Be ruthless about systemising

The core of being an agentic operator is being very systems minded. It's understanding what you're trying to achieve. If you're a professional, what are you trying to do with your profession? Are you trying to learn more? Produce more? What do you need to achieve your goals, and how can you make that easier for yourself?

What is the software you've always imagined could exist? What are the things that always trip you up? What are your bottlenecks? How do you solve them?

Every part of my work process was great and I enjoyed it, but I had to automate it, because I have to keep my energy for the things that are most important. You have to be ruthless about systemising, and about building around things you may have tied your identity to, so you can focus on the things only you can do.

Agents can do most of what I used to do, and they do it very well. Much better than base-level Claude or whatever, because I've invested the time in building those things in place. So I still deliver my quality of work to clients, and I build more. Platforms, automation, software, not just websites. Real tools that people use. It's infused with my ideology, my design, my creativity.

So you want to use AI to make you deeper and more powerful at what you do, while staying at the systemic level. Use it to actually solve problems. Use it to be obsessed with your customer. Use it to deliver more value.

My ego could get tripped up on being a great designer, the guy with good design. I'm not holding on to that. I'm being the guy who creates the systems, who makes it easy for my clients to operate their brands, from design to strategy to production to analysis. I'm not trying to solve the next prettiest logo. I'm trying to solve the systemic problem: how to help my people deploy and run their brands easily.

I've always said that as a designer, you have to solve a higher problem. When Canva and all those tools came out, I was happy for it. If I hadn't moved, I'd still be solving the problem of flyers, still trying to design a nice flyer. No. I'm too good a designer, too good a thinker, to be stuck doing that. This is where I should be: building systems, designing systems, making the connections nobody else can.