Gatekeepers

<h1>Gatekeepers</h1> <p>6 months ago I wrote on [[Tools, thinking and people]] where I explored how interacting with AI is a bit similar to interacting with Google Search 20 years ago.</p> <p>Today I want to talk about a different thing that bothers me in the tech industry.</p> <p>Recently Sunil wrote this longer <a href="https://x.com/threepointone/status/2090397096176177397">tweet</a> - exploring how some senior tech people were publicly skeptical of AI and how after AI improved dramatically they painted themselves into the corner.</p> <p>There is one more related phenomenon. Even before AI I worked with a few very senior engineers who stayed at the company for many years. They were setting up all the technical agenda and making key decisions. But if you look into company software and tools and processes - all were 10 years old: slow UI, ugly interfaces, deprecated libraries - no preview environments, no easy way to deploy a prototype.</p> <p>10 years ago I worked at a company…