A.I.
What Ableton taught us about AI and the future of coding
In 2001, Ableton turned bedroom producers into festival headliners. Now vibe coding is doing the same for software. The parallels run deeper than you'd think.
Navigating the AI Era
For anyone trying to figure out what AI means for creative work - no hype, no panic.
I've been teaching AI workshops, building with AI tools, and trying to separate the signal from the noise. These pieces are my attempt to think clearly about what's actually changing - and what it means for people who make things for a living.
Start Here
The essential reads on navigating AI
Best of...
The Creative Technologist comeback
How a misunderstood role from the digital agency era is becoming essential for the AI age
Best of...
The McCartney Method: Mastering the Magic of Audience Connection
Paul McCartney’s secret to staying timeless: meticulous details, unforgettable fan moments, and a generosity that creates magic every show.
Best of...
Shakepeare & Co's Proustian Questions
In Paris, there's a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company (hey, who said the Brits and French don’t get along?). Next door is Bob's Cafe. Together, they do something wonderful.
Mindsets & Growth
The Shadow Brief
Carl Jung said every person has a shadow - the other version of themselves, shouting in silence. Turns out, every
Best of...
Carl Cox's timeless creative career advice
Two simple tips for a successful long-term career, courtesy of a one-of-a-kind artist & entertainer
How-To Guides
Practical playbooks for working with AI
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
Howard's Riffs
Same book, different you
Why it matters to play it again
A.I.
Pascal's Wager for AI (and why you should bet on Scenario 2)
Dan Hockenmaier just cut through all the AI noise with a simple framework. Here's why his "scenario 2" bet makes perfect sense.
A.I.
The 80-hour reality check: What actually happens when you build with AI
Everyone's talking about AI magic, but what's the messy reality behind actually building something? Here's my 6-week journey through format fails, bad vibes coding, and the breakthrough moments that made it all worth it.
Future Of Work
An antidote to AI tinnitus
Sam Altman says agency and adaptability will be extremely valuable. But what does cultivating them actually look like?
Creative Business
Lemon automation: How Chick-fil-A processes 20% of America's lemons... and what it means for your career
The unexpected career insights hidden in a chicken restaurant's remarkable lemon-squeezing operation
The Tension
Wrestling with AI's implications
Making sense of AI?
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Everything on artificial intelligence
A.I.
What A.I. quietly undoes
A.I. doesn't replace collaboration - it makes it optional. And optional things have a way of disappearing.
A.I.
Piano for the Office
In 1906, typing was marketed to women as "piano for the office." Safe. Respectable. Those same roles are now most exposed to AI automation.
A.I.
Taste the Soup
In 'Ratatouille', anyone can cook - but a great chef has to taste the soup. This applies to AI too. The skill now is judgment, not production.
A.I.
Three Big A.I. Bets - keynote
A 25-minute talk on the three bets every services business is already making - whether they've named them or not. Talent, model, positioning. Recorded in Paris.
A.I.
Claude reaches for the Skills
A small shift - seemingly
A.I.
So... what happens next?
Don't ask the AI boosters. Or the doomers. Can someone else help me understand?
Howard's Riffs
The Meta Post
What Claude Code saw after reviewing dozens of my blog posts. TL;DR: A lot.
A.I.
My A.I stack - February, 2026
Tools come and go. Here's where I've landed on the AI stack - for now.
Mindsets & Growth
It’s not their fault
Most feedback feels useless. But that's not on them - it's on us to extract what they really mean.
Creative Business
There is no Goose
There's a lot of Clay Davis energy in AI right now. People selling the golden goose. But real results come from the unglamorous work nobody wants to talk about.
A.I.
Notes on Claude Code
Reflections on six weeks on the Max plan
Now
Now - 30 Dec 2025
Star date: 30 Dec 2025.
* Having my mind blown by the capabilities of Claude Code running on Opus 4.5
Creative Business
How to run a retrospective that actually works
Six months after a project you can barely remember what you learned. Here's a one-hour framework that fixes that - using conversation, transcription, and AI to capture the insights that usually vanish.
Learning Innovation
Mike Tyson and the accidental punch
The other week I dropped a Mike Tyson quote into a session on adaptive leadership. Didn't think much
Learning, Education & Growth
The thing about teaching A.I. skills
Why most people have it backwards
Creative Business
Christian Bale kept training for a role he didn't have
Christian Bale got fired from American Psycho, and responded by... continuing to prepare for it.
Director Mary Harron wanted him,
Howard's Riffs
Same book, different you
Why it matters to play it again
Creative Business
Tempo, not Intensity
What fabric's resident DJ can teach the rest of us about experience design