Alex Komoroske

AI shifts the fundamental cost structure of software, requiring a departure from traditional playbooks where software was expensive to write but cheap to run.

"I think LLMs are truly a disruptive technology. In fact, I would argue that what we're seeing in the industry is us trying to use mature playbooks from the end stage of the last tech era in one that d..."

Product design in the AI era must account for the 'squishy' and non-deterministic nature of LLMs rather than treating them as perfect oracles.

"I see all these places where people will build products and they'll say 80% of the time, 90% percent of the time, it's great. 5% of the time it punches the user in the face... even if you get it down..."

LLMs serve as a 'conversation partner' that allows for rapid exploration and iteration of ideas without the social cost of asking 'dumb' questions to experts.

"I use it to think through problems. And so like when I'm trying to name a concept or get a handle on a few different ways of looking at something, just saying, 'Here's what's in my brain about this to..."

Platform and ecosystem success comes from identifying 'gardening' opportunities—projects with inherent compounding loops that grow on their own.

"Anything that is shaped like an ecosystem that has some kind of network effect... you have to know what you're looking for and find the dynamics of a thing that if it worked would work at an accelerat..."

Scale your impact by identifying recurring verbal explanations and codifying them into asynchronous documentation.

"Maybe in 10 different one-on-ones with people on the team, I had to explain to them a strategic thing that we were doing... Well, you know what? That should probably be a document, right? If the same..."

Great work is an emergent property of high-trust environments where individuals are encouraged to exercise their unique strengths.

"If you want to get your team to do great work, there's no shortcut other than to have an extremely high-trust environment where people lean into their superpowers in a way that adds up to something gr..."

Organizational dysfunction often stems from the simple power asymmetry where subordinates feel they cannot challenge a leader's public narrative without personal risk.

"The underlying dynamic that must be true in any organization on a fundamental basis is you can't make your boss look dumb because if you do, they're the person who decides, 'Oh, this person's not perf..."

In highly uncertain environments, focus on order-of-magnitude differences rather than wasting effort on 'false precision.'

"Trying to ignore it by trying to pin it down with fake numbers that you just made up for yourself at great expense is a really bad idea... It doesn't really matter if it's 1,000 or 1,001, who cares? I..."

Internal 'Nerd Clubs' or strategy salons create high-value insights by using 'yes, and' norms to filter for the most resonant ideas in a low-stakes environment.

"I created a secret group that I called Navel Gazers... you set the norms very explicitly and say, 'This is a collaborative debate environment. This is only yes, and.'... This sounds by the way very no..."

A North Star should be a low-resolution, highly plausible future state that provides coherence without over-prescribing the path.

"You need coherence about where you're going and the way you get that is by creating a North Star for yourself. It should be in three to five years in the future, it should be very low resolution. It s..."

Maintain organizational credibility by dedicating the majority of resources to 'legible' value while reserving a significant portion for experimental, high-upside 'seeds.'

"My approach at Google was 70% of my effort and my team's effort should go on things that everybody acknowledges are important and useful and create value. Maybe it's boring, linear value, but some kin..."

The guest argues that 'taste' is the most critical differentiator in an era of AI-generated 'slop' and provides a definition for it.

"In this cacophony, how do you stand out? You stand out by having good taste. I think taste is the most important thing."