essays
Writing on AI, startups, building, and the future of software.
- Knocking on the DoorAs a kid you could just knock on a friend's door. Somewhere after college that goes away, and it's mostly distance and friction, not time.
- The Effort Premium: How to Get Hired in 2026I want to show you the three places every interview falls apart now, and why most people are unhireable without realizing it. Then the embarrassingly simple thing that can beat every other applicant. In a frozen market, it's the closest thing to an unfair advantage you've got.
- How to be EarlyBeing early isn't a cognitive skill — it's a structural one. Why most people are late to everything, and how to build the luck surface area that lets dispersed information reach you before it reaches consensus.
- The Pyramid is Hollowing from the Wrong SideCompanies are cutting junior roles to save money. But the grunt work they're eliminating is what built the judgment of everyone above — and nobody's accounting for what that costs in ten years.
- The PM-ification of EveryoneAI doesn't just make you faster — it quietly reshapes how you think. On cognitive offloading, losing your voice, and the creeping shift from doing the work to managing outputs.
- The NYC Group ChatNYC doesn't have one group chat — it has five. Why the city's fragmented networks are an underrated advantage for building a company.
- Two Years Inside an AI StartupWhat two years of building AI products actually looks like — the rebuilds, the shifting skillsets, and the gap between the demo and reality.
- The AI Industry Is Living in a Bubble and the NYC Subway Proved ItA $1M subway ad campaign got vandalized in 48 hours. The gap between how the AI industry sees itself and how the public does is wider than anyone admits.
- The Surface Area of ThoughtsA collection of ideas from the past week: the surface area of serendipity, one question to ask about every habit, and why you shouldn't do something just to do it.
- The Surface Area of MeMy first essay. Why I'm writing things down, why goals are overrated for the average person, and where the name of this blog comes from.