Field Notes
Practical writing for product leaders and boutique advisors – on deciding what to build, answering the hard questions, and running a sharper practice.
Tech Was Never Stable. Find Your Place to Stand.
Tech workers call the industry "chaotic." It was never stable — and AI, oddly, makes the churn easier to stand in. Here's how to keep your footing.
The Cheapest Way to Wreck a Team Is a Bad Manager.
Managers are the single biggest driver of burnout — and the most neglected. Stafford Beer explains why, and why fixing it is the smartest business move.
Don't Start a Company. Claim Ownership Instead.
The survey says founders are the happiest people in tech. The lesson isn't "go start a company." It's that autonomy — not the title — is the real medicine.
Postwright Release Note: Clips That Finish
The shorts pipeline was shipping clips that cut off before the point. Every short is now read against its transcript and dropped if it doesn't land.
AI Is Coming for the Spreadsheet, Not the Insight.
Designers and researchers are the most anxious about AI. It's coming for the spreadsheet, not the insight — and that changes what you should do next.
Nobody's Coming to Save Your Career. That's the Good News.
Nearly everyone in tech is ambivalent about AI. The number that matters: 64% are excited, only 33% hopeful. Here's why that gap is good news.
Cutting Management Layers Isn't the Same as Cutting the Work
Companies calling layoffs "simplification" rarely redesign who does the coordination work a manager used to do – and that gap is measurable.
Half Your Team Is Already Pasting Client Secrets Into Ungoverned AI
Half of knowledge workers use unsanctioned AI tools; 39% have pasted confidential documents into them. For a discretion-based firm, that's existential.
The Robot Isn't the Threat. The Squeeze Is.
Only 22% of tech workers fear being replaced by AI. Far more fear the squeeze — more work for the same pay. It's answerable, from both sides.