Articles

Prefer a deliberate route through connected ideas? Explore article series.

A Stranger Explained the Future of Programming to Me in 1981

Electronics, then programming, then vibe coding. Every layer since has gotten faster at putting a result on your screen, and almost none of them got faster at telling you the result is right. That distance is now your job. An almost empty cinema, a matinee, 1981. Two people i...

Tool: Is Evidence Keeping Up With Your Output?
Prioritize Feature Requests Before You Know Your Customer

Several users are asking you for different features, the advice says protect the roadmap, while you can't yet say who your product is for. In the 90s I buil...
Stop Balancing Work Against Life. Fix What's Actually Broken.

Balance assumes work and life are opposites. They never were. When work drains you, find which part is broken and change the smallest thing that fixes it. Y...
You're Almost Never Too Late to a Market

A crowded market hands you problems you can solve; a premature one asks you to wait for the world to change. You found the idea. You spent a week falling in...
Part of the “From Market Entry to First Conversion” series
Your Best AI Coding Partner Is the One Least Like You

Why AI pair programming is a team-composition problem, and the right partner supplies the engineering temperament you keep skipping. You are choosing betwee...
Part of the “AI-Era Coding: From Speed to Mastery” series
Tool: Does Your AI Cover Your Blind Spots or Multiply Them?
AI Feels Human Because You Have to Talk to It

You ask, you explain, you catch yourself saying thanks. Talking is the only way to use AI, and talking is a social act. That is why AI feels so human. You c...
Part of the “Understanding AI by Understanding the Interface” series
Tool: Is Your Trust in AI Backed by Evidence?
You're Not Underpricing. You're Subsidizing.

The classic signs you're undercharging clients all point to one cause: operational work you carry every month that your invoice prices at zero. The proposal...

Tool: Are You Undercharging Clients?
Your Quality Drops. Your Odds of a Hit Go Up.

You're shipping more with AI and at least half of it can feel like slop. That feeling is correct, and it's also the reason your odds of a hit just went up. ...

Tool: When you ship, what do you get back?
AI Sounds Like Someone Thought It Through. No One Did.

It reasons, argues, and sometimes sounds afraid. None of it comes from anyone with something to lose. I run a lot of my thinking through these tools now. Dr...
Part of the “Understanding AI by Understanding the Interface” series
Product Managers Are About to Be Found Out

Most product work is language, and AI just learned to produce the language without the judgment underneath. The product manager most exposed is the one who c...

Tool: Is AI coming for your PM job?

Articles

A Stranger Explained the Future of Programming to Me in 1981

Prioritize Feature Requests Before You Know Your Customer

Stop Balancing Work Against Life. Fix What's Actually Broken.

You're Almost Never Too Late to a Market

Your Best AI Coding Partner Is the One Least Like You

AI Feels Human Because You Have to Talk to It

You're Not Underpricing. You're Subsidizing.

Your Quality Drops. Your Odds of a Hit Go Up.

AI Sounds Like Someone Thought It Through. No One Did.

Product Managers Are About to Be Found Out

See the thinking before it becomes work. See the work before it's public.