Start Here
A practical map for using this site: start with topics when you want an area, how-to paths when you have a problem to solve, or podcast episodes when you want shorter spoken pieces.
Welcome to frankcontrepois.com
This site is organised around a simple belief:
Context is everything.
Technology costs, architecture decisions, FinOps practices, AI, leadership, incentives, culture, and governance are not separate problems. They are parts of the same system.
The articles here are a way to make that system easier to see.
Some pieces are practical. Some are reflective. Some respond to market changes. Some are old essays that still carry a useful idea. The structure of the site is there to help you find the right piece for the question you have now.
The Three Ways In
Start with topics when you want an area
Use Topics when you want to explore a subject.
Good starting points:
- FinOps for cloud economics, reporting, governance, and executive decision-making.
- AI for AI cost, governance, workflows, and organisational change.
- AWS for AWS pricing, data, operations, and commercial signals.
- Mental models for better thinking, framing, and decision-making.
- Leading and managing for leadership, teams, trust, and organisational work.
- Information management for notes, knowledge, data, and context.
Topics are the curiosity path. They help you browse an area and discover related articles.
Start with how-to paths when you have a problem to solve
Use How to when you are trying to do something.
Useful paths include:
- How to make better decisions
- How to make sense of the world
- How to make FinOps reporting useful to executives
- How to connect CEO intent to FinOps decisions
- How to use AI well
- How to be a better communicator
How-to paths are the practical path. They group articles around a reader goal rather than a subject label.
Start with podcast episodes when you want shorter pieces
Use Podcast when you want shorter spoken pieces.
Podcast episodes use the same topics and how-to paths as articles. They are not a separate category of thinking. They are just another format for the same ideas.
Recommended First Reads
If you are new here, start with:
- Context is everything, and it’s what I built my company on
- If FinOps was LEGO
- The simple way to make your FinOps reporting more relevant to executives and boards
- Your dashboard is lying, but not the way you think
- Protect the Doers
Those pieces give you the main lens: cost is rarely only a cost problem, data is rarely enough by itself, and useful work depends on the context around it.
A Living Map
This site has more than 500 pages, written over many years.
The older pieces are not hidden, but newer work usually carries the current framing better. Topics and how-to paths are the map across both old and new content.
Start wherever your question is strongest.