A weekly newsletter that tells the story of how tech companies became unelected governments and what to do about it, by former Google executive and 30-year Internet veteran Jonathan Bellack.

Posts

Oct 30, 2026

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4 min read

AI-driven tech layoffs suck, but might lead to certification

Microsoft’s offer to buy out 27% of their workforce inspired one last piece about licensing software engineers. As AI coding obliterates the traditional junior engineer, training will probably looks even more like the practices of other licensed professions.

Oct 23, 2026

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5 min read

Explainer #10: Sampling the squirrelburger

In which I retell Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber’s famous parable, and connect it to ethical engineering.

Oct 20, 2026

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5 min read

Explainer #9: How a software legend made the case for licensing engineers almost 30 years ago

If the book “After the Gold Rush” by Steve McConnell had been taken more seriously by the software industry in 1999, we might not be in such a mess now.

Oct 2, 2026

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5 min read

Licence to code? Google’s Demis Hassabis is half-right about FINRA

Last week I said that the financial industry is a lousy model for AI regulation. But like finance jobs, software professionals should require licensing, ethical standards, and continued education.

Sep 25, 2026

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5 min read

Explaining AI doomerism to my dad

I don’t talk about AI much in Platformocracy. A recent email to my father does a good job of laying out my priors and biases. [tl;dr: self-regulation is weak sauce]