I have just posted a trio of new research white papers to SSRN. These represent the latest output from the Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory and the culmination of my work over the last month to move AI beyond “utilitarian drift.” This is the cycle of incremental efficiency gains that ultimately generates no transformative insight.To
Latest from DennisKennedy Blog
Human-in-the-Loop Is Systems Stewardship
An investigation into why serious AI work depends less on clever prompts and more on defending invariants, boundaries, and human judgment.At the end of a long, technical AI session this week, something became clear to me: human-in-the-loop is being misunderstood in ways that matter.The issue wasn’t whether the system could generate outputs quickly or fluently.
The Inquest: Trading the AI Idol for Human Investigation
In 1980, I wrote a senior thesis paper called “Imagination: A Romantic Ideal.” My investigation then was a critique of the German and English Romantics who, in their zeal to undo the “damage” of Enlightenment Reason, merely erected a new idol: The Imagination.Through a concrete analysis of Keats and Poe, I discovered a truth that
Retiring the Scoreboard: Why I’m Done Counting Books
Retiring the Scoreboard: Why I’m Done Counting Books
For many years, I ran a 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge on my blog, usually as my first blog post of the year, which I updated each month. It was an annual public commitment, a visible signal of intellectual seriousness, and a helpful forcing function. I
Why I’m Making Personal Strategy Compass Free (And What That Has to Do With Oblique Strategies)
I launched Personal Strategy Compass as a premium newsletter a year ago. The decision made sense on paper: quality content, established expertise, proven frameworks. But something never quite felt settled.Not wrong, exactly. Just… misaligned.Then I drew an Oblique Strategies card during my own quarterly planning: “Honor thy error as a hidden intention.”If you’re unfamiliar with
The Great Career Security Fallacy
Why Your 2026 Career Security Depends on Your December Energy Audit
As the legal market approaches the end of 2025, a pervasive, quiet anxiety has taken hold. Between the “spreadsheet economics” of law firm layoffs and the looming shadow of 2026, many senior professionals are responding with a predictable, yet dangerous, reflex.They are working harder.They
The Holmesian Leap: Solving the “Wicked Problem” of Access to Justice with AI
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Part of my #blogfirst Project.Adapted from a keynote address given to the National Association of Women Judges in October 2025
At a Glance
- The Problem: The self-represented litigant (SRL) crisis is not a simple “information gap” but a “wicked problem”
Personal Strategy Compass Newsletter #11: The Strategic Probe
For ambitious professionals, saying “no” is a celebrated strategic act. We use the “Strategic No” to reclaim our time, prune our commitments, and simplify our lives. It’s a powerful feeling of control and liberation.
But what about the day after?
What happens when the relief of a clear calendar fades and you’re left with a
The Power of the Strategic No
Reclaim Your Focus with the Strategic No
Are you a high-achieving professional feeling the quiet hum of overwhelm? Do you suspect you’re ahead of your organization, sensing a career pivot on the horizon, but find yourself trapped by commitments that no longer ignite your passion? If so, you’re not alone. And I have a powerful,
The Operational Protocol Method: Systematic LLM Specialization Through Collaborative Persona Engineering and Agent Coordination
This paper has been published and and a PDF of it is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5397903
The Operational Protocol Method: Systematic LLM Specialization Through Collaborative Persona Engineering and Agent Coordination
By Dennis KennedyAugust 19, 2025Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory Working Paper No. 2025-01
License: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC
My Next Chapter
After a truly rewarding run, I am concluding my service as the Director of the Center for Law, Technology & Innovation at Michigan State University College of Law.It has been an immense privilege to work with so many brilliant students, dedicated faculty, and professional colleagues. I am incredibly proud of what we built together, especially
The Invisible Productivity Drain: Why “Finishing” Should Be Your New Focus
We often talk about starting new projects, brainstorming innovative ideas, and maximizing our billable hours. But what about the silent drain on our productivity? I’m talking about the multitude of unfinished tasks, lingering commitments, and half-completed initiatives that clutter our minds and sap our energy.
In the latest issue of my newsletter, Personal Strategy
Is the Legal Profession Ready to Win the AI Race? America’s AI Action Plan Has Fired the Starting Gun
The Starting Gun for Legal AI Has Fired. Who in Our Profession is on the Starting Line?
The legal profession’s “wait and see” approach to artificial intelligence is now officially obsolete.
This isn’t hyperbole. This is a direct consequence of the White House’s new “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan.” After spending the last
Bypass Analysis Paralysis with the 20-Minute Lightning Round
If you are a high-achieving professional, you live with a fundamental tension. You know that deep, strategic thinking is the engine of your success, yet your calendar is a fortress that rarely permits the quiet time required for it. Important decisions loom, but the sheer complexity of your options leads to the all-too-familiar state of
The Most Important Meeting You’ll Take All Year: Your Halftime Personal Quarterly Offsite
It’s mid-June, and for many legal professionals, there’s a subtle but powerful shift in the air. We’re at the halfway point of the year. The initial burst of January motivation has long since faded, and we’re deep enough into the year to see whether our original plans are holding up against reality. Too often, we
HyperCard: Illustrating My AI Prompting Approach
I’ve been working on organizing and optimizing my AI prompts and prompting methodologies. I noticed that I have two major categories of approaches.
The first I call “complex, structured prompting.”
Google Gemini describes that, and I think accurately, as “a systematic, engineered way to interact with AI. It’s about building a personalized ‘cognitive operating system’, which aims