Hex Wild
Four freelancers working across US and EU time zones had accumulated seven AI tools to solve asynchronous collaboration problems — meeting transcription, AI-enhanced note-taking, smart project management, AI-assisted communication, automated summaries. Every tool solved one specific pain point. None of them solved the actual problem, which was that four independent people
Hex Wild
You would think that running five websites requires five times the tools. That is what every SaaS pricing page is designed to make you believe — and what most publishers end up building toward, one subscription at a time, until the tool stack costs more than the hosting and the management
Hex Wild
"Do more with less" is a phrase that nonprofits hear so often it has lost all operational meaning. It usually arrives attached to a budget cut or a well-intentioned board member's suggestion, and it usually results in staff working longer hours rather than working differently. One
Hex System
The hex says six tools. This article says: sometimes, seven. Maybe eight. The constraint is the point — it forces depth, cuts sprawl, eliminates decision overhead. But constraints that never bend become religions, and religions don't ship. If you're going to break the hex, you should know
Hex System
You're paying for eleven subscriptions. You use six of them. Three of those six, you use well. The other eight are on autopay, collecting dust in browser tabs you haven't opened since the day you signed up. You know this. You've known it for
Hex System
The hex is a constraint, not a prescription. Your six tools depend entirely on what you actually do. A writer's hex looks nothing like a developer's hex, which looks nothing like a video creator's hex. What they share is the structure — six tools, wired
Hex System
Your hex is not a tattoo. It's a living system that changes as tools improve, new options ship, and your work evolves. The quarterly review is the mechanism that keeps the hex current without turning tool evaluation into a full-time hobby. Every 90 days, you spend one focused
Hex System
You've built your hex. Six tools, wired together, tested for integration. The framework is set. Now comes the part that no amount of planning can substitute for: actually living with it. The 30-day trial is not a test of whether the hex works in theory. You already know
Hex System
You've audited your tools and eliminated the dead weight. You're down to six. The temptation now is to declare victory and move on. Don't. Having six tools is not the same as having a hex. A hex is six tools that work together as
Hex System
You've done the audit. You have a list of every AI tool in your life — every subscription, every free account, every half-configured local installation. The number is probably somewhere between ten and twenty. The hex says six. The gap between your current number and six is where this
Hex System
Before you can constrain your tools to six, you need to know what you actually have. Not what you think you have — what you actually have. The gap between those two things is where the audit gets uncomfortable. Most people, when asked to list their AI tools, will name five
Hex System
There's a person in every AI-adjacent community who knows every tool and ships nothing. They can tell you the difference between Midjourney v6 and Flux Pro. They know that Kling just updated their motion model. They've tested Suno, Udio, and three TTS platforms you haven'