Exploring Ideas: A Blog on Technology, Startups, Food, and More
Welcome to my blog where I share thoughts and insights on technology, startups, and life in Atlanta. Browse through the articles below or explore by topic.
The Efficiency Trap: When Optimization Kills Growth
August 1, 2025
Many startup pitch decks I’ve seen in the last couple of years have a slide about “capital efficiency.” Unit economics have never been more scrutinized. Since the venture downturn, the entire startup ecosystem has become obsessed with doing more with less. This makes sense after the frenzy of 2022-2023. Easy money disappeared, and companies that couldn’t prove profitability got crushed. The market...
The Passive Resistance Problem: When Good Employees Go Quiet
July 30, 2025
You know the type: eight-year veteran, technically solid, never misses deadlines, attends every meeting. On paper, they’re a model employee. But something’s changed. They nod along, accept assignments without complaint, and deliver exactly what’s asked: nothing more, nothing less. There’s of course nothing strictly wrong with this, they’re doing exactly what they’re asked, but the spark that once ...
Things That Look Like Work But Aren't
July 28, 2025
I spent hours the other day reorganizing my digital files. Moved things into better folders, renamed documents with consistent naming conventions, cleaned up my desktop. It felt important and looked very professional when my wife walked by my office. I accomplished absolutely nothing. This is the curse of knowledge work: so much of what looks like legitimate work is actually just elaborate procras...
Integrated Venture Engineering: Building Profitable Ventures by Design
July 25, 2025
Most startups fail because they treat profitability as an afterthought. They build a product first, then try to figure out how to make money from it. By the time they realize their cost structure is broken, they’re already locked into a business model that can’t work. There’s a better way, and it comes from an unexpected place: systems engineering. Cornell’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterpris...
Decision-Modeling vs. Process-Modeling: Why the Space Between Matters
July 23, 2025
Most companies design and reason about their operations around processes. They map out workflows, document procedures, and optimize the steps between inputs and outputs. This made sense in the industrial age when work was predictable and standardization was the goal. But in a world where some tasks are better done by humans, others by AI, and still others by traditional automation, process-modelin...
The Three Pillars of Product Success: Why Good Ideas Still Fail
July 21, 2025
I’ve watched a lot of smart people build things that nobody wanted. I’ve also watched people want things that couldn’t be built, and people get excited about things that turned out to be completely useless once they actually had them. After seeing this pattern repeat itself across everything from AI startups to kitchen gadgets, I’ve started thinking about product success as requiring three distinc...
Three Ways Wispr Flow Actually Makes Sense
July 18, 2025
I’ve been testing Wispr Flow for a few weeks now, and honestly, I was skeptical. Voice dictation has been around forever, and it’s usually terrible. But this one actually works, so here are three scenarios where it genuinely makes your life better. For Developers: “Vibe Coding” Is Real If you’re a developer, you’ve probably heard about “vibe coding” by now. It’s basically describing what you want ...
The Speed-Quality Paradox: When Fast Decisions Kill Startups
July 17, 2025
“Move fast and break things” became Silicon Valley gospel for a reason. In the startup world, speed often matters more than perfection. The company that ships first, iterates fastest, and adapts most quickly usually wins. But I’ve watched promising startups destroy themselves by taking this philosophy too far-making critical decisions so quickly that they broke the wrong things. The challenge isn’...
AI Prompts for Real Life: Templates That Actually Work
July 16, 2025
Everyone knows AI can help with work tasks, but what about the mundane stuff that actually eats up your time? Here are the prompts I actually use for handling everyday life admin - the kind of stuff that’s boring but necessary. Note that I’m typically using Claude with the gmail integrations and the Notion MCP configured, so it has access to my emails, calendar, etc. Email and Communication Manage...
The New Collaboration Patterns: How AI is Reshaping Human Teamwork
July 15, 2025
Six months ago, most team workflows looked predictable: brainstorming sessions, research phases, documentation writing, and iterative reviews. Today, those same teams operate fundamentally differently. Not because they changed their processes, but because AI has become a real-time participant in their work. Here’s what that actually looks like in practice. Real-Time Research Loops: The Encyclopedi...
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