In a land of endless egos like Silicon Valley, it’s a cardinal sin to question the sanctity of a company’s mission internally or externally.

Bad-mouth Apple? Good luck getting invited to their next conference. You’re either in, or you’re out.

But in a world of sycophantic AI and employees who are afraid to tell the emperor she’s naked, ruthlessly ensuring everyone is on board is a poor strategic choice.

Every company needs at least one person who can see the truth and isn’t afraid to call it out.

Pointed, well-intentioned criticism is where all long-term growth begins.

Early in Hunter Thompson’s The Rum Diary (written in the ‘60s), the protagonist shares a sentiment we all can relate to:

"I felt somehow that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other - that kept me going.”

At this strange and exciting moment in human history, I certainly feel driven by these two emotional extremes.

Our media landscape is one of forced simplicity: You’re either on Team A, or you’re on Team B. Pick a side!

But the reality is, intelligent people have always been able to hold two ideas in their head at the same time.

It’s not hypocrisy. It’s not inconsistency. It’s intelligence.

Vibe coding is the ability to create software programs without knowing how to code.

Using natural language alone, we can use a variety of tools to prompt our way to a working piece of software.

Just last week, I created 5 small applets to automate mundane tasks.

Four out of five worked surprisingly well. The fifth? A total nightmare.

My background programming calculators in assembly language in middle school helps me get out of some technical jams that might stop others, but I wouldn’t call myself a full-stack engineer.

At the moment, vibe coding allows us to do just enough to be truly dangerous. To fool ourselves momentarily into thinking that we could prompt our way to the next Spotify or Netflix.

But the minute things get complex (and they always get complex), we’re standing alone in rural China without a translator.

It’s tantalizing, maddening, exciting, and terrifying. And we’ll need skilled engineers for the foreseeable future.

Still… Getting closer.

Alt title: Why would you pay $1,000 for something you'll never use?

Imagine the scenario…

You’re driving your family of four down the road, when suddenly, a thick, inescapable fog rolls in.

You can no longer see 10 feet in front of you, but you gather that all the other cars on the road are starting to panic. You hear faint screams from behind car glass, screeching tires, and you sense that the situation is spinning out of control.

In a moment of brilliance, you remember that you purchased the car package with fog lights. You switch them on, and suddenly instead of seeing 10 feet in front of you, you see 15 feet. Just enough to spare your family’s lives. “Well worth the extra $1,000 I paid,” you say, forever thankful that you made the sensible choice.

I can only imagine some variation of this mental scenario is why anyone agrees to the up-charge of the fog-light package when purchasing a new car. But does it ever happen? Do you ever even switch these lights on once after leaving the lot?

Compared to $40k for a new car, only $1k extra for the fog light package seems like no big deal! But compared to zero, $1,000 is a tremendous waste of money.

Car manufacturers know and exploit this human weakness. As a consumer, be aware of add-ons. As a seller? Understand the enormous power of hypothetical situations that will never materialize.

Proof that the singularity has passed will start becoming more evident.

If you notice that some people seem to be getting more and more productive.

Posting more and more.

Showing up more and more...

And if you’re wondering "how does she do it!?" the answer is increasingly “AI”.

Two productivity classes will emerge, those on board, and those not. It’s not a judgment. It’s just what’s happening.

The trick for all of us is to know where to use AI, and where to be human.

(Hint: None of these posts are written with AI.)