James Parris
How expertise is really built — and how to pass it on in the AI era.
I spent eighteen years teaching people to do things that can't be put into words. Crews I coached won seventeen medals at international regattas, four of them gold. The hard part was never the rowing. It was getting knowledge out of one head and into another — and AI has just made that everyone's problem.
Why skill doesn't transfer
Working claims from twenty years of practice: experts teach a description of their skill rather than the skill, and almost nobody notices.
Read the ideas WritingEssays, a book, a research review
Performance under pressure, high-performing teams, and what generative AI is doing to the formation of expertise.
Browse the writing BuildingVentures and experiments
A premium consumer brand built on recycled carbon fibre, and two complete companies designed end-to-end by an AI agent working from my knowledge system.
See the workJames Parris is a coach, writer and founder based in South West London. He coached rowing for eighteen years, founded Afterlife Carbon, and now works on knowledge elicitation — the craft of extracting what experts know but can't say — and on what generative AI means for how expertise gets made.
Get in touch
I'm always glad to hear from people working on expertise, coaching, or the odd corners of AI. Email me at james@envirow.org — or find everything on the contact page.