Skip to main content

Insights

Thinking out loud.

Articles, frameworks, and honest conversations about AI transformation in education. From someone who builds, not just advises.

Featured

The Capable Organisation book cover
Career14 min read

When Your Admin Makes the Decision For You: Recognising the Push-Out

You know something is wrong before you can name it. The feedback that used to be supportive becomes critical. The observations that used to be formalities become interrogations. Maybe you're put on an 'improvement plan.' Maybe you're suddenly not invited to meetings you used to attend. And then one day you realise: they're not trying to help you improve. They're building a case.

28 January 2026

The Capable Organisation book cover
Career14 min read

The Salary Shame Spiral: Why Teachers Feel Embarrassed About What They Earn (And What To Do About It)

Someone asks what you do for work. You say you're a teacher. They nod, maybe say something about how important teachers are, and then the conversation moves on. What they don't ask is what you earn. And you're relieved, because if they did, you'd feel that familiar tightness in your chest. This is the salary shame spiral. And it's keeping you stuck.

28 January 2026

Every Lesson Plan You've Written Was Product Management. You Just Called It Teaching.
Career10 min read

Every Lesson Plan You've Written Was Product Management. You Just Called It Teaching.

I kept a folder of lesson plans from my first year teaching. Dog-eared printouts with highlighter marks and coffee stains. I found them last year while clearing out a box I'd been dragging between houses for over a decade. I opened one. Year 8 Japanese. Food and Cuisine. And I saw something I'd never seen before. It wasn't a lesson plan. It was a product roadmap.

28 January 2026

Thumbnail for What My Editor Taught Me About Taste (And Why I Couldn't See It Myself)
Career10 min read

What My Editor Taught Me About Taste (And Why I Couldn't See It Myself)

I write about taste constantly. I've written thousands of words about it. I've explained it to clients. I've built frameworks around it. And then I handed my manuscript to an editor and discovered I couldn't see my own blind spots. Taste requires other people. Your blind spots are invisible to you. That's what makes them blind spots.

24 January 2026

How to Build a Portfolio When You've "Only" Been Teaching
Career14 min read

How to Build a Portfolio When You've "Only" Been Teaching

"But I don't have any experience." I hear this from teachers constantly. Here's what I want you to understand: you don't have zero experience. You have years of experience that nobody taught you how to present. The problem isn't that you lack a portfolio. The problem is that you've been thinking about portfolios wrong.

23 January 2026

Thumbnail for How Classroom Management Prepared Me for Stakeholder Alignment
Career13 min read

How Classroom Management Prepared Me for Stakeholder Alignment

The IT team was hostile from day one. They hadn't wanted Canvas. They'd been overruled. The temptation was to work around them. But I'd spent years in classrooms. I knew exactly what happens when you try to work around someone who doesn't want to cooperate. So I did what any experienced teacher would do. I taught them.

22 January 2026

Formative Assessment is Just A/B Testing (You've Been Doing It for Years)
Career11 min read

Formative Assessment is Just A/B Testing (You've Been Doing It for Years)

At Microsoft, a senior PM explained 'continuous discovery' and 'testing assumptions before building.' I almost laughed. I'd spent years testing assumptions. Every single day. With teenagers who told me exactly what they thought. The PM was describing formative assessment—she just didn't know the word for it.

21 January 2026

What to Do When You Don't Have a Big Idea (Yet)
Career12 min read

What to Do When You Don't Have a Big Idea (Yet)

"I don't know what I'd build." This is the most common blocker. Here's the truth: the best products don't come from big ideas—they come from small frustrations you decide to fix. Neither Moodle nor Guest Loop was a stroke of genius. Here's the friction audit framework to find problems worth solving.

20 January 2026

The 80% Rule: What Microsoft Taught Me About Customer Time
Career13 min read

The 80% Rule: What Microsoft Taught Me About Customer Time

At Microsoft, someone told me: 'If you're not spending 80% of your day talking to customers, you're not a product manager.' As a teacher, I'd spent 100% of my day with my users. They told me exactly what they thought whether I asked or not. Here's the framework for customer conversations—and why teachers already know how to do this.

19 January 2026

How a PC from the E-Waste Pile Taught Me Product Management
Career14 min read

How a PC from the E-Waste Pile Taught Me Product Management

A discarded computer outside a Tokyo university building. No budget, no server, no IT support. Just Moodle, Linux, and a problem I couldn't ignore. Twenty years later, the same pattern built Guest Loop. Teachers have been doing product management for years—they just called it teaching.

