https://cameronwestland.com/rss.xml

I had coffee today with a founder I see every 90 days. He’s pre-PMF, mostly solo, a couple friends helping. He always closes the same way, grateful for the time and the perspective. On the way out I gave him the next move: “If you want to take this to the next level, start emailing me weekly. Treat me like an investor.”

The email is a forcing function disguised as a communication tactic. Two things make it work: a weekly cadence and a named audience. The cadence makes vagueness expensive over time. The audience makes journaling impossible. If you’re doing something hard and you have anyone who’s said “let me know how I can help” (startup, job search, side project, whatever), you should be sending this email.

My Corner of the Web

<p>
  Results-driven executive with 10+ years of experience in digital
  product development, leadership, and software engineering.
  Demonstrated ability to launch innovative products, raise funds, and
  manage cross-functional teams. Seeking a challenging role in a
  well-established tech company to contribute my skills and expertise
  for long-term growth and success.
</p>

<h2>Co-Founder at Delphia</h2>
<p><b>Chief Operating Officer (Toronto, Canada, 2022-2023)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Raised $80m and created the world's first active robo-advisor.</li>
  <li>Led a cross-functional team of 50+ people in product, engineering, design, and more.</li>
  <li>Developed and executed on a strategy to encourage data-sharing consumers to work together.</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chief Product Officer (Toronto, Canada, 2019-2023)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Led a team to launch three major products: Delphia Invest, Delphia Sweepstakes, and Delphia Trends</li>
  <li>Developed an experimental strategy focused on viral channels to lower CAC and invested in continuous product discovery</li>
  <li>Delphia mobile app received positive ratings of 4.2+ with over 30k funded accounts through paid marketing</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chief Technology Officer (Toronto, Canada, 2018-2023)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Managed a high-performing tech team focused on retaining top talent</li>
  <li>Ensured the company stayed up-to-date with the latest technology trends and innovations</li>
  <li>Managed the development and launch of an Ethereum token using smart contract technology</li>
  <li>Led the development of native iOS and Android apps, core platform, and Ethereum token</li>
</ul>

<h2>Other experience</h2>
<p><b>Software Architect, Autodesk (San Francisco Bay Area, 2016-2018)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Led technology for the next generation AutoCAD Web Application</li>
  <li>Led the standardization of React.js across all Autodesk products</li>
  <li>Launched Web Assembly based AutoCAD web at Google I/O 2018</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Principal Engineer, Autodesk (San Francisco Bay Area, 2014-2016)</b></p>

<p><b>Principal User Experience Developer, Autodesk (Toronto, Canada Area, 2013-2014)</b></p>

<p><b>Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer, Kera Software Inc. (Toronto, ON, 2012-2013)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Founded the company and led product and engineering</li>
  <li>Grew to 5000+ businesses in less than 18 months</li>
  <li>Acquired by Autodesk in 2013</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Co-Founder, Technical Leader, Big Bang Technology (Toronto, ON, 2008-2012)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Founded the company and grew to over $1mm ARR via revenue sharing agreements</li>
  <li>Led product, UX, and engineering teams</li>
</ul>

<h2>Key Achievements</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Raised $80m and created the world's first actively managed robo adviser (Delphia)</li>
  <li>Launched one of the first web assembly based apps (AutoCAD web)</li>
  <li>Successfully sold Kera Software Inc. to Autodesk.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Skills</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Digital product development from concept to launch</li>
  <li>Strategic thinking and effective communication</li>
  <li>Leadership and mentoring</li>
  <li>Financial planning and analysis</li>
  <li>Fundraising and networking</li>
  <li>Product management, discovery, and delivery</li>
  <li>Goal setting and strategic planning</li>
  <li>Technical expertise in software engineering</li>
</ul>

<h2>Education</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Self-taught</li>
</ul>

<h2>Extracurricular Activities</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Mentoring and spending time with family</li>
  <li>Reading books to stay up-to-date with industry trends</li>
  <li>Fitness and personal wellness</li>
  <li>Journalling and writing to improve communication skills</li>
  <li>Playing video games and watching movies/TV as a form of stress relief</li>
</ul>

My Corner of the Web

<p>
  An executive level professional with 10+ years of experience in
  building and growing digital products. Proven track record of
  raising funds and launching innovative products. Strong skills in
  leadership, product management, and software engineering. Seeking a
  challenging role in an early stage startup to make an impact and
  help grow the business.
</p>

<h2>Co-Founder at Delphia</h2>
<p><b>Chief Operating Officer (Toronto, Canada, 2022-2023)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Raised $80m and created the world's first active robo-advisor.</li>
  <li>Led a cross-functional team of 50+ people in product, engineering, design, and more.</li>
  <li>Developed and executed on a strategy to encourage data-sharing consumers to work together.</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chief Product Officer (Toronto, Canada, 2019-2023)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Led a team to launch three major products: Delphia Invest, Delphia Sweepstakes, and Delphia Trends</li>
  <li>Developed an experimental strategy focused on viral channels to lower CAC and invested in continuous product discovery</li>
  <li>Delphia mobile app received positive ratings of 4.2+ with over 30k funded accounts through paid marketing</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Chief Technology Officer (Toronto, Canada, 2018-2023)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Managed a high-performing tech team focused on retaining top talent</li>
  <li>Ensured the company stayed up-to-date with the latest technology trends and innovations</li>
  <li>Managed the development and launch of an Ethereum token using smart contract technology</li>
  <li>Led the development of native iOS and Android apps, core platform, and Ethereum token</li>
</ul>

<h2>Other experience</h2>
<p><b>Software Architect, Autodesk (San Francisco Bay Area, 2016-2018)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Led technology for the next generation AutoCAD Web Application</li>
  <li>Led the standardization of React.js across all Autodesk products</li>
  <li>Launched Web Assembly based AutoCAD web at Google I/O 2018</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Principal Engineer, Autodesk (San Francisco Bay Area, 2014-2016)</b></p>

<p><b>Principal User Experience Developer, Autodesk (Toronto, Canada Area, 2013-2014)</b></p>

