Ramblings and things around product, culture and code.
The Blank Slate, Part 4 "Find a restaurant near me." It's the default search - whatever it is, near me . That's how most people are using AI, so it's where this starts. Zero context, so the machine guesses your location and dumps random spots. Overwhelm and irrelevance. Level up - "American restaurant in Longmont" - still vague, still a mediocre list. Add timing and "top-rated" and you're getting…
Part 3 of The Blank Slate "Nobody really knows what they're doing." It's the most comforting sentence in the industry, and this post is about the people it erases. Start with a body on the table, because I promised you this autopsy last post. Run the mirror on Agile, same move as before: one sentence, load-bearing idea, no box vocabulary. Ship sooner, so reality can correct you sooner. That's the…
Part 2 of the Blank Slate Every framework is one idea wearing a costume of ceremony. Here's how to find the idea, and what happens when you can't. Last post I held up the mirror, the empty slab, and told you what most people see in it: the readout comes back and they can't say why it's wrong, because what they were carrying was jargon with good posture. And that's the problem with jargon: it's…
AI didn't break your workflow. It read it back to you. Here's the thing nobody posting "AI changes everything" wants to sit with: the model isn't the test. You are. When you sit down with a capable model and a real problem, something quietly brutal happens. The model has broad knowledge and zero context on your little corner of the universe. It nods along. It will happily fill every gap you leave…
Your AI rollout has a structural flaw - and the window to fix it is closing. You've deployed enterprise-wide licenses across thousands of employees, but six months in, utilization is stalled at 15% and renewal costs just jumped 40%. The pattern's familiar from previous transformation initiatives - but this time the financial exposure is higher and competitive implications are immediate. You can…
From the Farmer Effect Back in 2016, I coined “The Farmer Effect” after telling a frustrated dev team, “Let’s all quit and go be farmers.” The joke hit a nerve I wasn’t expecting. Even today, on occasion, I’ll get a message to the tune of “farmer effect hitting hard today man!” so that is still alive and well. But now I’m noticing something …different. And it’s AI driven. In tech, we have had a…
Wildfire Labs posted an article a few days ago that directly encourages the need for someone to tell you, in my words, “that’s dumb, don’t do that”. The catch is, that comment may have years of reasons behind it. Reasons most people don’t want to hear, understand, nor believe. That’s completely fine! You probably already fired them anyway by now. Or dismissed them, forgot to respond, got busy …all…
Stop Parroting Leadership Advice (You're Doing It Wrong) 'Leaders eat last!' they parrot enthusiastically, while shoving to the front of the lunch line, giving you a smaller cut, leaving for that 3 week vacation and don’t forget the holiday party you’re not invited to. Welcome to the world of leaderbullship (ahem) theater, where everyone's memorized the lines you’ll remember (I’m batman) but…
Early in your career? Wondering why things take so long to materialize and get better? Can I tell you a story about 6 years? Last month, I had three separate instances where people/organizations I worked with directly, come to a conclusion I had pointed out 6-8 years ago. Not just pointed out at the time, but insisted, Mandalorian style, "this is the way". I used the data and existing feedback to…
Not long ago I was working with a very small company, maybe 8 people total, and the big question came up, very hard question to answer, especially when it isn't a thing doesn't exist... What do we charge for this? This is a huge problem, a good problem, and one that if you solve it incorrectly either leaves money on the table (they would've paid more) or lose a sale (too expensive) – both not…