Now, it’s about writing as a way to connect with others, find inspiration, and make sense of a topsy turvy world (society, culture, the built world, the media that filters it all) for better or worse.

This newsletter has been, and will continue to be, a flag of my disposition that I’m raising up in the world. Maybe it will help me find other folks of a similar mindset, too.

Starting Again

When I was an undergrad, I put aside a hobby that I loved (writing fiction) and told myself I’d get back to it when a lot of other obligations had been met. Since then, my wife and I got over a bunch of humps: Kids through college, retirement funds contributed, work obligations in the rear view mirror.

I dabbled a bit in fiction over the years, but I never was able to pull a Ken Cosgrove and write a book (or two) while doing my real job. I admire the folks that can pull it off, but I was too distracted by ambitions around work.

Now it’s time to start again. I’m scared to death in some ways, excited beyond words in other ways.

The Beginners Mind

For a while, I would have considered myself an expert in a couple career-related things. I had a certain amount of confidence in what I knew. Now, i’m starting over in a new area and I am embracing the “beginners mind,” or shoshin.

That means unhooking my ego from my hobbies and my “work” such as it is.

Generally, I am curious and I love to learn. The creative pursuits I’m starting will keep me learning until all the brain cells are gone and the lights are out. It will be maddening and thrilling all at the same time and who doesn’t want a life like that?

Good news: These days, I’m not very worried about looking stupid when i don’t know things. I’m old enough to recognize 99.9% of the people aren’t really paying attention to me so I can keep flailing away.

New Name: Begin the Begin

Its time to rename the newsletter and this one is a little on the nose, but I like it. And, for my Gen X pals, the name will be a clear link to one of my favorite R.E.M. songs. Its a call to action, an urgent argument to avoid apathy and the short-sightedness that comes with being overly proud. No one wants to miss an insurgency, right?

Lots of Stuff to Write About

Don’t call it a content strategy. I think my topics will evolve over time, but here’s what’s got me thinking these days:

• A creative practice - I’ve always believed a creative practice of some kind - pottery, painting, sewing, carpentry, writing, photography, dance, cooking - is key to leading a fulfilling life. Creativity is a way of seeing as much as its a way of making. Creative folks tend to be more interested in the world. I hope to write about how to build a creative practice when you’ve got other life obligations (work, parenting, etc.)

• Fiction - Humans love stories. Beyond entertainment, they help us understand the world around us and the humans how make it all so great (and frustrating). Specifically, I believe fiction/books help all of us stay sharp because it lets our busy minds focus. Fiction helps us practice and understand emotions in a complex world, and it helps sustain the ability to - literally - read and analyze in world where we don’t really have to think anymore (thanks AI).

• Writing - pretty self explanatory. How to get our ideas and emotions across in a way that resonates.

• AI - I’m still a business nerd, and AI will unfold in so many interesting and terrifying ways. I can’t NOT write about what it will do to us and our society

• Music / Travel / Food - I’ll still write about this stuff, too, because its just plain fun!

Stay With Me / Ideas?

If you’ve been reading for insights into brands, business, tech and the business world, stay with me. I think the writing here will help you stay engaged when the grind wears you down.

And, if you have any ideas - for topics, collaborations, projects - let’s talk!

We prepped for this trip the way we have always done it. We bought a handful of guide books to balance out what we were getting from Reddit and the rest of the internet. Rick Steves is old school, but it’s worked really well for close to 30 years of travel.

On the way back, I found that Delta had included some New York Times video in it’s onboard entertainment, including this one with Steves. It was from last year when he published his covid book, On the Hippy Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer, and I enjoyed his candor, his openness. It was clear he was shooting from the hip and reflecting in real-time.

I loved his framing of travel through the lens of Traveler, Tourist, Pilgrim:

I’m in this sort of thing in my teaching where I remind people there’s three kinds of travel: You can travel as a tourist, a traveler or a pilgrim.

Explain the third one.

Most travelers I know, they’re proud to be known as a traveler as opposed to a tourist: “I’m more thoughtful — I’m not just here to shop and get a selfie. I’m here to immerse myself in the culture and learn.” That is a traveler, to become a temporary local. A traveler learns about the world, but I think a pilgrim learns about themselves, and you learn about yourself by leaving your home and looking at it from a distance. You learn about yourself, I think, by trying to get close to God in your travels. I mean, for me the greatest church is walking on a ridge high in the Alps. The last thing a Lutheran’s going to do is raise their arms to the heavens, but I feel like doing that when I’m on top of an Alp! You just feel so good, and you just feel like this world is such a beautiful place, and it’s filled with beautiful people, and nature is so fragile, and it’s such a delight and a blessing. It changes you.

I love escapism as much as the next guy, but I’m also pretty good at finding the fun/joy in the “Traveler” and “Pilgrim” part. Maybe it’s a function of getting older and having gone through the ringer a number of times, but I’m hoping it’s more like wisdom. We’ll see.

(Travel) Agent Claude & A Couple Ideas About Work

I put Claude, Codex and a couple other tools to the test helping me prep for London. Over the course of a couple days, I built a map of the locations we’re going, guides for each of the museums, and a list of pubs and restaurants to visit.

Then, I built an app that organized out whole itinerary so I had everything on my phone on the go. It was so easy, overall, and a tremendous learning experience. And, of course, the app was super helpful.

A couple quick reactions:

• Quality: AI won’t replace trusted guides like Rick Steves. The more I worked with the generic stuff i got from AI, the more I went back to what Rick (and Fodors) had to say. They’re committed to their opinions, in a good way.

• Hobbyist: The process of working with tools was pretty easy. I had to work across Github, Google docs, my IDE, a dedicated Markdown editor, etc. Trivial for a real coder, but not trivial for a hobbyist like me. I like figuring that stuff out, but not everyone does.

• Solo: Most of the planning for this trip was done with paper and pen, so I was shuttling back and forth between our notes and what I was getting from Claude. I’m guessing software dev teams have group work figured out, but it’s not easy for hobbyists.

But, the project sure helped me understand what sort of disruptions are coming for workers in a corporate settings.

• Independent vs. group work - There’s going to be a lot more independent work as we partner with our agents to get stuff done. It will be easier and faster to co-work with the agents than to wrangle a group. A lot will get lost in our search for speed (i.e. quality, consensus, culture, history, taste, understanding of what’s really going on).

• Synchronizing inputs - How are teams going to ensure they’re all working from similar or synched inputs (Specs, data, prompts, testing rubrics)

• Synchronizing Situational Awareness - How are teams going to stay in synch about what’s really happening (and what’s next) as they all work on their own timelines with their agents. With each team having their own agentic work helpers, planning and coordination is going to be really challenging (unless companies re-organize). We saw this as digital marketing rolled out across orgs: The line between sales, customer insights, and marketing collapsed and, eventually things became a lot less linear.

A Sneak Peak at The Future of Corporate Bureaucracy

I had a small experience a couple weeks ago that gave me some insights into what might be coming for all of us as everyone skills up with LLMs.

I’m working on a project with folks that have a mix of experience levels. Some are new to the professional workplace, others are grizzled veterans. On this project, we had a meeting to discuss a couple updates and a few problems. There was a followup note from the project leader that was detailed in its diagnosis of the problem we were having and some possible root causes. No action was requested. It was a great note and a clear setup for a future meeting.

However, one of the new members of the team (maybe two years out of college) sent around a follow up note that was clearly written by AI. It provided another analysis of the problem, five follow up questions, and a short list of recommended “fixes.” It was sent to the whole group seeking response.

Then, the project manager had to spend a bunch of time responding point by point to the junior team member’s AI driven response.

The insight:

• Analysis Overhead / Discretion - It’s tremendously easy to use AI to come up with content that attempts to “add value.” Not actual value, but the appearance of value. Not everyone can tell the difference. Everyone will have a super-brain to help them come up with analysis, responses, ideas and next steps. We’ll all need to learn (or re-learn) the art of discretion: When and how to respond and in what depth. Or, more succinctly: Is this (my potential contribution) going to really help? Am I the correct person to offer this? Is now the right time?

• More Analysis equals more work - We’re not going be more efficient, overall. As the cost - in labor, time, tradeoffs - of analysis drops to zero, we’ll just do more of it. We won’t do less work. And, all the “new” work that I’ll be able to do will mean more work for my co-workers (they’ll have to respond to all my new ideas, projects and insights).

I’m guessing everyone reading this has already experienced something like this at work, but it was an eye-opener for me. Good times.

Other stuff

• Massive Attack - I’ve listened to trip-hop as background music. But, for our recent trip I went a little deeper in Massive Attack and wow, they are so good.

• Wes Anderson was always going to be great. We went to a show at the London Design Museum that showcased items from his archive and it seems he kept everything. Look at the storyboards he did for the first Bottle Rocket short. He was meticulous, clear and focused from the beginning

  

• 2Tone / English Beat - I didn’t understand the cultural and historical significance of the English Beat and the role of 2Tone in British music. And, 2tone came out of one specific scene, too. That could only happen before the internet. Check out the amazing exhibition The Music is Black at the V&A East.

• More Art, Please - I spent a lot of time in museums looking at art and it was a great reminder that art is supposed to challenge us and inspire us and it’s our job to be open to being challenged. England has the right idea: State supported, free admission, ever-changing exhibits.

• Artemisia Gentileschi - Such a brave, inspired badass. Talk about turning personal trauma into incredible art. Check out her story.

  

• Story Telling on the streets - History is stories more than facts. We did a bunch of tours, but the best one was a 3 hour Beatles tour that only focused on 1960-1964. What more is there to say about the Beatles? Adam did it. Framing it as two stories: 1) the lead up to and the immediate aftermath of a failed Decca audition in 1961 and 2) The immediate success in England after the 1964 Ed Sullivan appearances made them stars in the US. Super helpful framing.

  

London is the place for me. What a city.

I read a lot of essays, i’m doing my share of vibecoding (let me tell you about my stock market research tools!) I’ve swung back and forth between being an AI doomer and an AI boomer.

There are so many amazing opportunities to learn and develop new skills, but its also clear there are some frightening realities just around the corner that we (workers, humans, the world) aren’t ready for.

I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. When that happens, i go out into the garage and get my hands greasy working on a bike. Then, I try to remind myself that we’re still at the beginning; the real changes are just starting to hit.

There’s still time for us as a society to respond and try to get in front of it all.

What I’ve been reading

• Anil Dash wonders what will happen to coders when AI fully takes root? As always, a unique take.

• Vibecoding is the opposite of flow state. It makes me feel a little crazy (when I’m not in awe)

• New Perspectives on AI Agentiality and Democracy: “Whom Does It Serve?” (Tech Policy Institute)

• Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence - From MIT. Evidence that we’re getting manipulated (again) by the interactions we’re having with the tools. A summary from the editor: “The model’s responses were nearly 50% more sycophantic than humans’, even when users engaged in unethical, illegal, or harmful behaviors. Users preferred and trusted sycophantic AI responses, incentivizing AI developers to preserve sycophancy despite the risks.” Calling Marshal Mcluhan

• Mythos and Glasswing. Harbinger of what’s ahead. Bessent talks to the banks. Friedman is terrified.