<p><b>Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer, Kera Software Inc. (Toronto, ON, 2012-2013)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Founded the company and led product and engineering</li>
  <li>Grew to 5000+ businesses in less than 18 months</li>
  <li>Acquired by Autodesk in 2013</li>
</ul>

<p><b>Co-Founder, Technical Leader, Big Bang Technology (Toronto, ON, 2008-2012)</b></p>
<ul>
  <li>Founded the company and grew to over $1mm ARR via revenue sharing agreements</li>
  <li>Led product, UX, and engineering teams</li>
</ul>

<h2>Key Achievements</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Raised $80m and created the world's first actively managed robo adviser (Delphia)</li>
  <li>Launched one of the first web assembly based apps (AutoCAD web)</li>
  <li>Successfully sold Kera Software Inc. to Autodesk.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Skills</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Digital product development from concept to launch</li>
  <li>Strategic thinking and effective communication</li>
  <li>Leadership and mentoring</li>
  <li>Financial planning and analysis</li>
  <li>Fundraising and networking</li>
  <li>Product management, discovery, and delivery</li>
  <li>Goal setting and strategic planning</li>
  <li>Technical expertise in software engineering</li>
</ul>

<h2>Education</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Self-taught</li>
</ul>

<h2>Extracurricular Activities</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Mentoring and spending time with family</li>
  <li>Reading books to stay up-to-date with industry trends</li>
  <li>Fitness and personal wellness</li>
  <li>Journalling and writing to improve communication skills</li>
  <li>Playing video games and watching movies/TV as a form of stress relief</li>
</ul>

CAMERON WESTLAND

<p style="font-size: 1.1rem; margin-bottom: 1rem;">
  <strong>Principal Product Engineer</strong> | Toronto, ON | 647-200-1312 | cameron.westland@icloud.com
</p>

<p style="font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  Technical leader with 20+ years shipping products that scale. Four-time founder with successful exit to Autodesk.
  Currently shipping production code daily while leading technical strategy. I architect systems, write code, and drive business outcomes.
</p>

<h2 style="font-size: 1.5rem; margin-top: 2rem; margin-bottom: 1rem;">Experience</h2>

<div style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  <h3 style="font-size: 1.2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    Principal Product Engineer | Tilt
  </h3>
  <p style="font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    August 2024 - Present | Toronto, ON (Remote)
  </p>
  <ul style="line-height: 1.6; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
    <li>Architected and built AI-powered investment research platform from zero for institutional investors</li>
    <li>Ship production code daily - one of the most active contributors on the engineering team</li>
    <li>Designed real-time data pipeline integrating OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini for financial analysis</li>
    <li>Created extensible command system that lets any developer add new AI capabilities without touching core code</li>
    <li>Built comprehensive testing framework: E2E (Playwright), snapshot testing, and AI eval system</li>
    <li>Tech stack: Next.js 15, TypeScript 5, React 19, Supabase, TanStack Query, Tailwind CSS</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  <h3 style="font-size: 1.2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    Co-Founder & CTO | fforward
  </h3>
  <p style="font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    April 2023 - August 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area
  </p>
  <ul style="line-height: 1.6; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
    <li>Co-founded AI agent platform for product teams with Max Cameron</li>
    <li>Architected LLM-powered system to analyze qualitative user data and generate insights</li>
    <li>Achieved #2 Product of the Day on Product Hunt</li>
    <li>Converted 12 SaaS companies to paying customers through product-led growth</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  <h3 style="font-size: 1.2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    Co-Founder | Delphia
  </h3>
  <p style="font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    2018 - 2023 | Toronto, ON
  </p>
  <ul style="line-height: 1.6; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
    <li>Raised $80M and built world's first active robo-advisor from zero to 30,000+ funded accounts</li>
    <li>Held three C-level roles as company scaled: CTO, CPO, and COO</li>
    <li>Architected platform handling $100M+ AUM with native iOS/Android apps</li>
    <li>Launched three major products achieving 4.2+ app store rating</li>
    <li>Scaled team from 5 to 50+ while maintaining engineering culture</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  <h3 style="font-size: 1.2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    Software Architect | Autodesk
  </h3>
  <p style="font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    2013 - 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area & Toronto
  </p>
  <ul style="line-height: 1.6; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
    <li>Led AutoCAD Web development using WebAssembly - launched at Google I/O 2018</li>
    <li>Drove React.js standardization across all Autodesk products</li>
    <li>Joined through Kera Software acquisition - retained for technical leadership</li>
    <li>Transformed desktop-first company to embrace modern web technologies</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  <h3 style="font-size: 1.2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    Co-Founder & CTO | Kera Software
  </h3>
  <p style="font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    2012 - 2013 | Toronto, ON
  </p>
  <ul style="line-height: 1.6; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
    <li>Scaled from 0 to 5,000+ businesses in 18 months</li>
    <li>Built product adoption platform that drove acquisition interest</li>
    <li>Successfully acquired by Autodesk in 2013</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">
  <h3 style="font-size: 1.2rem; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    Co-Founder & Technical Lead | Big Bang Technology
  </h3>
  <p style="font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">
    2008 - 2012 | Toronto, ON
  </p>
  <ul style="line-height: 1.6; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
    <li>Founded consultancy and grew to $1M+ ARR through revenue-sharing model</li>
    <li>Delivered enterprise applications for Fortune 500 clients (Nissan, Allstate)</li>
    <li>Products served 50,000+ active users</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<h2 style="font-size: 1.5rem; margin-top: 2rem; margin-bottom: 1rem;">Technical Skills</h2>

<div style="margin-bottom: 1rem;">
  <p style="line-height: 1.8;">
    <strong>Languages:</strong> TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, SQL<br/>
    <strong>Frontend:</strong> React, Next.js, Vue.js, React Native, Tailwind CSS<br/>
    <strong>Backend:</strong> Node.js, PostgreSQL, Supabase, Prisma, REST/GraphQL APIs<br/>
    <strong>AI/ML:</strong> OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, LangChain, Vector DBs<br/>
    <strong>Infrastructure:</strong> AWS, Vercel, Docker, GitHub Actions, Terraform<br/>
    <strong>Testing:</strong> Playwright, Vitest, Jest, Cypress
  </p>
</div>

