Boat, Not Moat (jhendler.com)

The piece reframes the old “moat” business metaphor for the AI era: land-based defenses won’t hold when software and knowledge work can be rapidly replicated by improving models and tooling. Instead of building impenetrable walls, companies should build boats—adaptive, resilient vessels that ride the shifting sea of AI. The core claim is blunt: brand, unique data, and deep tech buy only temporary advantage; “AI slop” (imperfect, widely available models) plus ever-sharper AI tools will commodify many software-driven offerings. Survival means adopting AI across the stack and embracing continuous change rather than trying to out-defend it. For builders this has practical technical implications: treat AI as nonstatic infrastructure—design modular systems that allow frequent model swaps, continuous fine-tuning, and safe guardrails at the boundary between model behavior and user experience. Prioritize interfaces, privacy, reliability, and human-centric value (safety, connection, entertainment, reduced friction) over brittle exclusivity. Invest in composability, monitoring, and engineered boundaries (rate limits, verification layers, explainability) to “float” through storms. Finally, the advice is collaborative: help customers and partners “build boats” too—ecosystem resilience and operational excellence will matter more than isolated moats.