FIELD NOTES
Articles.
The longer version of what we post on LinkedIn. What we got wrong, what we tested, and what we'd actually tell a friend.
THE NOISE
Grok Bot vs Meta Muse: Two Always-On AI Agents, Compared
xAI and Meta both launched an AI agent with its own cloud computer that keeps working after you close the app. Here's what each one is, what's hype, and what we'd test before trusting either.
2026-10-28
THE METHOD
Three Claude "Agents" You Can Set Up in Ten Minutes, and Where They Stop Being Agents
A meeting briefer, a weekly competitor report and a lead researcher: three useful setups you can build in Claude without code. Plus an honest look at what they can't do.
2026-10-09
THE METHOD
How to Study a Book With AI Without Letting It Make Things Up
Asking an AI to summarize a book you haven't given it is how you get confident, invented answers. Here is a simple five-step method that keeps the AI honest and keeps you doing the learning.
2026-10-09
THE METHOD
AI Agents, Explained: The Difference Between a Chatbot, a Workflow, and an Agent
Everyone's calling everything an agent now. Here's the actual difference between asking AI a question, building an AI workflow, and building something that can plan and act on its own.
2026-09-30
THE NOISE
AI Is Starting to Build Itself. Here's What the Labs Actually Said.
Anthropic and OpenAI both published essays saying AI is now helping build the next version of AI. NVIDIA's CEO says that's just called computer engineering. Here's what's real, what's speculation, and what it means for you.
2026-09-28
THE PAYOFF
What We'd Actually Automate First in a Marketing Department, and What We Wouldn't Touch
The instinct is to automate the most visible part of marketing, the outbound content. That's usually not where the automation actually earns its keep.
2026-09-20
THE NOISE
The AI Tool That Writes Your LinkedIn Posts Also Writes Everyone Else's
Tools promising to write in your own voice are trained on the same corpus of high-performing posts as everyone else's tool. The result sounds less like you and more like a genre.
2026-09-20
STAY AHEAD
The Buy Canadian Moment Is a Marketing Test AI Can't Fake
Authentic local positioning depends on specifics an AI content generator is built to strip away, not add.
2026-09-20
THE NOISE
Marketing Attribution Was Broken Before AI. AI Dashboards Just Make the Wrong Numbers Look More Confident
The underlying data problem in attribution hasn't changed. What's changed is how confident the wrong answer now sounds.
2026-09-20
THE METHOD
I've Sat Through Hundreds of Vendor Pitches. Here's How to Read an AI Tool's Case Studies Like a Buyer
Years spent both writing case studies and picking apart competitors' during real deals teaches you exactly which numbers to distrust on sight.
2026-09-20
THE NOISE
The AI Marketing Team in a Box Pitch Doesn't Survive Contact With a Real Campaign
The pitch is one subscription replacing your whole marketing function. Anyone who has actually run one knows most of the job was never the part these tools touch.
2026-09-20
THE METHOD
What 20 Years of Selling Software Taught Me About Reading a Product Roadmap
Sitting through hundreds of vendor roadmap decks over two decades teaches you which slides are real and which are wishful thinking. The same tells apply to AI tools now.
2026-09-20
THE METHOD
The Tool We Recommended, Then Quietly Stopped Using
One of the tools on this site worked in the first test and then stopped earning its place a few weeks into real use. Here's which one, and what changed.
2026-09-20
STAY AHEAD
The AI Habit That's Quietly Making People Worse at Their Jobs
A Wharton study on nearly 1,000 students found a version of AI help that boosts performance and a version that quietly erodes it. The difference is smaller than you'd think.
2026-09-19
THE PAYOFF
The One Automation We Actually Kept Running
We tried a handful of automations while building this site. Only one earned a permanent place in our own workflow.
2026-09-19
THE METHOD
The Conflict of Interest We Almost Didn't Disclose
We nearly added a tool to the directory with a glowing recommendation and no mention of who was actually promoting it.
2026-09-19
THE NOISE
Why AI Expert Is Starting to Sound Like a Red Flag
The title used to mean something. Now it usually means someone found a new hobby six weeks ago.
2026-09-19
THE NOISE
You Don't Need to Watch AI News to Stay Ahead
A creator who tests AI tools for a living told her audience she deliberately waits months before trying anything new. That's not laziness. It might be the actual strategy.
2026-09-19