Field notes4 essaysLatest June 19, 2026● Personal · time-stamped
Field Notes
Notes from Cal.
Field notes from building Niche, agent-native product design, and what the editorial intelligence layer looks like in 2026. Time-stamped takes from the founder.
BylineCalFounder, Niche
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Latest
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Archive
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On the desk
The questions I’m working through right now, before any of them are worth a full essay.
- 01Is all SaaS becoming headless, or is “AI-first product” really just software designed for agents to use?
- 02What image models are actually production-ready when you test them like a builder, not a benchmark leaderboard?
- 03What does legitimate AI fact-checking architecture look like for creators when it is built into the pipeline, not bolted on afterward?
- 04How much of the creator interface should disappear when an agent is doing the work?
- 05Should I get the kids a dog, and if I do, should I name him Agent?
About this surface
Reference content lives at /learn. Founder essays live here.
The split is intentional. The AI landscape will look different in twelve months; founder opinions written today carry their date so readers can weigh them in context. Reference content does not carry a date because the date is irrelevant to the meaning.