18 January 2026

The Crayon Effect: Why Simplicity Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage
Career12 min read

The Crayon Effect: Why Simplicity Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage

At Microsoft, surrounded by brilliant technical people, the ability to make complex things simple was genuinely rare. People had PhDs and couldn't explain their work. I wasn't doing anything special—I was doing what teachers do. Here's why that's your competitive advantage.

17 January 2026

From Lesson Plans to Launches: What Teaching Actually Taught You
Career10 min read

From Lesson Plans to Launches: What Teaching Actually Taught You

You've been doing product management for years. You just didn't know it. Backward design is product thinking. Scaffolding is onboarding. Differentiation is segmentation. Every skill you need to build something valuable, you've been practicing in the classroom. Here's the translation guide.

16 January 2026

The Skills You Already Have (And What They're Actually Worth)
Career10 min read

The Skills You Already Have (And What They're Actually Worth)

Nobody told you that teaching developed some of the most valuable skills in the modern economy. Explaining complex things simply, reading a room, meeting people where they are—these aren't just teaching skills. They're product management, consulting, and sales skills worth $150-200K. You have them. You just use different words.

15 January 2026

Thumbnail for From Gatekeeper to Enabler: Transforming Enterprise Governance for the AI Era
Strategy14 min read

From Gatekeeper to Enabler: Transforming Enterprise Governance for the AI Era

Most enterprise governance frameworks were designed for a world that no longer exists. They take 14-30 weeks before development even begins. The cost of being slow now exceeds the cost of being wrong. Here's how AI-augmented governance moves at the speed of opportunity.

14 January 2026

Thumbnail for The HUMAN Protocol: What China's AI Law Can Teach Your Organisation About Responsible AI Deployment
AI Safety16 min read

The HUMAN Protocol: What China's AI Law Can Teach Your Organisation About Responsible AI Deployment

China's proposed AI anthropomorphism law is the most practical AI safety framework I've seen from any government. Not abstract principles—actual, concrete requirements you can implement today. Here's the HUMAN Protocol: five categories of safeguards to protect your people whilst enabling AI innovation.

13 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Talent Will Leave Before the Startups Arrive
Strategy14 min read

The Talent Will Leave Before the Startups Arrive

Your moat is real. Your brand is real. Your scale is real. But the threat isn't that startups will disrupt you. The threat is that you'll slowly lose the ability to do anything new. The startups won't kill you directly—they'll nibble at the edges whilst your best people walk out the door.

12 January 2026

Thumbnail for From Production to Judgment: What AI Means for Workers, Universities, and Your Kids
Strategy16 min read

From Production to Judgment: What AI Means for Workers, Universities, and Your Kids

AI isn't replacing cognitive workers. It's changing what cognitive work means. The role of humans is shifting from production to judgment. And almost nobody is prepared for it—not workers, not universities, and definitely not the K-12 system shaping your children.

11 January 2026

Thumbnail for Judgment, Accountability, and Taste: What Actually Makes an Organisation Capable
Strategy16 min read

Judgment, Accountability, and Taste: What Actually Makes an Organisation Capable

AI can now produce almost anything you ask for. But it cannot decide which draft is right, take accountability when wrong, or develop the taste that distinguishes excellent from acceptable. These three capabilities are what separate capable organisations from those with capable tools.

11 January 2026

Thumbnail for The F*ck It Line: Why Courage Is a Daily Practice (Not a Personality Trait)
Leadership12 min read

The F*ck It Line: Why Courage Is a Daily Practice (Not a Personality Trait)

Capability isn't built in training rooms. It's built in the moments where you cross the line between comfort and growth. Every day, you either cross it or you don't. Here's why that matters more than you think.

11 January 2026

thumbnail for Teachers Make the Best Product Managers: How to Pivot Your Career or Build a Side Income Starting Today
Career18 min read

Teachers Make the Best Product Managers: How to Pivot Your Career or Build a Side Income Starting Today

Teachers have skills that companies will pay $150,000+ for. Product management is one of the highest-paid, most in-demand roles in tech, and the skills you use every day in the classroom are exactly what makes great PMs.

8 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Grace Period Is Over: What Higher Education Must Actually Do About AI in 2026
Strategy16 min read

The Grace Period Is Over: What Higher Education Must Actually Do About AI in 2026

Nick McIntosh's diagnosis is clear: higher education's AI gap is undeniable. But diagnosis isn't treatment. After 20+ years in education technology, here's what institutions must do this quarter, not this decade.

