The Steep

We cover knowledge work in the age of AI.

A deep dive about every 10 days. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam, ever.

Latest issue

Issue #13July 16, 2026

Efficiency is so hot right now

AI efficiencybuild vs buymodel routingcontext engineering

292 collected·31 featured

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What you’re getting

We curate the noise for you.

We use AI to read everything

120+ sources every week across AI, GTM, talent, and the tools actually shipping. The whole firehose, so you can skip it.

We cut it down to what matters

AI scores every signal and a panel of agents we trained argues it down to the few things that actually move. The noise never reaches you.

We manually connect the dots

Then we tie it together into one read. What’s happening, why it matters, what you’d do about it. Not a roundup, a take.

Past issues

Issue #12July 7, 2026

Will we pay more or less for AI in the future?

No big thesis this week, just a curated snapshot of the stuff that actually made me stop scrolling.

AI economicsbuild vs buyGTMopen source

40 collected·20 featured

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Issue #11June 24, 2026

Nadella says human and token capital compound. Your org chart disagrees.

Satya says human and token capital compound. He doesn't say which humans. Your most senior people might be the ones the AI era selects against.

Token CapitalHuman CapitalOrg DesignAI ROI

460 collected·11 featured

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Issue #10June 1, 2026

You adopted AI. Did the judgment come with it?

AI adoption isn't slow, it's jagged — and the jaggedness is producing new friction: speed against accountability, the entry rung getting cut, and the question of where judgment comes from next.

AI AdoptionAccountabilityWorkslopJunior Roles

300 collected·14 featured

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Issue #9May 18, 2026

AI's so smart it needs teams to deploy it.

The rise of Forward Deployed Engineers, the AI image problem, and the end of cheap tokens.

Forward Deployed EngineersAI DeploymentToken EconomicsEnterprise AI

300 collected·12 featured

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Issue #7April 30, 2026

Everybody's building. What aren't they asking?

The AI wave is exciting and unsettling at the same time. Unemployment for recent grads hit 5.6% — worst in 37 years. Meanwhile Anthropic went from $9B to $19B ARR in 90 days. The build momentum is real. So are the costs nobody modeled: maintenance economics, token subsidies with expiration dates, and the apprenticeship disappearing underneath us.

AI StrategyBuild EconomicsHuman PremiumLabor Market

300 collected·15 featured

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Issue #6April 22, 2026

Build momentum is real. So are the costs nobody's modeling.

The build wave is legitimate. Operators are shipping faster than vendors can sell. But three hidden trade-offs are catching teams off guard: maintenance economics, token subsidies with expiration dates, and model-version fragility that just got concrete.

AI Build EconomicsOpus 4.7Token CostsContext Portability

98 collected·15 featured

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Issue #5April 11, 2026

A VP Sales Built His Own AI Tools. Your RevOps Team Stopped Doing RevOps. Both Are True.

Operators are shipping their own tools faster than vendors can sell them. RevOps teams are abandoning pipeline hygiene to chase AI pilots. Only 19% of orgs have deployed agents. The gap between building and governing is where things break.

DIY OperatorsClaude CodeRevOpsAI Adoption

117 collected·10 featured

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Issue #4April 1, 2026

The money moved. The jobs didn't follow.

AI acceleration and the hiring freeze are two sides of the same coin.

Labor MarketAI AccelerationGTM HiringConcentration Dynamics

84 collected·7 featured

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Issue #3March 21, 2026

The Bottleneck Flipped — What's Left When Execution Is Free?

Execution speed commoditized. The bottleneck moved up the org chart to strategy, judgment, and human trust. AI is a multiplier, not a transformer — and most teams are discovering they're closer to amplifying noise than signal.

AI StrategySales RolesField MarketingBuyer Behavior

252 collected·8 featured

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Issue #2March 11, 2026

Your $25 Leads Are 10x Cheaper. Are They 10x More Useless?

The GTM stack is splitting into two speeds — operational wins you ship today, architectural shifts that matter in six months. Teams that sequence both pull away. Everyone else picks a lane and wonders why they stalled.

PricingContext EngineeringSales CraftSEO

85 collected·8 featured

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