All Things — Every link, sorted by what it’s about.
Tagged: Essay
217 links tagged essay from 10 Things, our fortnightly pick of the best things online.
AI Takes a Doomer Turn
The people building AI are now the ones warning us about it, and this asks what we do once the fear sets in.
A New Kind of Creative Poverty
Afra Wang reads our AI-flooded feeds through Joan Didion, and finds a strange new poverty in endless plenty.
Opinion Is the Moat
Renato Valdes argues that once every product converges on the same AI-assisted feature set, the last real differentiator left is a point of view someone's actually willing to defend.
Why Time Feels Faster Than It Used To
Noema traces why the 2020s scrambled everyone's sense of time, from Boomers to Zoomers — turns out the warping is real, backed by actual psychology.
Why Google's AI Answers Are Quietly Changing What We Ask
A search obsessive on how confident AI answers are reshaping the questions we bother typing into Google at all.
When "Nice" Becomes a Company's Biggest Liability
HBR on how comfort-first cultures quietly trade candor for harmony, and why that trade rarely pays off.
Why Designers Quietly Avoid Making Things Too Accessible
Joost's pick — an honest look at the discomfort behind accessible design, and why teams treat it as a checkbox instead of a craft.
Why Celebrities Can't Paint
Gary Grimes asks why megastars from Ed Sheeran to Adrien Brody keep failing to earn real artistic credibility.
itsnicethat.comEssayThe Age of Average
Alex Murrell's essay on how film, fashion, and branding keep converging on the same safe, data-approved look.
Tech's Best Sales Team? You.
A Guardian columnist argues targeted social ads have quietly turned tech companies' own users into their sales force.
Is Ambient Music Evil?
Blackbird Spyplane argues streaming stripped ambient music of ritual, flattening it into algorithm-friendly vibes.
Why Is Everyone in Tech So Sad?
Noema traces the industry's quiet emotional recession: layoffs, AI anxiety, and a mission-driven self-image in freefall.
95 Reasons for Your Own Website
Elliott Cost is keeping a running list — 95 and counting — for why a personal site still earns its keep in 2026.
How to ensure your company acts on your new strategy
HBR on the unglamorous work of actually making a company act on the strategy it just agreed on.
It's okay to hop on the bandwagon
On New York's sudden, collective pivot to the Knicks and the World Cup — sheeple summer, and why it's fine.
AI Didn’t Kill SaaS, It Raised the Bar
Tomislav Car argues AI hasn’t killed SaaS — it’s raised the bar so high that average products can no longer survive.
How AI Will Change Us
As AI companions proliferate, the goods that matter most may be those only shared human presence can still provide.
AI, Drones & Eric Schmidt
Schmidt calls AI-guided drone warfare the most significant shift in military history — and says it's already here.
What Might The Next Axial Age Look Like?
Noema asks whether today's crises are forcing a civilizational reset as profound as any in recorded history.
noemamag.comEssayFinding Your New Strategic Center
Companies that commit to one clear organizing principle gain speed and coherence while rivals drown in strategic drift.
The Death of Twitter, told through its own tweets
The Verge tells the story of Twitter's death through the tweets that witnessed it — an oral history in 280 characters.
Why you need AI that reduces maintenance costs
James goes on a rant on a dark desert highway...
How to Protect Human Autonomy in an Age of AI
As AI reshapes daily thinking, philosopher Daniele Cavalli argues for protecting the cognitive capacities we never notice ourselves ceding.
How creative rituals can help you break free from the idea echo chamber
Inspiration feels harder to find nowadays (except in this newsletter, of course). INT lays out some approaches for protecting the gray cells from sloppification.
itsnicethat.comEssayWhy AI Needs a Sense of Smell
While we rush toward digital intelligence, we often neglect the primal, olfactory data that defines the human experience.
Teaching Tech vs. Cultivating Taste
A provocative look at why graphic design schools are functioning more like trade schools and less like the incubators of cultural instinct they should be.
itsnicethat.comEssayIs This the End of CSS?
A provocative look at why the future of text layout might move beyond the traditional constraints of the web’s styling language.
Living in the Screen Space
The internet is no longer a destination we visit but an environment we inhabit, requiring a new philosophy of digital space.
Post-Mortem for the Creative Agency
Madison Utendahl pulls back the curtain on why she closed her firm and why the traditional agency model is officially breaking.
AI Agents are Recruiting You
The machines need us, not as masters, but as sensors, verifiers, and bearers of liability in the physical world.
