From the Human Side
Field notes on the human problems that sit beside intelligent systems. One question at a time.
Attachment and tool loss
What happens to identity and relatedness when a familiar AI agent is retired, swapped, or silently degraded, with concrete examples of grief and the identity gap
September 13, 2026·5 min read·New
Status / SCARF under AI
When model output and ranking systems rearrange who looks competent in the room, SCARF domains move—status first. A field note on governing face, pace, and fairness without treating the threat response as attitude.
August 30, 2026·6 min read·New
EI under AI load
Acceleration tools for drafting, scoring, and customer contact compress the moments leaders used for self-check and empathy. The software is not the gap; under-built regulation under speed is.
August 29, 2026·6 min read·New
ADHD / neurodivergent scaffolding
When leaders use AI for scheduling, drafting, and task sequencing as executive-function support, the system can either surface strengths or quietly reintroduce evaluation bias and cognitive load. A field note on governing the scaffold without pathologizing the human.
August 28, 2026·7 min read·New
Named override
An agentic path that can proceed without asking is unclaimed authority until a person, role, and channel are named. Field note on making override concrete before the system runs.
August 27, 2026·6 min read·New
Near-miss and rollback
The most important catches in an agentic workflow never become incidents. They become folklore. That is how the same class of error ships six weeks later.
August 24, 2026·5 min read
Rituals after the model moves
Dashboards do not keep people on the hook. Cadence does. Four short rituals that restore a name to the decision after the system has already sounded sure.
August 21, 2026·5 min read
Governance that fits in a week
Accuracy will not tell you if agency is leaving the building. Four leading indicators that detect trust withdrawal while you can still do something.
August 19, 2026·4 min read
Human overhead of agents
Every agent ships with a second org chart: reviewers, exception-handlers, and the conscientious person who absorbs what the vendor slide forgot.
August 17, 2026·5 min read
Retiring an agent without retiring the team
Decommissioning is change management, not IT hygiene. The skills, attachments, and shadow processes you skip will walk out with the license.
August 14, 2026·4 min read
Trust as capital
Trust is deposited, withdrawn, and called. If you cannot date the last withdrawal, you are managing a mood, not a system.
August 12, 2026·4 min read
Fairness in the loop
Once the confusion matrix looks clean, fairness work is not over. It has moved into voice, opportunity, and who still gets to be seen as original.
August 9, 2026·5 min read
Explainability as a leadership skill
Non-technical leaders do not need the weights. They need a translation they can stand behind when someone asks why.
August 7, 2026·5 min read
Attachment and tool loss
Teams form attachments to the systems they work beside. Retiring an agent without a grief practice is how competence leaves with the license.
August 2, 2026·5 min read
Status / SCARF under AI
When a model joins the room, status moves. Most teams treat that as attitude. It is a threat response — and it is governable.
July 28, 2026·5 min read