Dated writing
Journal
Dated essays, developed observations, and field notes, preserved in their original chronology.
What should healthcare remember?
A systems architect asks what care must carry forward: decisions, uncertainty, sources, and follow-up. A working hypothesis about memory, AI, and human judgment.
The work may be necessary. Do I need to do it?
I used to look at a task and think I could do it better than the other leaders around me. Sometimes I may have been right.
What scary questions reveal
Scary questions create fear. The useful part is what that fear reveals. A good scary question makes you feel a gap in your gut.
The loop you are standing inside
A loop you have not named is a loop you are standing inside.
Path-Goal Theory in AI-Native World
Path-goal theory for AI-native teams: when agents can build, human leadership shifts from tasking work to clearing the path.
When building becomes cheap
AI is lowering the cost of execution. It is not lowering the cost of choosing well. That changes what founders must become good at.
Action Without Captivity
I have spent much of my life interested in action. How do people build capability?
How #SCRUM tweet began
Historical anchor: April 2012. Written as a present-day reconstruction on August 29, 2026. SCRUM tweet began years before it became a published book.
The form changes. The expression remains.
I was writing long before I had a website. As a teenager, I wrote poetry in Gujarati, Hindi, and English.
The Luxury of Needing Less
By many worldly measures, I have done reasonably well. I can afford a more luxurious life than the one I live. Yet I choose to remain relatively frugal.
Freedom Is Not Finding the Right Meaning
What is the most intelligent meaning to give to a life? Perhaps the question contains its own trap. “Intelligent” is already a meaning we have assigned.
The board you cannot see
Imagine this. At 11:47 p.m., the office was dark except for one meeting room.
The Space Between Meanings
Late last night, someone close to me said he felt completely lost. Not lost as in being unable to find the way back.
A multiplier does not repair a broken loop
Speed is attractive because it is easy to see. A task takes 2 hours instead of 2 days. A report appears in seconds.
Beautiful Is Not the Same as Useful
In April 2013, an email from a friend led me back to his website. He had built it in 2005. It had been a beautiful design.
A day for Enrise
August 22 was Kavita's birthday. Kavita and I founded Enrise Social Foundation in 2021.
The Camera Was the Same
In May 2013, I returned to Diu after six years. Three friends came from Rajkot. I traveled from Ahmedabad.
Ship an Imperfect Product
The 2012 note It is not perfect. It can still be improved. That is the wrong question. The better question is: when can I ship it?
The Project I Could Not Believe In
In 2010, I was asked to deliver a project I did not believe in. That created a conflict I could not solve with a project plan.
Does Your Project System Deliver Status or Evidence?
A status tells you what happened. Evidence helps you decide what should happen next.
Forward-looking first
Logic is essential. But logic has a limitation. It is exceptionally good at reasoning from what already exists.
Someone else is thinking about it
The bystander effect names something narrow.
Pull the Problem, Not Just the Task
Pull changed my relationship with Scrum because it moved responsibility closer to the person doing the work.
You Cannot Compel Self-Management
An organization cannot command people to self-manage and continue making every consequential decision for them.
Grounded judgment
Feel the signal. Test the story. Choose in reality. From the Architect, 13 August 2026.
If it cannot make you wrong, it is not a decision
Clarity about priorities does not make the next decision easy. It makes the exposure visible. That is where motion becomes attractive.
The credit he gave away
We shipped something structural this week. A change to how people enter the organization. Eleven people came in under it on day one.
The gavel I refused
Someone on my team sent me a long note last week. Real gaps. Product issues, process issues, friction with a colleague.
Indispensable is a diagnosis, not a compliment
I have held a version of this as a rule for some time. If an operator cannot leave for ninety days, they may have built a demanding job for themselves.
Busy is often a priority problem
"Busy" might be the most socially acceptable answer we have invented. How are things? Busy. Why didn't this move? Too much going on. Why haven't you started?