Writing
Essays about building products, leading delivery and working with AI.
Published on Substack. Each essay starts from something I have built, tested, or reconsidered.
Recent essays
AI Is a Sword. The Spoils Go to the Wielders. (opens in a new tab)
Why AI creates an advantage for people who build useful workflows around it, and the continuing cost of keeping their judgment and skills current.
AI accelerates execution. It also accelerates entropy. (opens in a new tab)
How persistent product, architecture, and UX context helps prevent faster AI-assisted execution from pulling a product in conflicting directions.
I didn't change how I work with AI. I encoded how I think. (opens in a new tab)
How I encoded product discovery, planning, review, and documentation into a reusable Claude Code workflow.
Why the order I shipped things had nothing to do with urgency. (opens in a new tab)
Why I used reversibility to sequence Droplet Learn's safety controls, operational tools, and visual design.
I changed my mind about the product. It cost me a day. (opens in a new tab)
What changed when discovery continued inside the build and I could act on a new product direction in a day, including what solo work leaves out.
AI made building cheap. It didn't make building smart. (opens in a new tab)
A lesson from stripping back Droplet Learn's progress features: generating more software is easier than deciding what deserves to stay.