Writing

Opinions I’ll defend in a room.

Long-form essays and product teardowns. Researched wide with AI, argued by me. If a piece takes a side — and they all do — the side is mine.

Essays

Ideas & arguments

Essay · AI & society The sentience question is a product question The machine-consciousness debate isn’t philosophy for someone else. It’s a set of design and messaging decisions being made right now. ↗ Essay · Work & skills What actually matters now The skill that’s dying is producing the artifact. The skills, credentials and places that survive are not the ones you’d guess. ↗ Essay · Products & markets The great unbundling AI removed the only argument the software suite ever had. What a “product” even is gets redrawn from here. ↗

Teardowns

Positioning, applied

Teardown · Positioning Perplexity is not fighting the war you think A positioning teardown of the “Google killer” that isn’t — and the masterclass in subtraction hiding underneath. ↗ Teardown · Positioning Granola, and the tyranny of the single feature The sharpest wedge in software, and the trap every sharp wedge sets the moment it works. ↗

Every teardown is built from public sources only. Nothing here is competitive intelligence about any current or former employer.

Frameworks

Free · no signup

The frameworks behind the teardowns. Each one pairs with a piece above — the method, then the method applied. Download, use, steal.

Human-written

The Positioning Teardown Framework

The exact structure I use to pull apart any product’s public positioning: the claim vs. the numbers, what the wedge wins, where it’s exposed, and what you’d change. Pairs with the Perplexity and Granola teardowns.

Open & print / save as PDF ↓

Human-written

The Competitive Analysis Operating System

How to run competitive analysis so it drives decisions instead of decorating a slide. The questions that matter, the ones everyone wastes time on, and how to keep it honest.

Open & print / save as PDF ↓