Writing
Essays
Notes from twenty years finding the people who build things, and one year learning to build them myself.
- Hiring BuildersOctober 13, 20265 min read
The 10-Minute Test: How I Know If an Engineer Can Actually Build
Ten minutes told me whether an engineer was scrappy enough for early Tesla. The rest of the process, built with the engineers themselves, told me whether they could build.
Read the essay - Built with AIOctober 6, 20263 min read
How I Made My Site Visible to AI Assistants
AI assistants used to see my site as thin, uncertified, and mostly invisible. What I changed to fix that, and why I tested it on my own name first.
Read the essay - Hiring BuildersSeptember 29, 20264 min read
What Recruiting for Elon Musk Taught Me About Spotting Builders
For nearly a decade I recruited for Elon Musk, where qualified was never enough. The interview question I used to find real builders, and the hire that made no sense on paper.
Read the essay - Built with AIAugust 13, 20262 min read
Learning to Build, Not Just Hire For It
Twenty years finding the people who build the thing. Now I'm the one building it, with Claude Code as the team I don't have to hire first.
Read the essay