A lighthearted experiment that ended up revealing something deeper about systems thinking.
“Systems thinking has always been at the heart of good engineering, and AI consulting is no different.”
I’ve been wondering whether AI consulting can be explained through the analogy of a popular toy brick. On the surface, the comparison feels obvious: both involve assembling modular pieces, following instructions when needed, and eventually breaking things apart to build something entirely new. What surprised me was how far the analogy began to stretch once I noticed just how many of the tools in my stack seemed to have animal-themed mascots. It pulled me deeper into the metaphor than I expected. It echoed Donella Meadows’ observation that “a system is more than the sum of its parts; it is the product of their interactions.” Suddenly this wasn’t just about bricks, it was about connections.
I even tried turning it into a full framework; animals for infrastructure tools, city sets for orchestration, motors for LLMs. It was fun, imaginative, and surprisingly coherent… but at some point it started to distract from what mattered more.
That’s when I realised the real lesson isn’t about categorising the tools into neat LEGO themes. It’s about systems thinking. AI consulting isn’t about mastering one particular tool or sticking to a fixed stack. It’s about treating tools the way we treat bricks: reusable components that can be adapted, combined, or replaced depending on the problem. The best consultants don’t cling to instructions or specific kits. They scan the box, see what pieces they have, and figure out how to assemble something useful from whatever’s available.
In practice, this means learning to switch tools without stress, create workflows that survive platform changes, and design solutions that don’t crumble when one brick gets removed. It means recognising that the components we use are not fixed choices; they’re interchangeable parts of a larger system. The value isn’t in any single tool. It’s in the ability to design, adapt, remix, and rebuild as the system evolves.
Still, even if the metaphor didn’t fully carry the weight of the entire consulting practice, it did lead to something fun. Along the way, ChatGPT and I created a few LEGO-style models of the tools I am currently using, just to see how they might look if they existed in the physical world. What surprised me was how naturally each tool fell into its own kind of build. Some tools became mascots. Others turned into machines or architectural hubs. The categories emerged on their own, simply from the way each model wanted to look as LEGO.
Here are a few of the models that came out of that experiment:
Once I placed them side by side, the categories made sense. Some tools wanted to be animals. Some wanted to be machines. Some wanted to be architecture. The metaphor didn’t need to explain my entire consulting practice, it simply gave me a creative way to see how these systems fit together. These models weren’t really about tools, they were about understanding how each piece plays its part in a larger whole.
They aren’t a full theory or a map of the AI universe. They’re simply a playful reminder of what modular thinking looks like when you bring it into the physical world. Whether you’re building with bricks or building with automation tools, the real skill is the same: understanding how pieces connect, interact, and evolve into something new. Maybe one day I’ll return to the full LEGO analogy. For now, systems thinking does the job far better than any mascot or brick could.