<h2 style="font-size: 1.5rem; margin-top: 2rem; margin-bottom: 1rem;">Key Achievements</h2>

<ul style="line-height: 1.8; padding-left: 1.5rem;">
  <li><strong>High-velocity shipping:</strong> 2,700+ commits in 2024 while maintaining code quality</li>
  <li><strong>Fundraising:</strong> Raised $80M for Delphia, built to 30,000+ users</li>
  <li><strong>Successful exit:</strong> Kera Software acquired by Autodesk (2013)</li>
  <li><strong>Technical innovation:</strong> Launched AutoCAD Web at Google I/O 2018 using WebAssembly</li>
  <li><strong>Product success:</strong> #2 Product Hunt launch (fforward), multiple products serving thousands of users</li>
  <li><strong>Team scaling:</strong> Grew and led teams from 5 to 50+ engineers</li>
</ul>

<h2 style="font-size: 1.5rem; margin-top: 2rem; margin-bottom: 1rem;">Education</h2>

<p style="line-height: 1.6;">
  Self-taught engineer with 20+ years of continuous learning. Started programming at age 12,
  launched first business at 22. Proven ability to master new technologies quickly and deliver
  production systems that scale.
</p>

<div style="margin-top: 3rem; padding-top: 2rem; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; font-size: 0.9rem; color: #666;">
  <p>
    References available upon request. View my work at
    <a href="https://github.com/camwest" style="color: #0066cc;">github.com/camwest</a>.
  </p>
</div>

Ask Apple Intelligence something it can’t handle and watch what happens. It delegates to ChatGPT. You get a brief “Working with ChatGPT…” indicator, then results come back. Claude Code delegates to subagents. Linear lets you @mention agents that run entire sessions with their own lifecycle. Stagehand wraps an internal LLM loop behind MCP tools for browser automation. OpenClaw’s ACPX delegates to external coding harnesses like Claude Code and Codex.

Everyone keeps building the same thing. Nobody has standardized it. I think MCP should, not as a new protocol, but as an extension to the one that already has distribution.

Mario Zechner wrote a post today called “Thoughts on Slowing the Fuck Down”. His argument: AI agents compound errors in codebases because humans are no longer the bottleneck. “A human cannot shit out 20,000 lines of code in a few hours.” That friction was a feature. Without it, tiny mistakes accumulate until the codebase is untrustworthy.

He’s right about code. But the same dynamics are happening to everything else we produce with AI, including the documents we use to decide what to code in the first place.

I pointed an AI agent at a performance-sensitive Python code path, gave it a 40-line spec and a replay harness, and walked away. An hour later it had tried 49 optimizations, kept 20, and taken the p95 latency from 339ms to 34ms. The whole thing cost $24.

Here’s the artifact it produced. A JSONL file where each line is a structured experiment:

{"run":1,  "metric":338.57, "status":"keep",    "description":"Baseline before any code changes"}
{"run":2,  "metric":113.35, "status":"keep",    "description":"Vectorized iterrows → Series.map"}
{"run":7,  "metric":102.57, "status":"checks_failed", "description":"Cached query embeddings, broke embedder_calls assertion"}
{"run":11, "metric":43.85,  "status":"keep",    "description":"Hoisted object-column numeric coercion into cache"}
{"run":25, "metric":34.75,  "status":"keep",    "description":"Shallow copies from cache instead of deep"}
{"run":40, "metric":33.83,  "status":"keep",    "description":"Removed redundant parsed_dates dict"}
{"run":49, "metric":34.31,  "status":"discard", "description":"Helper-level memoization exhausted"}

I didn’t build autoresearch. Karpathy released the concept, and a team built pi-autoresearch, a plugin for the Pi coding agent. I applied it. The interesting part isn’t the tool or the optimizations. It’s the setup work.

There’s a talent war happening in AI right now, and it’s changed the tone of a lot of career conversations.

I’ve been thinking more explicitly about the framework I use for deciding where to work and when to stay put. I realized later on a walk home from the gym that I’d never actually written it down. This is that post.

Three dimensions:

1. Meaningful relationships
2. Meaningful work
3. Mark to market

I didn’t invent the first two. I stole them from Ray Dalio’s Principles back in 2017, when I was carrying the hardcover on the subway every day like a brick-sized personality test. I couldn’t put it down. Those two ideas stuck. The third, mark to market, I treat as its own axis, even though some people fold it into “meaningful work.” I think that’s a mistake, and it’s the one most people get wrong.

I’m recording a Loom walkthrough of a new feature when I notice something broken—unrelated to what I’m demoing. A year ago, I would have logged a Linear issue. It would sit in triage for a week, get prioritized in a meeting, eventually get picked up. Now I open Claude Code, screenshot the bug, and type: “Why is this broken? Make me a plan to fix.”

I have a backlog of about twenty of these. My motivation for logging issues has never been higher, because there’s a fair chance I can ship a fix in under an hour.

I watched our CEO and a senior technical leader debate “everyone ships code” in a Slack thread this week. The technical leader is exactly the kind of person you’d expect to embrace this—ex-founder, high agency, ships fast. He pushed back.

Our CEO cited Tobi Lutke’s tweet about shipping more code in three weeks than the previous decade. The response: he’s seen this at other companies, it leads to more time cleaning up PRs, PRs and lines of code are bad metrics, the real bottleneck is architecture and figuring out what to build. He isn’t wrong about any individual point. But I think he’s making a bet that’s already outdated. “Everyone codes” isn’t about turning PMs into programmers. It’s about removing the artificial barrier between thinkers and doers.

