The Operating Week → 3.9.26 →One Read →One Book →One Pod →One Follow
The one article, one book, one podcast, and one person you need this week to build better.
Most people are cosplaying with technology they’ve opened twice.
84% of humans have never used AI.
0.3% pay for it. Actual adoption is a fraction of what the tools can do. And yet the feed is full of “AI-native founders” who couldn’t build an automated workflow if their revenue depended on it.
The gap between what the technology can do and what people actually do with it is the biggest business opportunity of the next decade.
That’s exactly what we work on inside the Operating Founder program:
4 1:1 (60 Minute) Strategic Operating Sessions w/ John
Weekly Cohort Zoom Working Sessions
Access to a private Skool community filled with all of the tools and frameworks we’re building along the way.
That’s less than two dollars a week to be in the room with operators who are quietly building the most efficient businesses on the internet while everyone else is arguing about which chatbot is better.
We’re at 193 members.
At 200, the program is closed.
The people inside aren’t posting about AI.
They’re building their futures with it.
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84% of humans have never used AI.
0.3% are paying for it. 0.04% are building with it at any depth.
Let that land.
Your LinkedIn feed would have you believe otherwise.
Your LinkedIn is lying to you.
Anthropic just released the most detailed study ever produced of what AI is actually doing inside companies. The headline everyone is running: “A Great Recession for white-collar workers is absolutely possible.” The headline everyone is missing: 94% theoretical capability in computer and math roles. 33% actual adoption. Only 18% of American businesses report using AI at all.
If your company is still having a “discussion” about the value of AI, if there is a committee, a working group, a quarterly review to assess feasibility or value, the company is the problem. Not the technology.
The tech works.
It has worked for over two years.
Transformation success or failure is a matter of leadership, or not.
Start building your own thing.
Or go find a company run by someone who already has.
- j -
📖 One Article to Read
“Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence” by Maxim Massenkoff and Peter McCrory, published by Anthropic (March 5, 2026)
This is the single most important piece of economic research published in the AI space over the last year.
Most AI labor research is theoretical. Massenkoff and McCrory looked at what people actually use Claude for at work, weighted fully automated uses more heavily than human-assisted ones, and tracked it against 800 occupations. The result is the first real metric distinguishing between what AI could theoretically do and what it is actually doing right now.
The gap is enormous. And it tells you everything you need to know about where the opportunity sits.
Three things operators should take from this report.
First, the adoption gap is your competitive moat.
Computer programmers have 75% task coverage. Business and financial roles sit at 20%. Legal at 15%. If you are running a one-person operation and using AI at even 40% of theoretical capability, you are structurally outperforming most mid-market companies. 82% of American businesses are not using AI at all. Your competition is companies that still have not started.
Second, the hiring freeze is the signal, not the unemployment number.
The report finds no systematic increase in unemployment for highly exposed workers. That is the headline that should make you feel safe. Anthropic found a roughly 14% decline in job-finding rates for workers aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations. Companies are not firing people. They are not hiring new ones. For solopreneurs and small operators, this is the macro case for “one person plus AI” as an economic structure, not a lifestyle choice. The companies that would have hired three people for the job are trying to figure out how to do it with one.
Third, if your company is debating the value of AI, your company is behind.
Anthropic’s own Economic Index data shows 46% of Claude usage is work-related. The tools are being used, productively, at scale, right now. If the organization you work inside of is still treating this as theoretical, still running pilot programs, still waiting for a board to approve a strategy, that is not caution. That is a failure of leadership with existential downside risk.
The people flooding LinkedIn with AI expertise they do not have should also read this report carefully: 94% theoretical. 33% observed.
Action item: Pick three tasks in your business this week that fall in the “theoretically feasible but you haven’t automated” category. Close the gap. Then pick three more next week.
Also worth reading: The Fortune and Axios coverage of the report for the broader implications framing. And if you want the full dataset nerd-out, read Anthropic’s fourth Economic Index report on “economic primitives” that preceded this paper. The methodology is worth understanding if you want to speak about this intelligently rather than just reshare it.
