https://swardleymaps.com The official home of Wardley Maps by Simon Wardley. Strategy, mapping, AI, sovereignty, and software engineering. en simon@swardleymaps.com (Simon Wardley) Wed, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://swardleymaps.com/swardleymaps.png https://swardleymaps.com https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-04-19-how-do-you-go-about-working-on-what-to-invest-in https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-04-19-how-do-you-go-about-working-on-what-to-invest-in Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT On organisational investment methodology, mapping, and the limits of AI in identifying interesting questions — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-04-18-saas-is-dead https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-04-18-saas-is-dead Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT On why 'SaaS is dead' misses the nuance of evolution from timeshare to rental to utility — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-04-14-why-practices-take-so-long-to-co-evolve-with-ai https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-04-14-why-practices-take-so-long-to-co-evolve-with-ai Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT On co-evolution of practices, CIO incentives, and whether AI will replace executives — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-29-will-ai-replace-software-engineers https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-29-will-ai-replace-software-engineers Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On vibe coding, conversational programming, co-evolution of practice, and why 'this is different' is never different — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-29-biological-terms-in-business https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-29-biological-terms-in-business Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On hormesis, ecological resilience, and why survival of the fittest is a useless phrase — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-27-writing-a-book-on-software-engineering https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-27-writing-a-book-on-software-engineering Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On rewilding software engineering, why books take decades, and the difference between output and understanding — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-27-more-or-fewer-developers https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-27-more-or-fewer-developers Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On Jevons paradox, why software engineers will be renamed not replaced, and the cost of firing Alice — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-22-why-is-wardley-mapping-not-more-widely-used https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-22-why-is-wardley-mapping-not-more-widely-used Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On the 30-50 year spread of management practices, and growing tomatoes — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-21-feudal-states-of-ai https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-21-feudal-states-of-ai Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On centralisation, control, surveillance, and how AI policy reduces citizens to data sources — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-15-most-important-lesson-building-with-ai https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-15-most-important-lesson-building-with-ai Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On shallow vs deep problems, why AI-built systems are ticking time bombs, and The Machine Stops — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-15-coding-tips-spinner-verbs https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-15-coding-tips-spinner-verbs Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On customising Claude's spinner verbs for a more honest AI coding experience — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-12-brave-new-world https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-12-brave-new-world Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On Government, Markets and Values — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-10-conversational-programming-to-vibe-coding https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-10-conversational-programming-to-vibe-coding Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On why vibe coding is a terrible name and AI wrangling is more accurate — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-10-chain-of-comprehension-vibe-coding https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-10-chain-of-comprehension-vibe-coding Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On why one huge company will inevitably lose control of its IT systems through vibe coding — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-09-uk-supply-chain-department https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-09-uk-supply-chain-department Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On why the UK needs a department of the supply chain for technological and economic landscape awareness — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-09-software-engineers-five-days-left https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-09-software-engineers-five-days-left Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On Amodei's prediction that AI would write all software in 12 months and the horde of doom-loop thought leaders — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-06-uk-values-and-defence https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-06-uk-values-and-defence Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On British strategic principles, standing by values under pressure, and the tradition of pragmatic statecraft — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-05-the-future-is-prompt-engineering https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-05-the-future-is-prompt-engineering Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On the endless cycle of declaring practices dead while reasoning remains the real casualty — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-04-software-engineering-jobs-wont-disappear https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-04-software-engineering-jobs-wont-disappear Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On why software engineering jobs won't disappear, 50x more software, and the impact on consultancy models — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-04-ai-sovereignty-china https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-04-ai-sovereignty-china Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On China's AI regulations, training data sovereignty, and the coming battle between open and closed AI — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-01-thousand-hours-of-vibe-coding https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-03-01-thousand-hours-of-vibe-coding Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT On discovering that complex AI-built apps often reduce to spreadsheets and the real value of vibe coding is finding the right questions — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-28-tiresome-myths-fewer-engineers https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-28-tiresome-myths-fewer-engineers Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On the myth of fewer engineers, Jevons paradox, and the coming rehiring rush — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-24-miro-ai-and-the-value-of-process https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-24-miro-ai-and-the-value-of-process Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On why automating the creation of maps and boards destroys the real value, which lies in the process of making them — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-22-three-schools-of-thought-on-ai https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-22-three-schools-of-thought-on-ai Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On the three schools of thought about AI and software engineering: Replace People, Replace Tasks, and the mythical No Change — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-21-healthcare-not-sickcare https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-21-healthcare-not-sickcare Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On the NHS, PROMs vs ClinROs, and why a blank-page target operating model should start with healthcare not sickcare — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-19-a-moment-of-reflection https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-19-a-moment-of-reflection Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On vibe coding, context and open source — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-17-thoughts-on-openclaw https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-17-thoughts-on-openclaw Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On PicoClaw, AGI emergence, a satirical Reuters 2072 report, and the cathedral vs bazaar of intelligence — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-17-alice-the-machine-psychologist https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-17-alice-the-machine-psychologist Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A fictional narrative from a 2015 blog post about Alice the machine psychologist and the co-evolution of roles — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-16-drum-machines-and-ai https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-16-drum-machines-and-ai Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT On drum machines in the 1980s as a parallel to AI replacing engineers — by Simon Wardley. https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-15-on-the-question-of-debt https://swardleymaps.com/posts/2026-02-15-on-the-question-of-debt Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Four types of debt in systems: technical, evolutionary, cognitive, and epistemic — by Simon Wardley.