Books by Michael Earls
Three books on
Direction
Clarity, and the human side of technology.
Continue Exploring the Ideas
Each book stands on its own. Read together, they form a system: the map, the daily practice, and the instrument you carry with you.
Finding Direction in the Age of AI
Leadership, technology, and staying grounded at machine speed.
Finding Direction in the Age of AI explores how people and leaders can stay grounded in a world moving at machine speed.
Technology is accelerating faster than organizations and individuals can adapt. Artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, and automation are reshaping how decisions are made and how work happens.
But the real challenge isn’t technology.
It’s direction.
Through lessons drawn from technology, leadership, and personal reflection, this book explores how to maintain clarity, identity, and purpose in a rapidly changing world.
Inside the book you’ll discover:
• Why technology change is easier than human change
• How leaders maintain clarity when everything accelerates
• Why direction matters more than speed in the AI era
Available on Amazon
Wired for Purpose
Daily reflections for technology leaders who want to think again, not just react.
Somewhere along the way, we gave our mornings away. Inbox first. Slack first. Other people's priorities first.
Wired for Purpose hands that hour back.
One short reading a morning.
A reflection, a story, a quote, and an AI prompt you can actually use.
Built for the leader who wants to lead the day instead of chase it. Where Finding Direction in the Age of AI was the map, Wired for Purpose is the daily practice.
Inside the book you'll discover:
• How the first hour shapes every decision that follows
• Why reactive leadership burns out teams faster than any technology change
• How to use AI as a thinking partner, not another source of noise
Available on Amazon
The Digital Compass
Technology didn't break direction. It just exposed how little of it we had.
The world keeps accelerating. AI. Cloud. Automation. Decision cycles compressing into hours. Notifications competing for attention every minute of every day.
Most of us learned how to keep up.
But somewhere along the way, keeping up stopped meaning the same thing as moving forward.
The Digital Compass is about what happens when speed outpaces direction, and what it takes to come back. Not as a productivity system. Not as another framework you have to remember. As a simple way to check whether you're still pointed where you said you wanted to go.
The book uses four directions to ask the questions most people never quite ask themselves. North — what actually matters. East — what you're letting in. South — how you're spending your time. West — what you're refusing to engage with.
It moves through a million miles of flying. A 3 a.m. traffic stop in Memphis. A Saturday morning that started "Dad, you're always on your phone." A Cincinnati Tuesday before sunrise that produced one sentence: speed without direction is just noise.
The challenge today isn't access to technology.
It's knowing where to point it, and why.
Available on Amazon
Three books, one through-line
Each book answers a different question - but they share one belief: in a world moving at machine speed, the people who lead well are the ones who stay clear about where they're going
Start Here
finding direction in the age of ai
What's actually changing, what isn't, and how to lead through it. Read this when you need to think clearly about the bigger picture.
Daily
wired for purpose
One reading a morning. Read this when you want the strategy to become a habit - when you want your morning back.
Coming Soon
the digital compass
A practical framework for filtering signal from noise - at work, in your inbox, in your head. Read this when the map and the practice need a tool you can use in the moment.