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The Emperor’s New Prompt

Over the last year, several managing and executive directors at a global bank have, with great pride, handed down to their teams the custom prompts they've decided are <the> correct way to address an AI chatbot. Not as drafts or suggestions, almost as a decree. The

“He’s Got a Good Face”: AI Productivity and the Scouting Problem

By: Paco Campbell Published: Saturday, March 28th, 2026 There’s a scene in Moneyball where a room full of veteran scouts sits around a table and explains, with total conviction, why a particular prospect is worth drafting. One of them says the kid has “a good face.” Another mentions his

The AI Agent Threat Is Real. And Mostly Self-Inflicted.

By: Paco Campbell Published: Thursday, March 12th, 2026 The industry is not wrong to argue that large language model (LLM)- based agentic AI poses novel threats worth exploring. Semantic privilege escalation, where an agent gathers permissions that individually are innocuous, but together form toxic combinations. Instruction-data boundary collapse, where

“Who You Talkin’ To?”

By: Paco Campbell Published: Thursday, February 26th, 2026 “Why don’t you let me fix you some of this new Mococoa drink… all natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua, no artificial sweeteners.” It lands in the middle of a marital breakdown. Truman is spiraling. He’s

The Moment You Realize No One Is Afraid Anymore

By: Paco Campbell Published: Monday, February 16th, 2026 I quit T-Mobile. Not as a protest. Not with a LinkedIn post. I just got tired. The service kept getting worse — dead zones where there hadn’t been any, dropped calls that made no sense — and then there was yet another

The Encryption Probably Works. The Incentives Definitely Don’t.

There is a specific kind of question that only circulates once trust has already collapsed. What if the encryption is fake? Not because someone has proven it is, but because enough prior assurances turned out to be incomplete, misleading, or carefully worded in ways that only made sense later. From

Faith, But Make It an Interface

By: Paco Campbell Published: Thursday, December 18th, 2025 There’s a scene in THX-1138 that barely registers as dramatic when you first see it. A man sits alone in a confessional booth. He speaks into the dark. On the other side of the screen is OMM 0000 — a soft-

The Day Coca-Cola Ran Out of Magic

By: Paco Campbell Published: Friday, December 12th, 2025 There’s a shot in The Santa Clause — the first one, the only one that actually mattered — where Tim Allen’s character arrives at the North Pole for the first time. The whole place glows like someone built Christmas out of warm

The Studio That Forgot Its Face — and the Industry That Keeps Forgetting Its Own

By: Paco Campbell Published: Monday, December 8th, 2025 If you’ve ever worked in tech long enough to survive multiple re-orgs, shifting OKRs, vanishing roadmaps, or that one VP who insists “this quarter is foundational,” then the Warner Bros. saga should feel spiritually familiar. This week’s headline — Netflix

AI-Feral Youth: Idiocracy Wasn’t Supposed to Be a Documentary

By: Paco Campbell Published: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 The first time I saw Idiocracy, I laughed at the scene with the half-built highway — those giant concrete columns arcing into the sky like the ribs of a dead colossus. A perfect visual gag: civilization had stalled mid-sentence. A society

The Ultimate Insider Threat: Being an A-word

By: Paco Campbell Published: Saturday, November 29th, 2025 There’s a moment in Office Space when Bill Lumbergh wanders into a cubicle with his coffee mug and his condescending little half-smile — and you can just feel the productivity leaving the building. No malware. No ransomware. Just a man whose

The Misfits Who Turn Out Alright

By: Paco Campbell Published: Monday, November 17th, 2025 I didn’t write last week. This newsletter is still new enough that skipping a week feels like I owe someone an explanation. So here it is: I needed time. Not because something dramatic happened — I just wanted to sit with what

The Self-Driving Car at the Gay Bar

By: Paco Campbell Published: Monday, November 3rd, 2025 Halloween in downtown Austin. The kind of night when the air hums with energy before you even step inside. Fog machines spilling into the street. Music leaking from doorways. Every few feet, a different universe of fabric and color. At Rain, the

Chernobyl.exe: When SharePoint Goes Nuclear

By: Paco Campbell Published: Friday, October 31st, 2025 Last week, reports surfaced that foreign hackers breached a U.S. nuclear weapons facility by exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint. The details are still unfolding, but the image is seared in my mind: a critical system — part of the country’s nuclear

Her Was a Warning, Not a Roadmap

By: Paco Campbell Published: Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 ⚠️ Before You Read This piece touches on loneliness, mental health, and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out — you don’t have to go through it alone. * United States or Canada — Call or text 988. * Worldwide — Visit

Back to the Future and the Mainframe That Forgot Its Timeline

By: Paco Campbell Published: Friday, October 24th, 2025 It’s been forty years since Back to the Future hit theaters. I didn’t rewatch it this week — I didn’t have to. The movie’s baked in by now: the DeLorean doors, the lightning strike, the hoverboard I begged Santa

“We Spared No Expense”: The Real Security Failure of Jurassic Park

By: Paco Campbell Published: Monday, October 20th, 2025 There are movies that age beautifully — like fine wine, practical effects, or Jeff Goldblum. And then there are movies that age accurately — Jurassic Park manages to do both. That first reveal still gives me chills. Dr. Grant stands up in the Jeep,

Don’t Look Up: The Satellites Are Talking

Satellite communications — the backbone of global data, logistics, and internet connectivity — remain alarmingly insecure. Despite decades of advancement, many systems still rely on outdated protocols and unencrypted signals, leaving sensitive transmissions vulnerable to interception.

They Warned Us in 1982: Rewatching Tron in the Age of AI

By: Paco Campbell Published: Monday, October 13th, 2025 I just got my hands on the new 4K SteelBook of the original Tron, and let me tell you — I spent half the movie laughing like a maniac. Not because it's bad (it's still awesome). But because in