Intelligence should increase human agency
A smart tool should leave a person more capable after using it, not simply more dependent on the tool.
PHILOSOPHY OF WORK & LIFE
Intelligence means very little if it does not make life more human, more capable and more awake.
I do not separate intelligence from people, or work from life. The way we design systems changes the people inside them. The way we work changes what we notice, what we value and eventually who we become.
Follow logic, then question the frame
Reason carefully. Then inspect the assumptions that made the reasoning possible. The frame can be the mistake.
Reality gets the final vote
Models, plans and elegant strategies are useful. Reality is still allowed to disagree with all of them.
Build with people, not around them
Good systems respect attention, dignity, context and the messy intelligence people already possess.
Complexity is not permission for confusion
Difficult things can be explained clearly without pretending they are simple.
Stay ordinary
Ambition is useful. Status theatre is exhausting. I would rather make good things and still enjoy a normal day.
LOGIC / ANTI-LOGIC
Be rigorous about the work. Stay ordinary about yourself.
When I was younger, I wanted to change the world. Growing older made the ambition more personal and more demanding: change myself first. I still want enough ambition to build difficult things, enough humility to change my mind, enough curiosity to break my own logic, and enough ordinary life to remember why any of it matters.