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Notes on fixing systems and scaling with clarity.
Patterns in Practice: the newsletter, and the longer essays behind it.
Latest · Patterns in Practice
The Decisions You're Not Making
Jul 18, 2026 · Issue 2
The renewal notice arrived on a Tuesday.
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Patterns in Practice
The Costume Problem
Welcome to the first issue of Patterns in Practice.
Jul 17, 2026 · Issue 1
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Top-Down AI
The Cheapest Place to Be Wrong
A VP of operations I worked with kept a spreadsheet of every process her team had handed to software.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
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Top-Down AI
The Nine Decisions
It was late in a conference room that had run out of coffee, and I had asked the founder across the table for something that sounded easy.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
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Top-Down AI
You Already Know How to Cascade
Ask a leadership team to draw how goals move through their company and they can do it without thinking. The company sets a direction.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
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Top-Down AI
Between Two Floors
Devin had a corner of the third floor that was almost a real office.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
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Top-Down AI
The Question He Couldn't Unhear
The meeting was the last one before lunch, and everyone in the room could feel it.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
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Top-Down AI
The Most Expensive Smart Call I Ever Made
It looked like a smart call for about three weeks.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
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Top-Down AI
The Divergence You Can't See Yet
Put two companies side by side today and you would struggle to tell them apart.
Jun 29, 2026 · Essay
Prefer to talk it through?