🎧 One Book to Listen To
“Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect” by Will Guidara — Audible | Spotify | Apple Books
This is a deliberately contrarian pick in a week where the entire internet is talking about what AI can replace.
Guidara ran Eleven Madison Park. Took it to the number one restaurant in the world. Built his philosophy around a single idea: the things that make people feel something cannot be systematized, scaled in the traditional sense, or automated.
The thing that makes clients stay, refer, and pay premium prices is the unreasonable hospitality:
The follow-up that was not required.
The detail nobody asked for.
The moment that proves you are paying attention.
Genuine human generosity is a moat to build around your work, brand and business.
Also worth a listen: “Same as Ever” by Morgan Housel. In a week dominated by what is changing, Housel’s book is about what never changes: human psychology, risk, patience, and the stories we tell ourselves about the future. A good companion piece if you want the long view alongside the urgency.
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Become a paid subscriber to access all the content ($7.99 / month) or get to work with us and become a member of the Operating Founder cohort for $99 (annual).
🎬 One Podcast to Watch
“I built a $50M AI app in high school (and just sold it for...)” — My First Million, Episode 802 Sam Parr & Shaan Puri with Zach Yadegari — Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
Zach Yadegari and his co-founder Henry Langmack built Cal AI in their high school classrooms. An AI-powered calorie tracking app. Snap a photo of your food, get an instant calorie estimate. Fifteen million downloads. Over $50 million in annual recurring revenue. Acquired by MyFitnessPal. He is 19 years old. He holds Sunday night standups because he works all weekend around his class schedule.
Why this matters for you: You need to understand that the distance between “AI could do this” and “someone is actually doing this” is collapsing. And the people collapsing it fastest are not Fortune 500 companies. They are operators with small teams placing the utmost priority on working and shipping.
Also worth your time: MFM Episode 801 (March 3) where Shaan Puri talks to investor Sheel Mohnot about the biggest life lessons from investing, who wins the AI race, and AI-proof business ideas. Good companion to the Yadegari episode if you are thinking about where to aim next.
👤 One New Person to Follow
Maxim Massenkoff Economist at Anthropic — Co-author of “Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence”
Follow on: Anthropic Research | LinkedIn
Last week I recommended Elaine Pofeldt. This week I am doubling down on the same principle. Follow the person doing the research, not just the people doing the performing.
In a world where most of the AI conversation is theater, follow an economist with the receipts.
Also worth following: Peter McCrory, Massenkoff’s co-author on the labor market paper. Same research, same rigor, same lens. Two economists doing the work that everyone else is citing and almost nobody is reading.
🧵 The Through-Line
If you zoom out on this week’s picks, the arc is about one thing: the distance between capability and execution.
84% of humans have never used AI. 99.7% have never paid for it. Only 18% of American companies use it at all. And yet the theoretical capability to automate most knowledge work already exists.
That gap, between what is possible and what is actually happening, is the entire story of 2026.
capability gap → execution → human advantage → signal.
If your company cannot figure this out, find a better company.
Or build one yourself.
Companies are becoming tech stacks.
We are all becoming companies.
See you next Monday.
- J -
If this edition was valuable, forward it to one person who is building something on their own. That is how Operating grows, one operator at a time.
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Become a paid subscriber to access all the content ($7.99 / month) or get to work with us and become a member of the Operating Founder cohort for $99 (annual).
John Brewton documents the history and future of operating companies at Operating by John Brewton. He is a graduate of Harvard University and began his career as a Phd. student in economics at the University of Chicago. After selling his family’s B2B industrial distribution company in 2021, he has been helping business owners, founders and investors optimize their operations ever since. He is the founder of 6A East Partners, a research and advisory firm asking the question: What is the future of companies? He still cringes at his early LinkedIn posts and loves making content each and everyday, despite the protestations of his beloved wife, Fabiola, at times.
And the 16% are mostly playing 🤣