Signals

Field notes on moving from AI promise to AI practice. One signal worth following, one subtraction worth making, one (human) prompt worth sharing. Every Monday.

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#042: Skills Are Bets, Not Gates

Last week we flagged the vocabulary fork: "skills" now means two different things depending on which room you're in.

Mar 16, 2026

#041: Skills Ain't What They Used to Be

For as long as most of us have been working, "skills" meant one thing: what people can do.

Mar 9, 2026

#040: The Verb is the Tell

Listen closely to how people at your org talk about AI. The verb they reach for tells you everything.

Mar 2, 2026

#039: The Rulebook Doesn't Exist Yet

_One subtraction opportunity_

Feb 23, 2026

#038: The Understanding Trap

Last week I wrote about the dangers of saying "not my job" about AI. This week, I promised we'd talk about what to build.

Feb 16, 2026

#037: "Not My Job" is Predictive

_One subtraction opportunity_

Feb 9, 2026

#036: The Weight of Avoidance

You know that feeling when you've been avoiding the bathroom scale?

Feb 2, 2026

#035: The Handoff Gap

AI generates fast. Ownership doesn't scale.

Jan 26, 2026

#034: Rightness at Resolution

_One subtraction opportunity_

Jan 19, 2026

#033: The Copilot Problem

_One subtraction opportunity_

Jan 12, 2026

#032: The One-Hour Year

_One subtraction opportunity_

Jan 5, 2026

#031: The Only Skill That Matters

The only skill that matters is not prompting.

Dec 29, 2025

#029: AI Lives In The Default Path

Most orgs are trying to drive AI adoption with tools, training, and enthusiasm.

Dec 15, 2025

#028: Typecasting L&D as The AI Hype Department

Organizations are asking L&D to lead AI readiness, but what it usually becomes is tool tours, prompting tips, and satisfaction scores instead of real capability.

Dec 8, 2025

#027: Managers over Models

_One subtraction opportunity_

Dec 1, 2025

Here in the US, it’s Thanksgiving week. That means an overload of gratitude posts for all the usual accelerators: breakthroughs, mentors, tools, breakthroughs pretending to be tools. There’s no wrong way to be thankful, but let’s take a different angle.

Nov 24, 2025

#025: Synthetic Trust

We’re moving into a strange era of AI adoption:

Nov 17, 2025

#024: Human Interface Fatigue

_The more “human-friendly” our tools become, the more mental overhead they create._

Nov 10, 2025

#023: Confidence & Calibration

_One subtraction opportunity_

Nov 3, 2025

#022: Scoring Without Understanding

_One subtraction opportunity_

Oct 27, 2025

#021: The PAICE Research Preview Is Live

Yeah, lots happened in the last week (again): specifically over in Anthropic-land where they announced Skills, Web, MS365 integration, and Haiku 4.

Oct 20, 2025

#020: Turbulent Measures

Everyone’s building an AI score right now.

Oct 13, 2025

#019: — Special Edition

Personalization at Scale

Oct 6, 2025

#018: Planning for AI Adoption in 2026

Updating the Diffusion of Innovation model for AI, strategizing for trust-building, and navigating AI adoption hurdles.

Sep 29, 2025

#017: Tools Takeover Talent

Being replaced by AI is optional.

Sep 22, 2025

#016: Talking to AI Like It’s a Computer

Wishing ≠ Collaborating

Sep 15, 2025

#015: AI Breaks the Training Workflow

Parallel or Perish: Rethinking Training for AI

Sep 8, 2025

#014: 5% Success

AI transformation is like baking bread.

Aug 26, 2025

#012: GPT-5 Changes the Game (Mostly Doesn't)

The long-awaited iteration of the model that started the public love/hate affair with AI landed last week. And (predictably) the reaction is still love/hate.

Aug 18, 2025