by Michelle Fitzmaurice | Aug 24, 2026 | Activation Energy, Notes from the Field, Observation, Systems
Good systems do not require perfect humans. They are designed around the humans who actually exist. My pressure cooker has quietly taken control of dinner. This was not part of a deliberate household transformation strategy. There was no implementation plan,...
by Michelle Fitzmaurice | Jun 26, 2026 | Emergence, Notes from the Field, Observation
Notes from someone still watering dust By most conventional measures, I was not the person the system was designed to produce. I was a first-generation university student, the first in my family to complete a PhD, and a migrant trying to navigate institutions that...
by Michelle Fitzmaurice | Jun 14, 2026 | Notes from the Field
Nobody Gets Here Alone A colleague sent me this clip this week. To be honest, my first reaction was discomfort rather than excitement. Partly because I wasn’t expecting it, and partly because I come from a culture where achievements are often acknowledged...
