Year in Review: The Wisdom of 2025
From Agentic AI to Stoicism: A synthesis of the 53 strategic frameworks we explored in 2025. Why the future belongs to the "Chief Wise Officer."
Lejay Matthieu
Amor Fati: Loving the Market Downturn
Don't just endure the crisis; embrace it. Using Nietzsche's concept of Amor Fati and Taleb's Antifragility to pivot during economic shifts.
Immanence vs. Transcendence: Building for Now vs. The Future
Stop over-engineering. Applying the philosophy of Immanence and the "Rule of Three" to avoid the high cost of wrong abstractions.
The Executive Epochè: Suspending Judgment as Strategy
In a crisis, the impulse is to react. The discipline is to observe. How to use the ancient concept of 'Epochè' to avoid the trap of premature decision-making.
The "Lucarne" Paradox: Leading with Limited Visibility
Executives see only 4% of the problems. The "Thermocline of Truth" prevents bad news from rising. How to lead when your view is restricted to a tiny window.
ISO 27001 as a Growth Engine: Security as a Sales Tool
Compliance isn't a tax; it's a sales accelerator. How ISO 27001 helps you skip the "800-question spreadsheet" and close enterprise deals faster.
The Atrophy of Meaning: A Plea for "Raw" Thought
AI offers us a "bland soup" of pre-chewed knowledge. To rediscover innovation and meaning, we must unplug the verb and accept "bleeding from the gums" onto reality. A philosophical manifesto.
Forged Reality: When KPIs Lie to You
The map is not the territory. Why Goodhart's Law and the McNamara Fallacy mean your "All Green" dashboard might be hiding a disaster.
Technical Debt is Financial Debt: Explaining Refactoring to the Board
Stop calling it "messy code." Technical debt is an off-balance-sheet liability. Here is how to translate engineering pain into financial risk for your CFO.
From De Oratore to the Digital Age: Ethics as a Lever for Efficacy
In an era of deepfakes and hype, Cicero’s "De Oratore" offers the ultimate guide for technical leadership. Why true efficacy is inseparable from morality.
Etymology: The Origin of "Sabotage" and the Myth of the Wooden Shoe
The word "Sabotage" comes from the French "Sabot" (wooden shoe). Why the history of factory resistance explains the passive-aggressiveness in your engineering team today.
The Ship of Theseus: The Metaphysics of Refactoring
If you replace every line of code in your platform, is it still the same platform? Applying the Ship of Theseus paradox to legacy migrations and the "Big Bang Rewrite" trap.
The 3-Horizon Tech Roadmap: Turning Feature Lists into Strategy
A backlog is not a strategy. How to use the 3-Horizon Framework (Stabilization, Scale, Innovation) to build a technology roadmap that Board members understand.
Voltaire: Perfect is the Enemy of Good (The Philosophy of Shipping)
"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." How Voltaire's philosophy defines the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and why perfectionism is just procrastination in disguise.
The Genealogy of Doubt: Pyrrho, Anaxarchus, and the Cure for Dogmatism
Trace the origins of Skepticism from the atomic void of Democritus to the court of Alexander the Great. Discover how Pyrrho's "indifference" evolved into a medical cure for the anxiety of truth.
The Autopsy of a 50% Gross Margin: Operational Discipline over Heroics
Scaling a broken process just scales the losses. We moved Gross Margin from 39% to 50% not by selling more, but by fixing the queue. Here is the operational blueprint.
Concept: Moloch — The God of Bad Incentives
Why do good companies do bad things? It's not malice; it's Moloch. Understanding the Game Theory of "Bad Equilibria" and how to fix broken incentives.
Seneca on Speed: The Shortness of Sprints
"It is not that the sprint is short, but that we waste a lot of it." Applying Seneca’s "On the Shortness of Life" to modern Agile management and velocity.
The Vendor Negotiation Playbook: A Comprehensive Strategic Framework for Enterprise Procurement
Stop treating SaaS contracts like utility bills. This comprehensive operational doctrine details the specific scripts, audit methodologies, and "Give-Get" frameworks required to reclaim leverage and reduce software spend by 20–30%.
Diogenes: The Art of Radical Candor
"I am looking for a human." Why the modern C-Suite needs to stop playing politics and start practicing the ancient virtue of Parrhesia (Fearless Speech).
Technical Due Diligence Framework for M&A
Tech DD is more than just a code scan. This comprehensive framework covers how to audit architectural integrity, cloud unit economics, and engineering culture to ensure deal success and mitigate hidden risks.
Heraclitus: The River of Technical Debt
"No man steps in the same river twice." Why stability is an illusion in software engineering, and how the philosophy of Flux explains Continuous Integration.
The Monolith Defense: A C-Level Guide to Architectural Economics
Microservices are often a "Tax" on velocity and TCO. We break down the Financial, Organizational, and Technical risks of premature scaling.
Concept: The Lindy Effect — Why Old Technology Beats New Technology
Why does SQL outlive every trend? The Lindy Effect states that for ideas, life expectancy increases with age. A guide to choosing "Boring Technology."
Data Sovereignty in APAC: Navigating the "Splinternet"
The "Total Lockdown" era is over. How to navigate Vietnam's new 2025 Data Law and China's eased PIPL rules using a Federated Architecture.
Machiavelli: The Prince in the Boardroom
"It is better to be feared than loved." Why Machiavelli is not a villain, but a mentor for modern CTOs handling politics, outsourcing, and digital transformation.
"Buy vs. Build" Matrix: A Decision Framework for CEOs
Building your own software is often an ego trip, not a business strategy. Here is the 2x2 matrix to decide when to own the code and when to swipe the credit card.
History: The Luddites Were Right — AI and the Automation of Craft
The Luddites weren't anti-technology; they were anti-exploitation. What 19th-century weavers can teach us about Generative AI and the future of coding.
Disaster Recovery: Defining RTO & RPO for Executives
The CEO wants "zero downtime," but is he willing to pay for it? How to translate technical backups into business insurance policies.
Kant’s Imperative: The Ethics of Dark Patterns (The End of "Users")
"Act so that you treat humanity never merely as a means." Why modern UX "Dark Patterns" are not just annoying—they are a violation of Kantian ethics.
FinOps: The Unit Economics of Cloud
Your AWS bill isn't an IT expense; it's Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). How to shift from "Cost Cutting" to "Unit Economics" to improve Gross Margins.
Concept: Cargo Cult Engineering (You Are Not Google)
Why startups mimic Google's tech stack and fail. The lesson of Richard Feynman's "Cargo Cult Science" applied to Kubernetes, Microservices, and Agile.