Signal Dispatch
Signal Dispatch
Essays and field notes about software products, operations, commerce, and AI-assisted work.
Search all 295 published pieces, or narrow the collection by form, subject, or year.
Latest piece
Product Facts, Not Fine Print
The download page for a meeting notepad I shipped lists what the app refuses to do — no automatic sharing, no promise of completeness, no substitute for consent — above the download button, in the marketing copy. That placement is the design decision this piece is about.
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Series
9 authored sequences offer a second way through the publication. Each opens at its live Signal Dispatch index.
- The Taste TestA three-part series on what happens when AI handles the making and humans are left with the judging. Starting with the identity crisis of losing your maker status, through the realization that taste is the new bottleneck, to a provisional answer: maybe the job was always about matching, not making.active3 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- The BifurcationA series on the two ways a machine can be given eyes — operate the interfaces built for humans, or demand interfaces built for machines. It starts as an industry-scale standoff between two bets, questions whether splitting effort across both means neither ever finishes, and ends with the standoff collapsing into a single pipeline where a human still has to close the seam.active3 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- The Talent EngineAI hasn't just changed what work gets done—it's disrupted how expertise is developed. The old apprenticeship model is breaking. This series explores what replaces it: new roles, new learning paths, and the mechanisms by which people acquire mastery in an AI-saturated world.active5 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- Agentic Workflows in PracticeReal work, documented as it happens. Not demos, not theory—actual tasks where AI agents execute, iterate, and deliver. A running log of what works, what breaks, and what it means for how we work.active7 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- From Prompt to PatternHow a small fix—using one AI to rewrite prompts for another—became a system. A four-part arc on multi-model workflows, prompt refinement, and learning to think with AI.completed5 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- The LoomA diptych on the relationship between humans and AI in systems. Humans as the weaver—patient, structural, synthesis-oriented. AI as the thread—fast, abundant, increasingly tangled.completed2 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- Grid-Level ThinkingA four-part exploration of how AI functions as infrastructure, not magic. What we miss when we treat it like a shortcut instead of a system to design around.completed5 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- Signal Reflex: The OriginHow Signal Dispatch (originally Signal Reflex) came to be—the why, the how, and the evolution. From a commitment to daily AI-assisted writing to a platform for thinking out loud.completed5 articles↗(opens in a new tab)
- The StorefrontA three-part series on the evolution of e-commerce—from the death of the traditional storefront to AI-generated experiences that build themselves in real-time.completed3 articles↗(opens in a new tab)