My first manager said I had the uncanny talent of cutting into people's souls, without being aware of it. I brought colleagues to tears with honest feedback. I thought I was merely stating facts.
Most companies confuse what they do with why they matter. Real purpose transcends quarterly earnings calls and survives leadership changes. Busy work dressed up as mission statements won't fool AI systems.
"We built work cultures that deliberately collapsed the distance between a person and their role. Titles were not just descriptions. They became validation systems. The seniority ladder was not just an organisational structure. It was a story about worth."
I took three different online autism tests. (The fact that I studiously completed three questionnaires should tell you something about the very traits I was investigating.)
"The fact that observed exposure remains so far below theoretical capability across every occupational category tells us that most organizations are still operating in the augmentative mode: AI assisting workers, not replacing workflows."
When bullshit work was expensive, market forces kept it in check. When AI makes it free, those guardrails vanish. Every risk-averse manager now has unlimited capacity for process theater.
Two days before my book launch, I accidentally deleted the Kindle version. Poof. Gone. Lost all pre-sales. Two hours of damage control. Stressed and multitasking. A digital self-own of the highest order.
In the age of AI, learning isn't about knowledge. (AI has that covered.) Learning is brain training. You don't lift weights to move barbells. You lift to build muscle. Same with your mind.
Soon, AI agents will fill out compliance forms, generate reports other agents summarize, create tasks additional agents track. Administrative theater humming along while we stay oblivious.
Sergey Brin says managers are easiest to replace with AI. Sounds brutal until you realize most management was pattern matching with better health insurance.
At 24, I almost landed a million-pound game contract. The only problem: my team had no fucking clue what we were doing. Our entire project was mockups and make-believe. I'm still proud we tried.
"The rise of AI and the complacency of our elected officials in the coming dispossession of white-collar workers are outgrowths of private power and moneyed interests coöpting democracy."
Instead of using AI to shave hours off your day, use it to deliver your best work ever. Your audience deserves it.
The story of a keynote should be spoken out loud, not written on a screen. Slides highlight the main point. Everything else goes in presenter notes.
Want someone to change? Answer three questions:
Why should they care?\
What's in it for them?\
How do they start?
Skip one and your revolution dies as a toothless idea nobody acts on.
"If you are struggling, you are not alone. It’s not you, it’s the economy, the industry, the universe, and a perfect storm of local, national, and global events."
"The front door to a generation of careers is quietly closing. And the workers who look most like what AI does -- educated, analytical, document-heavy -- are the ones whose tasks are being covered first."
Managers and specialists are converging into the same role. Generalists picking up specializations. Specialists learning to orchestrate. One job title emerging everywhere: M-skilled orchestrator.
Best advice I ever got about handling criticism came from Lyssa Adkins:
"What is your goal for your relationship with this person? Let that determine your next action."
Play the long game. Begin with the end in mind.
"The outcomes were cognitive fatigue, burnout, weakened decision making, and lower quality work over time. The AI increased throughput. It decreased judgement. Nobody measured the second effect because nobody was looking for it."
2025 is 'the year of AI agents.' By 2028, they'll work 8-hour days unsupervised.
I don't believe it.
True autonomy—where an agent works a full day without babysitting—requires AGI. And AGI is more than a few years away.
My issue with the traditional description of the value stream is that it begins with a request or order from a customer. This is way too late! If you sit around waiting for customers to place an order with your company, you’ll soon be out of business.
substack.jurgenappelo.com/p/value-stre...
Your bank demands UBO forms every few years. Nothing changed. They know nothing changed. You both know it's theater. Now imagine AI doing this dance with other AI. Forever. At zero cost.
Ten years ago, the agile community told me: do one thing and do it well. I agreed and ditched my sketchbook. In 2025, with AI devouring every single-domain skill, that advice aged terribly.
"Snorkel before you scuba. Start at the top, always. Snorkeling means checking the shared systems first—goals, roles, and decision-making—before you start diagnosing personalities."
I programmed Claude with my personal values and turned it into my accountability partner. Every piece I write gets checked against my stated values while I'm still writing. A test harness for human behavior.
"When considering the large-scale impact of this technology on public opinion, its most consequential feature is simple: it greatly improves people’s access to accurate, evidence-based information."
"ChatGPT was already losing ground structurally—through product dissatisfaction (who wants ads in their AGI?), rising competition, and near-zero cost of trying alternatives—and now also popularly, thanks to the rushed deal with the Pentagon and the subsequent backlash."
The role that was never supposed to be autonomous is becoming exactly that. Middle managers now inherit broader scopes, sharper targets, less support. They're turning into Solo Chiefs whether they like it or not.