A tweet from Amir Salihefendic hit 288K views last week:

“Cursor feels like a company without product management. Just devs and designers running seemingly random experiments with little higher-level strategy. I use Cursor a lot, and it is becoming a very frustrating experience.” — @amix3k, Dec 18, 2025

He wasn’t alone. Two days earlier, kyzo’s tweet hit 482K views:

“guys at @cursor_ai can you please slow down with changing the ui every 2 days? i’m like constantly confused between the agent and editor, feels like the buttons change every day.” — @ky__zo, Dec 17, 2025

My post about DHH moving Rails off GitHub got flagged on Hacker News within an hour:

They’re not wrong. I did use AI—for transcription, for structural editing, for finding holes in my argument. But every claim was mine. Every link was verified by me. I spent hours on it.

The problem wasn’t that I used AI. The problem was that engagement-optimized writing now looks like AI slop.

GitHub proposed charging for the Actions control plane, then backed off after community backlash. At the same time, services like Blacksmith can run CI machines faster and cheaper while GitHub still brokers the workflow. GitHub charges for the parts it still controls.

DHH should move Rails off GitHub. The tooling isn’t ready—but moving Rails would make it ready.

How I got here: I switched our CI from GitHub-hosted runners to Blacksmith a few months ago. After 30 days, the results were clear:

TL;DR — AI gets adopted fastest when it translates human judgment into a different format (notes → worksheet, jargon → plain English, transcript → summary). It gets scary when it replaces the thing you were paid to produce.

I’m at Nathan Phillips Square watching my kid’s class skate. A handful of parents, a couple of teachers, and a bunch of kids lapping the rink like it’s their job.

After thousands of AI-assisted commits, I discovered something surprising: the best AI framework is the one that doesn’t feel like a framework at all.

I write markdown files that tell AI what to do. I use bash commands to make things happen. That’s it.

gh issue create --title "Add user auth" --body "..."
gh pr create --title "feat: implement OAuth" 
psql postgresql://postgres:postgres@127.0.0.1:54322/postgres
yarn test:e2e

No YAML orchestration platforms. No JSON schema configurations. No enterprise AI frameworks. Just the same tools I’ve used for a decade, organized systematically.

I killed our weekly triage meeting last month. Three hours compressed to five minutes. But here’s the thing—it took me six failed attempts to get there.

The breakthrough wasn’t making the AI smarter. It was making the task more structured. This is what context engineering actually looks like—messy, iterative, and focused on constraints rather than capabilities.

Let me show you what it really takes to achieve a 36x productivity gain with AI. Spoiler: it’s not about the AI at all.

I watched our AI completely melt down during a CTO demo last month.

The model started confidently mixing up “deep research” (an existing feature) with “thematic analysis scans” (the new feature I’d just shipped). Every response made the confusion worse. The CTO’s face went from interested to puzzled to concerned. I sat there watching my careful prompt engineering unravel in real-time.

After the demo, the CTO asked the question I dreaded: “How can we make sure this doesn’t happen again?”

I learned this the hard way: when someone else pays the cost of understanding your AI-generated content, it isn’t real productivity.

I generated a Dagster pipeline plan in 6 minutes. My colleague Sam spent nearly an hour trying to review it. Here’s what the AI gave me:

Pipeline Overview: Implement staged rollout with A/B testing framework, targeting 5% initial traffic with automatic failover mechanisms and comprehensive monitoring across three deployment zones…

Here’s the thing: I can’t sit still for three hours.

A friend sent me this Andrew Huberman podcast last weekend. “You’ll love this,” they said. And they were probably right. But three hours? I tried. Really tried. Made it about 20 minutes before I started cleaning my desk. Then checking email. Then I lost track completely.

Sound familiar?

Let’s talk about what’s actually happening here. Long-form content is everywhere now. Podcasts routinely run 2-3 hours. The content is often incredible. Deep conversations, real insights, the kind of stuff that changes how you think.

TL;DR

• Make PR submitters show proof of work.
• Build on old rituals like code walk-throughs.
• Experiment with small PRs, code screencasts, and AI video checks to realign incentives.
• These could prevent teams from getting buried in review debt.

In “The Externality of AI Velocity,” I wondered if the real issue with AI-generated code is the hidden cost dumped on reviewers. Speed feels great. Ownership stays messy.

I’m still chewing on how we balance that. If AI generation continues gaining traction, then we’re going to have to solve these problems. Part of the solution will be steering the generation to be optimized for review (ask your model to do small changes/PRs). Part of the solution will be using AI to review and analyze the code. I bet if we don’t experiment with these, review queues will explode as AI floods repos with unowned code.

Cursor’s 4-July “Clarifying Our Pricing” post explains that the new Pro plan’s US $20 credit buys roughly 550 Gemini 2.5, 650 GPT-4.1, or 225 Claude Sonnet calls before metering kicks in. My reaction: that covers half a power-user day, not a month. If Cursor needed a second post to spell this out, plenty of devs are lost in the math.

Every engineer at my startup gets a $200-per-month “AI card.” I burned it when Cursor still counted “plain requests”.

TL;DR*: Claude Code hooks let you inject shell commands at key points in your development workflow. I built two simple hooks that enforce branch protection and run code quality checks automatically. It’s like having a pair programming partner who never gets tired of reminding you about the basics.*

I’ve pretty much switched to Claude Code exclusively for development work. The story of how I got here is a bit circuitous: a friend went to a conference where Factory AI was announced and asked me to kick the tires (I’ve been a Cursor enthusiast since day one). I tried Factory, liked some things about it, but it sparked an idea: I had tried Claude Code once before but it didn’t stick. Maybe I should give it another shot?

TL;DR: AI power is compounding faster than usability. The resulting complexity gap is the best greenfield for vertical software since the spreadsheet.

• 1985 Excel 1.0. Rows, columns, arithmetic.
• 1990 Charts and a macro recorder arrive.
• 1993 PivotTables and VBA land.
• 2000 Web queries and OLAP cubes make it enterprise-grade.
• 2010 Power Pivot handles big data.
• 2023–24 Python in Excel reaches general availability.

Every step boosted capability. Each step also widened the opening for companies that made one slice of work painless. Intuit, Salesforce, and ServiceNow now sit above 200 billion dollars each.