8 January 2026

Thumbnail for What Aviation Learnt (That Your AI Strategy Hasn't)
Strategy14 min read

What Aviation Learnt (That Your AI Strategy Hasn't)

In 1935, a plane crash killed two pilots because the aircraft was 'too complicated for one person to fly.' The solution wasn't to make planes simpler. It was to build systems that made complexity manageable. AI is at the same inflection point.

7 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Budget You Already Have (You Just Don't Know It Yet)
Strategy12 min read

The Budget You Already Have (You Just Don't Know It Yet)

What if I told you there's tens of thousands of dollars hiding in your Azure bill? And what if that money could fund your transformation instead of disappearing back to Finance?

7 January 2026

Thumbnail for Air Cover: The Leadership Skill Nobody Teaches
Leadership12 min read

Air Cover: The Leadership Skill Nobody Teaches

Your job as a leader isn't to manage your team. It's to protect them from the organisation.

6 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Carrot, Not the Stick: How to Build Capability and Bring Everyone Along for the Journey
Leadership18 min read

The Carrot, Not the Stick: How to Build Capability and Bring Everyone Along for the Journey

Fear gets attention. Hope gets action. Here's how to transform your organisation without leaving anyone behind.

6 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Consultant Has Been Here Three Years
Strategy11 min read

The Consultant Has Been Here Three Years

At what point do we admit this isn't a project—it's a dependency?

6 January 2026

Thumbnail for When Did "We Can Build That" Become a Radical Idea?
Culture11 min read

When Did "We Can Build That" Become a Radical Idea?

Ten years ago, someone would propose building something and the room would discuss how. Now the room laughs.

6 January 2026

thumbnail for The $2 Million Platform Nobody Uses
Strategy12 min read

The $2 Million Platform Nobody Uses

Every enterprise has one. Usually more than one. How did this happen?

6 January 2026

Thumbnail for Your Best Developers Are Updating Their LinkedIn Profiles
Leadership10 min read

Your Best Developers Are Updating Their LinkedIn Profiles

They're not telling you why in exit interviews. They're telling each other on Slack.

5 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Meeting Where Ideas Go to Die
Leadership9 min read

The Meeting Where Ideas Go to Die

Every organisation has them. The rooms where good ideas enter and never leave.

5 January 2026

Thumbnail for Stop Renting Software You Could Own
Strategy10 min read

Stop Renting Software You Could Own

Why your Capex/Opex framework is costing you a fortune in the AI era.

4 January 2026

Comic-style illustration on golden yellow background featuring a bald man with stubble in a black t-shirt, pointing upward with an enthusiastic expression. Above his head is a "skill tree" graphic with gears, circuits, and a globe. Bold black text reads "THE END OF 'TECHNICAL' VS 'NON-TECHNICAL'" with subtitle "Why every knowledge worker needs a new skill tree for the AI era." A brain icon labeled "AI ERA" appears at bottom left.
Skills & Capability9 min read

The End of 'Technical' vs 'Non-Technical'

Why every knowledge worker needs a new skill tree for the AI era.

4 January 2026

Thumbnail for The Real Skill These Teens Learnt Wasn't Coding
Education8 min read

The Real Skill These Teens Learnt Wasn't Coding

How AI tools accidentally teach the meta-skills that schools have struggled to develop for decades.

31 December 2025

Thumbnail for A 13-Year-Old Can Now Build What Your IT Department Quotes 6 Months For
Building8 min read

A 13-Year-Old Can Now Build What Your IT Department Quotes 6 Months For

The uncomfortable implications of democratised development for enterprise technology organisations.

31 December 2025

Thumbnail for Vibe Coding Is a Terrible Name for Something Revolutionary
Building7 min read

Vibe Coding Is a Terrible Name for Something Revolutionary

Why underselling the biggest democratisation of technical capability since spreadsheets is a strategic mistake.

31 December 2025

Thumbnail for the Vibe Coding Spectrum: When to Close Your Eyes and When to Look
Building11 min read

The Vibe Coding Spectrum: When to Close Your Eyes and When to Look

The CEO of a $29 billion AI coding company just warned that vibe coding builds 'shaky foundations.' He's right. But that doesn't mean you should stop.

25 December 2024

Thumbnail for Meta's PMs Are Building Apps Without Engineers. What's Your Excuse?
Building10 min read

Meta's PMs Are Building Apps Without Engineers. What's Your Excuse?

Product managers at one of the world's largest tech companies are shipping prototypes directly to Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, your organisation is still writing requirements documents.

