Recovering brain scientist · building AI for people
Staying capable when everything changes.
The Goal: Human Acceleration
I studied how the brain works, spent twelve years building AI, and led teams through enough change to know the honest answer is boring: practice. I write about why your training doesn't stick, and what actually does.
Building AI for Human Acceleration: making people harder to replace. Allergic to training snake-oil.
Ben Schmidt · Pittsburgh, PA
PhD, Bioengineering · brain-network imaging
12 yrs building AI · RoadBotics → Michelin
Founder, HeyLoopy
No magic. Just reps.
Where to start
01
Leading Through Change
Staying steady, and keeping your people capable, when the ground keeps moving.
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02
Team Capability
Closing the gap between what your people can do and what the work now demands.
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03
Learning & AI
What the science of learning, and the reality of AI, say about getting and staying good.
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Latest essays
All essays →- When you remove a feature, invert its tests. Don't skip them. July 16, 2026
- A login double-submit race, and the test layers that let an LLM fix it safely July 16, 2026
- Without Code Journals, Your AI Will Fail You July 14, 2026
- We Always Finish Each Other's ____ July 14, 2026
- The Bottleneck Was Never the Machine June 14, 2026
From the lexicon
Human Acceleration n.
Pointing AI at people instead of around them. Take the disruption as given, then aim the technology at the only thing that was ever up to us: making people more capable, faster. The bottleneck was never the machine. It was how fast we adapt around it.