TL;DR - Early-stage startups run on conviction. A CEO who radiates certainty turns rough ideas into believers, believers into runway, and runway into time for the numbers to catch up. Guard that spark.

Smart calls and lucky breaks help. Belief pays the bills. Your job is to grow the pool of believers (employees, investors, lighthouse customers) before skeptics crowd them out.

TL;DR — LLMs can turn a spoken outline into a 500-line plan in minutes, but the time you save up front can re-appear downstream as reviewer pain. My six-minute, AI-generated Dagster plan cost a teammate an hour of forensic code review—proof that velocity has externalities. Collapse the slop, flag uncertainties, and optimise for their minutes before you open the PR.

I’m power-walking along Sunnyside, headset on, dictating a product spec while an LLM dutifully turns my ramble into prose.

TL;DR — When LLM-powered agents can plan and call REST APIs for you, the activation energy for integrations collapses. MCP sticks to plain JSON + standard auth while the model handles schemas, retries, and pagination—ideas that once took weeks of Zapier flows now fit in a single prompt.

My brother—a twenty-year IT veteran on sabbatical—pinged me last week:

“I just pointed the Jira MCP server at our board. The agent grabbed a ticket, set it to In Progress, did the work, marked it Done, pushed to GitLab, and opened a PR.”

The tech world is buzzing with dramatic predictions about AI and coding:

• “In 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code.” - Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO
• “I think software engineering by the end of 2025 looks very different than software engineering at the beginning of 2025.” - Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO
• “We at Meta are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of mid-level engineer that you have at your company that can write code.” - Mark Zuckerberg

Not everyone agrees on the magnitude of the coming change. Some tech leaders offer more measured assessments:

Someone recently asked me about a program called “BetaKit’s Most Ambitious” for Toronto Tech Week. They wanted my opinion on who’s the Canadian doing the most ambitious tech-related work outside of Canada, and who we should “repatriate.”

While I chose not to participate directly in BetaKit’s program due to previous experiences with their coverage, the question itself is worth exploring.

This got me thinking: what does repatriation actually mean? And more importantly, who would it really benefit?

In my last post, I shared how my local reinforcement learning experiments slammed into a hardware wall. Despite my M4 Max’s impressive specs, Apple’s Metal framework proved inadequate for the tensor operations needed in RL training. After weighing my options, I decided to migrate to a cloud GPU solution—a decision that opened up a whole new adventure in debugging, optimization, and perseverance.

Having made the decision to rent cloud GPU resources, I methodically approached the migration. With Cursor’s help, I created a detailed checklist for setting up a remote development environment that would feel as seamless as my local setup:

Last time I shared how I was dipping my toes into reinforcement learning with my “side side quest” project. I had just set up the environment and was waiting on benchmark results to decide whether RL was worth pursuing for my hypothesis validation component. Well, a lot has happened since then - some promising developments and some humbling reality checks. Let me take you through the journey.

After running the full 30-hour benchmark evaluation, I finally had concrete numbers to work with:

I’ve always been fascinated by reinforcement learning since the AlphaGo days. As an avid gamer, the concept of learning through repetitive play strongly resonates with me. But despite my programming experience, I always viewed reinforcement learning as “high science” – the hardest aspect of machine learning, beyond my reach.

That changed recently. With the rise of powerful language models enabling what Andrej Karpathy calls “vibe coding” - where you fully give in to the vibes and let LLMs handle the technical details - I started wondering: Could I use this approach to train my own reinforcement learning model?

I had an early test user trying out my app, and he sent me three Loom videos. One of them showed a genuine bug—he was working through a list of tasks, hitting reject on one, accept on another, and somehow the whole thing kept resetting. Very frustrating. The other two videos? Just him expecting a capability we didn’t have.

The first bug was obvious. It wasn’t the expected behavior. But instead of jumping straight into debugging, I went to Cursor. I told it, “A user is having an issue with this form, here’s what he’s doing, can you investigate?” I had it in ask mode, not agent mode—I didn’t want it to fix anything, just research. It came back with a possible explanation, but I wasn’t convinced.

I know it’s a lot less cool to talk about these days, but I was one of the first people to get a Tesla Model X. My VIN showed it was the 2550th off the line, and I even toured the factory. I was excited. But the thing that really stood out to me wasn’t the battery or the acceleration—it was self-driving mode.

Cars had lane-keeping for a while, but I always struggled with driving. It wasn’t that I was bad at it—I just found it overwhelming. Too much information, too much to process. My brain was running at full CPU just keeping track of everything: lane position, traffic flow, speed control.

Benedict Evans recently wrote two sharp critiques of AI research tools: “The Deep Research Problem” and “Are Better Models Better?” His argument is compelling and straightforward: AI tools like OpenAI’s Deep Research confidently present facts that are sometimes wrong, creating an “unknown unknowns” problem. If you’re not already familiar with a topic, how can you verify something that might be wrong? And if you have to double-check everything, why use AI at all?

Sam Altman posted about the future of AI recently—his “Three Observations"—and I found myself thinking about it this morning while lying in bed. His core message was that by 2035, anyone should be able to harness the skills of anyone from 2025. Think about that: someone who can barely read having access to the capabilities of a Harvard lawyer. That’s a massive shift.

I’ve been playing with OpenAI’s latest tools, and it got me thinking about where we’re actually heading. Here are three things that have been rattling around in my head.

As a product engineer, I’ve discovered how generative AI is transforming my code refactoring process. I’m not claiming AI is a cure-all, but I want to share a practical example that many developers facing messy component states will understand.

I was working on a multi-step form component “PinContent” when I realized my simple implementation had become a maze of useState declarations and if statements.

I’ve been thinking about how we use Large Language Models (LLMs). While many focus on AI-generated content, I believe we’re missing a more powerful use: AI as an editor.

We write more today than any generation before us. Our parents wrote occasional letters and grocery lists. We write constantly - through Slack, email, texts, and social media. The amount we write each day is enormous.

Let’s talk about a transformation in my professional life. It’s a story of rediscovery and finding my true calling in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Join me as we dive into the world of product engineering, AI, and why I’m making a dramatic shift in my career.