20 December 2024

Thumbnail for Your Innovation Lab Is Theatre. Here's What Actually Works.
Innovation11 min read

Your Innovation Lab Is Theatre. Here's What Actually Works.

The beanbags, the whiteboards, the 'fail fast' posters. None of it matters if nothing ships.

20 December 2024

Thumbnail for The FlightX Playbook: How to Build Your Own Disruption Team
Education12 min read

The FlightX Playbook: How to Build Your Own Disruption Team

A practical guide for universities and edtech companies that want to out-experiment their way to relevance.

20 December 2024

Thumbnail for Stop. Start. Keep.
Teams8 min read

Stop. Start. Keep.

A framework for teams that want to build capability instead of buying dependency.

20 December 2024

Thumbnail for Why Australian Universities Need a Head of Failure
Education10 min read

Why Australian Universities Need a Head of Failure

The sector faces an existential threat. The response so far? Committees, principles, and caution. It's not enough.

17 December 2024

The Vendor is NOT your Friend - Thumbnail Image
Strategy11 min read

The Vendor Is Not Your Friend

They're not evil. They're just not aligned with your success. Understanding the difference could save your organisation.

17 December 2024

Cartoon Thumbnail for Strategic Imagination: The Skill That Separates Builders from Bystanders
Innovation10 min read

Strategic Imagination: The Skill That Separates Builders from Bystanders

In an era of AI disruption, the ability to envision and act on alternative futures isn't optional. It's survival.

17 December 2024

Thumbnail for The "We're Waiting for AI to Mature" Trap
Strategy10 min read

The "We're Waiting for AI to Mature" Trap

The most expensive words in technology right now. Why waiting for AI to mature is costing you more than early adoption ever could.

17 December 2024

Thumbnail for The Biggest Cost Is the Decision You Haven't Made Yet
Leadership9 min read

The Biggest Cost Is the Decision You Haven't Made Yet

In a world moving at AI speed, indecision isn't caution. It's suicide. Why decision speed matters more than decision quality.

16 December 2024

Thumbnail for The Consultant Industrial Complex
Advisory12 min read

The Consultant Industrial Complex

They need you to stay broken. That's the business model. Why the consulting industry optimises for dependency instead of solutions.

16 December 2024

Thumbnail for Your IT Department Is a Procurement Office
IT Strategy11 min read

Your IT Department Is a Procurement Office

When all you do is buy and integrate, you've stopped being a technology function. How IT departments became procurement offices, and what to do about it.

16 December 2024

Thumbnail for Capability Over Dependency: A Manifesto
Manifesto10 min read

Capability Over Dependency: A Manifesto

The organisations that thrive will be the ones that can solve their own problems. Everyone else will be at the mercy of those who can.

9 December 2024

Thumbnail for Building Isn't Coding. It's Thinking in Systems.
Capability9 min read

Building Isn't Coding. It's Thinking in Systems.

The skill that matters isn't writing code. It's understanding how things connect.

10 December 2024

Thumbnail for AI Should Make Learning Harder, Not Easier
Learning Science10 min read

AI Should Make Learning Harder, Not Easier

The entire EdTech industry has it backwards. Friction isn't the enemy of learning, it's the point.

8 December 2024

Thumbnail for Universities Won't Be Replaced by AI. They'll Become Its Foundation. (Or They'll Disappear.)
Higher Education11 min read

Universities Won't Be Replaced by AI. They'll Become Its Foundation. (Or They'll Disappear.)

The choice isn't whether to change. It's whether to lead or be bypassed entirely.

7 December 2024

Thumbnail for Your Competition Is a Two-Person Team You've Never Heard Of
Provocation10 min read

Your Competition Is a Two-Person Team You've Never Heard Of

While you're watching incumbents, someone in a spare bedroom is building the thing that makes you irrelevant.

11 December 2024

Thumbnail for Why Are You Letting People Who Know Two-Fifths of F*%k All About AI Determine Your Future?
Provocation9 min read

Why Are You Letting People Who Know Two-Fifths of F*%k All About AI Determine Your Future?

The people making your AI decisions have never built anything with AI. That should terrify you.

13 December 2024

Thumbnail for Your SaaS Renewal Is Coming Up. Before You Sign, Try Building It Yourself.
Practical8 min read

Your SaaS Renewal Is Coming Up. Before You Sign, Try Building It Yourself.

The worst case? Your team learns new skills and you write better requirements. The best case? You never sign that contract again.

