The lineage
Whose thinking this is built on.
None of this is original. The method, the voice, the refusal to ship slop — each of it traces to people I read closely and stole from openly. Here is the debt, named and linked. If a line of mine ever landed, the odds are good one of them said it first.
Michael Sebastian · Branded Mayhem
The four I'd name first.
- Nate B. JonesAI analyst · Nate's NewsletterHis read on agentic work became the spine of the Install. The eighteen stages started as my notes on him.
- Ethan MollickWharton · One Useful ThingTaught me to treat the model as a co-worker you manage, not a tool you operate.
- Chris DoThe FuturWhy we charge for the diagnosis, not the deliverable. The move off commodity pricing is his.
- Simon SinekStart With WhyWhy before what. Every engagement opens with the diagnosis because of this.
Voices I read every week.
The standing list — the people whose work I actually pipe into the vault and read closely.
- Justin ObermanBrand voice · LinkedInHow to write like a human and not a brand. There is a skill in our stack named after his patterns.
- Justin WelshThe Saturday SolopreneurThe one-person-leverage model — systems over headcount.
- Ruben HassidAI leveragePractical prompting and AI-content tactics, weekly.
- Josh DavisOpenClaw UnboxedAgent and tooling thinking, in plain language.
Plus two I read by the masthead more than the byline — The Slow AI and New Economies.
Outside voices that sharpened the thesis.
People I do not read for tactics — I read them when an idea I already had needed someone bigger to have said it too.
The design lineage.
These four already have a film on the homepage. This is where they live the rest of the time — the half of the thesis that says soul is not a luxury.
- Rick RubinMusic · tasteGet it down to the essence. Everything after is subtraction.
- Dieter RamsIndustrial designLess, but better. The cream-forward restraint is his fault.
- Massimo VignelliGraphic designDiscipline over novelty. The grid is a moral position.
- Jony IveProduct design · LoveFromSomebody gave a shit. The soul-anchor on every page is trying to earn that line.
Also owed, quietly: Ed Catmull (the beautifully-shaded penny, from Creativity, Inc.) and Seth Godin, for permission and patience.
If you make things I should be reading, tell me.
The list is not closed. Most of what is on it arrived because someone sent it to me.