The call to management is tempting. “We wish we could clone you,” they’d say. “How do we get 10 Camerons?” It’s flattering, but it’s also a trap. One I’ve fallen into many times.

Let’s talk about Figma and AI startups. Don’t get me wrong, Figma is a powerful tool. It’s great for inspiring teams and aligning visions. In many ways, it’s like concept art in video game development - beautiful, aspirational, and great for setting the tone.

But here’s the thing: concept art never tells you if a game is fun to play. And Figma prototypes can’t tell you if your AI actually works.

When I first started fforward, my goal was to explore the intersection of decision-making in startups and the scalability potential of new technologies like LLMs. I experienced significant pain in my previous startup around building alignment and adapting rapidly within a large team. My initial concept was to create a decision memo or decision log system. The idea was to use natural language processing to search through all organizational activity, identify decisions, and automatically draft decision memos. We planned to integrate with tools like Slack, GitHub, and Figma, aiming to rationalize decisions and ensure alignment with company values.

Traveling to conferences is a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me.

One moment, I’m savoring the solitude of an airport lounge, and the next, I’m engulfed by the ache of missing my family. As the co-founder of an early-stage startup, fforward, attending events like TechCrunch Disrupt offers a whirlwind of opportunities and challenges.

In this blog post, I’ll take you through my love-hate relationship with conference travel while trying to navigate the labyrinthine world of tech startups.

For much of my life, I’ve held onto the belief that a fair and equitable partnership—whether in marriage or parenting—should ideally be a 50-50 split in duties and responsibilities. You take care of half, I take care of the other half, and we make a whole together. On paper, this sounds perfect.

Yet, I’ve begun to question its effectiveness.

The 50-50 model has its shortcomings. For instance, I’ve often felt as if I’m shouldering more than my ‘fair share.’ Additionally, the rigidity of this model offers little flexibility when life throws curveballs—illness, emergencies, or just the sheer unpredictability of day-to-day living.

Four years after saying goodbye to Northern California, my family and I returned to Marin County for a two-week vacation. There’s an age-old saying, “You can never go home again,” but what does it mean when that place once was home? The experience was emotional. It made me ponder the complexity of belonging, the notion of home, and the inevitable evolution of life itself.

Revisiting Marin County was a tapestry of emotions — some colorful, some muted, but all inextricably woven together. On the one hand, it was a poignant reunion with old friends and the stunning landscapes that make Northern California a living postcard. Hiking up hills where the fog kisses the treetops or wandering through streets where the air smells like eucalyptus was pure delight.

This blog post is based on a thought experiment and explores the future potential of generative AI in redefining Spend Control within companies.

People have previously misunderstood Spend Control as a strict enforcer of budgets. In reality, it serves as an organizational keeper of principles, challenging spending that exceeds certain thresholds. But the landscape could be better, especially in early-stage startups. Could generative AI be the missing link that enhances Spend Control? Let’s delve deeper into the concept, its benefits, and how startups can implement it.

Over the past five years, I’ve had regular talk therapy. It’s been crucial to my self-growth and mental stability. But I’ve found a surprising aid: good, old conversations with friends.

I’m cautious about saying this because it’s my experience. Not everyone may feel the same. In my view, men often shy away from deep talks with friends. For me, building this into my life was a conscious act.

The reward is meaningful. Meeting a friend reduces my stress. It’s a vital tool for my mental well-being.

Each dawn at 7 a.m., I have a routine.

I walk my dogs. It’s a short walk. We tread to a roundabout, where a small park lies. We call it the Circle Park. The dogs attend to their needs, and then we head home. In the school year, my kids join. In summer, I’m usually alone.

This walk, simple as it is, clears my head.

Have you ever had pickled ginger? It cleanses your taste buds. My walk does that for my mind. It has become my tool for mental clarity.

As I write this, my thoughts are tumultuous, and my emotions are raw.

The start of this year marked a significant turn in my life. I said farewell to my long-standing company and the security it provided. I found myself in the vast sea of uncertainty for three months, asking myself - ‘What’s next?’

A new opportunity soon emerged from the chaos—a light at the end of the tunnel - a new startup. Bolstered by a pre-seed round funded by friends and family, I embarked on this exciting journey in April.

Sometimes life is hard, a constant battle that keeps you on edge. It throws punches, and sometimes you’re unprepared to dodge. But luckily, we all have our unique coping mechanisms.

Mine? Video games.

Imagine feeling down and unable to think straight, only to find solace in digital fantasy. That’s been my experience.

With a recent bout of strep throat causing havoc in my life, I found myself reaching for the PS5 controller. The comfort of navigating digital worlds eased my restless mind.

The sun streams through the windows this Sunday morning. I find myself wrapped in the warmth of my bed, succumbing to the siren song of the “snooze” button a few times more than usual.

I had a late-night filled with bouts in The Witcher 3 and unraveling the mysteries of Silo’s first season. I was waiting for my wife’s return from a Saturday night Beyoncé concert, which spilled into the early morning hours.

The taste of entrepreneurship isn’t always sweet.

90 days into my new startup, I am grappling with an uncomfortable reality - zero traction.

A harsh wake-up call that had me questioning everything.

I have to sift through the confusion to find clarity. I am going back to problem interviews. I’m scrutinizing my decisions and figuring out where things went awry.

Part of me wonders, could aesthetics matter more than I thought?

I caught strep throat recently. It was quite the ordeal, but it gave me something I needed: a break.

Illness struck as I was about to ship my MVP of ‘fforward alerts’. It wasn’t a request but a demand - to rest.

Science has shown us that rest isn’t only for physical recovery. The brain benefits too. When we rest, our brain processes information and consolidates memories.

And so, I decided to rest. I allowed my brain the necessary downtime to digest, process and understand all I’ve worked on over the past 90 days.

As I celebrate my 40th birthday, I stand at a significant crossroads. Looking out toward the horizon, I see 2033 with eager anticipation and a clear purpose.

This vision, stretching from today until my 50th year, is not a destination but a guide. The goal is conscious and purposeful living. It is a roadmap. It pinpoints the areas of my life I intend to cultivate.

