2025-10-07
Beyond the AI Vibe: Shipping Value Over Hype
Amid the AI buzz, value still comes from understanding customers, not generating more code.
It's easy to get swept up in the LinkedIn AI hype. Everyone seems to be shipping, but is anything actually moving the needle?
I like to think of myself as someone who lives on the edge of new frameworks, languages, and tools. I'm an engineer by trade for a reason. But since the launch of ChatGPT, what’s meaningfully changed? In practice, not much—and that’s okay.
Code completion is better. It’s also more intrusive. The real bottleneck was never keystrokes; it’s clarity. The hard part is forming a crisp problem, a mission, and a plan that aligns people to deliver customer value.
We’ve tried to smooth this tug-of-war inside organizations with process, tooling, and ceremony. Yet writing more code without sharpening the problem is like adding TODOs to a list you never act on. Losing the forest for the trees if you will.
Developers can prompt and wait for LLMs ad nauseam. But why? In a world drowning in content, more often feels like less. Attention has fallen off a proverbial cliff. Among my own circle, interest has cooled. Online, the vibe seems the same.
Many of us have seen this before. Web1 and Web2 brought irresistible excitement—and hangovers. After the hype, what’s left? Greater interconnectivity? More anxiety? Screen addiction? I’m not sure. I find myself wanting more time, more grass under my fingers, and less tech for tech’s sake.
If your organization is pumping decks full of “AI” slides, it might be focused on the wrong things. Get back to basics.
- How can we better serve our customers and help them cut through the noise?
- How can we better support employees so they stay focused on real problems and outcomes?
That’s where success comes from—not from performative “AI” solutions, whatever that means this week.
For the record, I’m not an AI minimalist. I’m an AI maximalist. I’m excited about the shift from deterministic to probabilistic software. But it’s reckless to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Good business has always been about people—customers and employees—not the means. Starting from “AI” is backwards.
Start with a customer itch you can scratch. Then ask how AI can help.
Happy coding.
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