Randy Deutsch

Two new books on AI appeared this week, both excellent in their own way.

In the post that follows, I look at the two books and assuming you only had time to read one, between the two books *The Human Advantage: What AI Can't Do Without You* by Stanford d.school AI expert Jeremy Utley and the book *What Should my Children Do? How to flourish in the age of AI* by economist and Oxford researcher Daniel Susskind, suggest which should you read and why.

As a bonus, I’ll propose a third as yet unwritten book that falls between these two exceptional books, that you also don’t have time to read...but ought to consider writing yourself.

If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. – Toni Morrison

It’s a common sentiment that most writers at one time or another arrive at: writing what you need to read.

I've done just this 7 times. Now it's your turn... In the post at the link I give you everything you need to get started.
theagenticarchitect.substack.com/p/two-new-book…

AIA National 2026 firm survey report reveals 2025 data & trends shaping the business of architecture just as 2027 arrives. $289 aia.org/resource-cente…

I am shocked at how little credit mothers get for the success of their sons.

Three quick examples from history:

Walden author Henry David Thoreau never actually said that he lived as a total hermit cut off from civilization, but few recognize that he walked into town regularly, sometimes daily to visit his mom, returning to his mother’s home or received visits from his mother, who, being a mom, helped out with things like laundry and baked cookies for him.

Or take the case of The World's Happiest Man, Matthieu Ricard who left science to become a monk. What most literature by and about Matthieu Ricard leaves out is that his mother, Yahne Le Toumelin left her husband, became an ordained Tibetan Buddhist nun herself and lived near her son in the Himalayas during the same period her son lived there. Coincidence? I think not.

Or take the case of Giacometti. During World War II the sculptor Alberto Giacometti went through an intense artistic crisis in which his sculptures shrank to miniature sizes, sometimes no larger than a grain of rice or a fingernail. When he finally returned from Switzerland to his Paris studio after the war in 1945, he famously carried nearly four years' worth of his artistic output inside six matchboxes in his coat pockets.

When I first read Lord’s biography of Giacometti when I was in high school, I was haunted by the artist showing his mother his collected work contained in tiny matchboxes in his pocket. Since having children of my own, I am now haunted by what his mother must have thought, having sent him for four years at Sorbonne:

*That is all you have to show for yourself?*

As with many of my posts, I look at the topic at hand through the lens of AI. This post is no different.

In my post, my question is this:

Now that AI is here, does a mother's belief in her children and what they can do in the world, ultimately for the world, change? In other words, does a mother's encouragement mean anything today now with AI in the world?

In this post, I share what having mothers who believe in us means for us now that AI is here.

I’ll give you a hint: *everything*

theagenticarchitect.substack.com/p/we-have-our-…

Consider these three seemingly unrelated inputs:

Walter Isaacson’s book, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geeks, and Geniuses Created the Digital Revolution, where he explains his two visions for AI.

How a couple of young men plus a laptop beat a chess champion.

And Beck’s song, Where It's At, where he sings, "I got two turntables and a microphone."

All of these have one thing in common:

They all point to a near term future where a single senior employee will now effectively cover the workload of three or more entry-level roles. Full stop.

In this post I look at the evidence, the upsides and downsides of this trend for both individuals and firms, and its impact on entry-level employees and recent graduates, who will be hired less to produce and more to verify.

And lastly, I explain when this will likely take place:

Starting in 3-5 years, there will be a broad restructuring across the profession.

I end by sharing how you can track this yourself, so you don’t have to take my word for it. theagenticarchitect.substack.com/p/a-senior-wor…

Many architects find meaning in their work, while others segue to other fields.

Many pivot to an adjacent field for financial reasons, but perhaps another reason is where they are most likely to find meaning in their work?

In this post I look at a few well- and lesser-known figures, many of whom explicitly tied their purpose to the work; what specifically makes architecture meaningful for these architects and for ourselves; the impact of recent election results on whether they present opportunities for increased meaning in our work and why; if AI changes where meaning in architecture comes from, and where AI could potentially deepen and erode meaning, ending with a question:

Which parts of architectural work do you find meaningful, and are we protecting those while letting AI take the rest?

theagenticarchitect.substack.com/p/architecture…