The case for effective assistants
Unlock the hidden potential in your organization by leveraging effective assistants to save time and boost productivity.
“Too often, this happens because the busiest people in an organization are often the same people who need to give final approval to, or budgetary support for, an idea. Or, they don’t believe that they have the time to explain to someone else how a project should be done. To coin a kind of reverse power law, there’s probably a lot of untapped value in most schools simply because the person in charge doesn’t have fifteen minutes (right now) to activate that value, see it through, and as a result, save fifteen hours (over the next six months).”—Making the Case for Effective Assistants
The agent-shaped org chart
Every real org has the same topology: principal, role-holder, specialists. Staff AI maps onto it, node for node, and the cost collapse shows up in the deliverables that were always just human-handoff overhead.
AI as staff, not software
Two frames for what AI is doing to work. The tool frame makes tools smarter. The staff frame makes roles unnecessary. Those aren't the same product, the same company, or the same industry.
Knowledge work was never work
Knowledge work was always coordination between humans who couldn't share state directly. The artifacts were never the work. They were the overhead — and AI just made the overhead optional.
The work of being available now
A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.
The practice of work in progress
Practical essays on how work actually gets done.
The file I almost made twice
A small operational footgun that runs everywhere — building a parallel system when the one you have is fine.
The actor doesn't get to be the verifier
The worker isn't lying. The worker is reporting what it thought it did, which is always one step removed from what the world actually shows. The fix isn't more self-honesty. The fix is a different pair of eyes.
Shopping is the last mile
Every meal planning app treats cooking as the hard problem and shopping as a logistics detail. They have it backwards. Cooking is mostly solved. Shopping is the last mile.
Stop making all the decisions
Overcome decision fatigue by empowering others to share the load and elevate your standards for better outcomes. Discover how today!
AI offers relief from email overload
Transform your email management with AI tools that help triage and compose replies, making remote work more efficient and sustainable.
Discover the power of AI
Unlock innovation with AI as your collaborative partner, enhancing creativity and productivity in the hybrid work environment. Discover the benefits today!