The Democratisation Paradox: What History Teaches Us About AI

Every technological revolution has triggered waves of anxiety about the obsolescence of human skills and professions. The current fears that AI will replace artists, eliminate writing jobs, render illustrators obsolete, and devalue creative work follow a well-established historical pattern that’s worth examining critically. The Democratisation Paradox When photography emerged in the 19th century, painters predicted the death of portraiture. When home cameras became accessible, professional photographers feared obsolescence. When smartphones put cameras in everyone’s pockets, the same concerns resurfaced 1 2 . Yet professional photography hasn’t vanished—it’s evolved. What actually occurred was a democratisation of image creation, while simultaneously elevating the appreciation for truly skilled work 3 . ...

March 23, 2025 · 9 min · 1811 words · Sam McLeod

MBA Washing

“MBA Washing” refers to the phenomenon where individuals, often with a strong theoretical or academic background but limited recent practical experience, adopt and reinterpret industry-specific terminology and cultural movements. – This reinterpretation is typically influenced by their academic learning, recent literature, and biases towards larger enterprise perspectives. As a result, the original intent and practical effectiveness of these concepts, such as DevOps or Platform Engineering for example, may be diluted or misrepresented. ...

November 13, 2023 · 3 min · 560 words · Sam McLeod

Encourage Your Peers To Contribute To Open Source

Contributing to Open Source is important to the quality and maintainability of the software and engineering communities we rely on every day - so why is it that so many developers/engineers never participate? ...

October 30, 2022 · 3 min · 535 words · Sam McLeod

Making Work Visible - Avoid DMs

We create more value by having conversations in public instead of behind closed doors. ...

October 20, 2022 · 6 min · 1071 words · Sam McLeod