Why I took the summer off from AI (and what I learned) | Karri Saarinen (Linear)
Sep 29, 2026 · 17:22
Karri Saarinen, co-founder of Linear, argues that AI-driven efficiency alone doesn't produce better products — the learning teams get from doing the work themselves does, and outsourcing execution to agents severs that connection. Drawing on his summer off from following AI news, he says nothing fundamental changed: building great products and growing revenue remains hard. He explains how Linear keeps its learning loop alive — engineers join shared Slack channels with customers, an AI agent sends him daily briefings on customer AI workflows, a weekly Quality Wednesday has everyone find and fix one defect, and optional feature roasts let the whole company critique new features candidly. He urges teams to automate repeatable work and reinvest the saved time in customer context, judgment, and taste, because context becomes the product: better-informed people make better decisions, and hiring for judgment is the first step to building great products.