What Worked Last Time is the Enemy of What Works Next
Relying on what worked before leads to safe, repetitive work, while real progress requires experimentation and letting go of past formulas.
itsnicethat.comEssayFrom 📟 Technical Debt to 😶🌫️ Cognitive Debt
As agentic AI takes over the heavy lifting, a new challenge emerges: the mental cost of managing systems we no longer fully understand—or even care for.
Our Emerging 🪐 Planetary Nervous System
A deep dive into the need for a new kind of wisdom that synchronizes our digital signals with the natural rhythms of a changing world.
The Invention of the Timeline
A look back at the 19th-century shift when time became a straight line, forever changing how we visualize our past and chase our future.
aeon.coEssayThe Mythology Of Conscious AI
Why consciousness is more likely a property of life than of computation and why creating conscious, or even conscious-seeming AI, is a bad idea.
Technology’s Awkward Adolescence
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei argues that humanity must "grow up" fast as we hand over the keys to systems that are as powerful as they are unpredictable.
Unlearning as a creative act
Raissa Pardini argues that stepping away from AI isn’t about rejection. It’s about reclaiming intuition, messiness and doubt.
Cut-Through vs. Cut-Out
Most marketing thinking still assumes that attention is the primary bottleneck, as if audiences are passive recipients waiting to be interrupted, persuaded, or impressed by whatever appears in front of them.
The Death Of The Scientist
This essay argues that science’s future depends less on automation and more on protecting its deeply human, symbolic core.
From <br> to Beyond
A thoughtful look at 30 years of web development, tracing the shift from simple markup to sprawling systems.
The Best Way to Use AI for Learning
Instead of using AI just to speed up learning, harness AI to directly engage with and deeply understand complex, challenging primary sources.
What’s the Future of PMs?
A sharp warning: Trendy AI tools and “vibe-coding” don’t replace judgment. Product leadership still lives in clarity, decision-making, and understanding real problems.
The Death of Software Engineering Is a Myth
Each wave of tech hype predicts the “death” of software engineering, but in reality, it just shifts abstraction while creating new problems and more work.
What Actually Makes You Senior
It’s not mastery of tools. It’s the ability to turn ambiguity into something others can act on.
The Planning Paradox
Plans age badly. Planning doesn’t. A useful reminder that momentum comes from the act, not the artifact.
Why Creative Work Needs Structure to Thrive
A reminder that great ideas don’t bloom in chaos; they grow in the quiet, consistent rhythm that gives imagination somewhere to land. This is something that really resonates with us ;)
The Case for AI ‘Datarails’
A bold argument for the data we must not feed the machine and why protecting human weakness may be the key to protecting human dignity.
Why Is Quality So Rare?
Linear unpacks why speed and scale have overtaken care and craft and why choosing quality is becoming an increasingly radical act.
The Future of Space Is More Than Human
The time has come to expand our visions of life beyond Earth. A provocative vision: space as a multispecies frontier where biology, technology, and imagination collide to extend life beyond Earth.
noemamag.comEssayThe Future of Shopping Is Agentic
With the new Shopify & Paypal integrations into ChatGPT, we shared our thoughts on what this agentic commerce means on the future of shopping and the traditional funnel.
Can AI Help Brands Build, Not Just Sell?
Tom Roach explores how AI might be more than a performance tool, and why the best brand builders of the future might be fluent in prompts and poetry.
The Gothic Isn’t Dead - It’s Just Rebranded
A great piece that looks at the resurrection of gothic imagery in contemporary design. This is gothic as aesthetic language, not costume.
Why “One Source of Truth” Is a Lie
This article unpacks why brand identity can’t (and shouldn’t) be frozen in a single deck. The best brands are coherent, not static.
Invest in the Ecosystems
A thoughtful essay on why systems thinking is everything - especially when designing for sustainability, not just scale.
The Vulgar Image and the Social Feed
Spike Art digs into the aesthetic of vulgarity - why we scroll toward excess, and how social platforms reward what once would’ve been considered “too much.”
The Rise of AI Slop
The Atlantic breaks down how generative content, often bland, synthetic, and indistinguishable, is reshaping the internet in real time.
Is AI Reversing Our Understanding of Intelligence?
Psychology Today explores the idea that AI doesn’t just replicate intelligence — it reframes it. When machines look smart, do we start thinking dumber?
The S-Curve Is Coming for You
Concept Bureau breaks down what happens after the early hype fades, and why the messy middle of innovation is where the real shape of things takes form.
