Why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era | Max Schoening (Notion)

AI is fundamentally reshaping product development by lowering technical barriers, effectively making the initial stages of project creation free. This shift necessitates a focus on "malleable software," where tools are adaptable to individual needs rather than rigid, corporate-defined workflows. Success in this new environment requires cultivating agency—the realization that the world is malleable and created by people no smarter than oneself—rather than just mastering specific technical skills. Max Schoening, Head of Product at Notion, argues that the most successful products are built around a "tiny core" superpower, warning that constant feature bloat is a common pitfall. Ultimately, the future of knowledge work lies in leveraging AI to act as an exoskeleton for human ingenuity, allowing builders to focus on craft and high-level strategy rather than repetitive execution.