John Schultz
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Shared Thinking, One Voice
August 1, 2026
The Observation Paul Ampe would dictate letters. I didn't know shorthand. So I'd catch the sense, then put the words back in his mouth. Paraphrase first....
The Full Circle Isn't the Ignition
July 29, 2026
How I became someone who could teach is not why I still do. The origin story is real. It just isn't the ignition. I can still see sixth grade like it was...
What Stuck When the Chair Ended
July 24, 2026
Last week, I completed my service as NAA Board Chair. I appreciate the people who walked it with me, and the members who trusted us with the work. I wrote...
Terms clear is not experience clear
July 22, 2026
After a foodservice liquidation, the survey scores came in. Same complaint, different names. The display piece mounted high on the wall. The scramble for...
Crowds Install Reality
July 21, 2026
The Observation I was listening to Lex Fridman with Julia Shaw on the bystander effect, and the piece that stuck was simple: if you're not first on the...
The IAC Title Is Two Jobs
July 20, 2026
The Observation I spent a long day scoring auctioneers. Prelims first. Then finals: interview, then selling again. Prelims decide who keeps competing. They...
The Machines Can Pay Now
July 6, 2026
The observation On July 1, Cloudflare shipped something called the Monetization Gateway. Any site behind their network, which is roughly a fifth of the web,...
Same Mind, Same Blind Spots
July 3, 2026
Today I rebuilt the routing rules for my AI agents: which model handles mechanical work, which handles hard reasoning, which validates the output before I...
If an AI Can't Find Your Auctions, Neither Can the Buyers
June 24, 2026
On June 3, 2026, Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare, posted a number from his own network's live data. For the first time in the history of the internet,...
Recurring Discretion Is a Contradiction
June 17, 2026
The spark I was listening to Gary Vaynerchuk on The GaryVee Audio Experience, an October 2025 episode about wasting time on people who will never buy from...
The Report That Covers You
June 14, 2026
A seller calls a few days after the auction closes. The line of equipment they bought new in 2021 came back at 40 cents on the dollar, and they're sore. They...
The Yin and Yang of Governance
June 13, 2026
If you choose convenience, you decline. That's a human law. In business, commentary is the ultimate convenience. It is easy to write a forecast, spin a...
The Shock Absorber Trap
June 2, 2026
I was listening to a podcast episode of No Priors recently where Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said something that stopped me. Customer support, he...
Systemic Rivals Against Default Drift
June 1, 2026
I've been wrestling with how easily we slide into convenience. When AI makes writing effortless, our natural gravity is to accept the first thing the machine...
Cognitive Defense Against Default Drift
May 27, 2026
When AI commoditizes text generation, the natural gravity of human behavior is "normal drift," gravitating toward low defaults and "easy peasy chat" while...
Every fee structure has a misalignment baked in
May 15, 2026
Two observations stacked on the same Friday morning. The first one I've lived. Marketing agencies typically charge a percentage of marketing spend as their...
Durable Edges
May 7, 2026
In August 2025 I wrote a thought card about structured data. The argument was simple. Treat your data as a long-lived asset that should be findable by any...
1% Life, 1% Work
May 6, 2026
"I just don't understand how people are asking for a 1% life without understanding it takes 1% sacrifice effort. You have to be a 1-percenter if you want a...
The Tool That Breaks You
May 5, 2026
Most leaders don't actually leave doctrine behind. They leave the way people remember them leading. Mission statements claim transparent, equitable,...
We Automated Our Entire Marketing Stack With a Single Skill
April 13, 2026
Grafe Auction runs about 290 auctions a year across 48 states. Each campaign takes 10 to 14 days from start to finish. That's roughly one new marketing...
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