Continuing the Conversation, Later

I'm pausing The Narrative Intel for now.

It's been 82 issues, one a week since February 2025. I thought I wouldn't make it past 8. It started as a way to keep going with the conversations I was having with founders and executives. Over time it turned into a longer exploration about whether a story can hold together as it moves from one person to the next, and lately through machines that retell it without asking you.

I'm not shutting it down. I want some room to step back and see what the last year and a half adds up to. The archive stays up, so if you let the issues pile up, now is a good time to catch up.

Some of the issues I've linked back to most often:

📬 People Like Bad Pizza: the best option on paper often loses, because context makes the decision.

📬 Who Are Your Sensemakers?: the people who curate what you know and how you see it, and why you should know who they are.

📬 Your Swim Lane Is a Signal, Not a Constraint: being trusted for something specific beats trying to be everything to everyone.

📬 Don't Accept the Defaults: defaults pull you in someone else's direction until you notice them.

📬 Narrative Myopia: the longer a story goes untested, the further it drifts from reality.

📬 GPT Doesn't Know What I Know: the knowledge that needs coffee, not code.

📬 The Room Has Moved: trust travels through conversations you'll never be in, so being easy to vouch for matters more than ever.

Thank you to everyone who read, replied, and forwarded an issue to someone who needed it, and to Jeff Gomez and Esteban Kolsky for taking over while I was away.

If one of these stuck with you, or you think I left out the one that should be here, please let me know.

Thank you all for being there.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

-Alan