Scarlet Ink

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Blockers Are Urgent, While Friction Endures
Blockers trigger fire drills, but friction quietly shapes customer and employee behavior every single day. (Additional bonus included - The Toilet Paper…
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Dave Anderson
3
Customer Obsession Means Listening Harder—Not Measuring Harder
Large businesses use metrics to handle millions of customers. Yet a single customer story can reveal more than a mountain of metrics—if you’re willing…
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Dave Anderson
1
“Are Right, a Lot”: The Most Misunderstood Amazon Leadership Principle
This leadership principle is less about knowing the right answer and more about getting to the right answer eventually.
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Dave Anderson
2
4 Steps to Delegate (Give Away) Your Work—And Become a Better Leader
Delegation isn’t just about doing less. It’s about getting the work done—and helping others grow in the process.
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Dave Anderson
1

July 2025

8 Lessons for Work, Life, and Everything in Between
Not everything here will apply to you—but at least one thing might stick. I particularly like number 7.
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Dave Anderson
6
AI and the Imminent Death of Capitalism
Successful AGI and capitalism can't coexist. What will happen when AI companies are successful?
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Dave Anderson
13
More Engineers = Less Output? The Costs of Growth.
Growing quickly is lauded as a great thing in the news. But is it always a great thing?
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Dave Anderson
5
Wishing for a Better Outcome Isn't a Mechanism. The COE Approach to Continual Improvement and Avoiding Blame.
Focus on what you can control, and move past your narrow focus on outcomes. When mistakes happen, the right question is: Why did your system allow it…
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Dave Anderson

June 2025

How AI Helps (and Doesn’t Help) with My 70k Reader Newsletter
We're in a weird halfway world where AI is both somewhat competent, and unreliable.
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Dave Anderson
6
The Hidden Cost of Process: A Guide for Tech Leaders
Building processes is a mechanism for resolving issues fully. But they're also bottlenecks which slow your organization down. How do you navigate this…
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Dave Anderson
11
KPIs Gone Wild: Cautionary Tales of Lost Customer Obsession
How using KPIs and metrics as proxies, goals, or games leads us away from real customer value.
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Dave Anderson
4
From One-Way to Two-Way Doors: Rethinking How We Make Big Decisions
How to recognize the differences between one-way and two-way doors. A way to think about risk and decision-making.
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Dave Anderson
© 2025 Dave Anderson
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