The Punk PM #42

Hey there, punk!

This week, I've been thinking about moats (again).

In a world flooded with AI-generated everything, how do you actually stand out? The answer isn't about whether you use AI or not. It's about what you bring that AI can't replicate.

Let’s get into it.

Quote of the Week 🙊

Insight 🦉

There's a thread running through the last couple of weeks that I want to pull on a bit further.

I've talked about how building has become cheap. I've talked about how the old infrastructure moats are crumbling. Both point in the same direction: when everyone is using the same tools, the differentiation has to come from somewhere else.

In 2013, the Chicago Sun-Times fired all 28 of its staff photographers (including a Pulitzer Prize winner) and handed reporters iPhones instead. The technology was good enough. The cameras were in everyone's pockets. Why pay all those salaries?

The photos were terrible. Not because the cameras were bad. Because the reporters didn't know what to look for. Within a year, the Sun-Times quietly started rehiring photographers.

The tool was the same. The taste and judgement wasn't.

This is very similar to what's playing out with AI right now. The reflex is to frame it as a binary. Use it or don't, automate or go artisanal. But that's the wrong frame. The real distinction is what you bring to it.

Because here's the uncomfortable truth: most output coming out of teams right now is AI copying existing references in generic mode. Competent. Clean. Completely forgettable. AI optimises for what can be measured; clicks, engagement, conversion. It doesn't optimise for meaning, cultural resonance, or that quality that makes something feel genuinely alive.

The people who win are the ones who insist on originality. Who keep asking for better than good enough. Who bring references from outside the average, outside the expected. The moment you push past the baseline and make the thing do something uncomfortable, you separate yourself from the rest.

Anyone can generate. Almost no one curates, edits, reshapes, and iterates until something becomes unmistakably theirs.

That's the edge. Not the tools. The taste you bring to them.

Action 🚀

Next week, pick one thing you used AI for recently and ask yourself honestly: did you make it better than what the tool gave you, or did you just accept the first output?

If the answer makes you uncomfortable, that's your starting point.

Inspiration 💡

Mechanized Minds: AI's Hidden Impact on Human Thought – Shai Tubali draws on philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti to ask whether our growing reliance on AI is making our minds lazy and machine-like, and what it takes to stay genuinely, consciously human. Read more

The Era of Abstraction & New Creative Tensions – Scott Belsky on how AI is shifting creativity from skill to taste. When the technical work is handled for you, judgment becomes the only differentiator that matters. Read more

The Rise of AI Interfaces: What It Means for Product Design – Mateusz Gonerko explores how AI interfaces are changing the rules of product design; adapting in real time, anticipating needs, and raising the bar on clarity, usability, and user control. Read more

Signing Off ✍️

If this resonates with you, hit reply and let me know. And if you think a friend or colleague would enjoy The Punk PM, feel free to share it with them!

Play it your way,

Toby