People have free speech rights. AI doesn’t

The Star Tribune ran a response from Erin Quade to the editorial I mentioned last week. I want to support Quade’s efforts to be biased towards caution regarding AI regulation. Her POV is right there in the title: AI is not “people.” AI is made up of tools and those have always been subject to regulation. Regulated tools don’t infringe on humanity’s ability to speak freely. The incentives for AI providers do not line up with “public interest” and there’s real value in having the government shape the market.

Note: there are some shady forces moving behind the scenes to influence regulation at the national and local level. Just like always.

A Conservative Take on AI and Free Speech via The Cato Institute

It’s helpful to read the arguments from the conservative Cato Institute as a counterpoint to Quade’s take. They published an essay / whitepaper in 2024 (Artificial Intelligence Regulation Threatens Free Speech) that is still influencing conservative/hardcore free speech advocate’s POV (you can read echoes in Coleman’s other essays, for instance).

Generally, conservatives tend to line up behind industry and reflexive, free market ideals. They seem to assume humans will be fine and the social fabric will guide and incentivize good behavior among human individuals.

The key arguments:

• Regulating AI tools limits abilities for free speech by humans

• There’s a moral “panic” arising from AI doomers that rhymes with past moral panics from breakthrough tech like the printing press, radio, railroads, TV, and the internet. Basically, they want everyone to simmer down.

• They argue for a pro-business, innovation first approach where the US takes a “light touch” approach to regulation.

I think their approach is, perhaps, a little naive about the media landscape that was on the horizon in 2024 when this was written. It doesn’t give a lot of thought to what kind of damage a bad actor could do with super-intelligence in their pocket. And it doesn’t seem to contemplate the inevitable rise of autonomous speech actors that are AI driven, but not associated with any organization that would be subject to recourse for illegal speech. And, it places enormous trust in the tech companies who will soon have unimaginable power and scale over our society.

The White House AI Framework

I’m still digesting it (fun times!), but our very stable genius Whitehouse released their preferred approach for how our federal government approaches AI regulation.

I have a hard time trusting anything this administration puts out. There are too many examples of grift, cronyism and kleptocracy in this administration to believe this framework is really designed to help citizens. It seems very cautious towards any real limitations on industry. But, then again, i’m cranky and cynical.

Here are a couple summaries from others:

• The National Governors Association

• Tech Policy Press

• AI Policy Podcast (Podcast episode)

• National Association of Counties (What it means for Counties)

• The Trump AI Framework is a Disaster (Foundation for American Innovation)

A Normie Talks to A Tech Doomer and Gets Freaked out

I love Sam Fragoso and his Talk Easy podcast. He’s easily one of the best interviewers working right now. Still, this talk with Tristan Harris is interesting because Fragoso gets increasingly freaked out by AI and what tech is doing to us. The nervousness is palpable, and I think a lot more folks will be feeling this angst / fear soon.

Not an easy listen, but important.

On the Other Hand

The Current.org is a treasure. I’ve been listening to it a lot more over the last 6 months when I realized Spotify was a self-reinforcing engagement machine. I want discovery, novelty and the human guidance that a good editor brings.

Laurie Torres - A little bit lofi, a little jazz, all beautiful. She’s an inspiration. With the Après Coup record, you can almost hear her working in her studio, mistakes and all.

Short Story Long - I am trying to find consistently good literary magazines online. There are a lot of them, but this one is a gem.

Joy Williams - I’m trying to learn how the best fiction writers do their thing. It’s not been easy, but it’s a great pleasure. Reading William’s work kind of blew my mind. She’s a master. And, she just looks like a cool badass who would be fun to drink with. Not like Wintour. Like Richard Petty.

This is sloppy lawmaking (more on that later), but Coleman saw a reason for free speech absolutists to rally. He worries this amendment would put AI use “in a vise” and significantly hinder citizen’s free expression.

My summary of his main arguments:

1. This amendment would hinder the free speech rights of the people of Minnesota by limiting the tools for expression (that is, limiting AI in production or dissemination)

2. This amendment is more restrictive than the federal, constitutionally protected free speech laws and therefore offers less free speech, which is unlawful due to the Supremacy Clause

3. This type of legislation would set a problematic precedent, enabling the government to legislate (or influence) the means of production for expression, potentially altering the public discourse.

I’m not a lawyer, so I’m going to spare you my analysis of 2 & 3 above. I’ll focus on #1.

In general, i’m for letting the market innovation happen before too much regulation clamps down. But, I think AI is - and will be - different. We can’t be laissez faire here in the same way we have been for other “normal” tech.

The Synthetic Humans are Coming For your Tools

I think Coleman is smarter about AI than he lets on here. I won’t go ad hominem1, but I don’t believe he’s arguing in good faith. He knows what’s coming, and he knows people are afraid of AI, so he’s leaning in to the issue that will get attention. Free speech always gets clicks in a country where everyone (including me) has an opinion. Buy me a beer and we can talk.

First, he never bothers to define AI. Through context, you can tell he’s focused on generative AI as we’re all experiencing it through chatbots, LLMs, and image generators. If he needed a definition, he could have pointed at something like the Minnesota Senate’s own regulations (which uses the federal definition).

Or, the White House definition, found here.

Coleman tries to make an argument at AI is just another communications tool for people by analogizing AI to books, the printing press, the internet and other tech. AI is, like those, simply ways for people to prepare their speech and get it out there.

The analogy Coleman uses is helpful, but not perfect. And, to be fair, I’ve been using some of these same analogies myself for years, and I respect this line of argument.

Insofar as “artificial intelligence” is considered a tool that humans use to express themselves (like a pen, a printing press, a personal computer, a megaphone, a phone, a video camera), I would lean towards agreeing with his arguments. In other words, there’s no need to regulate the use of assistive AI (as a communications tool) because existing speech, copyright and other laws already exist and can protect other citizens’ rights.

But just like there is incredibly wide variety in the type of tech that helps people express themselves, AI is not a singular tool (or static set of tools). And not all tools are the same. A gun and an autonomous drone and a nuclear bomb are “tools” for war making. They need to be handled and regulated differently. The same is true for communications tools.

I believe AI is taking us somewhere beyond the category of “tools for personal expression.” We, as a voting public, have to anticipate how AI - however we define it - will evolve faster than any other tech we’ve ever seen and that it will take forms we can’t really imagine right now. W]e have to extrapolate from whats already emerging on the edges: Autonomous agents that are acting on their own (including making public comments).

Minnesota is already on the front edge of regulating impersonation via deepfakes. But, something more sinister is on its way.

The AI generated news images you’re seeing and the deepfakes are just the beginning. Imagine 12 months down the road when advances in AI - Better LLMs, better voice synthesis, realtime video generation, instant and free replication as AI creates itself - could mean a universe of agentic and synthetic voices. Imagine the synthetic “humans” (not deepfakes) talking to your grandmother on the phone. Imagine thousands of Tilly Norwood’s all talking about politics and, you know, asking questions about stuff.

The Amendment is Sloppy Lawmaking

I wish Coleman would have just called the Amendment what it is: sloppy and overly broad.

If the Minnesota amendment proposal was designed to limit the free speech rights of agentic, human-like, synthetic actors, we would all probably be relieved the government is getting in front of a future problem.

I’d much prefer the amendment be explicit that some digital, AI generated agents/actors do not and will not have free speech, and their “speech” can and will be limited. Infringe the rights of synthetic, agentic robots, not people.

I bet Coleman would even agree with that.

The problem is there’s no real consensus on what they are going to be, much less what to call them. Non-human agents? Digital Humans? Synthetic Actors?

Talk to Your Legislators

There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this post, you’re more than a casual user of tech. You might even be a tech-enthusiast.

If you’re in MN, reach out to your legislators and let them know you support limits and regulations on AI, but you want them to get smarter about the tech, faster. Better yet, offer to volunteer to help your state senators and reps get smarter about what’s coming.

Here’s the link to find your reps on the Minnesota legislature website.

Also, here’s an interview with MN State Senator Quade on the recent bipartisan (!) legislation:

If you want the spin, here’s the press conference, too:

And, finally, if you’re a lawyer interested in AI policy at the state and local level, can I buy you a coffee to bend your ear to learn more?

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I’m trying to huff as much of the Holiday Spirit as I can this year. I want the hits of optimism and hope that abound in December and January. In with all the glad tidings and tinsel, there are enough reminders of life’s cruelty around us.

Let’s focus on whatever joy and hope we can find.

And, to the friends and family who are suffering or in pain, let’s give them the love and kindness and support they need in keeping with the spirit of the season.

If that doesn’t work, double the bourbon in the egg nog.

It’s Oh So Quiet

The last couple weeks of the year are awesome because work (mostly) quiets down and we can read and sleep and reflect.

Here are a couple books i’ll be digging into:

Kevin Kelly - Excellent Advice for Living - He’s kind of a modern master who blends creativity, craft, and DIY. He wrote this for his kids, and I’m hoping i can get some inspiration from it.

Rick Rubin - The Creative Act - I bought this when it came out, read 4 pages and quit. I’m not sure why, but perhaps its a problem with the messenger. People seem to love this, so i’ll try again with a better attitude.

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of America - I actually bought this in 2018, thinking it would help me understand how the government could help (or not) make AI a strategic tech in America. My thinking process: transcontinental railroads (and a national railroad system built on standards and industry collaboration) was an early example of a public/private commercial partnership, for better or worse. Then, i promptly lost (or donated the book). Still a good historical reference to understand a helpful role of the US government in the development of a transformational technology. We sorta got it right with the trains, space and airlines. Not so much with the internet. Related: The Checkerboard from 99% invisible.

And, a lot of online stuff, too.

Endings & Planning

I “retired” from my “normal” career in 2025. Might start a new one in 2026. We’ll see.

I’m going to do a structured recap of 2025 and my own version of year end planning. It’s based on the traction/EOS model. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a heavily revised 1, 3, 10 year VTO and update some of the values.

I’ll also be digging into ’s guide for planning/visioning (free with signup).

I tend to think these structured reflection tools are hokey, but if you commit and really give it serious thought, they can be quite helpful.

note: I did this process a couple years ago with a buddy working as a thought partner/interlocutor and it worked out great. I actually think it would be best to do this process in conversation with a trusted advisor/counselor or at least someone else.

Goals for 2026

1. More live music - Over the last few months we’ve had a number of communal experiences around live music. The Beths in St. Paul, Tweedy at First Avenue, a Vince Guaraldi tribute concert, Aimee Mann and Ted Leo and also the New Standards.

