Newsletter
The Brief Pause. Numbered issues: the pieces I think are worth a wider audience, gathered as they go out.
11 entries
- 11
Who teaches the Jedi now?
Everyone just got handed a lightsaber. The apprentice work that used to make people good is the work AI does now, so who plays Yoda?
- 10
The Iron Triangle, One Year On
A year after writing that AI bends the iron triangle, the numbers: commits, tokens, hours, and the one line I did not want to write.
- 09
#42
The year I was 42 produced fifty answers. Then I stopped for most of the summer and worked out which part was actually scarce.
- 08
Tuesday Afternoon
On slow correspondence, friction, and the work that happens in the wait.
- 07
The Thing That Wasn't Supposed to Move Me
I cried at the wheel while a machine read my own manifesto back to me. A field note on an empty idea box, and on not being sure how much of what came back was mine.
- 06
Addicted to the Output, Not the Outcome
A conversation with Claude after 2.5 months of intense building — on why we crave complexity, what the full backlog is really protecting us from, and what happens when the flow finally stops.
- 05
The Exoskeleton and the Morning Walk
What working with an AI exoskeleton gives me, what it takes, and why the morning walk with Fimme and Sien outside Oberbarnim turned out to be part of the work.
- 04
When the Floor Moves
Some of the skills I was proudest of are a button now. Why I think a lot of AI anxiety is closer to grief, and a small way in.
- 03
Imaginary friends
I never had an imaginary friend as a kid. Now I've got a small committee of them, and some come with a system prompt.
- 02
On Creativity: Feeling vs Being
A grey morning walk with Sien, a question from Martin Kuipers, Lisa's salon on creative health, and LEGO on the carpet. Thinking out loud about feeling creative versus being creative.
- 01
Leaders without answers
Consultancies sell the expert with the answer. Now that answers are cheap, what's left worth paying for?