AI transformation inside existing tech companies is going to be brutal. You can’t just spin up a centralized “AI task force” and expect the rest of the org to suddenly think and operate differently. It doesn’t work. This mindset shift isn’t something you can document or mandate - it has to be seen and experienced. I know, because I had to see it myself.

This reminds me of the transformation to effective remote working, which began in some companies between 2020 and now. This change was also challenging for many large companies, as the shift to being AI-native was. Remote-first or remote-native wasn’t just about changing tools or processes; it was a complete mindset shift, a cultural change. Having witnessed this firsthand in companies built to be remote-first from the ground up, I found it extremely difficult for the same reasons Elena mentions here.

The rest of this article is worth a read too.

However, over the course of the last five years, I’ve grown increasingly worried about what Figma is doing to the field of design by pushing designers toward an engineering-centric way of working. This can be seen in their feature releases: Smart Components, Variables, Auto Layout, and Interactive Prototypes. These features are often celebrated as steps toward parity with engineering, but in practice, they encourage a mode of working that narrows the field of possibility at precisely the moment when it should be expanding.

As an engineer, I agree wholeheartedly with this. The design systems nerd in me absolutely loves these engineering-focused features in Figma. But if we go too far down this road, designers will bring less and less creative value to teams over time.

On two occasions I have been asked, — “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?” In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.– Charles Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 1864

Saw this on Simon Willison’s blog. Seems extremely relevant in the world of AI!

Calm Companies

Here is my list of Calm Company attributes:

• Profitable: Calm Companies have a strong financial engine working with good margins. This foundation enables everything else.

• Purpose: Calm Companies have a strong sense of purpose: “What are we building this company for?” Generally, there’s an internal purpose: “to improve the lives of the people working here,” and an external purpose: “to help more creators get their message into the world.”

• Freedom and Flexibility: As founders, we build businesses to give us more freedom. A Calm Company gives team members the flexibility to live well, pursue hobbies, exercise, take breaks, go on trips, and connect with family and friends.

• Fun: Calm Companies produce more opportunities for fun. “What if we ran this event?” “What if we went on a team retreat in the mountains?” “What if we put an easter egg on our website that plays a silly song?” “What if we made some fun stickers?”

• Mindful: At a Calm Company, decisions and commitments are made mindfully. We ask: will this decision make our lives worse? More stressful? Does it align with our values? Will this commitment add too much weight to our culture?

• Sustainable Growth: Calm Companies want to grow but at a sustainable pace. Growth should serve a higher purpose. Ambition is good, but not at the expense of well-being.

• Calm Work Environment: Stress and chaos are replaced with clear work goals, boundaries, and communication.

Frenzied Companies

Let’s contrast the idea of a Calm Company with that of a Frenzied Company.

A frenzied company is perpetually in crisis. They have a culture of impossible deadlines and unrealistic expectations.

Managers pressure employees to constantly be “on” and “available,” even after work hours.

An implicit—or sometimes explicitly stated—threat hangs over everyone’s head: “If things don’t turn around, jobs will be lost.”

Managers frequently dump their stress and anxiety on their staff. Employees regularly find themselves absorbing negative emotions from work. They come home feeling drained and overwhelmed.

Tim Feriss’ 5 Bullet Friday today included this quote…

To roughly paraphrase my friend, who’s a fan of minimalist packing, “I would rather have one pair of footwear that does everything well enough than carry a bunch of specialist footwear that does things better than I need.” We both only brought carry-on luggage.

This is exactly how I think about my own kit when I travel, or head out hiking. But it’s also how I often thing about the design of systems, processes and software tools. With the latter, “well enough” is often a high bar and so requires a bunch of specialist software. But wherever something we already have is good enough, stick with it until it isn’t.