Starting 2026 nerd processor with a bang next week: brand-new original data about the AI promises people doubled-down on and backed away from in 2025. Why not subscribe? My latest data stories | Build like a founder | nerdprocessor.com kieran@nerdprocessor.comUnsubscribe · Preferences
7 days ago • 1 min read
Etch-a-sketch brain Even though I've spent the last 11 years making software for enterprise, I myself worked exclusively in startup environments. I've just wrapped up my first month back as an employee in a big company. It's been a long time since I've been the new kid, and wow, I had not realized the extent of my etch-a-sketch brain: Much of my knowledge of BigCo got erased after I founded a startup. Here are four things I forgot, big and small. #1: Elephants have long memories In my second...
14 days ago • 3 min read
I love it when a plan comes together I'm a big team person. I have played and coached sports all my life. I have built teams both small and large in multiple settings. I regularly sign up to be the team parent for my daughter's sports (much to her chagrin, sorry not sorry). Maybe this is why I have long been fascinated by team dynamics at work. Last year, I looked at startup performance data and concluded that team size matters. In particular, startups with teams of about 5 people per manager...
21 days ago • 3 min read
Gigantic, a big big love I've spent the last decade building and advising AI startups (tiny companies) that make software for enterprises (ginormous companies). In other words, while I've built products for big companies, my own personal AI adoption has happened mostly at small ones. Now that I'm working in a big place again, I am thinking a lot about big AI and small AI. Think big, act small As a product leader, I understood that enterprises were different from startups, but I mostly...
28 days ago • 3 min read
This year in AI If you've been reading nerd processor over the last year, you know I've spent a lot of time thinking about the AI transformation of work. For instance, we've talked about why most AI projects fail before they start. I explained why, in an AI world, people mistakes are costlier than ever. And we've talked about the economics of AI companies and whether things are sustainable. I am a builder at heart, so I've also written about my own use of AI. In reviewing my public speaking,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
8 days a week The other day I came across this fascinating research by Microsoft talking about the "infinite workday." The telemetry from M365 users shows that people are regularly doing email at 6am, having meetings at 8pm, and working through the weekends. In theory, it's the time of year when work starts to slow down. The season of "let's circle back in the new year" has begun. The Microsoft research doesn't comment on seasonality, but I'm wondering: Does the infinite workday take a break...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
How the sausage gets made Recently, a nerd processor reader asked me why I don't use AI to make nerd processor, since I write a lot about using AI at work. I replied that of course I use AI to make nerd processor! Just not in the way you might think. Where I don't use AI When you read "of course I use AI to make nerd processor," your brain probably went first to the obvious scenario: using AI to write copy. But I don't use AI to write. I write my own copy for the same reason I always have:...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Queen Bees and Wannabes, but make it profesh For many years, I've fantasized about creating a personality assessment that is like Queen Bees and Wannabes, but 1. not just for teenage girls and 2. for the workplace. Do I have expertise in psychometric testing? No, I do not! That's why it's just a fantasy. Your work personality and your real personality Sadly, there's no Queen Bees and Wannabes test (yet), but I've taken my fair share of personality tests. The Enneagram (8w3 at work, 3w8 in my...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
On the hunt Over the last 12 months, I have talked 16 different friends through career transitions. Not clients that I have coached or advised, though there are some of those too. In this case, I'm talking about 16 people I know personally. That's a lot! Some of them have been laid off. Some just want to work somewhere else. Others are just looking to do something different, perhaps a new kind of work or perhaps the same work but on different terms (like freelancing vs. working in-house). A...
2 months ago • 3 min read