Blog
Essays on judgment under pressure: how executives decide, how teams get to alignment, and where both break down.
Kraft Heinz Thrashing... Working?The new CEO, Steve Cahillane, was hired to split the business. Instead he reversed the decision, then reinvests. Could the board be missing a good simulation?Stuart McClureAugust 25, 2026Humans+AI>AI: Why Modeling People is the Missing Layer of Decision IntelligenceThe most critical system isn't code or silicon. It's the human system.Stuart McClureAugust 17, 2026Google's Cognition CrucibleVisionary ≠ Operator ≠ Institutional-Builder CognitionStuart McClureAugust 10, 2026Leopold's Thesis Was Right. But his prediction engine failed him.How Leopold Aschenbrenner was handed a masterclass on decision making, market power, and how atomic brilliance can cost you everything.Stuart McClureAugust 3, 2026Cracker Barrel's CEO steps downCan Cognitive Clustering strike again?Stuart McClureJuly 27, 2026AI Boomeranging: Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh my.Ford, IBM, and Commonwealth Bank each replaced people with AI a then quietly hired the humans back. The affects of Cognitive Clustering are permeating the AI narrative.Stuart McClureJuly 20, 2026EchoStar Bet Everything on Spectrum. SpaceX Bet on Building.How two men with the same mindset (myopic control) can have near opposite outcomes.Stuart McClureJuly 13, 2026From Tokenmaxxing to Token TurtlingHow Cognitive Clustering Blew Up Big Tech’s AI BudgetStuart McClureJuly 7, 2026The Lincoln Mindset: Hire Your EnemiesHow Cognitive Diversity Saved a Nation (and how it will save us now)Stuart McClureJuly 2, 2026Intel: Don't Confuse a Tripling Stock with Cured Cognition.Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan is on his way to legendary status but let's use First Principles to predict the ending.Stuart McClureJune 30, 2026The Starbucks Cognition ChallengeA technologist and a consultant ran Starbucks like an efficiency machine, then optimized it straight past its own product. The seven-quarter decline was a clear cognition problem.Stuart McClureJune 22, 2026Cognitive Concrete: Why OpenAI's Board Couldn't See It ComingIn late 2023, four directors fired the most consequential CEO in technology, only to reverse themselves before the next weekend. This wasn't a failure of intelligence. It was a failure of perspective — a room of brilliant people set in the same mental mold.Stuart McClureJune 15, 2026