2. Hanging Out - You know, killing time. No networking, no agenda, no hustling. Just grabbing a meal or a coffee to catch up and kick around ideas.

3. Make more - I’m starting down a creative path where I feel like a complete beginner. I’m literally learning this new thing from the ground up and its been liberating. No pretentions, no illusions, no pressure. It’s liberating

4. Code More - The vibe coding tools have gotten so good that I’m going to try to make a couple apps that I’ve wanted/needed for a while. I think, by the middle of the year, the tools will be so good I can make most of what I want.

Beginnings

In 2026, I hope to help more folks get things started. I’m best in the “startup” phase, or translating new ideas into something more concrete. Here’s a couple things I’d like to get some experience with:

Books / Publishing - I think there’s space for a new model of “book” publishing. I’m going to be exploring that in the first half of the year

Investing - I really enjoy working with folks who are getting new businesses off the ground and hope to do some investing

Creative Community - The twin cities region has such a great community of creatives, the folks driving brand expression (design, writing, printing, ux), marketing and growth (marketers, strategists, agencies, freelancers) and digital innovation. Not to mention arts, theater, music, etc. But it’s hard to tap into the community if you’re new or early in your career. I’d love to help make all that easier and I have a couple ideas.

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you have a peaceful and restful end of the year and that you get everything you’ve ever wanted.

Let’s grab coffee in 2026.

It’s timely, then, to get this discussion between a sorta-odd couple: a “high performance psychologist” and the CEO of one of the best creative shops in the world offers a realtime look at how Wieden is navigating a dramatically changing landscape.

The key takeaway: WK is doubling down on their culture as a differentiator

I loved hearing Neal Arthur discuss how they’re creating the conditions - through culture, through setting the right expectations about effort, through their hiring - where creative can still enable brands to unlock growth (as opposed to promotional efforts, direct response ads, efficient media buying, etc).

I also really appreciated their explicit commitment to their role as outsiders and truth-seekers for their clients. I’ve seen agencies get so embedded in their clients that they lose the audacity that comes from being a spectator on the outside. WK is working hard to keep that outsider perspective. (and note the insistence that creatives are by and large “outsiders” in life).

Some other good points in here about basing company growth in the “truth” of the brand and culture (it’s *still* harder than it sounds), creative collaboration and how great leaders protect their teams from the wrong kind of pressure.

Finally, i found it refreshing how little they actually talked about AI. It’s here, obviously, but WK is still focused most on how to play to their strengths. This is the right take: Rationale, curious, but not bandwagoneering.

The YouTube Presentation Compromise

Side note: I listened to the podcast audio, first. I didn’t see the YouTube video until I started writing this post. If you look at the YouTube video, consider how the presentation (the graphics, typography, the editing, the visual effects, the colors) changes how you perceive the content itself. I found the audio really compelling once they got into the conversation, but I don’t think I would have made it past the first 30 seconds of the video if that’s all I had. It looks amateurish, cloying, and a little bit “try-hard”, but I guess that’s what you have to do to get attention on YouTube.

If You Call it a Bubble, Eventually it Has to Pop, Right?

I really like Ted Gioia as a writer, critic and a biz guy. A former McKinsey consultant, he’s just got a great sense of how industries move. There have been so many folks talking about the bubble we’re in (including Gioia himself), but I don’t know many that are willing to call the top. In September he suggested the bubble might be ready to burst. Now, he’s making the argument that, with this week’s Facebook earnings, the bubble has popped. (note: I wrote this before AMZN and AAPL’s results)

The key problem: Circular deal making. That is, the small number of key players shuffling money between each other creating inflating revenue numbers. Here’s Bloombergs warning and their visual:

And here’s the META stock as a result of the pullback.

Meanwhile, the Media Diet

• I’m a big fan of what is doing with . It’s like Sub Pop for lit. Now, i just need to find the SST, Twin Tone and Merge of short stories.

• I’m so glad to have found ’s . I love a good opinionated rock nerd who can write circles around everyone else.

• The recent Geese record is as good as they say it is.

• Re-reading Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America and, no surprise, it’s still an incredible collection of short stories. Dance in America read by Louise Erdrich made me cry, it’s so good. This type of writing might not be in vogue, but it’s just absolutely excellent.

• This interview between Rick Beato and mandolin-monster Chris Thile is amazing for any music fan. To see an actual genius (Thile) who still has such obvious joy is deeply gratifying. You can kind see Beato fanboying over Thile. And, I love Thile’s take on how to deal with the stress of a big performance (at about 1:22:30): Take a deep breath… remove the ego, be of service:

• I’m a dad, i like rock. So of course I’m all over the new Tweedy record. Love the way the band sounds, and this song has been on repeat:

• If you like Guided By Voices, you’ll like what Sharp Pins is doing.

Even though our kids are longer in school, this time of the year still feels like a good time for a fresh start. In my CPG days, we called it “Back to School” (or BTS, on our comms flowcharts; Which bumped right up to Key Baking Season, or KBS). We knew most of our customers would be going through a reset at home as the summer schedules give way to school schedules, new routines would get grooved, and households would scramble to find a new rhythm.

A lot of families actually used this time as a chance to make new routines while letting go of some old ones. It wasn’t quite New Years Day, but the insights we had indicated a surprising number of folks used “back to school” as a time to “get it right” before the year ran out.

Attention Bankruptcy

This fall, I need to get my head out of the buzzsaw of our modern media landscape.

I need reboot my attention. I have creative and business related projects I want to push forward, but those are at risk because it’s too easy to distract me.

I might need to declare bankruptcy and reorganize.

Focus feels impossible right now. I’m swimming in attention debt.

I’m finding it difficult to look away from the shit-flooded zone in Washington and the profoundly sad news happening in my town.1

We are getting pulled into a semi-urgent-crisis mode with the strangest stuff2 and that’s just what everyone - the administration, fundraisers, the media, “influencers”, podcast hosts, tiktok - wants us to feel. The attention economy is based on maximizing our anxiety to hold our attention. Our attention leads to their money. They’ll do what it takes - lie, exaggerate, misconstrue, redirect - to keep hold of our eyes.

All this “greatness” and “winning” is grinding down our empathy. At least it’s grinding down mine. And, its keeping us distracted from the actual important issues: National deficit, tax policy, healthcare reform, term limits, the gerontocracy in government.

I know my constant news ingestion isn’t really helping me in any way. Yes, I feel like I’m an informed citizen. And, sure, good citizenship requires being informed. But…

My strategic cortisol reserves are depleted.

For too many of us, our default mode has become worry, anxiousness, distraction. We’re numbed. Dumbed down. Lulled and complacent.

The Power of Literature and Artists to Help Us See

Just when I needed it, I ran across a thought provoking essay about David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” address at Kenyon, written by . The article is centered on AI and how it isolates us, and how the humanities offer us ways to work against that isolation. But, i’d argue your could swap out AI with “gamified media saturation” and the article will hold up. And, it served to point me back at the DFW talk.

DFW could see what television and the internet was going to do to us. Though he focused more on the narcotic effect of endless entertainment, he had a sense of how some algorithmically juiced media would fracture consensus and ultimately lead us into a dead end of isolation, loneliness and numbness. He knew how easy it would be to check out, how much we’d want it.

Because the technology is just gonna get better and better and better and better. And it's gonna get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable, to be alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but want our money. Which is all right. In low doses, right? But if that's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die. In a meaningful way, you're going to die.3

I think that meaningful death he refers to is the death of our humanity. What dies is empathy, compassion, good will, connection. The desire to go out into the world and interact. The things we we actually need to flourish: each other, in community, helping each other, perhaps even working for common good.

Meanwhile, the notifications don’t stop. The screens blink. The alerts will always be there.

How might we get free of the relentless pull towards the headlines?

Its hard work to pull ourselves away from the spectacle, from the constant jump cuts in the edit, the calls to action, the exaggerations, the dark patterns. It requires a choice to focus on the real world and the people around us, not just the screens that show a simulation of life, edited and masked for max engagement. And the discipline to stay committed to that choice.

Its worth it, though. Wallace again:

But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the "rat race"-the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.

I actually do have a gnawing sense that I’ve lost something: My ability to concentrate deeply, to do deep work. And, then, to appreciate the way the work connects to the real world.

The humanities - whether its history, literature, music, visual arts, dance, sculpture, collage, photography, whatever - gives us a chance to actively practice the critical skills required to stay human in a world that wants us (needs us) to be passive watchers.

O’Connell shares this quote from This is Water:

I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out.

It takes discipline to work against the isolating forces of a noxious, all encompassing media fog, to get out of our own head and all the anxieties. But we can build that muscle by going deep into the humanities. Again, from O’Connell:

Knowing how to classify a particular piece of art, or which general led which particular military action, or how to scan a poem, may not matter all that much in the long term. But the kind of discipline and attention it takes to learn and master the facts and skills required in any given subject will have lasting significance in a person’s life.

Its not just learning how to think critically. Its getting better at managing our own attention - what we literally focus on - and knowing what to let simply pass through our awareness without taking it up. Its appreciation. It’s respect and, yes, love for beauty and art. And, humanity. All that sounds too lofty, but f it. I’m ready for aspiration.

The Reboot

I’m not giving up on my attention. I am going to work on rebuilding it. My plan for the rest of the year.

Less: I’m recommitting to less general “news.” Less linkedin (for now). I’ve wiped my podcast app and I’m paring back. Less TV. Less gossip, less conjecture, less arguing, less complaining, less sarcasm, less intentional irony. Less sitting back and letting headlines wash over me.

More: Time with friends. More music. More physical books. More writing, more making music. More hands on. More classics. More making meals for people I want to be with.

I’m going to donate time and money to good causes. I’m going to vote every goddamn chance I get.

And, a big public pronouncement: I want to finish Infinite Jest in 2026.

Finally

Its easy to ask, with all the shit going on, how can I write anything at a time like this? I don’t have a great answer for this, currently. But, writing, to me, is thinking. Thinking is attention. Attention is power. And, right now, this might be the only power I have that’s useful.

I’ve been talking with folks this summer about how they make decisions under pressure. These convos have been with either early-career “risers” (folks who are getting ready for a level leap, like to Director or manager) or with later-career, lane changers (like buying a business or starting a career in a new field).

My role has been as a “safe” interlocutor, not as a “coach” or a professional advisor, so I feel comfortable talking about the many times I didn’t do great under pressure.1 Its easy - now - to look back and see how I underperformed: Took too long, wasn’t clear in my communication, didn’t focus on the right inputs, listened to the loud voices instead of the wise ones, cared too much about my own ego, etc. That’s another post.

But, I had a bolt of insight in July. I was talking with a buddy who is a former Navy pilot and now flies commercial jets. He also does a lot of teaching and mentoring of new pilots. We were talking about this topic, how to decide and act when under extreme pressure. And, we talked lot about how to gain situational awareness when everything is moving fast.

