Three years into leading AI transformation. I know the shortcuts. I see the faster path.

The temptation is real. Just do it yourself. Skip the fumbling. Ship it.

But that’s not transformation. That’s you doing stuff while others watch.

They need to do. They need to struggle a bit. They need to build the muscle.

You can show. You can lead. You can clear obstacles.

You cannot do their reps for them.

Your personal values decide how AI fits for you. Not just company values.

Your companies AI adoption will mimic your company values.

I’ve been thinking lately about self-regulation and how it’s sometimes impossible for a group to self-regulate. Currently it’s the AI race in regards to using any available content to train models, legal or illegal.

In the mid-2000s people took soundbites from a game to piece together a better Metallica album because their own release was just the loudness war turned to eleven.

The loudness war was a war where everyone lost. Artists got albums so crushed that fans had to fix them.

Then streaming platforms normalized everything to the same volume. The arms race became pointless overnight. An algorithm changed the incentive structure.

Self-regulation fails when defection is the only rational move. Right now AI companies are in their own loudness war. Train on everything. Legal or not. Because if you don’t, your competitor will.

The question is what external force changes the game this time.

Gut estimates aren’t for planning. They reveal when developers are picturing completely different solutions. And they give stakeholders enough to decide if something’s worth pursuing.

A thing to remember about agile and the Agile Manifesto is that many of the 17 people who wrote it have become openly critical of how it’s been implemented.

The idea of the manifesto was to start conversations not to end them.

When something seems obviously impossible, check whether that’s because of the thing itself or because of how you’ve framed the question.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The dip isn’t dramatic. It’s not a crisis. It’s just another Monday where the page is blank and there’s no particular reason to fill it.

When I started this, it was for a month. I’ve never felt so close to the end while struggling to reach it.

But New Year’s Day is not the end. I’ll continue.

AI won’t say no to your idea. The market will say no but only after you’ve built it.

The rarest person is the one who says yes but why.

They accept the idea exists. Then they ask why anyone should care.

Find that person before you write the first line of code.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

There are people who want to make things. And there are people who can build things. Sometimes they’re the same person.

But for everyone else, the first iteration has always been expensive. Websites, apps, services. Getting something built meant finding someone who could build it and convincing them your idea was worth their time and cost.

Many ideas died right there. Not because they were bad ideas but because the gap between imagining and building was too wide to cross alone.

Now you can get these ideas out of your system. Try them for cheap. See if they hold up when they’re real and not just in your head.

Some ideas deserve to be built. Others you need to put to rest. Either way, you can find out without being pot-committed.