly shifts upward.→
- № 1114 Mar 2026The Tooling Didn't Fix the InstinctBetter project management tools haven't solved the core problem: the instinct to build everything before you need it.→
- № 1213 Mar 2026Strategy Is Not a GoalConfusing strategy with goals is mostly harmless in a team meeting. In a boardroom, it quietly costs you trust.→
- № 137 Mar 2026Full Stack LeadershipThe leaders who struggle in smaller, autonomous teams are the ones who can only operate at one layer.→
- № 1428 Feb 2026Confident Answers Are Not Green LightsAI answers sound authoritative even when they're wrong. The problem isn't the model — it's outsourcing the validation.→
- № 1528 Feb 2026Qualifying, Not OutsourcingWhen AI does the work in two hours that used to take months, the unsettling part isn't the speed — it's what the speed reveals about where your value actually sits.→
- № 1620 Feb 2026Most AI Debates Compare the Wrong ThingsEveryone's benchmarking model quality. Most organisations should be mapping their data instead.→
- № 1718 Feb 2026Five Prototypes, and Still Not LearningAI lets you build five prototypes in the time it used to take to spec one. That's faster building, not faster learning.→
- № 1818 Feb 2026What Happens When You Apply Product Thinking to ITTaking on the global IT function after 25 years in product has been humbling — and clarifying.→
- № 1918 Feb 2026When 'Not Yet' Points You at the Real WorkThe right response to a strategic blocker isn't always to push harder — sometimes it's to step sideways and build the thing that's already useful.→
- № 2018 Feb 2026Automating Junior Roles Cuts the Leadership PipelineJunior roles have never just been about the task. They're how people learn how decisions actually get made.→
- № 2121 Jan 2026AI Won't Replace Product Managers. But It Will Expose Weak Ones.The claim that AI will replace PMs because it can write PRDs misunderstands what product management is actually for.→