~ the archive · 49 episodes & counting

Every episode, sharpened for leaders.

New drop Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Filter by lane to find the thinking that matches how you actually want to use AI this quarter.

Phantom Polish
Field Notes 7 min read

Phantom Polish

The customer cannot see the polish. Measure what the customer can see.

The Professional Recipe

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Your AI Workshop Is Not a Keynote
Field Notes 8 min read

Your AI Workshop Is Not a Keynote

If the goal is to change what your team thinks about AI, give the keynote. Do it well. Own the format. Do not pretend it is more than it is.

The Station Plan

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Keeping Up Is Not the Same as Getting Better
Borrowed Lenses 8 min read

Keeping Up Is Not the Same as Getting Better

The Professional Recipe

Monday Move Start a Friday Fluency Review for one week.

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Your Agent Dashboard Is Green. The Work Still Broke.
Translated Strategy 6 min read

Your Agent Dashboard Is Green. The Work Still Broke.

The dashboard says the agent finished. The log tells you whether the humans kept trusting it while it did. Watch the run, not the shell.

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Paid Tools Are Not a Governance Policy
Field Notes 9 min read

Paid Tools Are Not a Governance Policy

Buy the paid account. Then write the rule.

The Professional Recipe

Monday Move Before you approve another AI tool this month, write a three-color data rule for one workflow. Customer email replies is a good default.

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Small Bets
The Shift 9 min read

Small Bets

You do not pay down Velocity Debt by planning a bigger rebuild.

The Station Plan

Monday Move Run the Friday Rollback Test on one site headline.

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Build the Room Before You Ask the AI
Translated Strategy 8 min read

Build the Room Before You Ask the AI

Monday Move Build one project room for one real deliverable this week. Pick the deliverable you keep rewriting by hand because the AI version is always wrong.

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You're Testing on the Wrong People
The Shift 8 min read

You're Testing on the Wrong People

Monday Move Pick one process you think is real.

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The Tells
Field Notes 9 min read

The Tells

A process that lives in someone's head has a grammar. Once you can hear the seven sounds it makes when somebody tries to draw it, every 'why isn't the AI working' conversation rewrites itself in real time.

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Earlier in the archive 40 more
Stop Hiring the Prompt Translated Strategy 8 min read Your Prototype Graveyard Is Already Running the Business Translated Strategy 8 min read Today vs. Ten Years The Shift 9 min read Pick the Decision. Latency Answers Itself. Field Notes 9 min read Five Questions for the Blind-Spot Prompt Ritual Field Notes 9 min read Three Handoffs at Ninety Is Seventy-Three The Shift 9 min read Mount Stupid The Shift 8 min read The Dimmer, Not the Switch. Field Notes 8 min read The Team Didn't Need Perfect Field Notes 8 min read The Prep Call The Shift 9 min read The Wrong Room Translated Strategy 8 min read The Context You Don't Own Translated Strategy 8 min read The No-List The Shift 8 min read Velocity Debt The Shift 8 min read 45 Minutes on Quote One Field Notes 9 min read Hot Cross Buns The Shift 8 min read Mike's Head Is Your Wiki. Translated Strategy 8 min read The Dependency Property Translated Strategy 8 min read The Recursive Pattern: Why Fixing AI Means Fixing How You Delegate The Shift 8 min read Before You Cancel: The Audit Field Notes 7 min read From Pyramid to Station Plan: The Structural Shift Nobody's Talking About The Shift 7 min read The First Try Is Rarely the Last Try Translated Strategy 7 min read Ghost Numbers Borrowed Lenses 8 min read The Laziness Problem The Shift 7 min read The Specification Bottleneck Translated Strategy 10 min read The Pass Translated Strategy 9 min read The Chef Translated Strategy 8 min read The Lonely Examples Problem Translated Strategy 6 min read The Prompt Hoarder Translated Strategy 7 min read Speed Beats Polish The Shift 5 min read The Dashboard Delusion Field Notes 7 min read The Silent Critic Field Notes 6 min read The Context Vacuum Translated Strategy 7 min read The Chat Refugee Translated Strategy 5 min read It's Not Excel Translated Strategy 5 min read The Open Door Problem Translated Strategy 6 min read The Process Cage Translated Strategy 6 min read The Announcement Trap Translated Strategy 8 min read Your Sent Folder Is the Training Library Translated Strategy 9 min read Stop Hiring AI. Start Building It. Translated Strategy 11 min read

New episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.