Paul Welty, PhD AI, WORK, AND STAYING HUMAN

Bookmark: Too Busy For The Future: Why Managers Can’t Close The Skills Gap

Discover how redefining managerial success can close the skills gap and prepare your workforce for future challenges with innovative development strategies.

In Forbes’ recent piece “Too Busy For The Future: Why Managers Can’t Close The Skills Gap,” we discover the fundamental shift needed in how we evaluate managerial success. Instead of focusing solely on immediate results, Doug Dennerline and the Betterworks report highlight the importance of aligning performance metrics with long-term skill development. This insightful article proposes the innovative idea of implementing dedicated ‘development managers’ to prioritize employee growth, ensuring a workforce ready for future challenges. It’s a must-read for anyone invested in the future of work and organizational success.

A compelling quote from the article “Too Busy For The Future: Why Managers Can’t Close The Skills Gap” states, “Skills aren’t just a ‘nice-to-have’; they’re critical to organizational survival. This isn’t just about retaining talent—it’s about unlocking potential” Too Busy For The Future: Why Managers Can’t Close The Skills Gap


Featured writing

Why customer tools are organized wrong

This article reveals a fundamental flaw in how customer support tools are designed—organizing by interaction type instead of by customer—and explains why this fragmentation wastes time and obscures the full picture you need to help users effectively.

Infrastructure shapes thought

The tools you build determine what kinds of thinking become possible. On infrastructure, friction, and building deliberately for thought rather than just throughput.

Server-Side Dashboard Architecture: Why Moving Data Fetching Off the Browser Changes Everything

How choosing server-side rendering solved security, CORS, and credential management problems I didn't know I had.

Books

The Work of Being (in progress)

A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.

The Practice of Work (in progress)

Practical essays on how work actually gets done.

Recent writing

We always panic about new tools (and we're always wrong)

Every time a new tool emerges for making or manipulating symbols, we panic. The pattern is so consistent it's almost embarrassing. Here's what happened each time.

Dev reflection - February 03, 2026

I've been thinking about constraints today. Not the kind that block you—the kind that clarify. There's a difference, and most people miss it.

When execution becomes cheap, ideas become expensive

This article reveals a fundamental shift in how organizations operate: as AI makes execution nearly instantaneous, the bottleneck has moved from implementation to decision-making. Understanding this transition is critical for anyone leading teams or making strategic choices in an AI-enabled world.

Notes and related thinking

Article analysis: Report: Employers Still Don’t Understand Or Trust Education Badges

Employers struggle to interpret digital education badges, highlighting the urgent need for standardization to enhance their credibility in hiring processes.

Article analysis: Forget Work Life Balance. It’s The Future Of Less Work

Discover how the future of work prioritizes less hours and greater fulfillment, reshaping workplace dynamics for a more balanced life.

Bookmark: Mark Cuban says AI won't have much of an impact on jobs that require you to think

Mark Cuban argues AI will primarily affect jobs with simple decision-making, leaving roles that require critical thinking largely intact.