Long-form field reports on AI, product judgment, commerce, design taste, company-building, and the outdoor industry.https://halarewich.com/enhttps://halarewich.com/essays/when-software-gets-easier-judgment-gets-more-valuable/https://halarewich.com/essays/when-software-gets-easier-judgment-gets-more-valuable/As models absorb more of the labor of building, the binding constraint moves upstream — to taste, sequencing, and the judgment of what deserves to exist.Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTAIProduct Judgmenthttps://halarewich.com/essays/the-thin-idea-is-dead/https://halarewich.com/essays/the-thin-idea-is-dead/The "just an app for X" idea used to be enough to start. Now the obvious wrappers get built by everyone at once. What survives is the idea with depth under the waterline.Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTProduct JudgmentCompany Buildinghttps://halarewich.com/essays/agentic-commerce-and-the-work-beneath-the-surface/https://halarewich.com/essays/agentic-commerce-and-the-work-beneath-the-surface/Everyone is racing to let an agent press "buy." But the interesting, defensible work in agentic commerce is upstream of the transaction — in trust, catalog truth, and the merchant's side of the table.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTAICommercehttps://halarewich.com/essays/taste-is-compression/https://halarewich.com/essays/taste-is-compression/Taste isn't a mysterious gift. It's a highly compressed model of what works, built from thousands of examples, that lets someone reject most options without consciously evaluating them.Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTDesign TasteProduct Judgmenthttps://halarewich.com/essays/what-outdoor-brands-get-wrong-about-pro-programs/https://halarewich.com/essays/what-outdoor-brands-get-wrong-about-pro-programs/Most outdoor brands run pro programs as a margin-leak cost center. The ones who treat them as a managed channel of trusted advocates get something their ad budget can't buy.Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTOutdoor IndustryCommerce