Author
Antoine Buteau

Antoine Buteau

3 min read Free

Live player series: #10 The Live Player Audit

The useful question is not “Am I a live player?” That turns into identity theater. The useful question is: where am I currently dead? Where am I executing a stale script? Where am I avoiding evidence? Where have my options collapsed? Where am I borrowing judgment? Where am I pretending
2 min read Free

Live player series: #9 Build Reality Loops Around Yourself

Nobody stays a live player by intention alone. This becomes more true as AI makes polished output cheap. The world will produce more plausible summaries, cleaner decks, faster plans, and more confident answers. That raises the value of loops that touch uncompressed reality. You need loops that keep you in
3 min read Free

Live player series: #8 Change the Game, Don’t Just Win the Round

Some people are excellent at winning rounds inside a game that should no longer be played. They hit the metric while damaging the business. They win the argument while losing trust. They optimize the roadmap while the category shifts. They protect their function while the company needs a new operating
2 min read Free

Live player series: #7 Power Is Part of the Terrain

Power is not a dirty layer sitting on top of the real work. It is part of the terrain in which the work happens. In this series, power is not the subject; aliveness is. Power matters because a map that omits vetoes, dependencies, and legitimacy is not a map of
2 min read Free

Live player series: #6 Read Incentives Before You Argue With Behavior

When people behave “irrationally,” assume you do not yet understand the incentive structure. That does not mean every behavior is good. It means behavior is usually adaptive inside some local game. If you try to argue people out of behavior without understanding the game, you will sound righteous and change
2 min read Free

Live player series: #5 Update Faster Than the Organization

Organizations update slowly because updating is socially expensive. A changed mind creates work. It embarrasses old plans. It threatens budgets. It reveals that confident statements were provisional. So companies often keep acting as if the old belief is true long after enough evidence has arrived. Live players update faster than
2 min read Free

Live player series: #4 Option Creation Beats Perfect Planning

Weak operators ask, “What is the plan?” Stronger operators ask, “What options do we have?” Live players ask, “What options can we create before the decision becomes forced?” That difference is enormous. Most bad decisions are not bad because the final choice was irrational. They are bad because the option
2 min read Free

Live player series: #3 Independent Judgment Is an Operating Asset

Independent judgment is not having unusual opinions. It is the ability to reach a grounded view before the room tells you what view is safe — and then revise that view when better evidence arrives. Organizations need this badly and often punish it subtly. Consensus is smoother. Borrowed opinions travel faster.

Choose your reading rhythm.

Start with a weekly briefing, add daily notes, or hear only when a durable essay or library update is ready.
You've successfully subscribed to Antoine Buteau
Great! Next, complete checkout to get full access to all premium content.
Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.
Unable to sign you in. Please try again.
Success! Your account is fully activated, you now have access to all content.
Error! Stripe checkout failed.
Success! Your billing info is updated.
Error! Billing info update failed.
Press ESC to close.