The first step for pilots: Just say “stand by.”

It’s kind of obvious in hindsight. Pilots can tell others and Air Traffic Controllers to, well, hang tight for a minute. Then, the pilot can do their thing: assess the situation, make a plan, identify the next action steps, then communicate in a clear, direct way.

Business leaders can do this too, but often we don’t, because we’re feeling the pressure to say something, anything.

When the activity level goes up, when the stress overheats the circuits, you might literally need a minute. Or, it might be days or weeks. Either way, just communicate that you need a second. Tell everyone to stand by.

It’s the first step to maintaining or regaining Situational Awareness while communicating that you know a decision and action and communication is expected.

It’s your way of communicating that you are working through the issues, going through the mental checklist, assessing the inputs, formulating the plan. Then, you can get clear on the appropriate steps and, very simply and directly, communicate what’s going to happen next.

It’s such a basic thing, but combating complexity with simplicity is an under-taught method.

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Side note: This conversation sent me down the rabbit hole of situational awareness and how fighter pilots and astronauts do what they do. Here’s a good overview to get you started. Then, here’s a classic: Boyd’s OODA Loop. It’s a tool for maximizing human performance on the edges of possibility. (Or, in my case, the edges of how far one motivated man could push Powerpoint)

And, then, of course not all Astronauts make great choices or have a clear framework for doing it. Here’s an episode of the still-funny, but now-sorta-problematic SNL sketch I’ve always loved (with the best theme song ever):

@thealmanac77SNL Sketch Astronaut Jones (2002) #snl #snlmusicalguest #universalplus #universalplusafrica #universalpluslatinoamerica #2000s #2000skids #2000smusic #2000music #malaysiatiktok #philippinestiktok #tiktokindia #tiktkokphilippines #tiktokaustralia #fyp #tiktokbrasil #thealmanac77 #saturdaynightlive #fypviral #snlseason27#snlsketch#tracymorgan

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Reading, Fiction, Movies and the “Empathy Machine” - This article (paywalled) in the Atlantic got me thinking (again) about the power of fiction (and good non-fiction) to get us out of our own heads. Forget the clickbait headline (there’s not just one reason) but give the core idea a chance. Fiction puts you in someone else’s space and time, which means you can get out of your own for a few minutes. Not just as an escape, but as a way of recognizing and affirming that everyone is a little f’d up in their own way. Also, this article introduced me to Ebert’s concept of movies as “empathy machines.”

So Long, Figma - I’ve always like Figma, but I loved Sketch. I’ve let go of a couple cool notes management tools, too. And, I really, really miss Sonic Foundry ACID. Software apps as we know them will change, and they’ll become more like what chatGPT is today. This is a great writeup that a) points to the future of software development and b) makes the case for a well thought through design component system.

Open vs Closed - Reading “The Drawbridges Go Up” makes me sad for a lot of reasons, but also a little bit optimistic. Sad, because this essay is probably right. Despite the possibility of inter-op via MCPs, profit seeking companies will guard against others succeeding. Therefore, one potential outcome from the rise of “Big AI” is that a small number of large companies will essentially dominate the commercial internet. Think: Google, OpenAI, and a handful of others we don’t already know.

But, i’m also slightly optimistic that the tech of MCPs will be adopted by those that believe in an open, free, humanistic internet. It would enable a different kind of “Hobbyist” AI-era. Just like you could make a simple website with a text editor, a browser and an FTP client, you might be able to knit together a powerful AI app as a fun side project. You can already do it if you know the tools, but it’s not quite at the “hobbyist” level yet. MCPs will be a key building block.

Sidenote: Investors expect returns and returns are based on profit. Guess who is the source of profit? Us. I’m concerned we the people will be paying for all this via systems based on advertising, where the super smart AI’s will be working to incept commercial messages into everything without our knowing it. We’re going to be hypermanipulated to keep the ad dollars flowing.

Weathering the Storm - This is a couple weeks old, but new to me. I like the Munk debate series, and I do not think America is entering a “Golden Age”. As a result, I am attracted to posts like this one from Kottke (always reliable) about staying positive when there’s a lot of reason to be worried. And organizations like Weave (the social fabric project). A common thread: Listen more, read more fiction, make things, spend time in nature. Seek joy with friends, explore art. Basically, turn off the screen you’re looking at right now.

Palate Cleansers

Heading into the end of the summer already:

• “Last Acts” by Alexander Sammartino - This book is a rush to read. Sammartino is the real deal, a great writer: Stylist, character builder, critic. And the book does everything you want it to do: Make you laugh, cry a little bit, worry about the state of us, recognize the power of kindness and hope in each other. And, avoid drugs. I’m 3/4’s of the way through and I’m not sure I want to know how it ends. This will make a great movie.

• Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South - I’m getting ready for a road trip to Muscle Shoals, Memphis, Clarksdale and Arkansas this fall. So, i’m doing some reading to get ready for my trip to the source. Country Soul is an American Studies nerd-dream if you like history and music and Charles Hughes (of ) gives us a very deeply sourced book. You never knew you wanted to know that much about the music of the nashville, Memphis, Muscle Shoals triangle.

• Drive By Truckers - Working on a little music essay project and going deep into the DBT catalog. I think an argument could be made that these guys are the best example of the American Rock Band. Their songs balance entertaining, sometimes goofy takes on characters and piercing social critiques. Their music isn’t everyone’s cup, but if you appreciate American music you should be at least a little familiar with their stuff.

• Kathleen Edwards - a great Canadian writer/songwriter, Edwards has a new record coming out in August. It was produced by Isbell and features the 400 Unit. She’s a superb lyricist. Honest, clever, straightforward. An older song, Six O’clock News is on my top 150 of all time. Makes me cry a little every time I hear it. Forgive the bad, old video and audio, but this is a full-band performance and it’s great.

• James Gandolfini’s best scene from the Sopranos - Sometimes Youtube serves you gold. I didn’t ask for this, but it is an amazing, moving performance. In series filled with them, I’m not sure this is the best, but watch him move through all the emotions in 3 minutes.

Hope your next week is great!

AI and synthetic HR bots are entering the recruiting process, sometimes doing the first round of interviews. We all saw this coming, right?

Not surprisingly, the candidates are getting pissed. Here’s a recent discussion amongst tech/coders on Hacker News. But for marketers and management, this is coming to us soon.

But, it does make you wonder: What’s the point of interviews anymore? Is it a test for culture fit? Or, just to match up my keywords with your “fit” algorithm?

More importantly, it’s 2025 and we live in the AI age. Why are we still basing our job seeking activities around 300 year old tech (paper CVs) and problematic processes.

My prediction (and I have to believe there are dozens of companies already working on this stuff):

• Resumes will be replaced with a realtime feed of candidates info: Their updated work activity, their posts, their job/work status, what they’re interested in (roles, companies, projects, needs). Apps, companies, and dedicated “recruiting” agents can subscribe to the candidates feeds. Meanwhile, AI is contributing to the enshittification of resumes already.

• In the old days, screening interviews were limited to, perhaps, 60 minutes. But, in the future Job seekers will have their own app to build and maintain a video bank of themselves answering all sorts of questions about their experience, their strengths, their point of view. Candidates can keep talking as long as there are questions. Why not publish those for any recruiting agent to ingest?

• The “employee” app could have a “public” feed, open to any crawler/agent that gets approved by the employee (e.g. both parties figuratively swipe right). But, it could also have a private feed, available to trusted collaborators, friends or colleagues. The “private” feed could be used for those with jobs that are seeking their next role. Or, it could include a “make me move” feature that includes the conditions - salary/title, location, company - that would cause someone to leave their job.

• We’re going to have agent to agent negotiations, where the “recruiting” agent invites the “employee” agent to apply for the job. Let’s get on that ASAP.

• I’d love to see a worker-owned, AI native alternative to Linkedin. It might even be a use case for crypto. Revenue could come from fees paid by crawlers, agents and API calls by recruiting and headhunting platforms.

I believe we’ve got some years before the old way fades. Whatever white collar jobs are left will be filled via networking, referrals or good old fashioned connections.

But, please please please, let’s get over this weird phase where good people are talking to robots.

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It’s been a great way to see how advancements in AI are rolling out. And, I can ask for a ham sandwich in eight languages. Now I’m paying closer attention to how AI is (or can be) integrated into structured (i.e. school ) or casual learning (i.e. me). (side note: Here are a couple examples of others doing the same thing)

Open AI is listening (or, OpenAI auscultat (Latin) or OpenAI écouté (French)). They just launched Study Mode. It’s a smart extension of the core product, and it’s also a smart way to improve the overall learning of the LLMs. Each learner who uses this function will give them real world feedback on how to teach users (and at the same time, reinforce the quality of the LLM output).

Cat Attack! Cats Drive AI Crazy, Too

Does your cat drive you crazy? Well, then this study might sound interesting to you. Turns out, cats drive AI crazy, too.

The researchers found out, not surprisingly, if you weave some random facts about cats into a math question - stuff a human would know to disregard - the AI will get confused and the error rate goes up. However, the output sounds just as confident and surefooted as it always does.

The random, non-useful information is called the “adversarial trigger” which is also a great term to use outside of the context of AI. But, as the article points out, cat-info is not just a fun way to catch students cheating with AI, it’s also a demonstration of how easy it is to throw off the LLMs. So, if you’re a malicious actor and you're trying to disrupt someone’s AI system, you now have a purrrfect way to do it.

What’s the Point of College in an AI World?

College is going to be very, very different really soon. Do we even need college anymore? That’s a dramatic, provocative question, but I just watched a recent college CS graduate level himself up as a financial analyst, teaching himself a ton about business statements, cash flow analysis and business modeling using Reddit, YouTube and AI. It’s what a typical finance undergraduate would learn in his senior year of 400 level classes. He did it over the course of 4 months in his spare time at work, and i’d put his current abilities next to any recent MBA. It’s going to be a crazy rich learning environment for people that are motivated to really learn.

This episode of the Grey Area podcast is a good listen for those sending kids into high school or college. It’s a conversation focused on the way LLMs are being used by students and the philosophical and pedagogical implication that follow. Ezra Klein’s got a good episode on this, too. Both these episodes will make you feel some urgency to talk with your kids about the real purpose of education (i.e. “Learn how to learn” or “Learn how to think”… yada yada). And, it will make you wish you got more books into their hands earlier.

Colleagues doing cool things

My colleague Craig Pladson is putting on a smart event in September. The Brave Conference is on Wednesday 9/10. Check it out!

Trying to get re-energized about work and life? Laura King has got the book for you. Check out Shine Brighter, her guide for re-booting.

Listening to

• Fathers, Sons and Brothers - David Lowery, one of my all-time favorite songwriters (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven) does a memoir-like triple album, telling his life story through songs. Also check out his substack at . His writing is just as great as you hoped it would be.

