Applied AI reviews, build logs and essays on systems, validation, agent workflows, decision-making and how ideas survive contact with reality.
Why I write Working Stories Kitchen Notes
We invested two months in training entry-level tire fitters. Some couldn't afford to finish. Others were recruited by competitors as service-station managers. Eventually, we realised that more training wasn't necessarily better.
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Target's pregnancy prediction algorithm became legendary after a teenager received baby-product coupons before her father knew she was pregnant. I later met someone who said she'd worked on the model and asked one question.
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A leading commercial tire distributor was losing money despite owning most of its market. The salespeople earned the biggest commissions, while the underpaid customer-service team did most of the selling.
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A leading tire distributor in Belarus operated its warehouses, service stations and headquarters through one company. We redesigned the structure to reduce the risk of one disruption affecting the entire network.
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We spent years implementing Oracle, but employees still needed the old accounting system. Then I moved to another company in the group and tried the opposite approach.
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Belochka, Kremlin Salad, Tenderness, Kiss Salad... This simple garlic cheese salad had dozens of names but always appeared on our family holiday table.
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My father used to make these simple sausage pancakes on Saturday mornings. Thick slices of Doktorskaya sausage, garlic, egg batter and a little butter.
Read ->How a money-back guarantee helped us sell an unfamiliar tire brand in a market where everybody assumed Chinese meant cheap.
How we made expensive commercial tires easier to sell by changing the unit of value, and eventually turned tire ownership into a service.
My son and I made naturally fermented ginger beer using fresh ginger, sugar and water. Five days for the starter, another day for carbonation, and one surprisingly good spicy experiment.
Three tablespoons of oats, one egg, a little milk, melted cheese and cherry jam. My surprisingly good breakfast recipe, complete with an unnecessary airborne pancake manoeuvre.
Our premium tire-service network had a problem: budget customers assumed it was too expensive to visit. So I created two additional brands, including one deliberately designed to look cheap.
We built a loyalty program for long-haul truck drivers, offering tools, blankets and automotive accessories. Then we added plush toys and discovered what really motivated our customers.
Y Combinator published 22 essential startup rules in 2017. Most sound obvious. Here are five that remain particularly easy to ignore and why they matter.
A Ukrainian flour producer wanted better margins without major investment. We turned ordinary baking mixes into colourful glass bottles, built a consumer brand, and discovered an unexpected opportunity in export markets.
Twenty years ago, we gave budget vodka bottles unique numbers and fictional biographies delivered by SMS. Then I met a customer who believed one imaginary bottling-line worker made better vodka.
I analyzed 7,740 AI startups across 20 use cases to see where funding is growing, from voice agents and robotics to Legal AI and mega-rounds.
My practical AI agent workflow in 2026: orchestrator agents, 20–40 subagents, long-running sessions, taste gates, automation and why AI-native work keeps changing.
How reusable flour packaging became part of the value proposition, helping a Ukrainian exporter differentiate a commodity without changing the flour.
Publication de la première traduction française de Jeanne la bataillonneuse et Miss Adrienne de Géo Chkouroupiy, dans le cadre du projet Modernisme ukrainien consacré aux écrivains ukrainiens des années 1920-1930.
На Amazon вийшов перший французький переклад Jeanne la bataillonneuse та Miss Adrienne Гео Шкурупія, частина проєкту Modernisme ukrainien про українську літературу 1920–1930-х років.
A short note about two very different books published within a few days: one psychological and fragmentary, the other about strange economic indicators and the...
A place for the things that do not fit into professional feeds.
A very simple savoury oatmeal that my children and I genuinely love.
