Relentlessly Curious AI Track
Welcome to the Relentlessly Curious AI Track, your go-to place for exploring how AI is shaping the way we think, create, work, and live.
If you're new here or just need a refresher, check out the guide below. From deep dives into AI’s impact on consumer behavior to reflections on creativity in an AI-first world, here's where to start.
🤖 AI Capability, Limits & Misconceptions
Separates real AI progress from misleading benchmarks and narratives that overstate practical intelligence.
People Don’t Want to Wear Technology
Explains why AI’s biggest breakthroughs will happen in software, not hardware, because consumers fundamentally resist wearable tech.
Uses AI passing the CFA exam to show why benchmarks overstate real-world intelligence and judgment.
The Best Technology Looks Like Magic
Argues that truly great technology hides complexity so well that users barely notice it exists.
🤖 Product Design & Consumer AI Risk
Focuses on how AI product design choices can either build trust, or quietly turn AI into a brand liability.
AI + Live Entertainment - An exploration of a new business model that uses AI to enhance real-world experiences.
Pay Attention to the Top 10% - Breaks down how AI concentrates value among elite performers while compressing outcomes for everyone else.
Evaluating AI’s Impact on the Customer Service Industry - Examines where AI meaningfully improves customer support, and where automation introduces new friction.
The Risks of Consumer-Facing AI - Warns that unreliable AI products can damage brand trust faster than they create value.
🤖 AI + Commerce & Market Structure
Explores how AI reshapes buying behavior and market dynamics without eliminating human judgment or friction.
The Case Against Instant Checkout - Argues that instant checkout optimizes for speed while ignoring trust, consideration, and buyer confidence.
Your Next Customer Might Be a Bot (Well, Not on Amazon) - Explores how AI reshapes product discovery without removing human judgment from purchasing decisions.
Holiday Shopping in the Age of AI - Analyzes how AI subtly shifts holiday shopping behavior rather than fully disrupting it.
Checking in on AI + Acquisitions - Spoiler Alert: Apple didn’t buy Perplexity, and it seems more unlikely than ever now.
🤖 AI Economics, Monetization & Strategy
Breaks down where AI value actually accrues, how platforms monetize, and why gains concentrate unevenly.
Opportunities Because of AI That Aren’t AI - Identifies the biggest business opportunities created by AI without requiring anyone to build AI models.
Pay Attention to the Top 10% - Explains why AI’s near-term winners will be software-native rather than device-led.
OpenAI’s Monetization Roadmap - Breaks down how OpenAI is likely to monetize—and what that signals for the broader AI ecosystem.
🔥 Hot Takes
Challenges consensus thinking to reveal second-order effects and asymmetric outcomes created by AI adoption.
Why GenAI Isn’t Supercharging Businesses - Misleading MIT report does not consider the realistic adoption cycle of new technology.
Hot Takes on AI (Part III) - Argues that AI amplifies good reasoning and exposes weak thinking rather than replacing cognition.
Things I’m Thinking About in AI - Nostalgia will deepen as people yearn for simpler times.
Hot Takes on AI (Part IV) - A collection of contrarian perspectives challenging dominant AI narratives.
🔥 The State of AI (and Where It’s Headed)
Start here for a broad (but sharp) view of the AI moment: what’s hype, what’s real, and what’s quietly reshaping how we operate.
Separating Signal from Noise in the AI World (Part II) - Same as Part I, but instead, debunking narratives that are purely myths.
Separating Signal from Noise in the AI World (Part I) - Combing through SimilarWeb’s AI Global report and discussing which trends in the AI world are legit.
Prediction: Apple will Acquire Perplexity - Apple is lagging behind in their own AI efforts and Perplexity hasn’t had a Big Tech player stake its claim in it yet. The acquisition makes too much sense.
Why AI Companies are Licensing Publisher Data - Publishers like The New York Times and Hearst are relying less on advertising revenue and more on licensing revenue. Consumer brands must take note and adjust their affiliate strategies in tandem.
We’re Getting a New Browser - The rumors are circulating around OpenAI’s new web browser and we are diving into it’s impact on digital advertising.
Hot Takes on AI - A thoughtful and direct lay of the land from inside the hype cycle.
Hot Takes on AI – Part II - A follow-up that sorts signal from noise and highlights imminent changes in how we work.
The Next Big Ecosystem Is Being Built - A strategic take on how AI is becoming the infrastructure of the broader technology landscape.
Technology Is Profound - A more philosophical look at how tech shapes identity and culture.
🧠 How AI Is Shaping Behavior
These essays unpack how algorithms shape not just what we do, but how we think and how much agency we really have.
Are We Ready For Everything to be Automated? - Examining the impact OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent will have on human behavior and speed to adoption of “do everything for me” technology.
AI + Thinking, Fast and Slow - If AI trains off our data, does that mean it thinks like us?
AI + Consumer Digital Behavior - What happens when the feed shapes us more than we shape it?
AI + Consumption - Personalization is powerful, but at what cost?
AI + Thinking - Prompting as a new form of thinking and collaboration.
🛍️ AI in Business, Brands, and Shopping
For founders, operators, and marketers navigating the real-world impact of AI, from customer acquisition to creative strategy.
AI Is Changing Customer Acquisition - A cheat code or a commodity?
AI + Shopping - What happens when your assistant buys things before you think to?
AI & Brand – Part I - The tension between efficiency and emotional resonance.
AI & Brand – Part II - Real-world examples and practical frameworks for brand-led AI.
💼 Work, School, and the Future of Learning
AI is already inside our workplaces and classrooms. These pieces explore what that means for how we learn, lead, and build.
AI + Work - When productivity goes up, do we feel more useful or less human?
AI + College - What does learning mean when AI can write the paper?
AI + School - A grounded take on AI in early education.
AI + Resistance - The pushback isn’t anti-tech, it’s pro-human.
✍️ Creativity, Consistency & Building in Public
A mix of meta-commentary and lived experience; what it’s like to create (and keep creating) in an AI-first world.
What I Learned from Writing Consistently - On momentum, clarity, and showing up.
AI + Creation - What’s gained and what’s lost, when creativity is partially automated.
👀 Not Sure Where to Dive in First?
Try this piece for a snapshot of where AI is today, this one if you care about branding, or this one if you’re thinking more like a strategist than an operator.