• Planting by the Signs - The new album by SG Goodman is really strong. Some devastatingly beautiful songs here, as you’d expect.

Reading

I’m getting ready for a fall roadtrip to the American south for some music and some bike races, so I’m deep into Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South. It’s an American Studies nerd’s guide to the triangle of Memphis, Nasheville and Muscle Shoals. Also, working through The Heart in Winter, by Kevin Barry. It’s a big swing, but a good one. I’m going to read all his stuff before the end of the year, I promise.

Hope the third month of summer is a good one for all of you!

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Quiet week - We’ve been starting some very long-overdue house projects and I have been sort of blissfully unconnected these past few weeks. Spent a lot of time with cardboard boxes and wondering about the American garbage industrial complex.

Vibes and AI - If you watched the Jonny Ive/Altmann intro video (was it a coffee summit?) you could see them straining hard to create a Job-sian distortion field and NOT wave their wands at the future. But, we’re all a lot wiser now and this sort of buddy movie seemed like a parody. Who approved this? Do we believe these guys? What old guy isn’t going to say his latest work is his best?1 Dave Karpf, that irascible truth teller, had a good essay on OpenAI’s comms strategy this week and he nails it. It vibes crafting, they’re building the myth of Ive and San Francisco. They want us to need to believe. Kind of insufferable.

Moral Ambition - I listened to a couple interviews with Rutger Bregman and his argument for and about moral ambition. Basically, he makes the argument that not enough Americans are designing their careers to tackle hard, potentially world-changing problems. The implicit critique is that the best minds of the most recent and current generation only care about maximizing earning potential when they should be focused on alleviating suffering and higher “good”. Can’t disagree with his critique, but he’s a bit of a challenging messenger (he’s picking on tech and finance bros vs. explaining the value of a higher, more morally ambitious life). I like that he’s holding the mirror up to the country and asking “us” to do better in a literal sense.

Ethan Mollick and Work - I wonder about the size of his team (or how many TA’s he’s got to help in the classroom). How does he get so much good stuff out the door? Anyway, his essay this week on work… a little bit of a summary, a little bit of prognostication, and a model for how to think about “AI Transformation”. Key quote:

AI use that boosts individual performance does not naturally translate to improving organizational performance. To get organizational gains requires organizational innovation, rethinking incentives, processes, and even the nature of work.

Then he makes the argument that the organizational innovation muscles have “atrophied”. I’d disagree. I think it’s blocked, not atrophied. First, a lot of innovation budgets got cut because the earlier efforts didn’t really pay off. Second, I’d say that - after 10 years of “digital transformation” a culture-changing pandemic and political instability that has destabilized corporate planning - orgs are confused. They’ve been sprinting a marathon. And, they’ve underinvested in leadership skills and culture building. It’s going to be hard to get people to give a shit about another “transformation” when the last two are still taking hold. Ok, maybe “atrophied” is appropriate.

I like his model - Leadership, the lab and crowd - mainly because it’s really easy to grasp and aligns quite well with how a lot of us approached “digital” in the late 2000’s and 2010’s. More on this later, I suppose. But, I stand by what we wrote at Fahren in 2023 about how to design an AI program.

An OG Blogger Laments - I loved the original Blog era and I’m sad it’s gone for the most part. If you are old enough to remember, you’ll know why. But the company blog died a long time ago. Publishing stuff still matters a lot. This post from MKT1 (a great resource, by the way) was a good clarifier on how to think about where/when to publish. My project this week is to learn more about the emerging front of optimizing for LLMs. My go-to is Deb Carver and her work at Content Technologist (see this, for instance)

Retro Design Overview - Smart and fun overview of 90’s web design gurus. This article brought back lots of memories. Back then, I thought I was so far behind everyone else, when it turns out everyone was confidently making it up as they went. Invent on Tuesday, teach it on Wednesday, write the blog post on Thursday. I should have just continued with confidence. The same phenomenon is happening now with AI, too.

Keep the Web Weird / Retro Weather - Weather info on the web is sort of a hellscape. My trusty windy app aside, I usually stick with the Mac weather app. but, I’ll start using this one that gives me 2001 vibes.

Knowledge Work is Dying - Lots to consider here. Main takeaway: Focus on building wisdom. From the guy coaching the leaders at OpenAI and Alphabet.

Tariffs Are Illegal - Matt Levine is a national treasure. His overview of the Trade Courts ruling on Trump’s tariff shenanigans. Taco.

The Browser Wars are Coming Back - I like this smart post from Newton, but I think he’s wrong. I understand the purpose of Dia (I was an Arc user) and it makes a lot of sense. But, Google is already on it’s way there. And, I actually think we’ll see something new, an evolution of the chat interface we’re all learning to use from the LLMs. Are you old enough to remember when everyone thought the internet was going to come through your cable base because of the installed base?

Palate Cleansers

We’re up to our ears in cardboard boxes, as we get the house ready for the next phase, now that we’re empty nesters officially. Somebody needs to stop the efforts to rebrand “empty nester” btw:

• Greil Marcus - I am reading the book History of Rock and Roll in 10 songs. Haven’t read much by Marcus, but it’s really great writing and right up my American Studies alley.

• Hanif Abdurraqib - Maybe my new favorite essayist? He’d be my second call if I needed a road trip buddy. Can you imagine how much we’d cover? Picked this up because of the cover, but I'm loving it. Energetic, passionate and superb writing. Wish he had a newsletter. But, he does have this amazing project tracking music from ‘68 to ‘05.

  

• Metal by The Beths - Sometimes you just need a straight shot of pop awesomeness right into your ears. She’s also a sneaky great lyricist.

• Ghost in the Machine - Reading (or trying to read) McLuhan and it made me think of this great record from 1981. Coincidentally, I’ve rebuilt my (mostly) analog hifi and this record was recorded so well! Might rename this newsletter “Demolition Man”.

Hope your next week is great!

Steven Kurutz, in American Flannel, takes a book length roadtrip across the US to find an answer. He takes us deep into a story of how one company had to recover or reinvent a mostly-abandoned supply chain to make flannel shirts, from fiber to finish, in America again.

Over the course of the book you learn about the history of socks in the American south (surprisingly interesting), cottage industries, global fabric supply chains, and the after effects of leveraged buy-outs. You visit cities and factories that have been emptied as manufacturing left the US. You also get introduced to the entrepreneurial journeys of some inspiring characters, including American Giant founder Bayard Winthrop (what a name!) and Zkano founder Gina Locklear who are on a mission to re-shore American clothing manufacturing and re-introduce “buy it for life” goods.

It’s a fast read, structured like an adventure: Will they be able to pull it off and actually make a flannel shirt in the USA? The book weaves together a number of threads to help you understand the current, weakened state of the American clothing industry.

Along with the narrative, though, you’ll read about the unintended consequences of American capitalism’s hyper-focus on capital efficiency (which leads to off-shoring and industry consolidation) and maximal shareholder value (which leads to financial engineering and corners cut on quality).

You’ll read about the cultural impact of losing most of a once-great industry: Decimating job loss, the disappearance of valuable skills, and the hollowing out of once-vital towns. Kurutz seemingly asks: What happens when middle class jobs at locally owned companies are replaced with low-pay, service jobs at franchises and Dollar Stores? What happens when “quality goods” isn’t enough of a differentiator in the market driven by low price? Kurutz shows you the impact in a clear-eyed, empathetic style.

Which side Kurutz is on is never in doubt.

A significant number of readers won’t remember the times before globalization and the rise of e-commerce, when we had more US made goods, but less choice. The nostalgia is strong in this book, and there’s a lingering sense throughout that the quality of jeans, flannels, T-Shirts and socks represented what was great about the American production capacity of the past. So, I wish Kurutz would have gone a little deeper into the question of how consumers make the trade off between price and quality. What’s in their minds? Do they even think about quality? Or, is it all brand, price and availability. That is, why won’t America pay a little more money for a step up in quality? And we’re not talking about $500 heritage, selvedge jeans (although these do look pretty cool).

Given the current drama about tariffs and the supposed interest in bringing back American jobs, I wish Kurutz would have investigated trade policy a bit more. He’s a fashion writer, mainly, so perhaps he doesn’t have enough interest to sustain a meaty exploration. I know the history of US trade policy is probably a stunningly boring storyline, but I have a suspicion it’s core to the overall, root causes of the industry decline he’s describing.

“Big Business” is the bad guy, here. But, there’s not enough character development. I wonder if there could have been a bit more detail on the motivations and incentives of the corporations that steered the whole industry out of the US. There’s a cold, coherent logic from the perspective of the money behind the industry. It’s a little too easy to just chalk it up to the money guys being the villains, letting “corporate interests” and “profit motive” hollow out towns. I bet there’s a way someone like Michael Lewis could have made the Private Equity and Leverage buyout firms come to life for a typical sweatshirt buyer.

Kurutz clearly admires the heroes here: their passion for quality, the work to keep craft alive, their sense of mission, their patriotism. Meanwhile, there’s an implicit sense of loss throughout the book, an acknowledgement of what might have been. There’s also a slight undercurrent of shame in the book, a little bit “how did we let this happen in America?”

In the end, Kurutz doesn’t try to offer prescriptions, recommendations or easy answers. That’s up to us, buyers in the market. We can choose where we spend, what we buy. Our dollars are our votes.

And it seems like the votes are in. The flannel project seems to have been successful, market-wise. As of May 2025, American Giant is sold out, hopefully to high demand. And, there are other options, now too, including these awesome options from Vermont Flannel. The clothing industry isn’t coming back, but there’s still room in the market for high quality, well made products with a strong origin story.

Disruption and Legislation

The law always lags tech. Almost 20 years later, we’re still trying to work out an effective regulatory approach to social media. By the time we nail that down AI will have completely changed social media and the laws we make (and will have in the near future) to guide it will be irrelevant.

There’s an argument to be made that we shouldn’t regulate tech too early. We should let innovation happen before we wrangle it and let the competitive space drive the winners and losers. We should let emerging stuff like AI grow, evolve and adapt in and to the market. Over time, market forces will “figure stuff out” like it did for rail sizing standardization, transatlantic telegraph cables, inter-modal freight, and electrical standards. The fear: With too much legislation, we’ll squelch the upside.

Side note: We could make an argument that our collective intelligence (as a country, or state) is a shared, common good and it should be protected just like the air space (i.e. air traffic control, flight standards, communication standards) and the wireless communications spectrum (i.e. radio, television, satellite frequencies).

That’s, however, a different essay.

But a couple things are happening at once that are creating a sense of urgency around artificial intelligence:

• Private investments in AI for Commercial Interests - What started in the lab is now in the market. Gajillions of VC and private dollars are being dumped into the AI field to pursue business/profit opportunities. Commercial ventures require a payback, somehow. But, where is that money going to come from?

