Suppose we shifted from traditional frameworks and consensus-building and moved towards curating encounters with fragments of possibility?

Might that allow multiple futures to emerge in strategic conversations?

Making futures tangible — through a field of fragments, artifacts, stories and prototypes — allows people to feel uncertainty rather than manage it away. It turns strategy into an act of imagination, helping stakeholders dwell within what could be instead of forcing possibility into the narrow shapes of existing frameworks.

Another, other friend of the Laboratory, Brad Barrish shared this repo he created (with Claude) that it super simple to publish links onto a lightweight miniature web page. Like a personal link blog without the 💩 of the enshittifier vibe.

Back in Office Hours Side Projects Edition N°280, Pawel Halicki shared a thought-provoking reflection on the challenges organizations face in strategic thinking and future planning — and what to do about it.

Pawel reminded us that 96% of senior leaders lack time for straegic thinking, while the feeling is that the future arrives faster than ever — so faster than one can adopt strategy. So if you don't have a structured way to explore the future, you risk being left behind.

Is imagination the missing link? Pawel suggests that cultivating imagination within organizations is key to bridging this gap. By fostering a culture that encourages creative thinking and speculative exploration, organizations can better anticipate and adapt to future challenges.

James Padolsey exposes the fragility of using Large Language Models in decision-making, revealing how even minor tweaks in prompts can drastically alter outcomes. His insights into the biases inherent in AI evaluations raise serious concerns about the reliability of these models in critical areas like hiring and law.

A.I. is making waves in Hollywood, from 'The Morning Show' to 'Black Mirror,' yet the industry seems oblivious to the ethical quagmire it creates. As labor disputes highlight A.I.'s encroachment on creative jobs, the gap between fiction and reality widens, leaving us to ponder the true cost of this technology.

Visual music transforms the concert experience by synchronizing visuals with melodies so that the musicians become both performers and visual artists. Sound and sight intertwine. Cool.

The statute of limitations on “spoiler alert” for this one has well and truly passed on a 37 year old movie, but sorry anyway..

One of the best most underappreciated horror movies of all time is John Carpenter's They Live (1988). It's a brilliant satire of consumerism, conformity, and the media's role in shaping our perceptions of reality. So rich. So relevant today.

I remember showing it when I taught in the Film School at USC. Sitting in the Ron Howard Theater with a room full of film students who had never heard of the film — and got to see it for the first time. The gasps were priceless.

The first time I saw it was Seattle, grad school, my apartment, on VHS. A friend curated an evening of two movies. I don't recall the first film, but it was scary and a bit intense. Might've been Hellraiser? Then he popped in They Live as a kind of palate cleanser to take the edge off and keep the nightmares at bay. It was hilarious and terrifying all at once.