johnmaconline chain logo johnmaconline / The250
Daily one-pagers about AI, leadership, technology, and being human.

johnmaconline

I'm writing to think, learn, and remember in public. I'll be here everyday.

September 24, 2026 2 minute read

Baggage Handling the Code

AITechnologyThe250

Think about the baggage system at an airport.

You hand over your bag and care about two things:

  • It shows up when you do.
  • It isn’t damaged.

Then it disappears behind a wall. Literally.

You might think about it a little bit. A little trepidation. A little mistrust. Probably based on some personal experience. But generally, you don’t care what’s behind that wall. You don’t care about its efficiency. Whether people or machines handled it. You don’t care if it’s a clever design. You don’t care about any of the implementation.

You care that the bag shows up when you do and it’s not damaged.

Code is starting to look the same.

For years, code was expensive. Humans had to design it, write it, debug it, explain it, and maintain it. We crafted it. We showed each other lines, functions, and modules we were proud of. So we treated code as the product, and we cared deeply about it.

AI changes that.

Which is uncomfortable for programmers.

When AI can generate the implementation in minutes, the code itself becomes less scarce. Each line is less important. Each elegantly crafted logic path is less important. Each minimal and efficient function is less important.

What is still important?

Function and correctness.

Did it show up when you did, and did it damage anything?

AI baggage handles the code.

So what will you do?

September 23, 2026 2 minute read

Factory and Craftsman

AIHumanTechnology

What’s the difference between a cabinet made on an assembly line in a factory and one made by the cabinet maker down the street in his shop?

Maybe you’re thinking quality.

It’s not quality.

A good factory can make cabinets with high-quality materials and superbly consistent dimensions and finish. A mediocre cabinet maker can make a lousy cabinet with cheap materials and bad finish.

Maybe you’re thinking personal service or customer care.

It’s not personal service.

A factory with excellent people in customer service, including installation contractors, can provide an outstanding and personalized experience. An uncaring cabinet maker down the street can make you wish you’d hired anybody else.

The difference is where the craft mentality resides.

A factory cabinet has most of the crafting done before manufacturing begins. A person has already decided the dimensions, materials, joints, tolerances, hardware, finish, and assembly sequence. The factory optimizes its manufacturing to reproduce that design consistently, quickly, and cheaply.

A cabinet maker down the street moves much of that crafting into the act of building. He can look at your crooked wall, change a dimension, choose a different joint, compensate for unusual conditions, and make judgments as the work progresses all the way through installation.

Where does AI fit?

AI is the tool, not the factory or the cabinet maker. It’s the CAD package, ruler, and calculator. It’s the supply chain management engine. It’s the design verifier. It’s the “what-if” analyzer. It’s the

Craftsmanship has little dependence on whether the thing came from a factory or from a person whose name you know.

AI doesn’t change that.

September 21, 2026 1 minute read

On Preaching and Practicing

HumanLeadershipThe250

I admit it.

I’ve been straying from the course. I’ve not been practicing my own preaching from these pages right here. That’s on me. And it’s causing problems. By 9 am most days, when much of the (East Coast) world is just starting to work, I’m already a frazzled mess.

Too much to do. Too many agents. Too many people left dangling. Too much “multitasking.” Too much thinking that I can do it faster.

But that’s also the purpose of this space.

Identify an issue. Think it through. Write it down.

Then do the things.

I’m a human. We’re humans. Imperfect and slightly hypocritical on our best days. To be utterly ashamed of on our worst days. Most days somewhere in between.

But we have each other to lean on.

This space is for me to talk to me.

Thanks for being a voyeur.

September 20, 2026 1 minute read

Too Much

HumanLeadershipThe250

Some days it’s too much. There are too many things.

Clear head. Write the list. Prioritize it.

Start at the top.

September 19, 2026 1 minute read

Robotaxis

TechnologyThe250

Would you get in the car without a driver?

I would. And I’m actively seeking them out. I just haven’t been somewhere where they are yet.

The first reason is pure engineering curiosity. When I take my first ride in one, I’ll be watching everything it does from the engineer point of view.

Second, I’m a believer. They’ll be safer than human drivers. Yes, there will be some spectacular failures, and people will be injured. That won’t be great, and I just pray I’m not one of those statistics. But on the whole, it will be much better.

As for safety, here are some statistics as of August 2026 for both robotaxis and humans:

Injury outcomeRobotaxi incidentsRobotaxi incidents per 1M milesU.S. human incidentsHuman incidents per 1M miles
Injury without hospitalization510.35~1,524,000~680
Injury with hospitalization270.19~133,000~59
Fatalities10.007~22,200~9.9

Collated data from NHTSA.gov data.

OK, given the highly curated driving scenarios of robotaxis, this might not be exactly apples-to-apples, but come on, robotaxis are orders of magnitude safer than people.

Would you do it?

September 18, 2026 1 minute read

CEO AI Confessions

AIHumanLeadership

CEO’s are feeling the tension.

Some interesting stats from some company called Dataiku, who is obviously good at SEO.

  • 80% of CEOs say their role is at risk if they fail to deliver results by the end of 2026.
  • 65% worry more about over-investing in the wrong AI vendors versus under-investing.
  • 57% believe insufficient AI explainability could trigger a customer trust or brand credibility crisis.

They’re worried about their jobs. They’re worried about making the wrong decisions. They’re worried about their brand.

Oh wait, that’s nothing new with AI.

September 17, 2026 1 minute read

Artists and Builders

AIHumanTechnology

The Venn diagram with artists and builders has always had an intersection.

But not every artist is a builder, and not every builder is an artist.

AI is a builder. In any digital medium, AI can create a 100% overlap between artist and builder in the Venn diagram.

That’s a clue for you and your future.

Do you want to lean into the artist side and use AI to build?

Or do you want to choose a medium that AI can’t (yet) work in?

The sky’s the limit.

September 16, 2026 2 minute read

The Excavator Problem

AILeadershipTechnology

Imagine you’re a guy digging a hole.

You have a shovel, and you’re good with it. You’re strong and experienced. You know where to start, how to pace yourself, and about how long it will take you.

The boss comes by and gives you an excavator.

So you hop in and start to figure it out. It takes a little while, but once you get the hang of it, you can dig in half a day what was going to take a month.

That’s productivity, right?

Of course, but at the individual level. The excavator made you 10 or 100 times more productive.

But what if the hole is the foundation for a shopping center?

You’re done digging the hole by lunch, but the concrete crew isn’t scheduled to show up until next month. The forms aren’t ready. Oh, and the drawings are waiting for approval. The inspector’s on vacation. The builder’s got three other jobs before this one. The steel shipment got lost. It’s been raining for a week and a half.

Although you sped up digging the hole, you didn’t really speed up building the shopping center.

Now it’s a project problem. A system problem.

Today, AI is the excavator.

But we’re working on also making it the system.

Stay tuned.

Pin It on Pinterest