I am excited. I understand that the next ten years will present unique challenges and opportunities. This vision allows me to navigate the ebbs and flows with intention. It lays a solid foundation for a fulfilling decade of growth and realization.

Today, I share how Delphie, my 14-year-old Vizsla, improved my decision-making skills. Yes, an old dog taught an old dog new tricks!

Delphie has a rigorous routine. She wakes up at 7 am sharp every day and has a set of activities she expects to follow.

Are you deviating from this schedule? Not on her watch!

An ordinary routine, but let me explain why it’s anything but that.

On this Father’s Day, I reflect on how my father has influenced my life.

My father shaped my decision-making processes and problem-solving skills in ways I continue to discover.

You see, he was an OG hacker.

As a child, I lived amongst tools, machines, electronics, and various pulled-apart gadgets.

I remember my brother and me always causing trouble, mixing mortar for our father’s bricklaying work. Bags sat around the yard, tempting us to start small construction projects. Mortar dye covered us from head to toe several times—my poor mother.

Today, let me share Frances’ unique story.

At age 6, Frances stood in the 97th percentile for height.

This led to an exciting mixup in her ballet class. Her journey provided me, a founder, with valuable insights.

Frances’ height prompted her ballet instructor, a former national prima ballerina, to place her two years ahead of her peers.

Most would feel overwhelmed, but Frances didn’t. She didn’t know about the mixup and tackled the challenge with determination. Now, she excels among older students.

Today, I’ll share a unique journey from my past that serves as a testament to the power of embracing uncertainty and clear communication.

Like a David Lynch movie, it’s filled with suspense, intrigue, and a few unforeseen plot twists. Stay with me.

We begin at a tech company back in 2007 where I worked as a frontend developer. I met key players who would later become crucial in this unfolding drama.

It was 1997. I was 14. My brother got me a job at Canadian Select Farm Foods.

It was one of the best jobs I ever had.

1. Lease a small office with ~12 desks
2. Place a phone, a phone book, lead sheets, and a pen at each desk
3. Print out a script: “Hi Mary? Yeah it’s Cameron from Canadian Select Farm Foods. Are you interested in getting a free sample of chemical-free beef? Hello?”
4. Convert prospects to leads, document on a lead sheet, and deliver to the scheduler.
5. Scheduling calls to confirm the lead and book a presentation
6. Salesperson goes to the house, cooks a free sample, and pitches a freezer package.

The thing that made this job unique was the compensation. If I remember, you would start at minimum wage ($6.85/hr).

I dropped out of high school because I was afraid of failing. I had recently failed Math. My teacher even came to my house to try to convince me to go and write the exam. I declined.

I knew a lot about computers because I always tried to get my video games to run faster. I reformatted and reinstalled my machine several times a month.

“You’re very special to me.”

My goal is to do it at least twice a day. When they leave for school and before they go to bed.

They even say it back now, which is adorable.

I learned it from a friend. While staying at our house, I overheard her saying it to her two girls before bed. It brought me to tears.

I’ve had the good fortune to travel to unique places for work. I’ve been to Singapore, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, and more.

When I had the opportunity to visit Lisbon, I took it.

I haven’t explored Europe much and the idea of broadening my horizons there is exciting.

Here are eight highlights from my trip:

This area is Lisbon’s equal of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. I’ve never been to Paris, but this area was stunning!

Today, I want to share a personal story. In the past I led an “activation team” that taught me the importance of scouts:

During my time leading, we aimed to improve our conversion rate. Activation was the % of users that installed our mobile app and then funded their account.

We failed to move the needle over six months. But we learned a ton. In hindsight, I had the wrong framing. Instead of “improve conversion,” it should have been “Why is conversion what it is? What are the problems with our current experience?”

Humans are bound to make mistakes. Startup founders often share their successes, but failures get rarely discussed. So today, I want to share four short stories about getting fired. I hope it helps others navigate their journeys with more empathy and understanding.

Many people are getting fired right now; remember, you’re not alone.

My first job with Compaq came through chance and my love for video games. I dropped out of high school and left for Ottawa to seek refuge with my uncle. He offered me a place to stay for the summer but bought me a bus ticket to return home in the last two weeks. I surprised him with a job at the last minute.

Today, I’d like to share a journey that has refreshed and invigorated me. It’s all about cold showers, inflammation, and how they might help us make better decisions. But first, let me open up about my struggles and what led me down this path.

I suffer from rosacea. It sucks! The inflammation can flare up within a day or week, sometimes taking a year to go away. I also experience joint pain – arthritis runs in my family. As a result, my hands often hurt. A massage therapist friend recommended that I ice them daily in a cold pot of water. Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to build that habit yet.

Have you ever struggled with an uninspiring work computer? Ever daydreamed of a more intuitive and enjoyable user experience? I’ve been there, and this frustration led me to a place I never could have predicted. In this post, I’ll share how dissatisfaction with the status quo sparked a creative idea. How a unique competition brought that idea to life. And how the entire experience opened the door to a world of opportunities in the realm of startups. So join me as I recount this journey from humble beginnings to the unexpected realization of a dream!

Growing up, I never had the opportunity to travel or experience the luxuries some kids did. My first time on an airplane was when I was 24. It wasn’t a vacation. It was an unexpected and life-changing journey. Looking back, it shaped my perspective on success and happiness in the tech industry.

It all started when I won a contest, including a California trip for Macworld and a brand new MacBook laptop. Little did I know I was about to witness the launch of the iPhone. To put it into perspective, I had to get my first passport for this trip!

What makes you uncomfortable? How long can you stay in that place? For me, the answer is five days. Those five days led to a life-changing experience with the Way of Nature Sacred Passage.

In May of 2019, I felt the urge to do something radical. Intrigued by the idea of solo camping, my online research led me to the Sacred Passage. Although I had done day-long retreats, nothing could have prepared me for what lay ahead.

