The context compression frontier
What happens when using fewer tokens makes an AI system slower — and eventually less trustworthy?
Being shapedField notes from the changing edge of software
Building fast.
Thinking slowly.
I'm Les — a software builder exploring AI, systems, strategy and the human side of making things. This is where I share what I'm trying, what breaks, and what I'm learning along the way.
What I'm exploring
AI & human capacitySoftware & systemsResponsible accelerationBooks & ideas
From the notebook
Ideas worth staying with.
No hot-take treadmill. Just experiments, reflections and useful things I want to understand well enough to remember.
AI multiplies output, not human capacity
Agents can produce in parallel. Human understanding still has to arrive in sequence.
Read the reflectionSpeed amplifies the system
Speed tells us how quickly we move. Feedback decides whether it becomes progress.
Being shapedA little about me
Curious by default.
Builder by habit.
I've spent my career solving problems with software. AI has changed how quickly we can build, but it has also raised better questions about judgement, understanding and sustainable work.
I'm documenting that journey in public: the useful results, the failed experiments, the books that shift my thinking, and the questions I haven't answered yet.