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The Bottleneck
Moved

Rethinking Execution in the AI-Native Era

Kerry Morrison // BetterStory // 2026

REALITY_GAP

Two Scenes From Today

01

A team of 4 ships a complete product feature in 10 days.

02

A conference room debates a 90-day roadmap for the same work.

We are optimizing for the wrong constraint.

CAPACITY_LOG

Execution is Abundant

  • Anthropic ships 100+ daily releases with small teams
  • Cursor reached $500M revenue at record speed
  • Single engineers refactor entire systems in days
The meeting now takes longer than building the feature.

CONSTRAINTS_v2

The New Bottlenecks

01

Clarity

Knowing what is worth building.

02

Ambition

Swinging hard enough.

03

Distribution

How you reach customers.

04

Trust

The human relationship.

SYSTEM_SHIFT

Bottleneck Relocation

When you eliminate a bottleneck, it doesn't disappear—it moves downstream.

HISTORICAL

Execution Gap

Scarce engineering hours and specialist skills.

ACTIVE

Judgment Gap

Clarity, ambition, and distribution.

ECONOMIC_INVERSION

The Unit Economics Have Flipped

  • The PRD takes longer than the prototype
  • Planning takes longer than shipping v3
  • Discussion takes longer than building
Your risk management rituals now cost more than they save.

AUDIT_01

Four Habits Costing You

01

Permission loops: Asking before acting.

02

Polish as delay: Perfecting the wrong thing.

03

Meeting defaults: Alignment over action.

04

Structured waiting: Idle time sinks.

AUDIT_02

Four More Costly Rituals

05

Excessive Planning: Predicting the unpredictable.

06

Deck Culture: Rituals over reality.

07

Total Consensus: Paralysis via alignment.

08

Hoarding work: Fear of rough drafts.

LOGIC_01

Permission Loop: Ask vs Do

PRE-AI

  • Check first
  • Get buy-in
  • Weeks of approval

AGENTIC

  • Build rough
  • Show result
  • Ask forgiveness

LOGIC_02

Polish is Procrastination

The rough version that exists beats the polished version that doesn't.

20 mins draft + 1 hr feedback + 90 mins polish = SHIPPED

vs. 2 weeks of internal polishing before first exposure.

LOGIC_03

Meetings vs Products

6.0 HRS

1 HR MEETING × 6 STAKEHOLDERS = ENOUGH TO BUILD THE PROTOTYPE

Meetings distribute accountability. Products solve the question.

LOGIC_04

The Hidden Time Sink

Waiting an hour in 2015 = Waiting an hour.
Waiting an hour now = Waiting a prototype.

assume_yes = true;

LOGIC_05

Planning Inverted

CHALLENGE

Cut planning by 90%

Replace with bold direction + aggressive shipping.

Reality now informs the plan. The plan no longer predicts reality.

LOGIC_06

Build the Demo

DECK CULTURE

  • Ritualized alignment
  • Font selection
  • Abstract theory

DEMO CULTURE

  • Working prototype
  • Real feedback
  • Concrete reality

LOGIC_07

Persuade with Data

"I tried X, here's what happened" is more persuasive than "Let's agree to try X."

consensus = too_expensive;

LOGIC_08

Thoughtful Rough Work

Half-finished work that's thoughtful > polished work that's wrong.

This requires ego death. Show it sooner.

PATTERN_LOG

The Thread

These are all risk management rituals.

OLD RISK

Wasting execution time.

NEW RISK

Wasting time on anything that isn't building.

REAL_SCARCITY

Where to Focus

Clarity

PRDs were a substitute for clarity.

Ambition

When you can ship 50x, timidity is the risk.

Reach

Distribution is the only moat left.

Trust

Relationships cannot be vibecoded.

DURABLE_NODES

Relationships

When technical skills become commodities, people turn to those they trust to deliver.

NON_CODABLE

CMD_CENTER

New Leadership

  • Cast ambitious vision to enable autonomy
  • Create space for forgiveness, not permission
  • Stop asking for plans; ask for direction
  • Reward shipping, not consensus

VELOCITY_GAP

The Gap is Widening

ADAPTED TEAMS:

Ship while others plan. Iterating while others align. Learning while others polish.

Not a tool advantage. A culture advantage.

THE_INSIGHT

The Chaos Isn't Random

It's the gap between where the bottleneck moved and the habits you still have.

INITIAL_ACTION

Where to Start

Pick ONE low-stakes habit.

  • Ship without the usual polish
  • Skip a brainstorm; build instead
  • Make a provisional decision NOW

FRAMEWORK_Rel

Three Core Shifts

  1. 01. Stop protecting execution. Start doing.
  2. 02. Focus on Clarity + Trust + Reach.
  3. 03. Ship > Align > Polish.

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The Future belongs to the Adaptable

What habit will you break first?

Kerry Morrison // betterstory.co

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