Essays
Some of these live here. The ones first published on Substack link out to it, and say so.
October 2026
kwpledger.substack.com
The Average Improved. Johnny Didn't. (on kwpledger.substack.com)
An improving AI score can hide new failures on the cases that matter most, so someone has to see what got worse and decide whether to accept it.
September 2026
The Rubber Duck Can Answer Back Now
Rubber duck debugging worked because the duck could not argue. Now the sounding board answers back, which is useful right up to the point where the thing that produced the work is also the thing declaring it correct.
kwpledger.substack.com
When Workers Use Unapproved AI, Governance Should Ask Why (on kwpledger.substack.com)
Shadow AI is a risk, and it is also feedback from the point of work. The tool someone reached for describes the gap the approved implementation left.
August 2026
kwpledger.substack.com
AI Policy and Governance Are the Beginning of AI Practice (on kwpledger.substack.com)
Policy and governance set the bounds for AI implementation, but the workflow starts where they leave off — and what happens there has to feed back.
kwpledger.substack.com
Your AI Policy Stops Before the Work Starts (on kwpledger.substack.com)
AI policies often fail to reach the people doing the work because they were never designed to reach that far.