Dear Operator

RIP OKRs. Set a target of 100 and you’ll get 100. AI makes the upside unknowable. So why are we still capping it? Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

For years, software has been judged by what it can do, not how easily it can be used. If something was technically possible, that was enough. That’s the arrogance of capability. AI is about to expose that. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

We spent a decade making software multiplayer. AI quietly reset us back to single-player. It makes you faster alone. It doesn’t yet help teams think in the same system. That gap is going to matter. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

Craft once implied a craftsman. With AI that’s rapidly changing and founder’s need to adapt. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

Agents don’t believe in your brand. They test what works. That changes everything. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

@KHashemee Services are going to be crucial in this era. That’s a clever bet!

@dearoperator what are you working on these days? I'm thinking of creating a venture factory that creates AI services businesses

Proficiency with AI tools will matter. But if you don’t also have 2 of these 3 skills, it won’t be enough to thrive in the AI era: Systems thinking — designing intelligent workflows Founder thinking — starting bold new initiatives Craft thinking — bringing art, taste and judgment Tool fluency is becoming table stakes. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

AI is making us all move faster and in roughly the same direction. True breakthroughs are going to become increasingly rare. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

Anthropic’s recent report sparked a lot of discussion about how much knowledge work AI might automate. Let's push the scenario further Imagine AI eventually handles something like 80% of the work people in tech do today. Who gets the jobs tied to the 20% that remain? Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

@samshank Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube, famously measured "watch time" and there was a billion hour goal. What was cool about watch time versus something like view counts was it rewarded engagement instead of click bait. One metric can be very powerful!

We are entering software’s third era. Human-led → AI-assisted → Agent-led In this era well designed governance becomes an unfair advantage for founders. Read more: dearoperator.substack.com/p/the-agent-er…

@psomkar1 Will they need developers? They will need brands though.

As a developer , under which ceo would you like to work ?

Studied the open roles at Cursor, Harvey, ElevenLabs, LangChain and more. They’re organizing around agents, deployment-heavy GTM, and AI-foward legal and finance. AI Startups aren't just building different products they are building different companies. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/dearoperat…

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a tech company in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a brand