Observations — imported from WordPress.https://alan.is/topics/observations/https://alan.is/insights/delorean-vs-tesla-the-race-to-build-the-ultimate-flying-car/https://alan.is/insights/delorean-vs-tesla-the-race-to-build-the-ultimate-flying-car/DeLorean joins eVTOL racing, but nostalgia is not engineering. Demand innovation, not cinematic ghosts.Mon, 19 Oct 2026 02:42:10 GMTdeloreanelectric-carsteslahttps://alan.is/insights/decoding-corporate-speak/https://alan.is/insights/decoding-corporate-speak/What office jargon really means—the phrases that would make your family laugh if you said them at home.Sun, 30 Aug 2026 22:35:59 GMTcorporate-speakphrasesslanghttps://alan.is/insights/who-actually-wrote-this-digital-watermark/https://alan.is/insights/who-actually-wrote-this-digital-watermark/Anthropic's AI watermarks expose faux effort—from EU rules to LinkedIn's slop backlash.Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:10:03 GMTaiwatermarkinghttps://alan.is/insights/no-you-may-not-record-this-meeting/https://alan.is/insights/no-you-may-not-record-this-meeting/AI note-takers default to surveillance in every room—killing humor and consent. Time to push back.Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:29:38 GMTainote-takershttps://alan.is/insights/human-vs-ai-slop/https://alan.is/insights/human-vs-ai-slop/Bad code predates AI. AI just ships the same ratio faster—fix the pipeline, not the tool.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:08:05 GMTaislopvibe-codinghttps://alan.is/insights/we-are-a-campfire-not-a-family/https://alan.is/insights/we-are-a-campfire-not-a-family/'We are a family' hiring is a trap. The campfire model: gather, contribute, leave—the fire stays.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:57:17 GMTcampfirecompany-culturefamilyhttps://alan.is/insights/enterprise-stability/https://alan.is/insights/enterprise-stability/Keeping the lights on is hard work. Enterprise stability is not release-and-forget, even in the AI age.Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:49:19 GMTenterpriseprivate-equitystabilityhttps://alan.is/insights/ai-is-making-us-artificially-intelligent/https://alan.is/insights/ai-is-making-us-artificially-intelligent/KISS kept us from drowning in noise. AI swapped it for needless verbosity—and content we did not write.Thu, 21 May 2026 18:50:49 GMTaiartificial-intelligencebovinekisshttps://alan.is/insights/why-the-saaspocalypse-is-over-blown/https://alan.is/insights/why-the-saaspocalypse-is-over-blown/AI won't kill SaaS overnight—custom tools bring security and ops costs incumbents already solved.Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:34:00 GMTaisaassaaspocalypsehttps://alan.is/insights/future-of-ai-is-not-public/https://alan.is/insights/future-of-ai-is-not-public/If you only refresh a status page, you are not in control. Public AI SaaS is not a long-term strategy.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 02:23:14 GMTaiartificial-intelligencegeminillmopenaitechnologyhttps://alan.is/insights/reclaiming-focus-the-lost-art-of-downtime/https://alan.is/insights/reclaiming-focus-the-lost-art-of-downtime/We traded Borland's forced tea break for noisy pipelines. Step away, think, and make a proper cup.Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:04:00 GMTmental-health-2software-development-2https://alan.is/insights/the-realities-of-software-releases-more-than-just-a-button/https://alan.is/insights/the-realities-of-software-releases-more-than-just-a-button/Release day is code meeting reality—scale, data, friction, and why we avoid Friday deploys.Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:48:00 GMTctodeploymentengineeringsoftware-development-2https://alan.is/insights/the-flaws-in-ai-customer-support-systems/https://alan.is/insights/the-flaws-in-ai-customer-support-systems/Logitech support showed great AI speech ruined by a human handover with zero context.Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:15:00 GMTaiai-integrationsupporthttps://alan.is/insights/rock-me-amadeus-elvis/https://alan.is/insights/rock-me-amadeus-elvis/Mozart and Elvis died broke; Constanze and Priscilla became accidental CEOs who saved their legacies.Fri, 02 Jan 2026 13:53:37 GMTelvis-presleymozarthttps://alan.is/insights/2025-in-review/https://alan.is/insights/2025-in-review/As 2026 begins, my annual review of 2025—reflecting on the stats and journals I kept through the year.Thu, 01 Jan 2026 18:34:28 GMT2025journalhttps://alan.is/insights/the-ctos-year-end-audit/https://alan.is/insights/the-ctos-year-end-audit/December quiet is for architecture audits—not inbox zero. Align the stack with your 2026 vision now.Sat, 20 Dec 2025 23:07:08 GMT2026ctotechnologyvision-documenthttps://alan.is/insights/a-day-in-the-ai-life-of-a-cto/https://alan.is/insights/a-day-in-the-ai-life-of-a-cto/Let me take you through a typical day in the life of a Chief Technology Officer in the age of AI and how it has woven itself into every aspect.Wed, 19 Nov 2025 18:12:21 GMTaichatgptctogeminihttps://alan.is/insights/2024-in-review/https://alan.is/insights/2024-in-review/As 2025 begins, my annual review of 2024—reflecting on the stats and journals I kept through the year.Wed, 01 Jan 2025 20:20:06 GMT2024https://alan.is/insights/why-peloton-needs-to-embrace-open-innovation-now/https://alan.is/insights/why-peloton-needs-to-embrace-open-innovation-now/Peloton loses subscribers and revenue. Sturdy hardware, stale software—open innovation or fade away.Tue, 17 Sep 2024 20:52:46 GMTapipelotonhttps://alan.is/insights/unlocking-value-from-your-company-data/https://alan.is/insights/unlocking-value-from-your-company-data/Old data is not dead weight—legacy experience and ML can unlock insights brick-and-mortar needs.Thu, 11 Apr 2024 21:18:28 GMTaiartificial-intelligencedatadata-sciencemachine-learningmachine-learning-2technologyhttps://alan.is/insights/ai-is-hard-and-mostly-human/https://alan.is/insights/ai-is-hard-and-mostly-human/AI hype runs high, but Amazon Go's 'AI' was largely human-run—a reminder to read the fine print.Wed, 03 Apr 2024 13:48:17 GMTaiamazonartificial-intelligencemachine-learningtechnologyhttps://alan.is/insights/how-it-works-internet-radio/https://alan.is/insights/how-it-works-internet-radio/What has to work in real time to deliver Internet radio—and everything else we take for granted.Sat, 23 Mar 2024 02:01:34 GMTinternetnetworknetworkingradiosecuritytechnologyhttps://alan.is/insights/2023-in-review/https://alan.is/insights/2023-in-review/Today is the 31st of December 2023, not a single cloud in the sky, the weather is unseasonable warm, and parts of the world have already started their 2024.Sun, 31 Dec 2023 18:39:13 GMT2023https://alan.is/insights/2022-in-review/https://alan.is/insights/2022-in-review/Now that we have started 2023, one can take a look at the year that was 2022.Sun, 01 Jan 2023 22:56:32 GMT2022https://alan.is/insights/people-are-leaking-their-rds-database-backups/https://alan.is/insights/people-are-leaking-their-rds-database-backups/Researchers discovered incompetence when handling AWS RDS database backups, exposing them on the public network for anyone to takeWed, 16 Nov 2022 18:18:37 GMTamazon