# Brendan Cody-Kenny: The new knowledge worker may need more ways of thinking, not just more knowledge.

Technical Due Diligence for Software M&A https://sub.xiliary.com/p/brendancodykenny

### 2026-10-16 question #ai #learning #software-engineering
The new knowledge worker may need more ways of thinking, not just more knowledge.
- Product asks who needs this: empathetic thinking. Architecture asks what else it affects: systems thinking.
- Implementation asks how to make it work: constructive thinking. QA asks how it could fail: critical thinking.
- Commercial work asks whether it's worth doing: economic thinking.
- AI reduces some of the mechanical work of manipulating information. That leaves more attention for judgement across these different modes.
- The limit of the AI-enabled generalist may be the ability to switch modes without losing depth. How do we learn to think like the people we used to hand work to?

https://sub.xiliary.com/p/brendancodykenny/posts/75/the-new-knowledge-worker-may-need-more-ways-of-thinking-not