Don’t close the workshop. Change what it’s for.

Imagine spending decades building a workshop. You acquire tools, learn which ones matter and develop instincts through making things. Then a new set of tools arrives, and the possibilities change again.

That is where I find myself with AI. I’ve spent decades building enterprise software. I’ve been inspired by each new technology era. This one has made the work interesting all over again.

What comes next?

I’ve been all in on AI since the early language models started producing their first rough attempts at code. Some of it was awful, but I could see where it might lead. I’ve kept building with it as it has improved.

Now I want to widen the question. What new kinds of tools, interfaces and ways of working might grow from these capabilities? Which possibilities are still at their awkward beginning? What could I try that would help me understand them?

Experience is a place to start

Years in software give me questions about building things that are useful, not just interesting or fun; there is always a person using the result.

I want to bring experience to the experiment and let the experiment teach me something new. There is room to be both enthusiastic and careful.

Look for the next curve

The bottom of an S curve is the image I’m using for this exploration: early work, uneven progress and uses that are still taking shape. I don’t know which direction will become the next major advance. I want to investigate promising questions without pretending the answer is already settled.

Keep building, keep noticing

The apps on the workbench are part of my early work with AI. They give me practical things to build and inspect. The exploration can also lead to automations, new interfaces or tools that take on a different kind of task.

This site is the notebook: questions, experiments, useful results and things that changed my mind. If you’re wondering what comes next in an era of AI, I’d like to compare notes. There is plenty of reason to keep the workshop open.

— Vince