Insights
Writing and research and stuff
Augmented empathy
The weird truth about modern leadership:
Third-party evaluators just rated AI responses as more compassionate than expert human responses. But here's the real kicker: the best leaders are using this to become more empathetic leaders.
My AI turned me into the villain
Oh no. I just figured out what makes me good at working with LLMs. Let’s call it the Hans Gruber Theory of Prompting.
To get great performance from my LLM, I have to treat it like a compliant (but secretly sabotaging) hostage.
AI enables infinite testing—even for B2B
Can you stop running A/B tests? MIT may have proved there's a better way.
While marketers obsess over attribution, MIT cracked the real problem: prediction. They seem to have found new ways of simulating human behavior with startling accuracy.
Candidates prefer to be interviewed by an AI
What if I told you we're so bad at interviewing candidates that 78% of job seekers prefer being interviewed by AI over humans?
The research is brutal: 70,000 job seekers in the Philippines confirmed it. We absolutely suck at interviewing people.
Organizational Yamanaka Factors
Bear with me. It’s about to get nerdy.
In biology, four DNA transcription factors can reset any cell to become a stem cell. In theory, you can take a tooth cell and turn it into a toe nail.
Well, there are four factors in orgs that can do the same thing for teams.
Being a designer, of course you hate everything.
Adore this quote from Thomas Overthun:
“Being a designer, of course you hate everything.”
He's talking about designing a premium water bottle.
But he's right.
That endless dissatisfaction is great fuel for design.
If you want to create impact, don't waste your time trying to make the iPhone 5% better. That same effort could 5x the experience at something awful like an airport check-in counter. (Sorry, airline friends)
But, there's also this mindset of looking for flaws.
Finding what sucks.
That endless dissatisfaction becomes a super power.
You get better at spotting the flaws.
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2026
- Aug 14, 2026 Six billion dollars of experience Aug 14, 2026
- Aug 13, 2026 The Erie Riots and the Stacked Adoption problem Aug 13, 2026
- Jun 23, 2026 The mathlete’s secret Jun 23, 2026
- Jun 18, 2026 Alchemy vs Chemistry Jun 18, 2026
- Jun 16, 2026 Timelocks beat combos Jun 16, 2026
- Jun 11, 2026 The Japanese fix for MALFUNCTION 54 Jun 11, 2026
- Jun 8, 2026 Hidden structure Jun 8, 2026
- May 19, 2026 Treasure your fuck ups May 19, 2026
- May 14, 2026 Don’t be a business Bolshevik May 14, 2026
- May 12, 2026 Secrets suck May 12, 2026
- May 5, 2026 Safe playgrounds break more arms May 5, 2026
- Apr 28, 2026 No better than bank robbers Apr 28, 2026
- Apr 23, 2026 You can’t govern gray goo Apr 23, 2026
- Apr 21, 2026 Nobody got fired, they got subpoenaed Apr 21, 2026
- Apr 16, 2026 $1.66T is being paid for work that AI can already do Apr 16, 2026
- Apr 16, 2026 Don’t play bottleneck whack-a-mole Apr 16, 2026
- Apr 14, 2026 You have to break it to remake it. Apr 14, 2026
- Mar 31, 2026 Rethinking the plow, or redesigning the farm? Mar 31, 2026
- Mar 26, 2026 Building an air force or defending the fleet? Mar 26, 2026
- Mar 24, 2026 How many people does it take to say yes? Mar 24, 2026
- Mar 19, 2026 Output’s up, vibes are down Mar 19, 2026
- Mar 17, 2026 The Mandala Effect & the Pony Express Mar 17, 2026
- Mar 12, 2026 Trashcans & Astronauts Mar 12, 2026
- Mar 10, 2026 This is stupid, let’s fix it Mar 10, 2026
- Mar 5, 2026 Ripping out your kitchen before you hire a contractor Mar 5, 2026
- Mar 2, 2026 The bozos effect Mar 2, 2026
- Feb 26, 2026 Your headshot predicts your paycheck Feb 26, 2026
- Feb 24, 2026 Your workflows are infinitely long Feb 24, 2026
- Feb 19, 2026 History’s worst traffic jam was caused by poor planning. Feb 19, 2026
- Feb 17, 2026 Floating across the Atlantic Feb 17, 2026
- Feb 12, 2026 Too many agents spoil the broth Feb 12, 2026
- Feb 10, 2026 Death by consensus Feb 10, 2026
- Feb 5, 2026 Why is your AI so stuck? Feb 5, 2026
- Jan 29, 2026 AI is getting smarter at math but dumber at choices. Jan 29, 2026
- Jan 27, 2026 5 Lessons from Uber's Airport Forecasting (That Apply to Every Org) Jan 27, 2026
- Jan 22, 2026 Innovation through the wrong end of the telescope Jan 22, 2026
- Jan 20, 2026 What are we actually selling? Jan 20, 2026
- Jan 15, 2026 Devs are 12 months ahead: Here’s how they’re using AI Jan 15, 2026
- Jan 13, 2026 While You Were on Vacation, AI Infrastructure Got a Vocabulary Update Jan 13, 2026
- Jan 12, 2026 Professional developers don't vibe code. They control code. Jan 12, 2026
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2025
- Dec 23, 2025 Science says you might secretly suck at giving gifts Dec 23, 2025
- Dec 22, 2025 If your team were locked in a capsule for months, would anyone survive? Dec 22, 2025
- Dec 18, 2025 In some fields, listing AI skills can hurt you Dec 18, 2025
- Dec 15, 2025 Think dairy farm, not strip mine Dec 15, 2025
- Dec 11, 2025 Empathy beats engineering Dec 11, 2025
- Dec 10, 2025 Stop driving your Ferrari in the parking lot Dec 10, 2025
- Dec 9, 2025 Your color palette is a financial forecast Dec 9, 2025
- Dec 2, 2025 Quarterly Family Review Dec 2, 2025
- Nov 20, 2025 Need to avoid errors? Don't hire an expert. Nov 20, 2025
- Nov 18, 2025 The toxoplasmosis innovation portfo Nov 18, 2025
- Nov 13, 2025 The hidden costs of automating work Nov 13, 2025
- Nov 11, 2025 Your agent has a Karate Kid problem Nov 11, 2025
- Nov 4, 2025 Which agent are you building? Nov 4, 2025
- Nov 3, 2025 Icky vs Tricky: A hidden barrier to agent adoption Nov 3, 2025
- Oct 30, 2025 LLMs are pattern matchers, humans are pattern breakers Oct 30, 2025
- Oct 28, 2025 This meeting should have been an agent Oct 28, 2025
- Oct 27, 2025 AI and the end of the no-asshole rule Oct 27, 2025
- Oct 23, 2025 5 Levels of Agency Oct 23, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 Picking an AI brand ambassador Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 Leaders are in for a $644B reality check Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 Augmented empathy Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 My AI turned me into the villain Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 AI enables infinite testing—even for B2B Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 Candidates prefer to be interviewed by an AI Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 Organizational Yamanaka Factors Oct 9, 2025
- Oct 9, 2025 Being a designer, of course you hate everything. Oct 9, 2025