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Ron Davis ·
founder @ joust / technology strategy / ai operations
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Writing about technology, the craft of building, and everything else.
Latest · ai
The Apocalypse Has a Permitting Problem
A famous forecast says AI might end the human era within a few years. I went looking for the ending where the rest of us get a say, and couldn't find it.
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Earlier · ai
AI Adoption Needs a Transition Plan
A six-pillar framework for adopting AI while expanding human capability, improving work, and sharing the benefits of technological change.
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Earlier · ideas
Still Aimed at Humans
I've written the version of the future that worries me. This is the part I'm actually hopeful about: what happens to work, and why the human doesn't go away.
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Earlier · everything-else
What I Love About Calvin and Hobbes
The last strip hangs framed on my office wall. I've been a fan my whole life, and it's the rare thing from childhood that got better as I got older, not worse.
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Earlier · ideas
Intelligence-First
You think you're a digital company. That was the last war. The next one goes to whoever builds intelligence into how they actually operate.
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Earlier · ideas
I've Thought Hard About Where AI Leads, and None of It Looks Easy
I build with this technology for a living, which is exactly why I can't sell you a clean utopia or a tidy apocalypse. The honest map has no obviously good roads on it.
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Earlier · ideas
A Better Mental Model for Understanding AI
Stop thinking of it as a person or a database. Think of it as a very fast, very literal intern who has read everything and only knows what you put in front of it.
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Earlier · work
Running Off the Inbox, Not a Plan
Reactivity feels like productivity. It rarely is.
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Earlier · ai
Why Most AI Pilots Fail
It's almost never the model. It's the plumbing and the goal.
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Earlier · ops
The Meeting That Keeps a Company Honest
The meeting that keeps a company honest, step by step.
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Earlier · ai
Good Enough Runs Local Now
The assumption that serious AI means renting a frontier model by the token is already out of date. For most of what businesses actually need, the model can live in your own building.
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Earlier · work
Positioning Is a Verb, Not a Noun
Most founders think positioning is the reputation they'll earn someday. It's actually a decision you make on Monday: who you serve, and how you win.
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Earlier · ai
Who's Liable When the Machine Is Confidently Wrong?
These systems don't fail like software fails. They fail by being fluent, confident, and wrong, and we haven't decided who owns that yet.
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Earlier · ai
The AI Bubble Is Real. So Is the Technology.
A bubble and a genuine technological shift are not mutually exclusive. Both things are happening at once, and the people who understand that will still be standing when the froth clears.
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Earlier · ops
Selling to Slow, Careful, Regulated Buyers
The buyers who move slowest are also the hardest to dislodge once you're in. Here's how to get in, and why their caution becomes your moat.
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Earlier · ideas
Automate the Drudgery, Keep the People
There are two ways to sell AI to a business. One counts how many people you can fire. The other counts how good your people can become. I only do the second one.
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Earlier · dev
Edge Cases Are the Whole Job
The demo always works. The demo is easy. Everything interesting, and everything that pays, lives in the weird 1% where a white dog gets clocked at 90 miles an hour.
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Earlier · ai
Why Most Enterprise AI Projects Quietly Fail
The failure rate for corporate AI programs is staggering, and almost none of it is about the technology. It's about the people you forgot to bring with you.
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Earlier · ops
Show Me Your Day, Not Your Org Chart
The best discovery question isn't about strategy or structure. It's 'walk me through what you actually did yesterday', because the drudgery is the spec.
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Earlier · dev
The Return of Custom Software
For twenty years the answer to 'should we build or buy?' was almost always buy. AI just quietly flipped that back, and most companies haven't noticed yet.
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Earlier · work
Guard Your Cash Like the Little Guy You Are
You are the last vendor in the chain and the first to get squeezed. Price like it, bill like it, and build your way out of trading hours for dollars.
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Earlier · work
Once You See Too Much, You Go Independent
Nobody leaves a stable job because a spreadsheet told them to. They leave because they saw how the thing really works and couldn't un-see it.
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Earlier · work
The Agency's Original Sin
Sales promises the moon. Delivery is handed a telescope and a deadline. This gap isn't one bad company. It's built into how the whole industry pays itself.
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Earlier · everything-else
I Didn't Mean to Start a Blog
I don't think my opinions are better than anyone's. I just wanted to catch them before they evaporated, and writing is the only way I know to find out what I actually think.
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JUL 22 2026
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01 / 24
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02
AI Adoption Needs a Transition Plan
ai · 07·17·2026
03
Still Aimed at Humans
ideas · 07·10·2026
04
What I Love About Calvin and Hobbes
everything-else · 07·10·2026
05
Intelligence-First
ideas · 07·01·2026
06
I've Thought Hard About Where AI Leads, and None of It Looks Easy
ideas · 06·30·2026
07
A Better Mental Model for Understanding AI
ideas · 06·02·2026
08
Running Off the Inbox, Not a Plan
work · 05·31·2026
09
Why Most AI Pilots Fail
ai · 05·12·2026
10
The Meeting That Keeps a Company Honest
ops · 04·28·2026
11
Good Enough Runs Local Now
ai · 03·31·2026
12
Positioning Is a Verb, Not a Noun
work · 03·10·2026
13
Who's Liable When the Machine Is Confidently Wrong?
ai · 02·24·2026
14
The AI Bubble Is Real. So Is the Technology.
ai · 01·20·2026
15
Selling to Slow, Careful, Regulated Buyers
ops · 11·11·2025
16
Automate the Drudgery, Keep the People
ideas · 10·14·2025
17
Edge Cases Are the Whole Job
dev · 09·23·2025
18
Why Most Enterprise AI Projects Quietly Fail
ai · 08·26·2025
19
Show Me Your Day, Not Your Org Chart
ops · 06·17·2025
20
The Return of Custom Software
dev · 04·08·2025
21
Guard Your Cash Like the Little Guy You Are
work · 12·10·2024
22
Once You See Too Much, You Go Independent
work · 11·12·2024
23
The Agency's Original Sin
work · 09·17·2024
24
I Didn't Mean to Start a Blog
everything-else · 07·05·2024