August 13, 2026-6 min read
They Waited 35 Years for Permission
Three creators from Leyline's first AI micro-drama cohort on decades of options, development hell, and the week they decided to stop waiting.
Category
Building in Public
17 articles in this category
July 14, 2026-7 min read
The Gates Are Open
A UCLA film professor and a 3-time Emmy winner watched five weeks of student work at an AI filmmaking showcase and independently reached the same conclusion: the gatekeepers are gone. What that actually means for creators.
June 30, 2026-7 min read
A Place to Stand
Leverage needs a solid foundation. This essay explores why most ambitious projects fail by neglecting the 'place to stand'—the unseen, unglamorous work that…
June 30, 2026-10 min read
Company as Code
Discover how viewing an organization as code transforms operations. This essay explores automating company processes, turning org charts into programs, and…
June 30, 2026-7 min read
Every User a Product Manager
Discover how a two-person company leverages its users to perform product management and QA, turning real-world feedback into a powerful, self-sustaining…
June 30, 2026-12 min read
One Dummy, One Engineer, One Million Lines
How a non-technical founder and a single engineer built and scaled a stable AI system to over a million lines of code. This series reveals the discipline…
June 30, 2026-7 min read
Telling It What Not to Do
This essay explores why telling an AI 'don't' isn't enough. Learn how to build boundaries a machine can't argue past, moving from soft no to hard no, and…
June 30, 2026-7 min read
The Distance Between Us
The true point of creation isn't systems, but human connection. This essay explores how technology is collapsing the vast, expensive distance between…
June 30, 2026-7 min read
The Emperor Who Knew Nothing
Discover how Liu Bang, an emperor who knew nothing, conquered an empire by mastering the art of asking questions. This ancient wisdom reveals a powerful new…
June 30, 2026-6 min read
The Human in the Loop
This essay explores why human accountability is indispensable in automated systems, particularly for decisions impacting real lives. Removing the human, the…
June 30, 2026-7 min read
The Immune System
Explore how systems, like the human body, build strength not by avoiding failure, but by learning from every disaster. Discover the "immune system" approach…
June 30, 2026-7 min read
The Knowledge Engine
I built a 'knowledge engine' to make myself unnecessary. This essay details codifying tacit knowledge into explicit rules, finding freedom.
June 30, 2026-5 min read
The MBA Was an AI Manual
My MBA, once dismissed as corporate fluff, became an unexpected AI manual. Discover how old management theories, from Taylorism to agency theory, find new…
June 30, 2026-9 min read
The Two-Speed Mind
Learn the critical lesson of the two-speed mind: when to move fast, when to move like a bank. Distinguish reversible actions from irreversible ones in…
March 1, 2026-12 min read
Pulling Weeds on the Moon
The Little Prince pulled baobab seedlings every morning or they'd crack his asteroid apart. I maintain 186,000 lines of documentation for the same reason — without it, the AI agents lose context and the whole system collapses.
February 28, 2026-11 min read
Managing Gods
I spent years managing teams in banking and Hollywood. Then I replaced my entire org chart with 6 AI agents. The management skills transferred perfectly — the org chart didn't.
February 27, 2026-8 min read
Learning to Speak Octopus
A non-technical founder's journey from zero code to 283K lines in 5 months. How learning to communicate with AI is like learning an alien language — and why the struggle is the point.