This guide walks you through setting up an AI agent with persistent memory, modular skills, tool integration, and task automation—without exposing endpoints to the internet. Time required: ~2 hours Difficulty: Comfortable creating folders and text files; some terminal use helpful but not required Prerequisites: macOS/Windows/Linux, Anthropic API
Two weeks ago week, the Pentagon put Google's Gemini for Government on the desktops of 3 million military personnel, civilians, and contractors. If you have a CAC, you now have access to a frontier AI model cleared to handle CUI. Most people will poke at it a few
This is for team who know their coordination is a mess but don't have the energy for another change initiative. If you've been putting off "fixing how we track work" because it sounds exhausting, this is the smallest-possible-steps version. You can feel the problem.
If you've worked in consulting or government transformation, you've probably encountered kaizen - Toyota's continuous improvement philosophy that revolutionized manufacturing. You might know the Lean methodology it spawned. But there's a less famous Japanese management practice that may matter more for organizational
We all sometimes need to check up on what is published about us (or a friend, colleague, or potential partner) online. While you can certainly ask Claude or another LLM to do your research, it will work far better if you tell it exactly what you are after... Wayan Vota
I've always loved LinkedIn as a content platform. Not ironically. I know that's an unfashionable opinion—the site gets mocked for performative thought leadership and quasi-work-related trash. But I find the platform hugely valuable for discovering new thoughtful people and for sharing my own insights about
A practical guide for getting more out of Claude and ChatGPT (and written based on conversations last week!) There's a counterintuitive truth about working with AI that took me a while to internalize: more isn't better. Not more training data, not more context, not more conversation
I spent three hours last Tuesday fighting with PowerPoint over text box alignment. Three hours. This is absurd, and we all know it. But most of the "AI solutions" aren't actually solving the problem. They're trying to help you think, communicate, and format all
Last weekend, I rebuilt my Claude PKM system. Not because it was broken—it was working perfectly fine. But "working" and "optimal" are two very different standards, especially when you're scaling AI collaboration across an organization. Over the past month, my Claude system had
What This Is: A real-world guide to building a personal knowledge management system that actually works with AI and turns Claude from a chatbot into a genuine thought partner. The Real Problem I'm constantly synthesizing research, connecting patterns across projects, and developing frameworks that integrate insights from multiple
Briefing Checklists are a time-consume bane for many U.S. diplomatic staff. What if we could automate them? This has been the dream for many of us for a long time, but we've finally got the tools to do a first pass at a BCL very well. Over
AI continues to grow at a dizzying pace. This beginner's guide helps diplomats get familiar with AI tools, regardless of their current proficiency.
Tradecraft
The Cynefin framework offers a diagnostic tool that helps leaders and teams recognize which type of challenge they face and select appropriate strategies for each context.
change management
The SCARF framework identifies five key domains that trigger either threat or reward responses in the brain during periods of change and transition.
First-hand review of Spain’s pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka—design, audience, programming, partnerships, and takeaways, with photos from the visit.
public diplomacy
The 28 core competencies for public diplomacy across five elements—policy, audiences, planning, management, and learning—to guide practitioner growth.
Tradecraft
What is a media tetrad or a McLuhan Tetrad?
Tradecraft
How developing PD Foundations at the State Department created a systematized diplomatic tradecraft and gave practitioners a unified framework for excellence.
Analysis
This post focuses on what makes a good Expo pavilion, introducing a simple analysis framework and then diving in with a favorite example from Expo Dubai 2020.
Technology
What are the best ways for modern diplomats to shape LLM prompts in ChatGPT, Claude, and other tools?
Tradecraft
Audience segmentation is the practice of dividing broad stakeholder groups into smaller, more homogeneous segments that can be engaged more effectively through targeted approaches.
Expo
Browse an index of Expo 2025 Osaka pavilion reviews—with a simple evaluation framework and links to detailed write-ups like Spain.
Technology
When should you use Claude projects, ChatGPT customGPTs, and ChatGPT projects? Differentiating is a key to your success.
Analysis
Making AI work for diplomats at the State Department requires challenging the culture that underlies the department’s siloed structure.