12 December 2024

Thumbnail for Your SaaS Strategy Is a Slow-Motion Surrender
Provocation10 min read

Your SaaS Strategy Is a Slow-Motion Surrender

If you're outsourcing capability to save risk, you're buying a ticket to irrelevance. A provocation for leaders who think 'buy, don't build' is the safe choice.

6 December 2024

Thumbnail for The New Risk Equation
Strategy10 min read

The New Risk Equation

The 'safe' choice isn't safe anymore. Staying dependent is now the biggest risk you can take.

5 December 2024

Thumbnail for Why Would Anyone Pay $50K for a Lecture When Claude Is Free?
Higher Education10 min read

Why Would Anyone Pay $50K for a Lecture When Claude Is Free?

The question every university should be terrified to answer. A reckoning is coming for higher education.

3 December 2024

Thumbnail for Your Software Isn't a Competitive Advantage. It's a Stalemate.
Provocation11 min read

Your Software Isn't a Competitive Advantage. It's a Stalemate.

When everyone uses the same tools, nobody wins. That's by design. A provocation about SaaS economics and real differentiation.

2 December 2024

Thumbnail for Vibe Coding Will Get Someone Killed
AI Safety10 min read

Vibe Coding Will Get Someone Killed

49 researchers just published a warning. The industry isn't listening. A critical look at AI-generated code and professional responsibility.

1 December 2024

Thumbnail for AI Made Coding Easy. That's Not the Hard Part Anymore.
Skills9 min read

AI Made Coding Easy. That's Not the Hard Part Anymore.

The skills that made you valuable last year might be the wrong skills entirely. Understanding the shift from implementation to thinking.

30 November 2024

Thumbnail for The Dangerous Myth of the AI Sous-Chef
Accountability10 min read

The Dangerous Myth of the AI Sous-Chef

The metaphor is comforting. The reality is terrifying. Why the popular AI sous-chef analogy masks abdication of responsibility.

29 November 2024

Thumbail for Stop Hiring Coders. Start Hiring Thinkers.
Hiring10 min read

Stop Hiring Coders. Start Hiring Thinkers.

Your job descriptions are optimised for a world that no longer exists. The skills inversion and what to hire for now.

28 November 2024

Thumbnail for The CrowdStrike Lesson: What Happens When System 1 Runs Wild
Case Study11 min read

The CrowdStrike Lesson: What Happens When System 1 Runs Wild

July 19, 2024. A single update. 8.5 million machines. $5.4 billion in damages. And a preview of what's coming with AI.

27 November 2024

All Articles

Career14 min28 January 2026

When Your Admin Makes the Decision For You: Recognising the Push-Out

You know something is wrong before you can name it. The feedback that used to be supportive becomes critical. The observations that used to be formalities become interrogations. Maybe you're put on an 'improvement plan.' Maybe you're suddenly not invited to meetings you used to attend. And then one day you realise: they're not trying to help you improve. They're building a case.

Career14 min28 January 2026

The Salary Shame Spiral: Why Teachers Feel Embarrassed About What They Earn (And What To Do About It)

Someone asks what you do for work. You say you're a teacher. They nod, maybe say something about how important teachers are, and then the conversation moves on. What they don't ask is what you earn. And you're relieved, because if they did, you'd feel that familiar tightness in your chest. This is the salary shame spiral. And it's keeping you stuck.

Career10 min28 January 2026

Every Lesson Plan You've Written Was Product Management. You Just Called It Teaching.

I kept a folder of lesson plans from my first year teaching. Dog-eared printouts with highlighter marks and coffee stains. I found them last year while clearing out a box I'd been dragging between houses for over a decade. I opened one. Year 8 Japanese. Food and Cuisine. And I saw something I'd never seen before. It wasn't a lesson plan. It was a product roadmap.

Career10 min24 January 2026

What My Editor Taught Me About Taste (And Why I Couldn't See It Myself)

I write about taste constantly. I've written thousands of words about it. I've explained it to clients. I've built frameworks around it. And then I handed my manuscript to an editor and discovered I couldn't see my own blind spots. Taste requires other people. Your blind spots are invisible to you. That's what makes them blind spots.

Career14 min23 January 2026

How to Build a Portfolio When You've "Only" Been Teaching

"But I don't have any experience." I hear this from teachers constantly. Here's what I want you to understand: you don't have zero experience. You have years of experience that nobody taught you how to present. The problem isn't that you lack a portfolio. The problem is that you've been thinking about portfolios wrong.

