About

Who writes Signal Over Noise, and why.

Who writes it, and why

Jim Christian has spent 30 years in technology, across education, security and software. He ran IT for an international school in London, co-founded Fire Tech Camp Australia and wrote two books that teach young people to code, then led enterprise security with no significant incidents on his watch. Today he consults for companies on technology and AI and trains their teams to use it well. That includes live workshops for marketing and advertising professionals on giving a model the context it needs, checking what comes back and keeping confidential information out of it. He also makes software as Squatchware and builds agentic websites and apps for small businesses through Sleight of Dev.

What I care about is helping people bring technology into their lives where it's needed. Sometimes that means AI; just as often it means something far simpler.

The tech world is accelerating. Signal Over Noise is my attempt to slow things down a little: to pick apart the hype around AI and write about what I tried, what broke, what it cost and what I'd do differently.

Training, consulting and speaking

Book an AI discovery session jimchristian.net Contact

How it works

I publish to the site as things happen, and send one email a week compiling that week's posts. Everything is free, in full — no paywall on the writing, ever.

Members get the Kit Library for €7 a month: a shelf of prompts, worksheets and starter files to copy, and four members-only courses. Their support also keeps this independent.

Subscribe free →

Where to start

If you're new here, start with the path that matches how you work.

If you run a business

Running a business and trying to use AI without wasting time, budget, or trust.

Read the practical pieces on cost and trust.

  1. Security & Risk

    The 95% AI Failure Rate Nobody's Talking About (And What to Do About It)

    Dear Reader, Air Canada recently learned an expensive lesson about AI implementation. Their customer service chatbot provided incorrect information about bereavement fares, and…

    6 min read

  2. Agents & Tooling

    Harvard Identified Seven Frictions That Kill AI Rollouts. You Probably Have All Seven.

    Researchers from Harvard and Microsoft pinpointed the structural reasons AI pilots don't scale — and none of them are about the technology.

    2 min read

  3. Working with AI

    How AI Changed My Build vs. Buy Process

    AI has fundamentally changed what's possible for small businesses and individual operators.

    7 min read

  4. The Industry

    Does the AI Capital Spend Actually Pencil Out?

    $1.3 trillion sunk, $2 trillion in new revenue needed to break even, and none of it tells you whether the tool you're paying for this week is earning its keep.

    2 min read

If you build with AI

Building with agents, workflows, MCP, or model-based tools inside real operating systems.

Start with agents, MCP, coding workflows, and infrastructure choices.

  1. Agents & Tooling

    Stop Writing Prompts, Start Building AI Assistants

    How to Build AI Assistants That Actually Work for You With the SHAPE Framework

    4 min read

  2. Agents & Tooling

    AI That Actually Works Together

    I’ve been putting Claude Sonnet 4 through its paces this week, and whilst the improved reasoning is impressive, what really caught my attention is how it’s fundamentally changed…

    7 min read

  3. Agents & Tooling

    Cloudflare Collapsed 2,500 API Endpoints Into 2 MCP Tools. Token Economics Matter.

    Cloudflare's Code Mode demonstrates that MCP server design isn't about exposing more tools—it's about exposing fewer, smarter ones.

    1 min read

  4. Building

    You Don’t Need to Be an Expert to Start Making Things with AI

    In a tech world obsessed with frameworks, best practices, and shipping at scale, it’s easy to forget that sometimes you’re allowed to build things just because you want to. You…

    7 min read

If you worry about risk

For people who want to know what AI systems can reach, and who is liable when they get it wrong.

Begin with security, liability, and what AI systems can access or break once deployed.

  1. Security & Risk

    Your AI Assistant Can't Tell You From an Attacker

    A security researcher sent himself an email. Nothing fancy — no malware, no exploits, no infrastructure. Just a message that said, in effect, 'Hey, it's me!'

    3 min read

  2. Security & Risk

    83% of Companies Plan to Deploy AI Agents. 29% Can Secure Them.

    Cisco's latest data reveals a 54-point gap between AI agent ambition and AI agent security — and three threat vectors most teams aren't monitoring.

    2 min read

  3. Security & Risk

    Agent Identity Is the Infrastructure Gap Nobody Wants to Admit

    Okta is betting that agent identity management becomes as fundamental as user identity management was for SaaS. They might be right.

    1 min read

  4. Security & Risk

    The Share Button Is a Publish Button

    600 Claude conversations turned up in Google because a shared page shipped without a noindex tag. Nobody got hacked.

    3 min read

What it covers