Paul Welty, PhD AI, WORK, AND STAYING HUMAN

Challenges for Liberal Studies Graduates.

Challenges for Liberal Studies Graduates.
Explore the unique challenges faced by liberal studies graduates and discover how to navigate their career paths effectively.

“What, precisely, would a liberal studies degree, especially one from a School of Continuing Education, mean?  My experience suggests that degree completers are especially like to want something different: A career-aligned degree with well-defined return on investment.  I simply don’t know what employers make of such a degree from such a unit., the biggest question is whether highly selective private institutions, no matter how richly resourced, actually know how to work with students who aren’t extremely smart and self-motivated., That’s a mission that community colleges and broad access public universities specialize in.  Isn’t there something presumptuous for an R1 can step in and do a better job than those other institutions – especially when they won’t be able to offer wrap-around student supports or extensive interaction with faculty and classmates?"—How Might Elite Institutions Better Meet the Needs of Underserved Student Populations?


Featured writing

Why customer tools are organized wrong

This article reveals a fundamental flaw in how customer support tools are designed—organizing by interaction type instead of by customer—and explains why this fragmentation wastes time and obscures the full picture you need to help users effectively.

Infrastructure shapes thought

The tools you build determine what kinds of thinking become possible. On infrastructure, friction, and building deliberately for thought rather than just throughput.

Server-Side Dashboard Architecture: Why Moving Data Fetching Off the Browser Changes Everything

How choosing server-side rendering solved security, CORS, and credential management problems I didn't know I had.

Books

The Work of Being (in progress)

A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.

The Practice of Work (in progress)

Practical essays on how work actually gets done.

Recent writing

We always panic about new tools (and we're always wrong)

Every time a new tool emerges for making or manipulating symbols, we panic. The pattern is so consistent it's almost embarrassing. Here's what happened each time.

Dev reflection - February 03, 2026

I've been thinking about constraints today. Not the kind that block you—the kind that clarify. There's a difference, and most people miss it.

When execution becomes cheap, ideas become expensive

This article reveals a fundamental shift in how organizations operate: as AI makes execution nearly instantaneous, the bottleneck has moved from implementation to decision-making. Understanding this transition is critical for anyone leading teams or making strategic choices in an AI-enabled world.

Notes and related thinking

The IMF Warns About AI's Impact on Inequality

IMF warns AI could deepen global inequality, urging policymakers to implement safety nets and retraining programs to protect vulnerable workers.

Discover how generative AI is more likely to augment jobs rather than replace them, transforming tasks and creating new opportunities for efficiency and innovation.

Explore how generative AI enhances jobs by automating tasks, fostering efficiency, and creating new opportunities instead of replacing human roles.

Atlassians choose where they work, every single day. Download our free report to see what we’ve learned as a result.

Explore Atlassian's insights on flexible work policies and employee satisfaction. Download the free report to learn from their distributed work experience.