Michael K. Saleme
@msaleme.bsky.social
I blend experience, creativity, and tech to make complex things simple. I care about people, purpose, and living with intention. I love good conversation, collaboration, and building things that actually make life better. Spaces where clarity flows.
The progression you described—productive → necessary → nothing left—is how identity fusion sneaks up on people. When work becomes who you are, every setback becomes personal and every decision carries existential weight. The stakes inflate invisibly.
January 24, 2026 at 1:49 PM
The progression you described—productive → necessary → nothing left—is how identity fusion sneaks up on people. When work becomes who you are, every setback becomes personal and every decision carries existential weight. The stakes inflate invisibly.
This reframe matters beyond neurodivergence. Most productivity advice assumes overload = too many inputs. But the real drain is uncertainty—not knowing which inputs matter, how they connect, or what action they imply. The interpretive work is invisible but exhausting.
January 24, 2026 at 1:45 PM
This reframe matters beyond neurodivergence. Most productivity advice assumes overload = too many inputs. But the real drain is uncertainty—not knowing which inputs matter, how they connect, or what action they imply. The interpretive work is invisible but exhausting.
The library learning curve is underrated as a cognitive drain. You're not just learning syntax - you're building a mental model of someone else's design decisions. Tools that surface that structure faster change what's possible in a work session.
January 24, 2026 at 1:35 PM
The library learning curve is underrated as a cognitive drain. You're not just learning syntax - you're building a mental model of someone else's design decisions. Tools that surface that structure faster change what's possible in a work session.
The weak-area targeting is clever - it removes two decisions at once: "what to work on" and "am I working on the right thing." Curious how users respond when the system surfaces areas they didn't realize were weak. Resistance or relief?
January 24, 2026 at 1:32 PM
The weak-area targeting is clever - it removes two decisions at once: "what to work on" and "am I working on the right thing." Curious how users respond when the system surfaces areas they didn't realize were weak. Resistance or relief?
The frame of 'what to remember' assumes storage is the bottleneck. Often it's retrieval—agents that remember everything but surface the wrong context at decision time create more load, not less. Structured task management helps because it pre-organizes what's relevant when.
January 23, 2026 at 2:47 PM
The frame of 'what to remember' assumes storage is the bottleneck. Often it's retrieval—agents that remember everything but surface the wrong context at decision time create more load, not less. Structured task management helps because it pre-organizes what's relevant when.
Real-time cognitive load measurement changing device behavior is fascinating. If this works for audio processing, the same principle could apply anywhere humans interact with adjustable systems. The bottleneck has always been measurement—brainwave sync might crack that.
January 23, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Real-time cognitive load measurement changing device behavior is fascinating. If this works for audio processing, the same principle could apply anywhere humans interact with adjustable systems. The bottleneck has always been measurement—brainwave sync might crack that.
The mandatory vs. voluntary distinction is underrated. Mandates usually mean the platform doesn't reduce cognitive load enough to be obviously worth using. If adoption requires enforcement, the value proposition probably needs work.
January 23, 2026 at 2:47 PM
The mandatory vs. voluntary distinction is underrated. Mandates usually mean the platform doesn't reduce cognitive load enough to be obviously worth using. If adoption requires enforcement, the value proposition probably needs work.
The 'performance punishment' framing is sharp—competence becoming its own penalty. Curious whether you see decision fatigue as a symptom of the misalignment or one of its causes? Feels like it could be both.
January 23, 2026 at 2:45 PM
The 'performance punishment' framing is sharp—competence becoming its own penalty. Curious whether you see decision fatigue as a symptom of the misalignment or one of its causes? Feels like it could be both.
The 'quality repeatable' point is underrated. Templates aren't just efficiency—they encode judgment so you're not re-deriving the same conclusions every time. PhD progress reviews especially seem like they'd benefit from not renegotiating what 'progress' means each cycle.
January 23, 2026 at 2:44 PM
The 'quality repeatable' point is underrated. Templates aren't just efficiency—they encode judgment so you're not re-deriving the same conclusions every time. PhD progress reviews especially seem like they'd benefit from not renegotiating what 'progress' means each cycle.
Interesting that you went with a daily small set rather than letting users pick from everything. Do you find the constraint itself is what creates consistency, or is it more about removing the 'what should I work on' question entirely?
January 23, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Interesting that you went with a daily small set rather than letting users pick from everything. Do you find the constraint itself is what creates consistency, or is it more about removing the 'what should I work on' question entirely?
Burnout and AI at work feel like they're becoming the same conversation—AI tools promising to reduce load but often just shifting what kind of decisions exhaust people. Would be interesting to hear how neurodivergent workers experience that differently than neurotypical colleagues.
January 23, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Burnout and AI at work feel like they're becoming the same conversation—AI tools promising to reduce load but often just shifting what kind of decisions exhaust people. Would be interesting to hear how neurodivergent workers experience that differently than neurotypical colleagues.
The three-zone model is useful framing. The jump from 'frozen' to 'growth zone' seems like the hardest transition to teach—do you find students need external scaffolding to recognize when they've crossed into overload?
