On Regaining Control

Everyone experiences losing control, whether you’re a series B CEO, a parent navigating teenage years, or someone newly promoted managing large teams. Losing control comes from overwhelming complexity that outpaces our ability to focus and adapt. Even at a personal level, I hear that stopping medication for anxiety or ADHD can quickly cause that same loss of control.

Software engineering has always been about managing complexity, which inherently is about control. Twenty years ago, when I taught software engineering at McGill, we focused on strategies to handle projects with millions of interconnected lines of code: waterfall, kanban, agile, etc. Imagine cowriting a thousand Harry Potter novels simultaneously, where one small plot change would create a massive ripple of complexity. While coding and writing differ, both highlight the immense challenges of consistency and complexity.

Today, generative AI is dramatically reshaping our approach to complexity and control. Traditional two week work cycles involving a two-pizza team have now compressed into daily sprints managed by just two individuals: a product owner designing rapidly with AI, and a developer quickly iterating with AI assistance. Generative AI tools like Cursor allow software engineers to rapidly prototype, test, and iterate, creating tighter feedback loops. If you think you’re already feeling this change by using ChatGPT as an attorney or doctor, trust me: Software engineers have probably experienced more profound shifts in just the last three months than you have, and similar transformations are headed your way, eventually.

This compression of attention cycles will not stop at software engineering. For example, using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to learn new skills and break bad habits aligns directly with this trend. Generative AI driven CBT could help individuals manage their anxiety, depression, or ADHD, possibly reducing their dependence on medication.

The implications are profound. Generative AI is not just improving productivity, it is redefining our relationship with complexity and attention, empowering us to regain control. I encourage anyone looking to innovate, whether in software or elsewhere, to embrace these tools. Form small, agile teams, iterate quickly, and use generative AI to reclaim control over complexity in work, life, and health.