Today, I'm launching a new AI course so you can copy the exact AI skills and workflows that I use to run my work and life. Since going independent, the most useful thing that I've done with AI isn't trying every new tool or vibe coding apps. It's building an AI system that proactively takes work off my plate and can work across any model or harness. Across 25+ bite-sized lessons, you'll: 1. Build an AI chief of staff to manage your inbox, calendar, and other tasks. 2. Set up an AI advisor to make better decisions about your life and career. 3. Automate workflows by chaining together reusable AI skills. 4. Make AI proactive with my best scheduled tasks for work and life. I've included 40+ copy/paste prompts for you to set all this up in an afternoon. In addition to the self-paced course, you'll also get: - $600+ in AI tool credits for my favorite tools - 16 ready-to-install AI skills - Monthly live workshops with me in a private Slack community of 400+ builders Get instant access to all of the above by signing up as a paid subscriber to my newsletter: creatoreconomy.so/subscribe?… Join by October 7 to lock in $150/year. After that, the price goes up to $200/year. Learn more at behindthecraft.com and thanks for your support!

Loved joining @fishmanaf on Startup Dad to wax poetic on reward hacking, dad jokes and fatherhood

AI Transformation has quickly become the new hotness. People are starting companies left and right to solve this problem, companies are hiring their own people to fix it, others are building software that promises to do the same without the need for humans. I have probably been pitched on 7-10 of these companies this week alone. All of these companies, people, and software assume something that is fundamentally flawed: If you just build the Software Factory you’ll be “transformed.” To quote @rabois "WRONG." The thing is most AI initiatives are failing because they layer LLMs onto a legacy org chart and they take an “if we build it, they will come” approach. The problem is that they won't come. Your token-eating pac-man will be fed, fat and happy and your CEO, CFO, Board and anyone whose goal isn't "burn more money on tokens" will be pissed. AI Transformation is about so much more than building workflows, a harness or two, or that mythical software factory. Yeah, it includes those things but it's not enough. You also need: 1. Persistent, organizational memory and context. 2. Cultural momentum. 3. Actionable org design. 4. Re-thinking processes from top to bottom. I wrote about #2 (Cultural Momentum) today in the FishmanAF Newsletter. Check it out: fishmanafnewsletter.com/p/ai…

What's the minimum device your kid actually needs? Jackie Nesi on staging tech decisions.

"Just don't feel guilty about screen time" is terrible advice. Jackie Nesi on why guilt is information.

You can love your baby and hate this moment. Both can be true. Jackie Nesi on dialectics and parenting.

Before you decide if your kid is ready for a phone, look at how they've handled every other piece of tech so far. Jackie Nesi, PhD on Startup Dad:

How to identify your Growth System Positioning *before* you try to do any tactical execution.

There’s a growing discourse that if you don’t have 1,000 simultaneous agents running in the cloud and managing each other you’re somehow doing it wrong. The reality is that having ONE agent doing stuff is still 2-4x faster than we were before. Baby steps. You’re gonna be okay.

If Astra can stop doing stuff like this I will be so happy. I don’t care if it gets 100% on a coding test: “So this still isn’t acceptable. I’m not going to pretend this one is finished.”

It’s Baxter’s 4th birthday today. What do you think @dog_rates ?

Probably because the building part wasn’t the hard part.

Today I published my conversation with Matt Fairbanks of @island_io on Startup Dad. I learned about the Fairbanks Family Values which grew organically over time, how uprooting the family out of silicon valley was the best move for everyone, and the terrifying story of learning about his daughter's car accident (while he was getting on an airplane for a cross-country flight with broken wifi). Everyone survived, but the mental cost has been large. Give it a listen; it's an amazing conversation and Matt is a fantastic Dad. piped.video/watch?v=Yg_RChiv…

It’s the @nvidia duck.

It’s such an interesting time we’re in. On the one hand these AI agent harnesses are getting easier and easier to setup, connect all your stuff to, etc. and they’re only truly useful when they have as much context as possible and can do all the things. On the other hand - until there’s a good security protocol and standard when you hook up everything you’re giving it unfettered access to ALL OF IT. Every email you’ve still saved in your inbox, every one you send / receive, every text message, etc. How many SSNs, drivers license photos, passwords, magic links that aren’t properly working, health records, etc etc. are hiding in that personal Gmail that is 15 years old? A LOT. And if they’re this easy to compromise AND people are so quick to try them out AND we also have things like Fable and Mythos out there that can execute security exploits… yikes. Even READ ONLY access is enough to capture a bunch of info, spoof an email and do all kinds of crazy stuff. I’m not a tinfoil hat, paranoid person by any means (quite the opposite) but you no longer need to be an elite expert to get access to a ton of very personal and secure information about someone.

Ghazi Masood, CRO at @Replit and formerly @auth0 and @retool on why he continues to focus on teaching his teenagers communication skills... and why that matters more than ever now.

Congrats @ShaunMClowes - now could you NOT be so successful… you’re making the rest of us look bad.

Good grief. Disappointed in my alma mater on this one. It’s not grades that contribute to the mental health crisis…

I recently rebuilt Mozilla's product manager leveling guide. My experience was that product leveling guides solve the right problem using the wrong format. There had to be a better way... and I found it. Career advancement shouldn’t be limited to who has the loudest manager or the thickest promo packet (iykyk). In today's FishmanAF Newsletter I broke down the framework and the focus points: • Why artifact-heavy leveling guides reward work theater instead of outcomes • Why promotion is often focused on a single moment instead of a sustained pattern • Why seniority means creating leverage through decisions, mentorship, and AI fluency • How to compress the a leveling guide into a one-page management system people can actually use Why did we do this work? We hadn’t updated our Product Management IC leveling guide in ~7 years. The original guide covered six levels across more than 20 rows of expectations: scope, planning, execution, ownership, adaptability, risk, communication, influence, knowledge, craft, and more. Most of the individual statements were reasonable, but they encompassed a lot of “work theater” and focused on tasks rather than real outcomes. Together, they were too dense and too confusing to become effective operating language. The final version fits on one page. It kept the six levels, added a 7th and compressed the job into a level summary and five dimensions. Mentorship became part of the definition of seniority. AI fluency became a cross-level expectation. The result was just as rigorous, simpler and more opinionated about what matters. Read today's newsletter to learn what changed and how we did it.