Can Europe Reclaim Its Digital Sovereignty?
Europe wants to shape tech on its own terms, but is it too late? A powerful essay on autonomy, regulation, and designing systems that reflect more than Silicon Valley’s values.
noemamag.comEssayStripe on Scaling Well
A beautifully designed essay from Stripe Press on what it really means to scale. from code to company to mindset.
stripe.pressEssayTechno-Optimism vs. Fear, in One Scroll
A must-read, the Import AI newsletter takes a sharp look at the double-edged feeling that defines this moment: momentum meets anxiety.
If AI Can Diagnose You, What Are Doctors For?
The New Yorker takes on the hard question behind AI-powered medicine: when machines “know,” what does care still mean?
Taste Is the New Power Tool
According to FIELD, taste has evolved from personal instinct to cultural operating system - the last un-automatable advantage in a machine-made world.
What Sci-Fi Can Teach Brands
Worldbuilding isn’t just for screenwriters - it’s brand strategy. From Blade Runner to Black Panther, here’s what immersive fiction reveals about storytelling at scale.
The Vibe Coding Mirage
A sharp critique from Microsoft’s Suff Syed on why vibe coding is more hype than reality. AI demos wow, but 95% of enterprise pilots fail, a cautionary tale for sustainable product building.
Armani’s Italian Chic, Remembered
A look back at Giorgio Armani’s career and how he translated a uniquely Italian style into a global fashion phenomenon.
nytimes.comEssayLearning the Hard Way on a TK90X
A personal essay on the unforgiving experience of learning to code on clunky 80s hardware and what it says about today’s AI work struggles.
linkedin.comEssayWhere’s the Shovelware?
If AI makes developers 10x more productive, why aren’t we seeing 10x more software? A thoughtful dive into productivity paradoxes and missing outcomes.
Minimum Viable Testing (MVT)
A guide to the MVT process for startups, offering a structured way to validate ideas before scaling, something we’ve also been experimenting with.
UX Is Dead, Long Live AX
John Maeda maps the shift from user experience to agent experience, where AI tools act on behalf of the user.
Labubumatchadubaichocolate Is a Mood
The New Yorker’ weekly opinion piece on technology and culture talks about the recent trend of absurdity, and where Labubumatchadubaichocilate is a response to algorithmic overstimulation.
Is AI Making Us All Delusional?
Three years in, AI’s most unsettling side effect might not be automation, it’s the creeping sense that we’re all slowly losing touch.
How to Write Better Code with AI
Less hype, more habit: Sajal Sharma offers a tight framework for actually using AI tools to think through your code.
When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field
This oral history of computational linguistics post-GPT is funny, tragic, and slightly unhinged. A must-read for anyone tracking AI’s ripple effects.
I Know When You’re Vibe Coding
A beautifully written reflection on how coding can feel - when it flows, when it stumbles, when it vibes. More poetry than tutorial.
How to Pay Attention (Again)
An essay on the neuroscience of focus that rewires the mind. A poetic, brain-based reminder that nowadays attention isn’t just a skill but an act of resistance.
Are Blink-182 Cult Brand Architects…?
Turns out “What’s My Age Again?” was also a brand strategy. A great breakdown of how Blink-182 built loyalty through honesty, emotion, and inside jokes.
Taste Is the New Intelligence
In a world drowning in content and noise, the ability to choose with precision, intention, and style might be the ultimate intellectual flex.
Why Writing by Hand Still Matters
A beautiful exploration into handwriting in our hyper-digital age, and why the writing differences of each generation matter.
Are We Lying to Young People?
An unflinching look at the overly-optimistic advice we give younger generations and the need for a more honest, nuanced narrative.
maalvika.substack.comEssayAn Illustrator’s AI Reckoning
In this haunting visual essay in the NY Times, an illustrator confronts his fears and questions his relationship with art and the future of drawing for a living.
The End of Publishing As We Know It
A long-read unpacks how chatbot overviews & summary features are keeping users locked into conversations, and threatening media & journalism as we know it.
The Illusion of Intellect
What does it mean to be smart in an age of performative knowledge? This essay unpacks how AI contributes to a shallow sense of understanding.
whatsanu.substack.comEssayThe Constipation of Culture: Why Nothing New Gets Through and Nothing Old Goes Away
How late capitalism turned culture into content and content into sludge.
mikecormack.substack.comEssayWhy Some Brains Are Wired for Extremism
Neuroscientist and author of The Ideological Brain Leor Zmigrod illuminates the factors leading some people down a path of extremism.
atmos.earthEssayThe Danger Of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think
The rhetoric over “superhuman” AI implicitly erases what’s most important about being human.
