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Daily one-pagers about AI, leadership, technology, and being human.

johnmaconline

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May 30, 2026 2 minute read

Cognitive Surrender

AIHumanLeadership

An interesting paper from the Wharton School at UPenn defines the term “Cognitive Surrender.”

It means adopting AI outputs with little to no scrutiny, and in so doing, bypassing human intuition and deliberation.

Nailed it.

We’re living in a time of cognitive surrender. Professionals, students, and hobbyists with access to LLMs just let it think for them.

Look at any post, article, or message you receive on LinkedIn. I’m guessing here, but I would estimate that at least 90% of the content is AI-generated with little to no human oversight. LinkedIn is useless slop right now.

We also know that teachers are struggling because their students are doing the same. And as someone who works at a company aggressively pushing AI onto its workforce, I see the results in a professional knowledge work setting.

AI is here to stay. It will become increasingly ingrained into individuals’ and the system’s workflows. It’s too useful. It’s too fast. It’s too magical.

What do we do?

We insert AI into our cognitive process, rather than offloading it. It’s still your work. It’s still your output. Make sure you reason along with it. Ask it for confidence scores and when it’s uncertain. Read it yourself. Think about it yourself. Test your trust.

Keep your human cognition in the loop.

May 29, 2026 1 minute read

Fitting In Again

HumanLeadershipThe250

As teenagers, most of us desperately wanted to fit in.

Nerds, jocks, band geeks, popular, druggies. Somewhere. That’s our deep human need for connection combined with our hormone-raging teenage biology.

As an adult, you likely fit into several groups. You may even find yourself fitting into groups with differing opinions.

Be careful, however, how dedicated you are to fitting in.

Because if you’re trying to do something, say something, or make a difference, some of those groups should think you’re crazy. Even the ones you fit into.

Nobody makes a difference without someone else thinking they’re crazy.

May 28, 2026 1 minute read

Its Not My Job

HumanLeadershipThe250

I have a rule on my teams. We never use the phrase, “That’s not my job.”

That’s because I want to foster attitudes of ownership, providing value, and a sense of “we’re all in this together.”

However, there are some things that aren’t my job.

I can’t make you successful. I can’t make you happy. I can’t make you care.

That’s your job.

May 27, 2026 1 minute read

Headless Chickens

HumanLeadershipThe250

A chicken with no head isn’t thinking.

Its muscles and nerves are firing due to stored energy. The spinal cord just randomly triggers until that stored energy runs out. There is no rhyme or reason. No purpose. Plus, that energy runs out quickly.

Running around like a chicken with no head doesn’t help anything, and you can’t put it back on.

But if you still have a head, you can choose differently.

You can stop and think. You can apply method and process. You can try something and see what happens. Deliberately.

Keep your head.

May 26, 2026 1 minute read

TMI

AIHumanTechnology

AI agents overshare.

They create more documents, more paragraphs, more explanations, and more words. And if they’re writing code, they create more code, more comments, more tests, and more review items. More, more, more.

So much so that you can’t help but say, to yourself or out loud, “Shutup!”

I’ve said to my agent, “Too much! Be succinct, sparse, and more efficient. If you can use 2 words instead of 3, do that. Do not overexplain.”

We all have a friend or family member who is the same. How do you handle them?

It’s a different approach. We can be direct, terse, and even a bit rude with our agents. We wouldn’t use the same approach with a person. We’d probably try to be kinder.

With people, kindness means patience. With agents, kindness means constraints.

May 25, 2026 1 minute read

No On Board

HumanLeadershipThe250

It feels good to have everyone on board.

And that’s the right thing to do sometimes. But also, real change might require pushing through when not everyone is on board. In fact, you might want to look for the kind of change that not everyone is on board with.

Somebody is always protecting something. Their status. Their expertise. Their kingdom. Whoever that is won’t be on board.

If change is the goal, not everyone will be on board. By definition.

May 24, 2026 1 minute read

At The Speed Of Model Change

AITechnologyThe250

The models, they are a-changin’.

Therefore, I’ve updated the ”How to Talk to AI” page.

Some terminology: The term “frontier model” is just fancy AI-speak for “the latest model.” The one’s that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google announce in the press.

Enjoy.

May 23, 2026 2 minute read

Jevons Paradox

AITechnologyThe250

Most people expected that LED lighting would lead to a significant reduction in global lighting power consumption.

Why wouldn’t you? Seems reasonable. The Occam’s Razor outcome. A 60W incandescent bulb costs about $10 a year to run versus $1 for a similar LED version.

But instead, we just use more lighting. Why not? It’s stupid cheap now, so it’s no big deal to add more street lights, office lighting, home lighting, brighter signage, larger displays, etc.

Overall, LED lighting has not significantly lowered the total amount of power that we apply towards lighting in the world.

That’s Jevons Paradox.

Two basic predictions exist today in the software world:

  1. AI will replace and wipe out all junior software engineering jobs.
  2. AI will lead to even more software engineering jobs, at all levels.

That second one is Jevons Paradox.

The relative efficiency (cost, speed, etc) of code development will lead to more:

  • More apps
  • More features
  • More ideas prototyped
  • More automation
  • More refactoring
  • More tools
  • More, more, more

And the unstoppable train of more will inevitably lead to more software jobs.

Personally, I think AI has unlocked a million ideas I have for little side projects around my house — power outage detection, power monitoring, 3D printing, etc. I’ve had these ideas for a long time, but the amount of work I knew I’d have to put in was a barrier. Now, it’s a piece of cake, all with a $20 a month subscription.

Machines provide leverage. AI provides leverage.

Figure out how to get AI working for you, or you’ll be working for AI.

May 22, 2026 1 minute read

Will it Work?

HumanLeadershipThe250

Asking that’s a good start.

Not having an answer is a better start.

It might work. We think so. We don’t really know. We’re going to have to try.

It might be just the right thing to do.

May 21, 2026 1 minute read

Problem or Situation

HumanLeadershipThe250

Problem or Situation?

Seth Godin’s new one, The Knot, distinguishes between problems and situations.

A problem has a solution. You can find the solution. You can implement the change.

A situation has no solution. Why? It could be the people involved, timing, culture, or simply “that’s the way it is and no amount of anything you do will make a difference.”

The magic come when we learn to tell the difference.

Is this a problem or a situation?

Dig in on problems. Move on from situations.

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