Humans in the Loop
The cross-section where security, cognition, AI, and design become deeply human.
Why this? Why now?
The cross-section where technology stops being purely technical and starts becoming deeply human inspires me.
It’s the rare equilibrium where we explore not just whether systems work, but how people experience them. How they interpret risk. How they make decisions under pressure. How attention shifts. How trust forms. How friction quietly changes behavior. How design influences whether security feels intuitive, exhausting, invisible, empowering, or impossible.
The longer I’ve spent around security and modern technical systems, the more convinced I’ve become that some of the most important problems ahead are not purely engineering problems at all.
They are human factors problems.
Not because humans are the flaws in an otherwise perfect systems, but because humans are inseparable from the systems we grow increasingly reliant on.
Traditionally, security has focused primarily on infrastructure, code, controls, detection, and automation. Understandably so. This is how we approach problem-solving as a species. We’re the toolmakers. We see a problem, we fix the problem, then we iterate indefinitely so that we no longer have to think about said problem.
That last part is what I find myself drawn toward. The ultimate motivation for tool creation and perfection is the human impact, yet we find ourselves neglecting to ask these critical questions when we develop solutions in security:
How do humans actually interact with these systems?
What kinds of environments produce good judgment?
What kinds of workflows create fatigue?
How does interface design influence security behavior?
What happens to human cognition when AI becomes embedded into operational decision-making?
What does meaningful human oversight look like in increasingly autonomous systems?
Those questions sit at the cross-section I mentioned earlier. And they couldn’t be more urgent now.
We are entering an era where AI systems are rapidly transforming the scale and speed of human work. Security teams can now analyze more data, surface more signals, automate more workflows, and respond faster than ever before. Not to mention the enormous potential to reduce operational burden, surface insights humans would otherwise miss, and help people focus our attention where it matters most.
But, in the midst of how awe-inspiring this evolution is, we don’t want to miss the absolute necessity to think more intentionally about the relationship between humans and intelligent systems.
Not from a place of fear.
From a place of design.
Because the future of security will not simply depend on building more advanced systems and iterating our problems away. It will depend on designing systems that humans can meaningfully collaborate with.
That idea sits at the heart of Humans in the Loop.
Who’d want to read this?
This publication is a space to explore the intersection of:
security
AI
cognition
neurodiversity
UX
workflow design
human-centered systems
operational psychology
Some posts will focus directly on security workflows and design. Others may explore attention, decision-making, cognitive load, AI-assisted work, or the ways neurodivergent perspectives can reveal hidden assumptions in modern systems and make workflows better for everyone.
More than anything, though, I want this to be a space driven by curiosity.
I’m not interested in writing from the perspective that AI and modern developments are “ruining” human work in security. Mostly because it’s categorically false. I’m interested in exploring how we can shape this evolution intentionally — how we can build systems that amplify human judgment instead of overwhelming it.
Because I don’t think human-centered design and strong security are opposing ideas.
I think they are fundamentally the same idea. Remember, we make tools to solve human problems.
That’s why the most resilient systems of the future will be the ones that understand something simple but often overlooked:
Human attention is finite.
Cognition matters.
Clarity matters.
Trust matters.
Designing systems with realistic human behavior in mind will make the world more secure — not less.
I’m also deeply interested in what neurodiversity can teach us about design.
As an ADHDer, I understand first hand that neurodivergent people often experience friction in systems earlier and more intensely, which can reveal important truths about workflow design, communication, ambiguity, context switching, and cognitive overload. For me, that perspective is not niche. It is a lens for understanding human-centered systems more broadly and speaks to a philosophy I’ve come to swear by:
Products and experiences are better when we design with everyone in mind.
But this way of approaching system development requires some re-thinking, so I suspect many of the most important questions in security — and technology overall — over the next decade will revolve around the natural tension between problem-solving and the human factors that influence it.
How do we build increasingly intelligent systems without losing sight of the humans inside them?
That’s the conversation I want to have here.
As for what to expect:
I plan to publish roughly once per week, with essays ranging from operational reflections to explorations of AI, cognition, workflow design, and human-centered security. Some posts will be more research-oriented. Others will be more reflective or conceptual.
For now, all posts will remain free while I continue shaping the direction of the publication.
Eventually, I may introduce optional paid subscriptions for:
deeper research essays
frameworks and resources
community discussions
early drafts and research notes
longer-form explorations of emerging topics
Podcasts
But right now, my primary goal is simply to build a thoughtful space for people interested in the human side of modern systems.
A space for security practitioners, designers, engineers, researchers, and curious technologists alike.
A space grounded less in panic or hype and more in thoughtful exploration of where human-centered technology might go next.
The future’s most interesting technical questions are going to be deeply human ones. If that resonates with you, subscribe and follow along.
Let’s find out where this goes — together.
This will be an extremely important Substack when it comes to introducing a more human element to the emergence of A.I & how to maintain that aspect as this new technology grows, without hindering or holding it back. Can't wait for more!