weblog

  • AI’s running in four different races. We’re in all of them

    AI’s running in four different races. We’re in all of them

    AI commentary is everywhere. Clarity is not. Over two decades in enterprise software, I’ve watched technology waves deliver differently than promised. What I’m seeing now isn’t one story — it’s four simultaneous economic restructurings in capital, labor, productivity, and sectors. Here’s a frame for tracking them together.

  • The uncanny valley of empathy

    The uncanny valley of empathy

    Here’s an excerpt from my latest Substack post: The aspirational AI customer service deployments today aim to not feel cold or mechanical. They are meant to be warm, patient, apparently attentive. They’ll remember what you said three turns ago. They’ll acknowledge your frustration. They tell you they understand. But is…

  • Random: Why the House Number Font Dominates American Homes

    Ever wonder why almost every house in America uses that same specific, slightly “fancy” font for its address? In this fascinating deep dive from Dime Store Adventures, we learn that the “House Number Font” isn’t actually a 1920s Art Deco artifact or a secret tribute to Chinese aesthetics, as the…

  • What happens when the taxpayer disappears?

    What happens when the taxpayer disappears?

    The rise of AI poses a significant challenge to funding federal governments, as it threatens to displace a substantial number of knowledge workers who contribute to tax revenue. With the U.S. relying heavily on individual income and payroll taxes, the potential decline in employment raises concerns about sustaining government income…

  • Open AI’s fundraising approach, and what it reveals

    Om Malik has been doing some of the sharpest behind-the-scenes AI business coverage out there. If you’re not following him at om.co, fix that now. His latest piece: OpenAI is offering private equity firms a guaranteed 17.5% return to join joint ventures. Om’s read is that this is the kind…

  • On the underlying infrastructure for the AI boom

    Robert Friedland addressed USC’s Marshall School, warning business leaders about the unseen challenges ahead. He highlighted America’s heavy dependence on China for critical minerals and the urgent need for copper to sustain economic growth. Friedland emphasized that current infrastructure assumptions neglect vital energy and resource realities, suggesting a looming crisis.

  • Customer Experience, AI, and the paradox of efficiency

    Customer Experience, AI, and the paradox of efficiency

    The most dangerous thing about AI in customer experience isn’t that it gets things wrong. It’s that it gets things right — efficiently, cheaply, at scale — while quietly optimizing away the interactions that create real customer relationships. Think of a river straightened into a concrete aqueduct: the metrics improve, but…

  • AI frenzy and general nervousness

    AI frenzy and general nervousness

    It’s an interesting time to be in silicon valley. Although I’ve been in tech for a long time, I first arrived here at the bottom, March 2009, of the Great Recession. It was an interesting time to be here as the proto-elements of web2.0 (aka social media) were embedding themselves…

  • AI, Energy, and the way forward

    Of late, I’ve been digging deeper into the ecosystem surrounding the AI boom. Of course, I’m taking advantage of AI to do this, and in particular Google’s NotebookLM. While I can’t claim that the chart below is 100% accurate, it’s does offer a decent summary of the collection of content…