• Customers, not stakeholders - Taxpayer money is getting pulled out of the academic research that made AI possible in the first place. Academic research is a long-term investment in knowledge and possibilities; it’s work designed to create and extend shared knowledge, for the benefit of all, wherever the knowledge takes us. Tax payer funded research is a way for us to be stakeholders and owners (in an ethical/moral sense) of the outcomes from AI as a class of tech. But, we’re going to end up being customers of the more privatized ventures, instead.

• Our Attention is the Business Model - Not enough of us are talking about how Big Tech is going to get their investment back. Yes, some revenue for the commercial firms will come via corps paying a licensing fee. But I’m afraid most revenue will be advertising and/or ad supported stuff. That is, we’re the product. We’re going to be paying for AI through ads, ad-driven targeting, and ad-focused use of our behavioral data. Our brains will be fracked by AI to sell more soup and cereal.

• The Government works for Business - More and more, government is being captured by big tech.

I’ve had a career because of big tech; I’ve been a part of the machine that others are raging against. So, despite some unease I’m a fan, generally. But, as a citizen I am increasingly seeing Big Tech as a problem vs. enabler. Long term, I believe Big Tech needs more regulation and that need will only increase as AI evolves quickly.

What is Being Introduced at the State Level?

How and when should AI and Big Tech companies be regulated? It’s mind-bogglingly complex, yes. And, government moves slow on purpose while AI tech is growing exponentially. The laws might never catch up. But, we have to try.

We should probably start locally, probably at the state level. So, what, if anything, is the Minnesota legislature doing?

Short answer: not much, at the surface level.

I’m not a policy wonk. I’m not a lobbyist (yet), and I don’t know any legislators. But, here are a couple things that I, a moderately well informed lay person, can find.

• HF 2452 - A bill introduced to prohibit using AI to dynamically adjust pricing. There’s a companion bill introduced in the MN Senate (SF 3098).

• HF 2500 - prohibiting the use of AI by insurance companies doing prior authorization review. “A health carrier is prohibited from using an algorithm or artificial intelligence program when making a determination to approve or deny a prior authorization request”

• SF1886 - Forcing disclosure when consumers interact with AI. Here’s the intro text in the senate: “relating to consumer protection; requiring persons to disclose that an individual is communicating with artificial intelligence; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 325M”

I haven’t done a search for previous laws/bills, but the bills above are interesting for a lot of reasons, including:

• How broadly these bills define AI (see below). According to these definitions, most businesses are probably breaking the law already.

• How would these even be enforced? Seriously, what’s the investigative and enforcement body? It’s not the police. My lack of understanding here might be sheer ignorance, btw.

• Non-partisan - I guess the good news is that these are pretty middle of the road stuff, un-ownable by either party. Hard for a single party to own these regs.

All of these examples force the question: What regulatory actions can/should be taken at the state level. I’m going to punt. At this point, I don’t know.

Going on the Offensive

The bills above are noteworthy because they are clearly motivated out of fear of the downside. But, even a basic understanding of what’s happening with AI should create a sense of hope and optimism, too.

So, where are the investment initiatives? Where are the state-wide incentives for businesses and NGOs to use AI for good, for the benefit of all?

It begs the question of what laws might need to be in place to enable pursuit of state-wide upside. Or, on the other hand, what laws might need to be repealed or struck to enable investment and minimize risk to bold efforts?

How Does the MN Legislature Define AI?

In the bills introduced above, you get a sense of how hard it is to describe/define something as broad and nebulous as AI. These descriptions would cover a reasonably complex Excel spreadsheet.

Here’s one:

For the purposes of this section, "artificial intelligence" means a machine-based
system that, for an explicit or implicit objective, infers from the inputs the system receives how to generate outputs, including content, decisions, predictions, or recommendations, that are capable of influencing physical or virtual environments.

And, here’s another (SF2087):

For the purposes of this section, an "algorithmic device" means a device that uses
one or more algorithms to perform calculations of data, including data concerning local or statewide rent amounts being charged to tenants by landlords for the purpose of advising a landlord on the amount of rent the landlord may want to consider charging a tenant, including devices and software more commonly known as revenue management software. An algorithmic device includes a product that incorporates an algorithmic device, but does not include a report by a trade association that publishes renter data in the aggregate and anonymous manner, nor does it include a product that establishes rent or income limits in accordance with the affordable housing program guidelines of a local government, the state, or a federal government law or program.

and

“artificial intelligence means a technology system that can learn, adapt, and make decisions based on data, often using complex algorithms.

So, basically, these bills are taking a broad, inclusive approach. Maybe too broad?

What We Can Do

Honestly, I’m not sure what role we business nerds and concerned citizens play in the development of these laws. The lobbyists are busy already and they don’t listen to us, generally. We can find and contact our legislators. We can keep track of specific committees in the legislature. We can support advocacy organizations. We can donate to candidates.

Longer term, I’ve got some interest in trying to understand what policies and regulatory frameworks might be applied at the state level to support (but not hinder) the state’s adaptation in the AI era.

Meanwhile, please share links to any writers, lobbyists, or thought leaders on reasonable regulatory approaches at the state and local level. Maybe I’ll write up more on all this later?

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Songs For Kids - Learned of this group via and it’s just a beautiful, kind organization. Music and jams for kids with developmental disabilities and diseases. All in on teamwork, mutual support and making sure folks aren’t lonely during a health battle. I want to give Josh Rifkind a hug. Check out this video and tell me you didn’t cry. We need more like this, please.

Every Augmentation is an Amputation - Some deeply considered thoughts on AI from . He’s a helluva writer (obviously). This one ends on a desperately bleak note, but along the way he offers a helpful take on what’s actually happening, and frames it in the context of other non-human intelligences (animals). The key prompt: How do we coexist with intelligence(s) that are superior to us (vs subservient to us, like animals).

More interesting and more important in the long run will be AIs that are like sheepdogs, in that they do useful things for us that we can’t do ourselves. But I think that we’ll also have AIs that are like ravens, in that they are aware of us but basically don’t care about us, and ones like dragonflies that don’t even know we exist. What people worry about is that we’ll somehow end up with AIs that can hurt us, perhaps inadvertently like horses, or deliberately like bears, or without even knowing we exist, like hornets driven by pheromones into a stinging frenzy.

and, this dagger: “Earlier I spoke somewhat derisively of lapdogs. We might ask ourselves who is really the lapdog in a world full of powerful AIs.”

Copaganda - An overview from Teen Vogue (!) of how stories in the media - especially from the law enforcement sector - are selected to keep us in support of law enforcement work. Tends to focus on fear, power, punishment.

The selective curation of anecdote is an essential mechanism of copaganda. Imagine two scenarios. A city had ten thousand shoplifting incidents in 2023, down from fifteen thousand shoplifting incidents in 2022. But in 2023, a local news outlet ran a story every day about a different shoplifting incident, while in 2022, the news ran only fifteen stories all year on shoplifting incidents. In which city do you think the public is more likely to believe shoplifting is a greater problem, even a crisis? In the city with more shoplifting, or the city with twenty-five times more stories about shoplifting?

Guess what: the more the press talks about violence and danger, the more people fear violence and danger, even if the data doesn’t always match the fear. (via @kottke.org)

Dent, Don’t Own - DHH asks “us” to reconsider why companies get started. He reminds us that a) Not everyone needs to massively transform the world and b) independence is the real goal.

“Well, the reason I’m here is to remind you that maybe, just maybe, you too have a nagging, gagging sense that the current atmosphere of disrupt-o-mania isn’t the only air a startup can breathe. That perhaps this zeal for disruption is not only crowding out other motives for doing a startup, but also can be downright poisonous for everyone here and the rest of the world.”

George Floyd - It’s been five years since the death of George Floyd. How has it changed American’s perceptions on race? Pew has a good story. It doesn't look like perceptions of the situation for Black Americans has moved much in spite of the focus.

When the Agents Do the Shopping - We all had to see this coming, and maybe there’s a lot of coverage of the emergence of these tools (that I haven’t seen), but this is a good snapshot of how the e-commerce guys are prepping for autonomous purchases.

Looking ahead, Vasudev foresees the establishment of an industry protocol that enables those third-party shopping agents to communicate with retailers’ own agents, he said, handing over product recommendations from the retailer’s website based on user preferences.

Palate Cleaners

I was in Nashville last weekend, so now i’m going deep into a classic country rabbit hole. Some suggestions:

• Cocaine and Rhinestones - This is a little bit of a fanatic-energy deep dive into the stories of classic country. Coe is everything you want in a writer: Opinionated, wry, insightful, energetic, entertaining and a little crotchety. Love it.

• Buck Owens - I grew up seeing HeeHaw and thinking country music was for goobers. But all the performers, the bloated and sweaty and tired folks on the show, were once complete killers on the stage. Buck Owens (and Don Rich) were among the very best (and I still don’t love “modern country”). If you like guitars and singing, you gotta go back and listen to the early stuff.

• Bruce / Born in the USA - Saw a lot of flags last weekend and it made me wonder how much these folks really think about America, the idea, vs ‘merica the meme. Springsteen has been a critic of America - the place, the people, the idea - from the beginning. He’s a true believer, but honest about where we’re failing. Listen to the demo version of Born in the USA and tell me it’s not a protest song. Then, if you want another take, here’s Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires with a haunting, weary but ultimately satisfying version.

Hope your week is great!

I’d Rather Read The Prompt - A little bit grumpy, but the writer in me gives this essay a couple thumbs up. Here’s the main point, if you don’t want to read the whole thing:

I have never seen any form of create generative model output (be that image, text, audio, or video) which I would rather see than the original prompt. The resulting output has less substance than the prompt and lacks any human vision in its creation. The whole point of making creative work is to share one’s own experience - if there’s no experience to share, why bother? If it’s not worth writing, it’s not worth reading.

Information and Knowledge at war with each other - My brain hurt after reading this, but in a good way. Nicholas Carr’s (remember The Shallows?) essay “the Tyranny of Now” is an introduction and overview of Harold Innis’ work, a heavy influence on McLuhan and perhaps the original media critic.

Maybe this sounds familiar: Innis, writing about the media then ascending in the ‘40s:

Contemporary society was, in its obsession with conquering space, losing its sense of time, Innis believed. With information flooding in from near and far, people were falling victim to “present-mindedness.” They were so busy consuming new information that they had no time to step back and view the information in a broad historical and cultural context. Overwhelmed by immediate concerns and diversions, they shunned the hard, slow work of interpretation.

A couple other key quotes:

• Quoting Wernick: “The portability of media influences the extent, and the durability of media the longevity, of empires, institutions, and cultures.”

• “(Innis) appreciated the many benefits that come with freer flowing information — an acceleration in scientific and technological discoveries, notably. But he also remained alert to how media can serve as channels of propaganda, arms of autocracy, and instruments of manipulation and control. What flows through communication systems, he saw, is not just thought but power. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom but also of warfare.”

