Spaceships, Flying Cars, and HAL
Hollywood predicted all three. Only one showed up.
The journal · Theme
Culture & society
Observations on how people live, meet and decide. 15 essays, newest first.
An Algorithm Walks Into a Bar: My thoughts on FirstDate.
Singapore's new dating pilot treats matching as the problem. What has gone missing are the rooms where people practiced meeting, failing and becoming good company.
I am who I remember myself to be: What happens when the archive remembers something else?
Identity depends on what memory keeps and what it lets go. An AI that can retrieve everything may threaten reinvention and forgiveness more than privacy.
What AI Is Teaching Us About Being Human: The Presence Economy — Part I
Young designers use AI as a safe place to rehearse before they face people. As generated content floods everything, being there in person becomes how trust gets earned.
Do Not Underestimate Your Place in History Right Now
Earlier technologies changed how things reached us. This one takes part in how we think, and history will judge us on whether we stayed awake while it did.
If AI Becomes a Verb, What Kind of Verb Will It Be?
AI will become a verb. Whether it ends up a utility verb, a cultural verb or a creative verb decides whether speed, visibility or judgment wins.
AI only seems human because work culture taught us to prize fluency and speed over judgment. The real choice is between a cheap version of humanity and the full one.
GenAI: The Generation We Choose
Generation AI is a mindset, open to anyone at any age. The divide that matters next is between people who think with AI and people who don't.
Messy, Honest, Human: The Strategic Power of Reddit
Anonymity, friction and a total lack of polish make Reddit the most honest research tool a strategist has. It runs the Five Whys at the scale of a culture.
"I focus on making a better product." - Severine Vauleon, during the IAA talk on Sustainability.
At an IAA Singapore session on sustainability, one line stuck. Sustainability belongs in the product, and advertising should be honest about its own emissions.
Screen Tests: How Hollywood’s AIs Predicted, Shaped, and Misunderstood the Future
From HAL to Her, Hollywood got AI metaphorically right and literally wrong. It arrived as invisible infrastructure we default to, and we're handing it our intimacy.
Loneliness Is Not a Personal Flaw. It’s a Design Flaw.
In the age of AI, automation, and aging, the most human need is still to feel seen.
“We Just Decided To”: On Rituals, Responsibility, and Rewatching The Newsroom
My annual rituals tell me what I value. This year one line from The Newsroom reminded me that standards are a decision anyone can simply make.
More Poet than Peasant: A Reflection on Labels, Culture, and L’Oréal
L'Oréal turned me down as more Poet than Peasant. The label is hierarchical, out of step with the company's own values, and wrong about what leadership is.
I Never Wanted to Get Political. But Here We Are.
WPP quietly dropped diversity from its annual report. Agencies and brands outside the US should decide where they stand on DEI before someone decides for them.