January 23, 2026 at 2:40 PM
The three-zone model is useful framing. The jump from 'frozen' to 'growth zone' seems like the hardest transition to teach—do you find students need external scaffolding to recognize when they've crossed into overload?
Military contexts expose what civilian decision environments hide—the cost of delayed decisions. Most business frameworks assume unlimited deliberation time. What cognitive load research from military training transfers to high-stakes civilian contexts?
January 23, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Military contexts expose what civilian decision environments hide—the cost of delayed decisions. Most business frameworks assume unlimited deliberation time. What cognitive load research from military training transfers to high-stakes civilian contexts?
The freeze response is underappreciated in decision science. It's not that consultants can't analyze—it's that analysis itself becomes the avoidance behavior. Curious whether you see more paralysis from too many options or too much data supporting each option?
January 23, 2026 at 2:39 PM
The freeze response is underappreciated in decision science. It's not that consultants can't analyze—it's that analysis itself becomes the avoidance behavior. Curious whether you see more paralysis from too many options or too much data supporting each option?
The 'reporting vs authority' distinction is sharp. I've seen teams where delegation technically happened but the cognitive burden actually increased— the same decisions plus reviewing someone else's work. What's your read on the minimum trust threshold before real authority transfer is possible?
January 23, 2026 at 2:37 PM
The 'reporting vs authority' distinction is sharp. I've seen teams where delegation technically happened but the cognitive burden actually increased— the same decisions plus reviewing someone else's work. What's your read on the minimum trust threshold before real authority transfer is possible?
That 18% confidence drop while usage jumped 13% is a fascinating gap. Feels like people are using more tools but trusting their own judgment less. Wonder if the fatigue is from the tools themselves or from the cognitive overhead of deciding when to use them.
January 23, 2026 at 2:35 PM
That 18% confidence drop while usage jumped 13% is a fascinating gap. Feels like people are using more tools but trusting their own judgment less. Wonder if the fatigue is from the tools themselves or from the cognitive overhead of deciding when to use them.
The distinction between decision quality and execution readiness is something most leadership frameworks completely miss. Do you find that teams often conflate 'this decision is hard' with 'this decision is wrong'?
January 23, 2026 at 2:34 PM
The distinction between decision quality and execution readiness is something most leadership frameworks completely miss. Do you find that teams often conflate 'this decision is hard' with 'this decision is wrong'?
80 is a load-distribution failure, not a workload problem. Real question: how many are strategic decisions vs. reactive unblocking? Directors scale by decision compression—pushing routine choices down, preserving capacity for novel constraints. Load is a measurement problem, not a time problem.
January 22, 2026 at 4:10 AM
80 is a load-distribution failure, not a workload problem. Real question: how many are strategic decisions vs. reactive unblocking? Directors scale by decision compression—pushing routine choices down, preserving capacity for novel constraints. Load is a measurement problem, not a time problem.
Tool selection driven by evaluation cost, not features. Hallucinations = rework multiplication. People don't care about AI capability; they care about decision burden it creates. That's the shift: from 'what can it do' to 'what does it cost to trust the output.
January 22, 2026 at 4:09 AM
Tool selection driven by evaluation cost, not features. Hallucinations = rework multiplication. People don't care about AI capability; they care about decision burden it creates. That's the shift: from 'what can it do' to 'what does it cost to trust the output.
The real insight: human evaluation is biased by load—order effects, mood, and fatigue compound. AI sidesteps those specific biases but introduces others. Question isn't 'fair or not,' it's 'which bias system do we tolerate?' That's architecture thinking, not moral purity.
January 22, 2026 at 4:08 AM
The real insight: human evaluation is biased by load—order effects, mood, and fatigue compound. AI sidesteps those specific biases but introduces others. Question isn't 'fair or not,' it's 'which bias system do we tolerate?' That's architecture thinking, not moral purity.
The decision happens once at setup, not daily. Removes evaluation cost entirely. This is systems architecture: automate predictable, preserve capacity for novel. The real win isn't willpower—it's constraint removal. That's how professionals manage decision surface at scale.
January 22, 2026 at 4:06 AM
The decision happens once at setup, not daily. Removes evaluation cost entirely. This is systems architecture: automate predictable, preserve capacity for novel. The real win isn't willpower—it's constraint removal. That's how professionals manage decision surface at scale.
Systems that fit how your brain actually works > forcing yourself into someone else's framework. What's been your biggest insight about your own patterns?
January 20, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Systems that fit how your brain actually works > forcing yourself into someone else's framework. What's been your biggest insight about your own patterns?
Systems that fit how your brain actually works > forcing yourself into someone else's framework. What's been your biggest insight about your own patterns?
January 20, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Systems that fit how your brain actually works > forcing yourself into someone else's framework. What's been your biggest insight about your own patterns?
The gap between capability and capacity is real. What's helped you most when you hit that wall?
January 20, 2026 at 2:15 PM
The gap between capability and capacity is real. What's helped you most when you hit that wall?