Journal
June 2026
How to tell if AI wrote it
Your audience has developed detection skills through exposure, not deliberate study. They can't always articulate what feels off. But they know.
Investment attraction is a trust problem
When every region offers roughly comparable incentives and roughly comparable amenities, the differentiating factor isn't the package anymore. It's trust.
Your talent attraction video shows the wrong thing
Drone shots over a downtown core. A montage of smiling people at a farmers market. These videos are everywhere. They're expensive to make. And with rare exceptions, they don't work.
Wednesday nights in the darkroom
Twelve frames of 120 film, a Wednesday night at the CASA darkroom, and what slow seeing taught me about the hollow parts of fast, AI-assisted work.
The friction problem
The real problem isn't AI. It's the friction. And the best use of any tool is to get out of the way so the work that requires you has more room to breathe.
May 2026
The saturation problem
When everyone has access to the same efficiency gains, the gains cancel out. What you're left with is a louder room and a shorter attention span.
The authenticity premium
At the same moment AI-generated content is flooding every platform, consumer trust in branded content is dropping. Those two trends aren't a coincidence.
The RFP process is failing creative work
The creative services vendor pool is shrinking. Not because there's less talent, but because experienced studios are doing the math and opting out.
On posting less, writing more
Why the canonical home matters when the platform moves under your feet.
March 2026
Why the grain stayed
A short defence of the noisiest layer in every photo I publish here.