How to Be an Artist
Four major artists talk to us about where their obsessions came from — and what they did about the obstacles thrown in their way.
nytimes.comEssayWhat Happened to Speculative Futurism?
It’s time that digital artists up their game.
Shit’s Gonna Get So Fucking Weird and Terrible
An uncomfortably honest field guide to the deeply bizarre now-now-soon.
Generative AI models are skilled in the art of bullshit
Large language models are unconcerned with truth because they have no concept of it — and therein lies the danger.
Echoes from the Lost Internet
What we can still learn from a Flash Website built in 2000.
How creativity became the reigning value of our time
In "The Cult of Creativity," Samuel Franklin excavates the surprisingly recent history of an idea, an ideal, and an ideology.
What Can We Learn from Broken Things?
Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.
newyorker.comEssayBuilding A Prosocial Media Ecosystem
There’s never been a better time to make social media what it always should have been: a tool to strengthen rather than strip-mine the social fabric.
Reclaim Imperfect Faces
Technology isn’t just changing the way we look—it’s changing our sense of how we should look.
What We Lose When We Spend to Feel Better
Consumer culture taught us that joy can be bought—but the ecological costs of our shopping habits reveals how misguided that promise was.
AI Is Evolving — And Changing Our Understanding Of Intelligence
Advances in AI are making us reconsider what intelligence is and giving us clues to unlocking AI’s full potential.
Are colors objective? These philosophers think so
Our ability to determine whether objects are colored the same or differently and the indispensable roles they play in science suggest that colors are as real and objective as length and temperature.
fastcompany.comEssayHow to Train an Artistic AI
David Salle considers the ideal curriculum.
Our human habit of anthropomorphizing everything
Should we be anthropomorphizing AI? Why do we speak to AI as if it's human? Do we want AI to act in a certain way? Do we want it to be more human? Or do we just assign it that trait anyway?
Medical Benchmarks and the Myth of the Universal Patient
From growth charts to anemia thresholds, clinical standards assume a single human prototype. Why are we still using one-size-fits-all health metrics?
newyorker.comEssayLiving Things Are Not Machines (Also, They Totally Are)
Our formal models of life, computers and materials fail to tell the entire story of their capabilities and limitations.
noemamag.comEssayWe All Have ‘Archive Anxiety’ Now
As online access to information becomes increasingly restricted, even the noblest feats of preservation and archiving are being hijacked.
The Worthwhile Trend of Romanticizing Your Life
Why do we feel the need to save life’s finer things for "special occasions"?
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Thoughtful stories for thoughtless times, showcasing stories from Julia Webster Ayuso, Abe Beame, Tracy Thompson, Will Boast, and Gary Grimes.
longreads.comEssayWhy AI Is A Philosophical Rupture
Tobias Rees, founder of an AI studio located at the intersection of philosophy, art and technology, sat down with Noema Editor-in-Chief Nathan Gardels to discuss the philosophical significance of generative AI.
Am I Slop? Am I Agentic? Am I Earth?
Every few years, a new innovation seems to raise the same questions: can we compute human intelligence? Can our labor be automated? Who owns these systems and their training data? How will this technology reshape society? Yet there is one question rarely heard asked: how will AI change our understanding of ourselves?
Elizabeth Goodspeed on what happens when we treat the past like a stock library
Not all borrowing is the same. From public domain illustrations on book covers to AI’s data hoarding, who really owns culture – and who gets away with taking it?
The Man who could paint Loneliness
Though known for his gloomy landscapes, Caspar David Friedrich was chasing the sublime—the divinity, in all of nature, that made us seem small.
newyorker.comEssayBest of Further Reading 2024: FT journalists pick their favourite non-FT articles of the year
Financial Mail has once again enlisted the help of their legacy media colleagues to bring together the best articles published over 2024 that weren’t in the FT.
ft.comEssayThe Technology that actually runs our World
Cultural algorithms are only downstream of the larger, intractable forces that shape how art is made and supported. It’s not that Spotify has made music more boring or that Instagram has made art more stale.
theatlantic.comEssayThe Intersection of Technology and Art: Exploring the Impact of Digital Innovations on Culture
Delve into the many ways technology is influencing art and culture, and examine the opportunities and challenges that arise from this intersection.
medium.comEssayThe Stranger Things Effect Comes for the Novel
In modern fiction, vintage media have emerged as tactile objects that symbolize integrity, solve the crime, and radiate realness.
