Values and culture over technology.

This lightly edited quote about tuning an F1 race car from Jamie Allison, newly reinstalled Mercedes technical director and key influence behind their recent successes, perfectly applies to building software in 2024:

It took Mercedes too long to realise that the rules introduced in 2022 “required a different set of skills and a different way of interacting with each other.”

“The car is the outcome of the institutional approach to designing it. Being competitive requires valuing the right things, putting resources into the right things, and then pursuing those right things with vigour. The car pops out at the end as a consequence of that.”

Substitute software for the car. Notice he didn’t say anything about technology or AI. He put values first, culture second, and everything else followed.