Career13 min22 January 2026

How Classroom Management Prepared Me for Stakeholder Alignment

The IT team was hostile from day one. They hadn't wanted Canvas. They'd been overruled. The temptation was to work around them. But I'd spent years in classrooms. I knew exactly what happens when you try to work around someone who doesn't want to cooperate. So I did what any experienced teacher would do. I taught them.

Career11 min21 January 2026

Formative Assessment is Just A/B Testing (You've Been Doing It for Years)

At Microsoft, a senior PM explained 'continuous discovery' and 'testing assumptions before building.' I almost laughed. I'd spent years testing assumptions. Every single day. With teenagers who told me exactly what they thought. The PM was describing formative assessment—she just didn't know the word for it.

Career12 min20 January 2026

What to Do When You Don't Have a Big Idea (Yet)

"I don't know what I'd build." This is the most common blocker. Here's the truth: the best products don't come from big ideas—they come from small frustrations you decide to fix. Neither Moodle nor Guest Loop was a stroke of genius. Here's the friction audit framework to find problems worth solving.

Career13 min19 January 2026

The 80% Rule: What Microsoft Taught Me About Customer Time

At Microsoft, someone told me: 'If you're not spending 80% of your day talking to customers, you're not a product manager.' As a teacher, I'd spent 100% of my day with my users. They told me exactly what they thought whether I asked or not. Here's the framework for customer conversations—and why teachers already know how to do this.

Career14 min18 January 2026

How a PC from the E-Waste Pile Taught Me Product Management

A discarded computer outside a Tokyo university building. No budget, no server, no IT support. Just Moodle, Linux, and a problem I couldn't ignore. Twenty years later, the same pattern built Guest Loop. Teachers have been doing product management for years—they just called it teaching.

Career12 min17 January 2026

The Crayon Effect: Why Simplicity Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage

At Microsoft, surrounded by brilliant technical people, the ability to make complex things simple was genuinely rare. People had PhDs and couldn't explain their work. I wasn't doing anything special—I was doing what teachers do. Here's why that's your competitive advantage.

Career10 min16 January 2026

From Lesson Plans to Launches: What Teaching Actually Taught You

You've been doing product management for years. You just didn't know it. Backward design is product thinking. Scaffolding is onboarding. Differentiation is segmentation. Every skill you need to build something valuable, you've been practicing in the classroom. Here's the translation guide.

Career10 min15 January 2026

The Skills You Already Have (And What They're Actually Worth)

Nobody told you that teaching developed some of the most valuable skills in the modern economy. Explaining complex things simply, reading a room, meeting people where they are—these aren't just teaching skills. They're product management, consulting, and sales skills worth $150-200K. You have them. You just use different words.

Strategy14 min14 January 2026

From Gatekeeper to Enabler: Transforming Enterprise Governance for the AI Era

Most enterprise governance frameworks were designed for a world that no longer exists. They take 14-30 weeks before development even begins. The cost of being slow now exceeds the cost of being wrong. Here's how AI-augmented governance moves at the speed of opportunity.

AI Safety16 min13 January 2026

The HUMAN Protocol: What China's AI Law Can Teach Your Organisation About Responsible AI Deployment

China's proposed AI anthropomorphism law is the most practical AI safety framework I've seen from any government. Not abstract principles—actual, concrete requirements you can implement today. Here's the HUMAN Protocol: five categories of safeguards to protect your people whilst enabling AI innovation.

Strategy14 min12 January 2026

The Talent Will Leave Before the Startups Arrive

Your moat is real. Your brand is real. Your scale is real. But the threat isn't that startups will disrupt you. The threat is that you'll slowly lose the ability to do anything new. The startups won't kill you directly—they'll nibble at the edges whilst your best people walk out the door.

Strategy16 min11 January 2026

From Production to Judgment: What AI Means for Workers, Universities, and Your Kids

AI isn't replacing cognitive workers. It's changing what cognitive work means. The role of humans is shifting from production to judgment. And almost nobody is prepared for it—not workers, not universities, and definitely not the K-12 system shaping your children.

Strategy16 min11 January 2026

Judgment, Accountability, and Taste: What Actually Makes an Organisation Capable

AI can now produce almost anything you ask for. But it cannot decide which draft is right, take accountability when wrong, or develop the taste that distinguishes excellent from acceptable. These three capabilities are what separate capable organisations from those with capable tools.

Leadership12 min11 January 2026

The F*ck It Line: Why Courage Is a Daily Practice (Not a Personality Trait)

Capability isn't built in training rooms. It's built in the moments where you cross the line between comfort and growth. Every day, you either cross it or you don't. Here's why that matters more than you think.

