Juan Mackie.

Useful tools, clear thinking, and ideas that survive contact with reality.

I care about AI, business, investing, and the mechanics behind how useful things get made. Most of the work here sits somewhere between software, media, and personal operating systems.

• Think in systems
• Prefer useful over clever
• Keep the UI legible
• Build, ship, refine
• Own the stack
• Propose, then act
• Move fast
• e/acc
• inputs > outputs
• 5-laws

Start with the work that is still alive.

The index includes essays, books, audio, GitHub experiments, and a few production links that shaped the path here.

Direct links I actually use.

• Substack
• Goodreads
• Last.fm
• Spotify podcast
• juan.mackie@gmail.com

Notes on AI, business, money, tools, and the systems around them.

1. 01Downgrading BYD Seal from V1.1 (2310) to V1 (2307)
2. 02Corporate Fitness vs. Efficiency: Navigating the Evolutionary Landscape of Business Success
3. 03[[ LogSeq ]], a powerful tool to leverage your notes and thoughts
4. 04Cashflow squeeze < Charge card
5. 05Using Your American Express Platinum To Pay Non Accepting Suppliers
6. 06One at a time - Podcast Transcript
7. 07The Power of Intermittent Fasting: Boosting Mental Health and Energy
8. 08Wealth Wisdom Unveiled: 12 Money-Saving Tactics That Set the Rich Apart
9. 09The Lollapalooza of Success: Navigating Life's Twists with Charlie Munger's Psychology
10. 10Unlocking the Vaults of Wealth: Expert Insights on Global Capital Without Borders

