No. 01
BusinessJuly 27, 2026
Your AI strategy is probably theatre — and your employees know it
Your AI strategy is probably theatre, and your employees see straight through it. That visibility is a real cost, in trust, credibility, and adoption.
Topic
future of work
29 essays
No. 02
BusinessJuly 27, 2026
How to train your team for AI adoption without causing panic
AI adoption is a people problem, not a tools one. A practical guide to getting your whole team using AI without panic: boring pilots, safety, buddies.
No. 03
BusinessJuly 26, 2026
The one-person enterprise: how AI lets small businesses punch above their weight
Staying small used to mean staying limited. AI has broken that link. How the one-person enterprise competes with far bigger teams, and where it can't.
No. 04
BusinessJuly 21, 2026
When AI agents start hiring humans — and on whose terms
AI agents are starting to hire and manage humans, not replace them. What matters is on whose terms your people enter the loop, and who is left liable.
No. 05
BusinessJuly 7, 2026
Triage, not execution — the new shape of knowledge work
Knowledge work is shifting from doing to triage: approve, redirect, audit. Gerber saw this coming, and AI has made it impossible to keep deferring it.
No. 06
BusinessJuly 3, 2026
The $50k-hire fiction: what an AI stack actually replaces — and what it doesn't
The 'AI replaces a $50k hire' lists see only tasks. A salary also buys judgement and accountability: the real work you can't hand to a stack of tools.
No. 07
BusinessJune 28, 2026
The cognitive tax: why AI power users are burning out
AI was meant to lighten the mental load. For its heaviest users it's added a hidden one — supervising the machines. Here's how to set sane boundaries.
No. 08
TechnologyJune 24, 2026
The great dispersion
AI isn't ending software development. It's scattering it out of the tech giants and into thousands of ordinary companies — and that is the better job.
No. 09
BusinessJune 22, 2026
AI and jobs: the disruption is real, but we are pointing at the wrong people
The AI and jobs panic points at the bottom rung. The real squeeze is in the middle, the reskilling remedy is hollow, and much of it is simply theatre.
No. 10
Personal DevelopmentJune 21, 2026
The skills that actually matter in the AI era — and why corporate training keeps missing them
The skills that pay off in AI work — judgement, prompt design, translation and restraint — can't be certified. That's why training keeps missing them.
No. 11
BusinessJune 11, 2026
GitLab is paying $35 million to become a small business
GitLab's restructuring spends $35m turning a 2,500-person business into 60 small teams. Small firms already have that shape. Here's how to keep yours.
No. 12
BusinessMay 23, 2026
AI's real superpower isn't doing the work — it's killing the coordination tax
AI's real return isn't automating tasks. It removes the coordination tax of meetings, briefings and approvals — the saving an ROI dashboard won't see.
No. 13
BusinessMay 14, 2026
The cognitive surrender problem: why AI tools are making us worse at thinking
Research shows heavy AI users are losing the thinking habits that made them valuable. The competitive edge goes to those who use it without surrender.
No. 14
BusinessMay 13, 2026
Sam Altman's new deal: when the builder writes the rulebook
OpenAI proposes robot taxes and citizen wealth funds. The company most likely to displace workers is writing the rules. Whose side is the rulebook on?
No. 15
TechnologyMay 4, 2026
Ezra Klein is right about the AI job apocalypse. He's understating what comes instead.
Ezra Klein says AI won't cause mass unemployment. He's right at the top — understating how the very bottom rung of the career ladder is being removed.
No. 16
Personal DevelopmentMay 1, 2026
When your employer mandates AI: a practical survival guide
Your employer mandated AI but didn't say how. Strategic adoption beats compliance — here's what to ask, where to start, and what to keep for yourself.
No. 17
Personal DevelopmentApril 21, 2026
The productivity paradox: what if AI just makes us work harder?
Tim Harford asked if AI will finally give us leisure or just make us busier. Here's how to audit your own AI-adjusted working week before it fills up.
No. 18
BusinessApril 20, 2026
The 93/7 problem: why AI maturity is a people story, not a technology story
93% of AI spend lands on infrastructure, 7% on people. Why the unphotogenic work of retraining people around AI is where the real value actually sits.
No. 19
BusinessApril 13, 2026
The layoff theatre: why CEOs love blaming AI for job cuts they were going to make anyway
Nearly 80,000 tech jobs cut in Q1 2026, half blamed on AI. Even OpenAI's CEO calls it AI-washing. A simple test separates theatre from transformation.
No. 20
TechnologyApril 7, 2026
The AI-first engineering org: 170% throughput at 80% headcount
Zencoder's team went from 36 engineers to 30 and nearly doubled throughput. A data-backed look at what AI-first software development really means now.
No. 21
BusinessApril 4, 2026
When AI becomes the manager: why the middle management squeeze is the real disruption
Amazon cut 14,000 jobs citing AI, then Pinterest and HP. The real squeeze lands on middle management, not entry level — and on the trust trap beneath.
No. 22
BusinessApril 1, 2026
The reskilling myth: why retraining won't save us from AI displacement
Corporate reskilling programmes have never worked at scale. The evidence is clear, the timelines impossible, and the honest conversation long overdue.
No. 23
BusinessMarch 27, 2026
The graduation cliff: what happens when entry-level jobs disappear
One in five companies have stopped hiring graduates because of AI. The real cost is a missing generation of leaders who never learnt the fundamentals.
No. 24
TechnologyMarch 15, 2026
The AI literacy gap: why most people use a Ferrari like a bicycle
Most people use AI like a Ferrari in first gear. The literacy gap isn't about access — it's about understanding what these tools can do.
No. 25
BusinessMarch 4, 2026
The 50:1 AI org chart: why middle management is being redesigned for orchestrators
The 50:1 headline misses the point. Middle management is splitting into automation and stewardship in human+AI teams.
No. 26
BusinessFebruary 24, 2026
The acceleration trap: why AI makes you busier, not better
AI makes tasks faster, but 77% of workers say it's increased their workload. The acceleration trap is real — and it's a management problem to solve.
No. 27
TechnologyFebruary 12, 2026
Something big has already happened
Shumer's viral essay sparked a fierce debate about AI's future. Both sides miss the real point — what AI can do right now is already enough to matter.
No. 28
TechnologyFebruary 12, 2026
The creative dividend: why AI's real gift is giving us back our imagination
AI's biggest gift isn't efficiency — it's freeing us to think creatively again. Here's why imagination is your real competitive edge.
No. 29
OtherFebruary 26, 2025
The economic role of cheap labour in American growth: from slavery to AI
Every era of American growth has been powered by a new source of cheap labour. Slavery, immigration, gig workers, now AI. The pattern is older than you think.