Austin Spires

Essays on product, strategy, and life.

May 1, 2026

One year of using Forever✱Notes and AI to build a scribe system

Reflections after a full year with the Forever✱Notes and cluster of other AI tools to capture and analyze my thinking.

April 23, 2026

Compute, Network, Storage -- What Changes in the AI Era

AI did not replace cloud fundamentals.

April 18, 2026

The quiet flood. AI and the traffic we already had

Generative AI is not adding a parallel internet.

September 1, 2025

The melancholy of a hat

The joy of childhood is temporary and bittersweet

April 19, 2025

If AI Can Make Anything, Taste Matters More Than Ever

What should we teach future generations?

February 17, 2025

PBS and Playing the Long Game

December 30, 2024

The Philmont Grace

December 6, 2024

Failure is the default state

Great things require intention, consistency, and patience. None are easy.

November 30, 2024

Systems thinking, incentives, and picking metrics

Dissecting an approach to systems analysis and how to think about incentives and directly controllable metrics