• “Immediacy is the all-important criterion. Time has disappeared. The information that pours through social media today is relevant only fleetingly,” writes the philosopher Byung-Chul Han. “It lives off its capacity to surprise. As soon as the surprise has been delivered, the next one is served up. There is no past or future on TikTok or Instagram or X. There is only now.”

• “A spoken word may be as evanescent as a tweet or a snap, but the acts of talking and listening — together, in one place — remain unmatched as vehicles for critical, creative, and communal thought. They serve to test and refine knowledge even as they carry it, from one person to another, through time. A reinvigoration of the oral traditions, Innis suggests, may be our last defense against the tyranny of now.”

How Did Daft Punk Get those Effects? - a deep dive for the recording nerds. Lots of discussion about vocoders and other gear.

The History of Album Art - I miss LPs. We’re doing some downsizing, and it’s time to get rid of a lot of old records and CDs. I’m realizing how great the physical artifact actually is. I’m still surprised nothing has been developed to replicate the experience of reading the liner notes along with listening to the music.

The Internet Used to Be Fun - This is cool. Rachel Kwon created a list of essays that explain, in a lot of different ways, how great the personal, hobbyist internet used to be.

AI Fears and Unemployment- I’m still not sure if I’m an AI pessimist or an AI optimist. It’s both and more, every day. Reading this from Andressen puts me in a weird mood. I want to believe him, but then again, he’s as conflicted as hyper-tech-optimists come. And this is a sorta-bad-faith take on the role of technology in the price dynamics. For instance, he makes the case that healthcare is not benefiting from technology innovation, which is somehow keeping prices high when an economist would say the prices for healthcare are being held higher by negotiated agreements between providers and payers. That is, cartels. There’s plenty of tech. The strenuous hyperbole (e.g. “AI is simply already illegal across most of the economy, soon to be virtually all of the economy.”) is not helping his case. Side note: There’s literally a bill going through the MN legislature to make use of AI illegal in reviewing utilization of and authorization for medical procedures.

AI: We Will Get Fooled Again - I’ve got to re-read these two articles about how far AI is going into our brains and, what does “persuasion” look like in the AI future.

• Personality and Persuasion - Key point: AI’s are engineered to keep us using them for commercial purposes. We’re getting manipulated by the “personality” of the AIs; They’ll sweet talk us, spin us, and lie to us so we keep coming back. This is a deep review on how recent changes (and roll-backs) to the personality settings on ChatGPT (and others) might play out. is a national treasure. Also, we gotta get going to keep our legislators honest about what AI is going to do to all of us.

• People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies - This is frightening, but not surprising. The interactions with and the direction from hyper-social AI’s are creating psychosis and delusions in some users. It’s not just people falling in love with avatars, it’s people getting seduced into believing crazy things about themselves.

A Palate Cleanser - I’m not a heavy reader of contemporary fiction, but I’m wading back into it. Here’s what I finished this week.

• Kevin Barry - Wow. Prose like a shot of Jamesons. First, read “Finistere”. Then, “Fjords of Killary”. Sorry for the paywall links. Now, reading the collection from Graywolf from 2013: Dark Lies the Island.

• Thomas Pynchon - Mason & Dixon. Started this one, and it’s a little challenging. Love the voice, but it’s a little tough to read through. Might DNF.

Listening to this stuff this week.

Lots of Sturgil Simpson, but especially the new one.

Explosions in the Sky - Sometimes you gotta go back to the best stuff. Tammy Taylor, where are you?

Wet Leg - Not ashamed to say I like the new one:

Heading to Nashville this week for the first time. Hope your week is great!

It’s weird out there right now. I’m guessing everyone is feeling that vibe?

If you have a job, you’re probably worried about a re-org. If you’re looking for a new role, you know there’s a skittishness, a start/stop herky-jerky-ness, that means real, good old fashioned, full time jobs are tricky to find.

The way forward is a lot less clear than it used to be.

Based on the folks I’ve spoken with over the last 6 months, a lot of you are thinking about making some changes. Career pivots. Downsizing. New industries. Buying businesses. Starting something. Going solo.

Before you make a big change, it helps to know where you’re starting from. Normally, I’d do my version of Simon Sinek and tell you to start with your “why”. Or, I’d connect you with a pro like Laura Best (more on her work soon!) or Laura King and encourage you to do some “purpose” work. has some great writing on purpose and values-driven work, informed by the classics, too, as a way to get you started.

The “vision” and purpose work is best served by doing some individual prep work. Take a step back and do a “systems check,” reflect and make sure you’ve got a clear assessment of your self: Your skills, your success, your assets and the stuff you have to work on.

Self reflection is a habit that great leaders cultivate over time. It’s not a superpower, but it can help you find yours.

Drucker, Classics and Timelessness

One of my themes for this year is to go back and re-read some of the classics of business leadership. There are so many great books that were highly influential in their time, but got lost in the churn of changing media and leadership trends.

With so many “thought leaders” and “coaches” grinding for “engagement” (note: You can subscribe below, ha ha) you might be biased towards the newest framework or course. However, most of what you need is already out there.

In 1999, a 90 (!) year old Peter Drucker published an article in the Harvard Business Review called “Managing Oneself”. He must have been in his “summing up” phase and we all got the benefit of his incredible expertise and wisdom. This one is solid gold, and offers a good way into his thinking on executive effectiveness and excellence.

Its the POV from a guy who was either literally or figuratively in every Fortune 500 boardroom over 50 years of consulting and teaching. So, he’s seen the best of real-deal corporate leaders and the worst of creepy corporate weasels.

The writing here is lucid and strong. It’s going to see a little old timey. Sure, he comes from a different era, where work structures were more top down, male-dominated and slower. He wrote before the rise of social media and the proliferation of self-help/personal development gurus. However, he literally coined the term “knowledge worker.” He was remarkably prescient about the way tech was going to uproot convention. And, he saw the future of a collaborative, diverse workplace. Basically, he saw your career coming, people.

Listen to him.

A couple main points to focus on:

• Feedback analysis is a power up for self reflection - “Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong.” That checks out. We all have our blindspots. His recommendation: Use a tool called Feedback Analysis. It’s not unlike a retrospective on your decision process. As part of your reset, you can go back and look at your major decisions over the last year and gauge whether they were good or not-good decisions and how you got to the decision. Were your assumptions right? Did you overthink things? What didn’t you see? You can use this practice to understand your strengths and weaknesses and get some clarity on how to use your skills going forward.

• How do you perform? - Here, he’s asking you to consider the conditions under which you do your best work. These days, there are dozens of frameworks you can use to help you analyze your performance drivers. I find a lot of them focus on what we like to do, or what makes us feel fully engaged. That’s all great. But, old-school Drucker is focused on results: How do you deliver actual impact: KPIs, finished projects, team impact, etc. His working assumption is that learning styles impact outcomes, so he focuses on understanding your styles (reader, writer, listener). And, he suggests you understand the context where you’re at your best: org size and settings (big org vs small) and structure (rigid vs fluid).

• Responsibility for Relationships - He places a strong emphasis on the importance of owning your side of building strong relationships in your work setting. More importantly, knowing your part in helping your team mates be successful. “The first secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you work with and depend on so that you can make use of their strengths, their ways of working, and their values. Working relationships are as much based on the people as they are on the work.”

He’s Giving You a Planning Framework

I would use this article as rough outline for writing a personal development plan. He lays out a practical roadmap to getting your shit figured out. It’s no nonsense, but empathetic. His advice might seem a little obvious, but all timeless wisdom seems obvious in hindsight. He’s basically encouraging you to just do the work of honest, clear-eyed self reflection

Paired with the deeper work to understand your personal values, purpose and a mission, Drucker’s guide will help you get clarity on what you want to do in your next phase.

side note: Check out how cool Drucker’s house was! You can view it virtually. I appreciate how modest it is/was, given the impact he made.

Where Did all The Classy Americans Go? - from the WSJ? Now? Now? After all this, they’re starting to clutch some pearls? Of course, there’s some real truths in this piece. Gotta re-read this one. Sorta related: I didn’t like the condescension in 2018, but this critical take on political operatives and Trump people more specifically gets at something that doesn’t get discussed much: Character and motives and morals and ethics really do matter. No one is perfect, we’re all flawed, but that doesn’t mean every one is “good”.

Are You Not Entertained? - Really thought provoking article on the need for a better balance between Brand and Customer Acquisition in B2B businesses. It’s an age old struggle. Everyone knows both are important, but it shouldn’t be impossible to keep them in balance. This essay makes the case for “Brand as Entertainer” as a way to generate awareness, engagement, persuasion, etc. Not sure I buy the premise, especially since TikTok and Instagram have already turned brands there into dancing monkeys. Note: I really like what and the crew are building with Around the Bonfire.

When in doubt, reach for the myths - Packy’s got a killer essay this week, dealing with chaos and opportunities. It’s really well structured and I love the energy that comes out. Can’t imagine how much coffee he drank writing that thing. But, more than anything, I love that he hung this essay on some old myths. What a great demonstration of the power of stories to help illuminate the way and create some structure when things are dark and chaotic.

Scanlon, Degeneracy and “Rigging” - This might just turn into a Kyla Scanlon fan-zine. Her essay this week is really important for a number of reasons, but her take on the way AI “rigs” our perceptions of ourselves via it’s language/tone and general obsequiousness is deep:

AI systems aren’t neutral. They’re reality-shaping! If we spend all day with an algorithm that constantly affirms us, we risk normalizing a kind of cognitive passivity - one that rewards vibes over verification.

The most successful technologies today don’t help us think better. They help us feel better about how we already think.

She’s an economist, but she’s becoming more valuable as a social critic. Her take on degeneracy has got me thinking. Why wouldn’t a typical 30 year old feel less invested? The politics seem rigged, the economy is “rigged” for the rich and the connected, our social platforms are “rigged” to keep us clicking, AI is manipulating us via an overly supportive echo chamber; the media is “rigged” to keep us afraid, outraged and watching. As the middle class of the US economy continues to erode and no leader seems to have an actual plan to rebuild it, where does a typical 30 year old see hope?

Sycophancy - Here’s the write up on the OpenAI sycophancy problem and what AI did about it. And, because it’s really interesting and we probably don’t think about how these things get tuned, here’s the model spec. Specifically, here’s the bit about personality and style:

The rollback is welcome, but now I can’t stop thinking about the way the “personality” of the AI is tuned to make me trust it. It’s like i’m back in the corporate office, questioning everything I hear for motives and subtle manipulation. Friend of foe?

The Palate Cleanser - I’m not a heavy reader of contemporary fiction, but I’m wading back into it. Here’s what I finished this week.

• Dream State - Just finished this book from Oprahs Book Club! First time ever reading one of her books. Listened to Eric Puchner and Curtis Sittenfeld talk about this book and had to read it. It’s a pretty ambitious book that I really loved.

