A Personal Thank You
Patrick McFadden • November 27, 2013
I’m taking the time to thank my professional colleagues, personal friends and others who have inspired me during the past year.
First and foremost, my thanks goes to:
- My readers and subscribers, who constantly challenge me to lead through my thoughts and create remarkable content.
- My American Express OpenForum , LinkedIn groups and Google+ community members who have taught me to become a better teacher.
Next my thanks goes to the late Zig Ziglar and Jay Levison for being our sales and marketing experts who left a legacy greater than currency.
My next thanks goes to this list of amazing people who are doing great things in the business and personal space. Collectively you make us all a little smarter and add joy to our lives one word, one event or one update at a time. I’m sure that there are important people I’ve left off of this list. If you are one of these, please accept my humble thanks and apologies.
- Robert T. (“YB”) Youngblood of YBConnects , for his great insights and incredibly useful advice towards networking, using a focus from getting to giving-putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to the lives of others.
- Brandy Cramer of Central VA Spades Players for continuing to push the boundaries of what new places you can connect people, cards, and fun.
- Tonya Pulliam Owner at Pulliam Innovative Consulting Firm , for being a very early supporter of me and having eyes to see what other can’t see. Will always be thankful.
- Leah Coleman of RE/MAX Commonwealth Companies and entrepreneur for showing us how to leverage opportunities within our own resources and gifts.
- Sharvette Mitchell of Mitchell Productions, LLC for offering your online platform to so many awesome people and being the ultimate “persistarista” in motivating, exciting and influencing. ( Yes, I made up that word!)
- Thomas Ellis of EWC Consultants for teaching us through your little golden sales nuggets how to close the BIG deal and care about the prospect.
- DeKesha Williams Business Strategist at Vizions Consulting for always trying to inspire, motivate and educate. And leading through your thoughts on your blog.
- Jason Caplan Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management for always being a connector and poking and searching for ways to add value to others.
- Jeff Beale of The Marketology Group , for always being ready to help and willing to try new ways to push the marketing envelope.
- Yuhannes Watts of Learn2Link , for being the LinkedIn Sales, Marketing and Strategy ringleader.
- Pat Council Host of “Designing Your Life, Today” Radio Show at True Thoroughbred Enterprises, for seeing the best in people and guiding them in that direction.
- Rich Carter, REVIT/BIM MANAGER at 2rw Consultants, Inc., for always believing in me and nudging me to chase my dreams. I wish you and your family all the best.
- R Rushton (“Rush”) Paul, J.D., SPHR of R. Rushton Paul Consulting, LLC , for being the one of the best HR folks. He’s quick to educate and always helpful as well as an all around friendly guy.
- Tracy Pouzar Vice President of Marketing at Rue & Associates, Inc. , for showing me that taking risk (the one’s that don’t kill you) are OK and how to be a loyal friend.
- David Wilson, of SPENDOWN , for showing me how to network with a purpose.
- Tia Lunsford and Thomas Lunsford , for your friendship and support.
- Deidre M. Simpson of Conqueror Prime Group , for being one of my first readers, back when McFadden Coaching was around.
- Glynesia Watson of Watson-Hill Bookkeeping & Accounting , for having a desire to connect and build real relationships with authentic people.
- Wilson Little of Matrix Courier Services , who often calls me to keep me on my marketing game and is always looking for ways to add value.
- Kimberly Ridley of The Light Community Church , for being an encourager to all and shining your light through your witness, word, and walk.
Lastly to my father, Bobby McFadden, for teaching me about developing relationships, and to my mother, Barbara McFadden, for teaching me about how to be humble and have big dreams, and my wife, Jennifer McFadden who makes this whole thing possible. I’m fortunate to have you in my life through the ups and downs, good times and the bad times.
Wishing you and yours a memorable and heartfelt Thanksgiving with those you love.
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
