A talk

Building fast is solved. Deciding well is not.

A talk on a career break, 2026.

The claim

The constraint moved.

Decide well over build fast: “AI moved the constraint from building quickly to deciding correctly; the decision is the work.”

A value in the model, quoted as it stands there.

The break

One question, four months.

June to September 2026: what to do next, tested by building in the open.

It ended with a decision, not only an offer.

The first half

Building fast, measured.

23public repositories in 3 organizations
5,065commits on default branches
1,640merged pull requests
272releases
9live hosts
91%of non-merge commits co-authored with Claude

One person. As of Sep 24, 2026.

The curve

The curve.

Jun 9, 2026: 5 commitsJunJun 10, 2026: 0 commitsJun 11, 2026: 0 commitsJun 12, 2026: 3 commitsJun 13, 2026: 0 commitsJun 14, 2026: 0 commitsJun 15, 2026: 12 commitsJun 16, 2026: 5 commitsJun 17, 2026: 4 commitsJun 18, 2026: 0 commitsJun 19, 2026: 0 commitsJun 20, 2026: 6 commitsJun 21, 2026: 0 commitsJun 22, 2026: 0 commitsJun 23, 2026: 7 commitsJun 24, 2026: 0 commitsJun 25, 2026: 0 commitsJun 26, 2026: 0 commitsJun 27, 2026: 2 commitsJun 28, 2026: 0 commitsJun 29, 2026: 9 commitsJun 30, 2026: 11 commitsJul 1, 2026: 0 commitsJulJul 2, 2026: 3 commitsJul 3, 2026: 4 commitsJul 4, 2026: 0 commitsJul 5, 2026: 0 commitsJul 6, 2026: 1 commitsJul 7, 2026: 2 commitsJul 8, 2026: 1 commitsJul 9, 2026: 20 commitsJul 10, 2026: 29 commitsJul 11, 2026: 0 commitsJul 12, 2026: 0 commitsJul 13, 2026: 1 commitsJul 14, 2026: 0 commitsJul 15, 2026: 0 commitsJul 16, 2026: 0 commitsJul 17, 2026: 0 commitsJul 18, 2026: 0 commitsJul 19, 2026: 0 commitsJul 20, 2026: 0 commitsJul 21, 2026: 2 commitsJul 22, 2026: 0 commitsJul 23, 2026: 0 commitsJul 24, 2026: 0 commitsJul 25, 2026: 0 commitsJul 26, 2026: 0 commitsJul 27, 2026: 0 commitsJul 28, 2026: 0 commitsJul 29, 2026: 0 commitsJul 30, 2026: 0 commitsJul 31, 2026: 0 commitsAug 1, 2026: 0 commitsAugAug 2, 2026: 0 commitsAug 3, 2026: 0 commitsAug 4, 2026: 0 commitsAug 5, 2026: 0 commitsAug 6, 2026: 0 commitsAug 7, 2026: 1 commitsAug 8, 2026: 0 commitsAug 9, 2026: 2 commitsAug 10, 2026: 1 commitsAug 11, 2026: 7 commitsAug 12, 2026: 0 commitsAug 13, 2026: 0 commitsAug 14, 2026: 16 commitsAug 15, 2026: 3 commitsAug 16, 2026: 1 commitsAug 17, 2026: 3 commitsAug 18, 2026: 18 commitsAug 19, 2026: 17 commitsAug 20, 2026: 10 commitsAug 21, 2026: 34 commitsAug 22, 2026: 75 commitsAug 23, 2026: 77 commitsAug 24, 2026: 52 commitsAug 25, 2026: 166 commitsAug 26, 2026: 55 commitsAug 27, 2026: 59 commitsAug 28, 2026: 140 commitsAug 29, 2026: 67 commitsAug 30, 2026: 48 commitsAug 31, 2026: 121 commitsSep 1, 2026: 159 commitsSepSep 2, 2026: 222 commitsSep 3, 2026: 151 commitsSep 4, 2026: 121 commitsSep 5, 2026: 167 commitsSep 6, 2026: 228 commitsSep 7, 2026: 131 commitsSep 8, 2026: 93 commitsSep 9, 2026: 50 commitsSep 10, 2026: 118 commitsSep 11, 2026: 167 commitsSep 12, 2026: 30 commitsSep 13, 2026: 0 commitsSep 14, 2026: 19 commitsSep 15, 2026: 133 commitsSep 16, 2026: 165 commitsSep 17, 2026: 152 commitsSep 18, 2026: 164 commitsSep 19, 2026: 220 commitsSep 20, 2026: 206 commitsSep 21, 2026: 695 commitsSep 21 · 695Sep 22, 2026: 302 commitsSep 23, 2026: 212 commitsSep 24, 2026: 346 commits

Commits per day; each tick marks the day a repository was born.

The cost

Building is not the expensive part any more.

about CHF 650for the subscription in four months, paid
about CHF 9,000of compute at API list price
about 16 billiontokens, most of them context read again

It rests on a few providers’ prices and terms. The knowledge is portable; the speed is not yet.

What the same result would have cost a Swiss team: blust.ch/talks/deciding-well/cost

The second half

Where the time went instead.

95specs
105plans
5phases, each behind a gate

Shape · Spec · Plan · Implement · Integrate — the Owner merges.

The decisions

Taken, revised, dropped.

1,360decisions written down in 95 specs
72revised later
30dropped or parked
1,258still standing as written
1revert in 5,065 commits
12repositories in one release wave, replaced the same day

An agent had to read them out of prose. Next, decisions become part of the model.

The answer

The answer: one graph.

CompanyGraph: vision, strategy, roles, processes, rules and their evidence as one graph, for people and agents.

Plain Markdown in git, served over MCP — no provider owns it.

It runs

It runs.

blust.chthe mental model of Robert Blust, a company of one
site · MCP server · chat
companygraph.iothe mental model of CompanyGraph, describing itself
site · MCP server · chat
guestgraph.iothe mental model of GuestGraph
site · MCP server · chat
and the product in code: the open-core engine and the Apaleo connector

Three mental models, each in git, each served three ways. Ask a chat a question its model can answer.

CompanyGraph and GuestGraph are ready for scrutiny: open core, validated in the open.

What comes next

Deciding well is the work.

Building fast is solved. Deciding well is not.

My proposal: decide well with a mental model and agentic AI. Validate it with me.

blust.ch · companygraph.io · guestgraph.io — from October, an IT architect role, chosen over better-paid engineering and lead roles; from 2027, education in how AI is led and governed.

Read more

Where to start reading.

Robert Blust Talks

Sprecher-Notiz