Pattern recognition at the CTO level

June 28, 2026

Twenty Months, Five Cases, No Consequences

Five incidents. A parliament that called protesters the world's stupidest people. A minister arrested mid-extortion. A Rp 268 trillion program that poisoned 37,000 children before its leadership stole from it. Officials evacuated by police from a university campus. A doctor who died two weeks after drunk legislators walked into her emergency room. No one is in prison.

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March 20, 2026

On Filter Coffee, and Why Most CTOs Are Wrong About It

Tubruk is a surrender of control dressed up as tradition. Espresso is a capital problem most people solve once and live with. Filter coffee is a system with parameters you own. The case for the only correct method.

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March 19, 2026

No Compromises.. Except

Apple's encryption protects you from hackers. Not from governments. iCloud backup is on by default. The FBI killed the fix. When the UK demanded a backdoor covering every user on earth, the US sent its intelligence director to London to fight it. No one flew to Jakarta.

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March 8, 2026

You Wouldn't Give Your Intern Your SSH Keys

Openclaw gives you a WhatsApp-controlled AI with SSH access to your home server. People called it amazing. Security researchers found 414 infected skills on its marketplace — including the most-downloaded one. The script kiddies didn't come for you. You built the door and handed them the key.

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March 4, 2026

AI Doesn't Waste Energy. You Do.

150 tries. 127kWh. A handful of usable clips. This isn't AI being wasteful — it's you not knowing what you're asking for. Prompting is a bad interface, and the energy bill lands on the planet either way.

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March 1, 2026

The Multiplier

The demos are impressive. The foundations aren't. AI makes great engineers exceptional and weak engineers dangerous — and right now we're hiring people who can't tell the difference between building something and watching AI build it for them.

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January 20, 2026

Who Approved This?

Trump sent a formal letter to Norway's Prime Minister that no functioning institution should have cleared. Either someone reviewed it and approved it — or no one reviewed it at all. Both answers are worse than the letter itself.

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