Today, I want to share my love for LogSeq, a fantastic tool integrated into my daily routine. It’s helped me work, think, and connect with others. As a testament to its value, I launch LogSeq first thing in the morning daily. So let me take you on a journey through how this versatile app has become a part of my life. My goal with this post is to inspire you to try it! A Warm Welcome from LogSeq

As a startup founder, balancing your business with your family can feel Herculean. Your mornings should be a time to bond with your children and prepare for the day. But often, they turn into a battlefield that leaves you stressed and exhausted.

Picture this – you’re already burning the midnight oil to grow your company. Now you must wrestle with your kids, Frances and Coco, every morning to prepare them for school. The constant struggle is draining your energy. It makes it even more challenging to focus on your work and make progress in your business.

In the world of superheroes, each one has a secret weapon. Superman has super-strength, Spiderman has his webs, and me? I’ve got Brain.fm.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “What? Ninety minutes of intense focus? Is that even possible?” Well, my friend, not only is it possible, it’s beneficial, and the secret sauce is in the science.

In the past, my battery would be at zero after a long and draining day of work. I felt depleted and struggling to engage with my energetic kids and wife. They were eager for social interaction and quality family time, yet I felt exhausted. The stark contrast presented a daily challenge.

Do you ever feel lost in thought during a warm, soothing shower, only to realize you’ve spent too long there? Well, you’re not alone. I’ve had my fair share of marathon showers and even resorted to setting timers to keep myself in check. But let me tell you – these shower thoughts are more than a guilty pleasure. They’ve become a crucial part of my creative process and can be valuable for you too.

Hey there, folks!

Did you know that once upon a time, I was a DJ? Yeah, you read that right. Not a Spotify playlist wizard, but an actual DJ. My brother and I formed this dynamic duo called Mischief and Mayhem. Here’s a little blast from the past if you don’t believe me: Mischief and Mayhem.

We had Technics 1200. We used this innovative software from M-Audio that let us stream mp3s through vinyl. It was like Serrato but in its early days. My beat was Indie house music, and we got to play at various clubs and parties in Toronto. This DJing stint spanned around two years, from 2006 to 2008.

Today, I share a bit of my fitness journey with you. Something as simple as building habits has made a massive difference in my life.

Of course, we’ve all had struggles, especially with everything that went down in 2020 (thanks, COVID). Back then, I felt pretty low – I weighed 150 pounds (6 foot 4) and had recently started antidepressants.

My doctor insisted I get some exercise, even if it was a few minutes a day. But let’s be honest; I struggled to get out of bed in the morning. I’m a voracious reader; one book I came across was BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits. And let me tell you, it inspired me and transformed my life!

Hello there! Today, I’d like to share a personal story about how I left my comfortable tech job in California for a startup in Toronto. So grab a coffee, and let’s dive right in.

Once upon a time, I lived in a beautiful home in San Rafael, California, and worked at Autodesk for almost five years. It was an incredible privilege. I played a lead role in a flagship product, and my commute to work was the stuff of dreams - a luxury Wi-Fi-enabled bus or a scenic ferry ride across the bay.

Today, I’d like to share a personal practice that has made a difference in my life and helped my family, friends, and colleagues. I’ve written about the power of gratitude before, and now I want to take it a step further with an engaging and straightforward activity.

This practice, known as “Rose, Thorn, and Bud,” first came into my life at Autodesk. The Luma Institute introduced us, and we used it for product development. According to the Luma Institute, this practice has roots in the Boy Scouts (though I was never one myself).

As some might remember, I quit drinking about eight months ago.

Whenever I shared my decision with someone, I usually got a similar response: “Good for you! Alcohol is bad. I should quit too.” What’s funny is that they’d usually be sipping a delicious drink, like a Negroni, while saying this. Almost everyone reacted this way—except my therapist. The perspective he offered made me rethink my entire approach to quitting.

He said, “A part of you is solving a problem with drinking. If you quit drinking without figuring out that problem, you’ll deny yourself something important.” His words shook me. The idea that abusing alcohol could be an attempt to meet one of my needs was eye-opening.

Hello, everyone! Today I’d like to share a personal practice that keeps me grounded amidst the busy world of startups. If you’re involved in a high-stakes venture, you know that staying focused, positive, and resilient is critical to navigating the challenges we face every day. That’s where my gratitude journal comes in.

Every morning, I set aside 10 minutes to jot down ten things I’m grateful for. This simple ritual has become an essential part of my daily routine. Taking a few moments to reflect helps me feel centered and grateful, setting a positive tone for the rest of the day.

When using Rudderstack to collect and send data to different destinations, you might run into issues with ad blockers that prevent the collection of JavaScript-based page views. In this blog post, I’ll walk through how to create a proxy for Rudderstack using Verceland Next.js 13 with app directory to get around the problem.

First, install the Rudderstack SDK package in your project.

npm install rudder-sdk-js --save

Next, initialize Rudderstack and set an API for the data plane and the config. Make sure to wrap this in an async function to avoid calling the window when running in Node.

Hey there, early-stage startup founders! I’m Cameron, your go-to Fractional Executive with 10+ years of experience in building and growing digital products. My mission is to help your startup thrive by filling strategic and executional gaps in your leadership team.

Why work with me?

1. Proven track record: Raised $80m, created the world’s first active robo-advisor, and sold a company to Autodesk.
2. Expertise: Digital product development, leadership, mentoring, financial planning, analysis, fundraising, goal setting, strategic planning, and technical expertise.
3. Flexibility: Adapting and co-defining goals with founders and leadership teams for maximum impact.

Ready to level up your startup? Book a call with me!

As Co-Founder, I do whatever it takes to keep the lights on. I invest in growing and developing our team, both technical and otherwise. I love building rituals with them. Recently I’ve been focused on refining our bi-weekly All Hands Meeting as a way to create authentic and meaningful company-wide check-ins.

As CTO, I focus on the quality of our technical decision making. I believe making effective decisions for both the short and long term is critical. I aim to question if we’re making the right trade-offs or if we’re even aware of them. I’m also especially passionate about Doing Right with technology. I believe that one of the most underrated skills is being able to recognize the difference between using our technology skillfully versus rightly.