Notes from the field.
The stuff I can't stop thinking about. Relationships, hiring, the deals that happen over dinner instead of a deck, and why the way you make people feel still beats everything else. Pull up a chair.
Nobody Remembers the Deck. They Remember How You Made Them Feel.
Nobody ever walked out of a great restaurant and said, “Wow, the operational efficiency in there was off the charts.” They said, “Man, we had the best night.”
The Last Time I Checked, You Can’t Put Emotion On A Spreadsheet
Somewhere along the way we decided that if it can’t be measured, it doesn’t count. And I get where that comes from. Data feels safe. It feels defensible. You can screenshot it, put it in a deck, and nobody in the room can really argue with …
The AI Doom Loop Is Real, and the Way Out Is the Oldest Trick in the Book
WIRED just ran a piece that nailed something I have been feeling for a while now. They are calling it the AI doom loop in hiring, and the setup is almost too perfect. Job seekers are using AI to blast out applications that look tailored but…
Ed Zitron Is Worth Your Time, and I’m Tired of Pretending Otherwise
Somebody finally put Ed Zitron on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in a charcoal gray T-shirt and let him say the quiet part out loud. Vanity Fair just ran a piece on him, and my first reaction reading it wasn’t surprise. It was rel…
The AI Economy Has a Commitment Problem, and the Bill Is Coming Due
Every CEO in America is out here swiping right on AI. Nobody’s ready to get married.
Stop Hiring the Resume. Start Hiring the Person.
Google used to reject people for having bad grades. Senior candidates, guys and gals who had already built real careers, real track records, real wins, and Google would still pass because their transcript had a smudge on it somewhere. It to…
Everybody’s Chasing Scale. Nobody’s Answering the Phone.
I was at dinner a few weeks back and somebody asked me how I find the people I place. Not the tech, not the tool stack, just the actual method. And I told them the truth. I call people. I text people. I show up. And they looked at me like I…
Healthcare Doesn’t Have a Front Door Problem. It Has a Follow-Through Problem.
So Fast Company ran this piece from the GoodRx CEO, Wendy Barnes, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Her headline basically says healthcare has enough front doors, what it needs is fewer dead ends. And yeah, she’s onto something. But I wan…
Nobody Trusts the Guy Reading Off a Script
Fast Company ran a piece this week about the influencer bubble finally popping, and reading it felt like watching something everybody already knew get put into words. The framing that stuck with me: influencers as the Neanderthals of market…
Stop Saying AI. Start Solving Something.
There was a piece in the Times this week that stuck with me. Julie Averill, who spent eight years running technology at Lululemon, wrote about what happened when she left the company. Her replacement got a new title. Chief AI and Technology…