Career18 min8 January 2026

Teachers Make the Best Product Managers: How to Pivot Your Career or Build a Side Income Starting Today

Teachers have skills that companies will pay $150,000+ for. Product management is one of the highest-paid, most in-demand roles in tech, and the skills you use every day in the classroom are exactly what makes great PMs.

Strategy16 min8 January 2026

The Grace Period Is Over: What Higher Education Must Actually Do About AI in 2026

Nick McIntosh's diagnosis is clear: higher education's AI gap is undeniable. But diagnosis isn't treatment. After 20+ years in education technology, here's what institutions must do this quarter, not this decade.

Strategy14 min7 January 2026

What Aviation Learnt (That Your AI Strategy Hasn't)

In 1935, a plane crash killed two pilots because the aircraft was 'too complicated for one person to fly.' The solution wasn't to make planes simpler. It was to build systems that made complexity manageable. AI is at the same inflection point.

Strategy12 min7 January 2026

The Budget You Already Have (You Just Don't Know It Yet)

What if I told you there's tens of thousands of dollars hiding in your Azure bill? And what if that money could fund your transformation instead of disappearing back to Finance?

Leadership12 min6 January 2026

Air Cover: The Leadership Skill Nobody Teaches

Your job as a leader isn't to manage your team. It's to protect them from the organisation.

Leadership18 min6 January 2026

The Carrot, Not the Stick: How to Build Capability and Bring Everyone Along for the Journey

Fear gets attention. Hope gets action. Here's how to transform your organisation without leaving anyone behind.

Strategy11 min6 January 2026

The Consultant Has Been Here Three Years

At what point do we admit this isn't a project—it's a dependency?

Culture11 min6 January 2026

When Did "We Can Build That" Become a Radical Idea?

Ten years ago, someone would propose building something and the room would discuss how. Now the room laughs.

Strategy12 min6 January 2026

The $2 Million Platform Nobody Uses

Every enterprise has one. Usually more than one. How did this happen?

Leadership10 min5 January 2026

Your Best Developers Are Updating Their LinkedIn Profiles

They're not telling you why in exit interviews. They're telling each other on Slack.

Leadership9 min5 January 2026

The Meeting Where Ideas Go to Die

Every organisation has them. The rooms where good ideas enter and never leave.

Strategy10 min4 January 2026

Stop Renting Software You Could Own

Why your Capex/Opex framework is costing you a fortune in the AI era.

Skills & Capability9 min4 January 2026

The End of 'Technical' vs 'Non-Technical'

Why every knowledge worker needs a new skill tree for the AI era.

Education8 min31 December 2025

The Real Skill These Teens Learnt Wasn't Coding

How AI tools accidentally teach the meta-skills that schools have struggled to develop for decades.

Building8 min31 December 2025

A 13-Year-Old Can Now Build What Your IT Department Quotes 6 Months For

The uncomfortable implications of democratised development for enterprise technology organisations.

Building7 min31 December 2025

Vibe Coding Is a Terrible Name for Something Revolutionary

Why underselling the biggest democratisation of technical capability since spreadsheets is a strategic mistake.

Building11 min25 December 2024

The Vibe Coding Spectrum: When to Close Your Eyes and When to Look

The CEO of a $29 billion AI coding company just warned that vibe coding builds 'shaky foundations.' He's right. But that doesn't mean you should stop.

Building10 min20 December 2024

Meta's PMs Are Building Apps Without Engineers. What's Your Excuse?

Product managers at one of the world's largest tech companies are shipping prototypes directly to Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, your organisation is still writing requirements documents.

Innovation11 min20 December 2024

Your Innovation Lab Is Theatre. Here's What Actually Works.

The beanbags, the whiteboards, the 'fail fast' posters. None of it matters if nothing ships.

Education12 min20 December 2024

The FlightX Playbook: How to Build Your Own Disruption Team

A practical guide for universities and edtech companies that want to out-experiment their way to relevance.

Teams8 min20 December 2024

Stop. Start. Keep.

A framework for teams that want to build capability instead of buying dependency.

Education10 min17 December 2024

Why Australian Universities Need a Head of Failure

The sector faces an existential threat. The response so far? Committees, principles, and caution. It's not enough.

Strategy11 min17 December 2024

The Vendor Is Not Your Friend

They're not evil. They're just not aligned with your success. Understanding the difference could save your organisation.

