HeyJaredMessy Humans
“Messy Humans” is my mantra to remind myself and others that it's NORMAL for humans to be imperfect -- especially in fast-changing software development. Here, I share sometimes weird thoughts and stories from my 15+ years as an agilist and coach.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 9
- Latest publication
- Sep 19, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 15, 2026
Latest issues
A Series of Unfortunate Closed Questions (opens the original)
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I recently decided that a man I respect is full of shit.It took me an embarrassingly short time to reach that verdict, and an embarrassingly long time to notice how that verdict was serving me. This post is about the noticing and what it might tell us about Messy Humans navigating the AI kerfuffle.Conclusions as doorsSome conclusions are the end of thinking in the good way — you gathered, you weighed, you decided. Other conclusions are the end of thinking, period. They close a question because o
The Goodbye Letters caused by AI (opens the original)
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I have a confession: I’ve been binge-reading other people’s grief.You may have seen it too. The anguished letters of resignation (both meanings of that word) showing up in your feed: People mourning how they used to work, the craft they built over decades, the versions of themselves that used to make sense before AI turned the workplace tables. I’m reading partly out of compassion…and partly, if I’m honest, the way I slow down for a car crash. And the whole time, one question keeps nagging me: N
“System 3” is a marketing ploy (opens the original)
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It’s easy to take a confident answer from AI and call it my own. But what I really worry about is not noticing when the tool is wrong. Here, I take apart a paper that measured exactly that phenomenon, and argue that its best finding is being buried under its worst name.In this post I will:Explain why “System 3” is the wrong name for AI + human cognition and where the right words already existFollow the incent
Confidently Lost (opens the original)
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I notice that the line can get blurry between my choices and those made by AI. I worry about credibility and preserving my beautiful brain.Here, I share a method for keeping myself honest over time. In this post I will:Tell you true and dramatic stories about ancient marinersShare my process for logging self-monitoringGive paid subscribers prompts and a downloadable skill for operationalizing this process, to make it easier to track your own thinking over time<div
Borrowed Confidence: Why Agile Thought Still Matters in the Age of AI (opens the original)
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Here’s a confession: I have spent two decades watching smart people build things in isolation and call it work.A product manager sits with a designer—or a small team hunkers down in a closet somewhere—and they build something beautiful. A PRD so coherent it feels done. Wireframes that make sense. A story that holds together. They emerge and present it to the organization, feeling confident, and the organization executes. Engineers sprint. Stakeholders nod along. Six months later, everyone’s wond
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