• The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison
• The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies
• Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
• Abundance by Ezra Klein
• Transport for Humans by Pete Dyson and Rory Sutherland
• Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
• Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
• Elements of Choice by Eric J. Johnson
• City of Joy
• Inheritocracy by Eliza Filby
• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity
• Under the Hood by Stan Slap
• A Little Book on the Human Shadow by Robert Bly
• Becoming Trader Joe by Joe Coulombe
• Asian Godfathers
• Built from Scratch by Bernie Marcus
• Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
• The Death of the Banker by Ron Chernow
• Case Studies For Corporate Finance by J.R. Harold Bierman
• Doing What Matters by James M. Kilts
• The Responsible Company by Yvon Chouinard
• Behind the Banyan by Aaron Low
• The Heart of Innovation by Matt Chanoff
• Purple on the Inside: How J.B. Hunt Transport Set Itself Apart
• The Nature of Our Cities
• For Blood and Money
• Bury My Heart at Conference Room B by Stan Slap
• Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work
• Never Enough: From Barista to Billionaire
• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
• Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism
• Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman
• Day Trading QuickStart Guide
• High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV
• Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas
• Merchants of Doubt
• Run Your Business, Don't Let It Run You
• Outside Directors in Family Owned Businesses
• Freedom's Forge
• The Deming Management Method
• Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric
• Plain Talk: Lessons from a Business Maverick
• Electronic Value Exchange: Origins of the VISA Electronic Payment System
• The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
• Measures of Success by Kevin Claydon
• Engines That Move Markets
• You Have A Choice: Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Work
• Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
• Filterworld by Kyle Chayka
• Hello, My Name Is Awesome
• Platform Revolution
• Lean Analytics
• Hooked by Nir Eyal
• The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
• The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
• Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• Zurich Axioms
• More Than You Know
• The Rise of Superman
• The Breakout Principle
• From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom
• Logo Design Love
• How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg
• Catalyst
• The CEO Next Door
• The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking
• How to Make a Few Billion Dollars
• The McKinsey Engagement
• The McKinsey Edge
• Red Notice by Ben Mezrich
• The Key Man
• The World for Sale
• MBS by Ben Hubbard
• Sales Pitch
• Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun
• Maverick by Ricardo Semler
• When the Wolves Bite
• The Cult of We
• The High-Velocity Edge
• The Warren Buffett CEO
• The Fund by Robin Wigglesworth
• The Dealmaker
• Founder vs Investor
• Forget the Funnel
• Capital Returns
• Twenty Things You Need to Know
• Black Edge by Sheelah Kolhatkar
• Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• Demand-Side Sales 101
• The Kingdom of Prep
• Imagination House by E. Lee Walker
• Propaganda by Edward Bernays
• The Pretender by Melanie Benjamin
• Winning by Jack Welch
• Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• The Nurture Assumption by Judith Rich Harris
• Born of This Land by Chung Ju-Yung
• We're Pregnant! by Adrian Kulp
• The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor
• Antimemetics by Nadia Asparouhova
• Who Knew by Barry Diller
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• The Rhythm of Strategy by Marleen Dieleman
• Robert Kuok: A Memoir
• The Cult of Information by Theodore Roszak
• The Shock of the Old by David Edgerton
• How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
• Practical Wisdom by Barry Schwartz
• Buffett's Early Investments by Brett Gardner
• The Creation of Wealth by R.M. Lala
• Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata by Frank Harris
• The Polyester Prince by Hamish McDonald
• Absolute Power by Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu
• The Life and Times of G.D. Birla by Medha M. Kudaisya
• A.D. Shroff: Titan of Finance and Free Enterprise by Sucheta Dalal
• The Platform Delusion by Jonathan A. Knee
• J.B. Hunt: The Long Haul to Success by Marvin Schwartz
• Up the Organisation by Robert C. Townsend
• The Wisdom of the Enneagram
• When the Machine Stopped by Max Holland
• Gas Wars by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
• Ghost in the Wires by Kevin D. Mitnick
• The Strategy of Conflict by Thomas C. Schelling
• Samsung Rising by Geoffrey Cain
• System Collapse by Martha Wells
• Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
• Network Effect by Martha Wells
• Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
• Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
• Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells
• Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells
• The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
• Excession by Iain M. Banks
• Hotel by Arthur Hailey
• Blind Man's Bluff
• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
• Who Is Michael Ovitz?
• New Dress for Success by John T. Molloy
• Who Says Elephants Can't Dance
• Kochland by Christopher Leonard
• Ogilvy on Advertising
• What Would Machiavelli Do
• Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
• Marketing Metrics
• The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Complete Guide to Taxation in Australia by Max Newnham
• Australian Taxation Study Manual by K. Tai
• Tax Planning for Family and Small Business by Linda Delaney
• Be Your Own VC
• The Millionaires' Factory
• More Money Than God by Sebastian Mallaby
• Learning to Build
• Logic of Failure
• Made in Japan by Akio Morita
• Critical Path by R. Buckminster Fuller
• Invested
• How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen
• Productize
• The Fish That Ate the Whale
• The Symphony of Profound Knowledge
• Business Bullseye by Allan Mason
• The Power of Positive Thinking
• Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
• The Hypomanic Edge
• The Puppet Masters
• The Sovereign Individual
• The Paradox of Success
• The HP Way
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson
• How Brands Grow
• Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!
• Lives in Trust
• The Hidden Wealth of Nations
• Family Wealth
• Buy Then Build
• The Deming Dimension
• Understanding Variation by David Chamberlain
• Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
• Creating a Data-Driven Organization
• Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Necessary but Not Sufficient
• Better, Simpler Strategy
• The Haystack Syndrome
• The Millionaire Fastlane
• The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby
• How to Become a Rainmaker
• Running with Purpose by Jim Weber
• I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
• Essentialism by Greg McKeown
• Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition by Geoffrey A. Moore
• Small Giants by Bo Burlingham
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• The Expectation Effect
• The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America
• The Ultimate Sales Machine
• The Power of Full Engagement
• The Surrender Experiment
• Million Dollar Consulting
• The Score Takes Care of Itself
• The Paradox of Choice
• American Bonds
• The Status Game
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
• The Misfit Economy
• Geopolitical Alpha
• A First-Rate Madness
• Vested
• Amp It Up
• Zero to IPO
• Vested Outsourcing
• In Business As in Life, You Don't Get What You Deserve, You Get What You Negotiate
• The Emperors of Chocolate
• HBR Guide to Thinking Strategically
• Discovery-Driven Growth
• The Effortless Experience
• The Man Who Broke Capitalism
• Corporate Explorer
• Sell Like Crazy
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There
• The Art of Pricing
• The Rise and Fall of the Conglomerate Kings
• The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• Pleased, But Not Satisfied
• Priceless by William Poundstone
• Building a Second Brain
• Three Blind Mice by Ken Auletta
• Lessons from Private Equity by Orit Gadiesh
• Entrepreneurship
• The 1% Windfall
• The Art of Intrusion
• The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick
• Topgrading by Bradford D. Smart
• After Steve by Tripp Mickle
• Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green
• The 3G Way
• A Triumph of Genius
• Skunk Works by Ben Rich
• Ultralearning by Scott Young
• How to Win in a Winner-Take-All World
• Hidden Champions of the Twenty-First Century
• The Lean Turnaround
• Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone
• Dream Big
• Zero-Base Budgeting by Peter Pyhrr
• The Moral Animal
• The Discipline of Market Leaders
• Family Trusts: A Plain English Guide for Australian Families

A place for technology, business, investing, and whatever is worth sitting with.

The podcast where I explore one thought-provoking idea at a time. It is a place for technology, business, investing, and whatever else is worth sitting with for a while.

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Overcast
• Podcast Addict
• Amazon Music
• iHeartRadio
• Castro
• Castbox
• Pocket Casts
• Deezer
• RSS feed

Short feedback loops for selected text, without ceremony.

Prompt Paul is a Chrome extension that helps process selected text quickly with AI. It is built for practical use, not ritual.

If you want to support the project, use the Ko-fi link in the site footer or send a direct note.

Services I use that still have referral codes attached.

• Google Workspace
• American Express Platinum
• BuzzSprout Podcasting
• OctoBot Crypto Auto Trading
• Buffer (Social Media X-Posting)
• Railway.app (Cloud development platform)
• OVO Energy (EV Plan with free energy from 11am-2pm & 0.08c 12am-6am)