Innovation10 min17 December 2024

Strategic Imagination: The Skill That Separates Builders from Bystanders

In an era of AI disruption, the ability to envision and act on alternative futures isn't optional. It's survival.

Strategy10 min17 December 2024

The "We're Waiting for AI to Mature" Trap

The most expensive words in technology right now. Why waiting for AI to mature is costing you more than early adoption ever could.

Leadership9 min16 December 2024

The Biggest Cost Is the Decision You Haven't Made Yet

In a world moving at AI speed, indecision isn't caution. It's suicide. Why decision speed matters more than decision quality.

Advisory12 min16 December 2024

The Consultant Industrial Complex

They need you to stay broken. That's the business model. Why the consulting industry optimises for dependency instead of solutions.

IT Strategy11 min16 December 2024

Your IT Department Is a Procurement Office

When all you do is buy and integrate, you've stopped being a technology function. How IT departments became procurement offices, and what to do about it.

Manifesto10 min9 December 2024

Capability Over Dependency: A Manifesto

The organisations that thrive will be the ones that can solve their own problems. Everyone else will be at the mercy of those who can.

Capability9 min10 December 2024

Building Isn't Coding. It's Thinking in Systems.

The skill that matters isn't writing code. It's understanding how things connect.

Learning Science10 min8 December 2024

AI Should Make Learning Harder, Not Easier

The entire EdTech industry has it backwards. Friction isn't the enemy of learning, it's the point.

Higher Education11 min7 December 2024

Universities Won't Be Replaced by AI. They'll Become Its Foundation. (Or They'll Disappear.)

The choice isn't whether to change. It's whether to lead or be bypassed entirely.

Provocation10 min11 December 2024

Your Competition Is a Two-Person Team You've Never Heard Of

While you're watching incumbents, someone in a spare bedroom is building the thing that makes you irrelevant.

Provocation9 min13 December 2024

Why Are You Letting People Who Know Two-Fifths of F*%k All About AI Determine Your Future?

The people making your AI decisions have never built anything with AI. That should terrify you.

Practical8 min12 December 2024

Your SaaS Renewal Is Coming Up. Before You Sign, Try Building It Yourself.

The worst case? Your team learns new skills and you write better requirements. The best case? You never sign that contract again.

Provocation10 min6 December 2024

Your SaaS Strategy Is a Slow-Motion Surrender

If you're outsourcing capability to save risk, you're buying a ticket to irrelevance. A provocation for leaders who think 'buy, don't build' is the safe choice.

Strategy10 min5 December 2024

The New Risk Equation

The 'safe' choice isn't safe anymore. Staying dependent is now the biggest risk you can take.

Case Study9 min4 December 2024

I Built My Own Competitive Advantage in a Weekend. Then I Turned It Into a Business.

How frustration with generic software led to Guest Loop, and what it taught me about what SaaS should actually be.

Higher Education10 min3 December 2024

Why Would Anyone Pay $50K for a Lecture When Claude Is Free?

The question every university should be terrified to answer. A reckoning is coming for higher education.

Provocation11 min2 December 2024

Your Software Isn't a Competitive Advantage. It's a Stalemate.

When everyone uses the same tools, nobody wins. That's by design. A provocation about SaaS economics and real differentiation.

AI Safety10 min1 December 2024

Vibe Coding Will Get Someone Killed

49 researchers just published a warning. The industry isn't listening. A critical look at AI-generated code and professional responsibility.

Skills9 min30 November 2024

AI Made Coding Easy. That's Not the Hard Part Anymore.

The skills that made you valuable last year might be the wrong skills entirely. Understanding the shift from implementation to thinking.

Accountability10 min29 November 2024

The Dangerous Myth of the AI Sous-Chef

The metaphor is comforting. The reality is terrifying. Why the popular AI sous-chef analogy masks abdication of responsibility.

Hiring10 min28 November 2024

Stop Hiring Coders. Start Hiring Thinkers.

Your job descriptions are optimised for a world that no longer exists. The skills inversion and what to hire for now.

Case Study11 min27 November 2024

The CrowdStrike Lesson: What Happens When System 1 Runs Wild

July 19, 2024. A single update. 8.5 million machines. $5.4 billion in damages. And a preview of what's coming with AI.

Case Study8 min26 November 2024

Why I'm Building Ink Wise: The Problem No One Wants to Admit

Contracts are where risk lives, and no one actually reads them. Here's why that's a bigger problem than you think.

Stay illuminated

Fortnightly insights on AI, education, and business transformation. No spam, no fluff – just the good stuff.