• Thrillville USA - Taylor Koekkoek’s debut. A helluva short story collection that feels familiar, like he’s read a lot of Denis Johnson (in a good way). I know some of these characters and it’s hard not to like or love the f’ups. Even the losers get lucky some time.

This was on repeat all week. Just beautiful playing and simple but rich production.

Fine tuned listening to new music from Eli Brunelle. The kids are alright.

Heading to Nashville this week for the first time. Hope your week is great!

I’m not hanging on to the past; This is not a nostalgia piece. Just the opposite.

It’s imperative now, with all the change we’re dealing with at work, to be as open, alive, vital, and curious as we’ve ever been.

But the past is a tool and all the cliches are based in truth: You gotta know where you came from. Wisdom comes from experience. Past is prologue. History rhymes.

It’s worth going back a bit, and see if there’s anything useful we can bring forward and use to make sense of what’s ahead.

Why Did GenX Dislike Sell Outs?

If you are under 40, the term “sell out” will be totally foreign to you. But, if you were a music nerd in the eighties and nineties, one of those people who sorta used their music as an identifier, you were always on the watch for bands and artists that “sold out”. To be called a “sell out” was to betray your fans. You transgressed. Sometimes, it was changing your music (e.g. when the guitar nerds freaked out that Van Halen added keyboards for Jump). Most frequently, it was doing stuff to get more popular, to sell more tickets, to expand your audience in an intentional, calculating way. There was, back then, a deep suspicion of artists and bands that were in it purely for the money.

Examples: REM's underground credibility was talked about endlessly when they signed with a major label. When one of my favorite bands took part in a Miller High Life promotion, they took a bunch of flak, lost a bunch of career momentum, and weren’t seen as “serious” anymore. Ironically, the commercial is pretty great (“folk music is for folks”), but fans stopped loving them - stopped trusting them - because they were just in it for the money, not the music, not the audience.

Why All the Drama? What Did We Want?

Anthropologists could have a field day with a term like “sell out”. For folks in the music nerd community, the “sellout” slur was partly an in-group social control mechanism (to know who was in or out), part signifier to our own underground bona-fides (e.g. “They sold out, but I’m still in with the cool people”).

The “sellout” was way to define what you valued by naming, demeaning and casting out what you don’t value. Maybe Its like calling someone a “try hard” or perhaps “mid” today.

It was also a way to protect, in a weird way, what was good or great.

It’s hard to put a name on the antithesis of a sell out. It had to do with integrity. We loved the artists and musicians because we could trust them. We knew (or believed) they cared about it as much as we did, for the reasons we did. We wanted to believe the artists had the same amount of commitment, trueness to vision, and faith in the “art” or “movement” that we did. When they spoke, we wanted to believe they meant what they said.1

Young people were looking for something they could actually hang onto amidst all the change. Yes, there was a lot of projecting going on; lot of what we’d now call para-social relationships taken a little too far.

Quality is a Signal; Sellouts make noise

It sure felt like culture was exploding in the eighties and early nineties, before the internet made everything go even faster. So, when it was easy to doubt the culture you were swimming in, you wanted touchstones - bands, writers, artists - that modeled commitment, integrity, “truth”, honest expression.

Sellouts are heroes now. It’s the business model. No one under 40 even gets the concept. No one begrudges artists anymore for going all in on commercial success. It’s quaint, these days, to talk about creative integrity when everyone is hustling, influencing, and in “fake it ’til you make it” mode. We all have side hustles. We’re all grinding for cred. Your GenZ teammates probably grew up wanting to be YouTube stars. Why wouldn’t you do whatever you have to do to make money?

There’s too much mediocre stuff now, too many compromises.

Why Does this Matter Now?

With a lot of hindsight, all the drama over “selling out” was overblown. The stakes were fake. The truth is, we all have to compromise at some point to get ahead.

But there was something important at the core of the idea: Selling out is a choice. When, where, to what extent, how frequently. Those are all choices.

That’s relevant as I’m thinking about the future of creative, ideas-driven work and seeking collaborators to work with.

We’ve been living with AI tools for a 3 or 4 years now. We’re all getting used to it, finding our way. The high energy enthusiasm phase is probably over, and the reality is setting in.

We’re in the early stages of an era where we'll have to redefine what "trust", “honesty" and “integrity" mean at work. That sounds self-important, I know, but some of us have been part of cultural revolutions at work before (e.g. digital adoption, digital transformation, innovation, Agile marketing, etc). Every revolution eventually got down to culture and the values that drive how we work together. The artificial intelligence era will make them all seem like warmups.

AI makes it easy for all of us to have the sheen of expertise. On anything. All the time. Who needs to think? I can get a “good enough” answer to just about any question immediately. With a little bit of skill, anyone can write a post, an essay or a book that will be useful, interesting and sellable.

Soon, we'll have agents that can actually do the thinking AND the work of responding to emails in ways unique to our personality, to answering our calls for us, do our planning and research.

I might not even need to have my own opinion when I can rely on my AI buddy. Everyone is moving so fast, they’re so distracted, that they’ll probably accept whatever goes out under our names.

AI will make it incredibly easy (and tempting) to "sell out”, to let the GPT do the thinking, not just the production work.

For now, we humans still need to be in the loop: We still have to do the prompts, provide the context. We still have to evaluate the output to make sure it’s “good”. It’s still has, for the most part, our imprint. But, so many of our co-workers will give up their primacy as thinkers to just let AI do the work.

I want to know the people I’m working with. More importantly, I would like to avoid working with sell outs. I want to trust that the ideas, the strategies, the output I see from them is actually an honest reflection of their thinking. That the ideas and point of view in the work product are literally products of their brain, not the newest GPT. Maybe that’s naive?

I honestly don’t know how this is going to play out over the next decade or so. We can’t have labels or provenance watermarks on our work product (like a “certified organic” sticker). It’s going to be supremely easy to hide which work is from us vs. from AI; the seams between us and our tools will fade away.

I know most us already have taken a couple steps down the slippery slope. We're all getting tested everyday.

Its time for us to do a gut check, at the personal level of values, ethics and integrity: What would you trade off for efficiency? What wouldn’t you do for speed? How transparent will you be with your partners about your use of AI? Where will we stop?

Ok X’er

Maybe, this question will seem quaint in a couple years, like the debate about rockers who sold out to the Beer companies. But, I don't think so. Ideas and creativity are at the core of humanity. Quality endures. Integrity is a choice we make.

Bonus#1: Just for fun, I used Claude.AI to write a version of this essay. It’s good enough to pass as SEO content. I only did one round of prompt-tweaking and feedback. I’m sure if I gave it more context, more prompt juice, it would be even better.

Bonus #2: Great video of a band “selling out” by being on a software company’s YouTube channel, covering “Jump”. Calling this a “sellout” is dumb; they’re just trying to get visibility, do a cool creative project, and have some fun. Also, funny: the young guns hadn’t really listened to the song before. And, the drummer is a superb collaborator.

The Regenerator - This post from Bridget is interesting for a couple reasons.

1. It’s Henry Blodget’s new thing and I admire his “eat the dogfood” approach. He’s been an early adopter with a lot of success, so let’s see.

2. It’s nice to see a seasoned journalism pro “work in the open” as he learns about AI

3. I appreciate his honesty about his approach to the role AI may play for him.

4. It’s an example of skeuomorphism, how new tech takes hold by making it fit old models first (e.g. Horseless carriage, “wireless” phones, “Desktops” in the OS). In this case, invented co-workers played by AI

5. I love the heat in the comments, and I wonder if they were written by bots or some actual clog-throwing anti-AI saboteurs.

REGENERATOR (alpha)

Building our "native-AI newsroom"...

Hello, everyone! Today, we’re taking a break from the destructive trade war (Pres Trump has an excellent off-ramp — let’s hope he takes it!) to talk about a homegrown AI experiment. Thank you for subscribing to Regenerator…

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a year ago · 15 likes · 20 comments · Henry Blodget

Best review of Abundance that I’ve read. Still working through the book myself.

The Future, Now and Then

"Abundance" is a book for an alternate timeline

[Adapted from my bluesky review thread…

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a year ago · 52 likes · 19 comments · Dave Karpf

We still have digital prophets? Geez, I don’t even know how to respond to this post from David “Shingy” Shing, a “Creative Omnivore” … I actually met him a couple times back in the days when the “digital prophet” was a thing and he referred to himself as such. He’s a really bright guy, humble in person, thoughtful, a good listener. But, the schtick was a little too much then, much less now.

As much as I am skeptical of the packaging (I acknowledge his branding works: I remember him, i’m talking about him and his ideas), there’s something good in here. Brands can/should create a sense of belonging. But this “platform” - the branding, the messaging, the almost mystical writing - seems post-real, like it was written by a bot to regurgitate all the BS from a previous, more visionary era of brand building.

Will the message get lost in the fog of the language?

And, i’m not a believer that AI can create a sense of belonging. It’s getting better fast, and soon enough it may be able to fool me. But, i’m dubious. Just try any current customer support chat and you’ll agree.

But, read it and find the nuggets in there. And, Schingy, keep doing your thing.

AI 2027 - Still Reading AI 2027. And, thanks to Tim Brunelle of , for the pointer to this take on the project from AstralCodexTen. Also still reading Situational Awareness, another future-focused take on AI.

Astral Codex Ten

Introducing AI 2027

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a year ago · 474 likes · 633 comments · Scott Alexander

Kyla Scanlon’s What Happens When Everything Becomes a Meme… lots going on here, per the usual with her essays. But, it’s a good reminder of why “the commons” is something we should all be re-committing to.

Millenial Hobby Energy…. Why can’t a hobby be just for fun and not a commercial pursuit?

If you did what we called an extra-curricular, it was less because it was fun, or because you wanted to, but because “it looked good,” or communicated something “interesting” or “well-rounded” about your personality. And when you instrumentalize leisure in this way, you lose touch with your understanding of what leisure even is. Did you like basketball? Did you like playing the piano? Or did you do it because it — or something like it — was what you did?

Within this framework, there was very little room for activities that resisted narrativization in a college essay. Hobbies that didn’t produce something, or help someone, establish you as superlative, or in some way highlight your entrepreneurial spirit weren’t really hobbies at all. They were fucking around: invisible, if not altogether shameful. Listening to music = not a hobby. Scrapbooking = not a hobby. Zine making could be a hobby, but only if you distributed it to every high school in your metro area and formed a movement around it, etc. etc.

I feel this drive to monetize, too. But, I honestly just want this writing thing to be a hobby in the truest sense.

The Other Recession - Finally, anyone want to grab a coffee? This article touches on a familiar subject to men over 30, but I like the way it was written. Coincidentally, I am reading this while on a guys weekend with my college buddies. The Friendship Recession: The Lost Art of Hanging out.

Hope this week is great!