Notes & essays
Blog
Field notes from a working practice. No fluff. No frameworks that solve everything.
- Aug 5, 2026hiring8 min
This week I interviewed ten developers. Didn't hire any of them
Six solved the live-coding task perfectly. Four of those six couldn't explain their own code ten minutes later. How I run interviews now — and why the old filter doesn't filter anymore.
- Jul 8, 2026ai6 min
A three-hour meeting to pick a model. Then they picked the one I suggested at the start
About one project that got delayed seven weeks because the team couldn't agree on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or a local. And about how this usually gets cured.
- Jun 20, 2026vibe-coding7 min
What I learned from a year of vibe coding — and what I'm embarrassed about
A year ago I thought programming wasn't needed anymore. Then I spent a week debugging code the model had generated in fifteen minutes. A personal reckoning.
- Jun 8, 2026leadership7 min
I left every team chat for a month. I came back to some, not all
In February I was answering team chats from 7:30 to 23:00. In March I went silent for four weeks. What happened to the team — and to me.
- May 19, 2026practice7 min
Why I write a preprint about galaxies while running an AI automation practice
On the side of the consulting work I run a research programme called Neural Cosmology. Here is why those two are the same job, not two.
- May 14, 2026security7 min
A vendor security review killed my deal. The 12-item checklist I now run before the demo
In February I lost a four-month deal to a 64-question security questionnaire. Here's the checklist that came out of that bruise — and the one item that was the actual deal-killer.
- May 12, 2026compliance7 min
I built three AI assistants. Two of them would have leaked client data
Three POC builds in six months. Two had no privacy architecture. What would have happened the day they went to production — and the five-question test I now run before letting any AI assistant near a demo.
- May 2, 2026tools7 min
I cancelled seventeen SaaS subscriptions in two weeks. Four months later I haven't gone back to a single one
In January, accounting showed me $9,760 a year in software. I opened a list of twenty-two subscriptions and cancelled seventeen. What I cut, what stayed, and why.
- Apr 8, 2026seo6 min
I asked Claude who I was. The answer was wrong
How my own site learned to talk to AI models — and why until then they took me for a marketer from Ireland.
- Mar 5, 2026automation6 min
They tried to sell me 'analytics automation' for $12k. I opened Excel and did the maths
Ten minutes, three numbers, one sheet. A formula after which half of the proposed rollouts fall off on their own because they'll never pay back.
- Feb 18, 2026ai6 min
I tested an 'AI solution.' Two days in I realised it was Anna from Manila
A story about a product the client was paying $18,000 a year for — which turned out to be a spreadsheet with four operators. Six tells that catch this in five minutes.
- Feb 9, 2026strategy7 min
We spent seven months building our own Intercom. Hands up, who's done that
About one such story — and about how I now talk to clients when they start explaining why in their case 'writing beats buying'.
- Jan 15, 2026team7 min
For four months I couldn't get the CEO to let one person go
A story about an employee kept on for being diligent, while the team around him slowly burned out. What it cost, and what I now check at the first meeting.
- Dec 18, 2025process7 min
Petya went on vacation — and the builds stopped
Three weeks in the life of a company where a critical process ran on one person, and that person went to grill kebabs at the dacha. What I learned, and what I now do with those situations.
- Nov 25, 2025founder6 min
A friend sold his stake because he was tired. I'd seen the signals for six months and said nothing
Burnout doesn't arrive suddenly. It sends signals in advance. Three I've learned to recognise. And one conversation I once didn't have.
- Oct 8, 2025content7 min
I opened the client's 'Drafts' folder. There were 47 posts in it
A story about one of the most typical deaths of a content factory — in week three. About what a 'working automation' that produces nothing looks like.
- Sep 24, 2025team6 min
I killed the standup. The team didn't fall apart. It should have, by the book
A story about a client whose daily standup had devolved over six months into a circular prayer. What we did instead, and why I now kill standups almost everywhere.
- May 27, 2025ai8 min
How I did in two weeks what the client had been paying for over four months
A story about a $380k AI platform that did not ship in four months, and one process that shipped in two. The blocker is the framing, not the technology.
- May 5, 2025meta2 min
First entry
A short explanation of why this blog exists and what will be here. No manifestos.
From the research arm