Wellness Culture Is Now Peddling Extremism
From trad wives to raw milk, social media’s wellness trends have been radicalized—and could cost us a more equitable future.
Service as a Software: The New SaaS
Over the upcoming decade, AI-provisioned intelligence will become almost free, and instantly available. AI won’t just assist professionals — it will take over much of the work as a packed instant service provider. Welcome to the age of boundless skill scalability, where services transform into software and economies grow beyond human imagination.
The 70% problem: Hard truths about AI-assisted coding
A field guide and why we need to rethink our expectations.
Things we learned about LLMs in 2024
A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things Simon figured out about the field in the past twelve months, plus his attempt at identifying key themes and pivotal moments.
The age of average
In an age where literally everything looks the same, is it time to introduce some originality into design, culture and life?
How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide
AI got you overwhelmed? This is a good read for anyone who wishes to understand AI a bit more but has limited time to actually keep up with it all.
Ikigai and the question of personal purpose
While brands have been obsessed with purpose in recent years, we have overlooked personal purpose, which can lead to a far more enriching working life.
creativereview.co.ukEssayThe shame of LinkedIn
A jobs board + social media + personal updates, LinkedIn often feels so cringe. But is it possible to post there without being cringe yourself? Experts give their point of view.
The future of betting
Prediction markets have been around for a long time, but it was only during the last election that they broke fully into the mainstream. This surge is due to trickle down into other markets, from popular culture to the weather.
businessinsider.nlEssayElizabeth Goodspeed on untangling credit in design
As Athletic Greens’ meteoric rise shows, a brand’s success often depends on its identity system. But who gets recognition for the work when multiple studios shape a brand over time?
The Endgames of Bad Faith Communication
Seeking to understand others and communicate honestly is an essential democratic virtue. Can it be maintained in the digital age?
consilienceproject.orgEssayThe fallacy of faster
Rory Sutherland challenges our knee-jerk assumption that faster is always better. He asks us to consider what might happen if we approached problem-solving and decision-making with a more open-ended, human-centered perspective.
densediscovery.comEssayHow Everyone Got Lost in Netflix’s Endless Library
Ten years after Silicon Valley remade TV, it’s become clear how the streaming revolution distorted our collective viewing habits — and sense of the culture.
Drowning in slop
A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage — and it’s only going to get worse.
Ikigai and the question of personal purpose
While brands have been obsessed with purpose in recent years, we have overlooked personal purpose, which can lead to a far more enriching working life.
creativereview.co.ukEssayWhy “founder mode” is a rebranding for micromanaging, top-down leaders
How some leaders, under the guise of being visionary founders, exert excessive control over decisions and daily operations.
Three reasons we’re in an AI bubble (and four reasons we’re not)
As tech giants continue to invest heavily despite slow profitability, skeptics are questioning whether AI will ever meet high expectations.
Can Digital Clothes Save Creatives?
Written through the lens of the emerging Georgian fashion scene which is heavily impacted by it’s local politics, Dani discusses if digital fashion has lived up to the promises made to creatives.
The Nature of Critique
Has technology, mass tourism, influencer culture, and glossy travel photography contributed to the erosion of a genuine connection with the natural world?
AIAIAI
Looks like we’re just getting started – this author reckons another 20 months of continuous development in the space…
Building Psychological Attachment — Not Just Ownership — Into Web3
User interest in crypto projects is often transactional and short-lived, how can those building in crypto and Web3 consider the concept of psychological ownership.
If You Have Time to Scroll, You Have Time to Write
Let’s be honest, it’s all about priorities says this author.
The Stonewall Uprising: The Origin Story of Pride Month
Solidarity wins. Today is the anniversary of Stonewall – get up to speed on the origins of Pride in this short history lesson.
world-weary.comEssayQueer Renaissance of Geography
Our future will be shaped by the way we navigate planetary challenges today – considering the past, the present and inclusivity.
atmos.earthEssayCan you taste design?
Is the gentrification and commercialisation of cities, not only ruining high streets but also the very way we taste and enjoy food?
Just Show Up
“Showing up. Showing up with your whole self, showing up with your values and beliefs, showing up with what makes you unique, but above all — showing up with consistency” .
Speaking of Nature
Beyond humans, the English language inherently detaches us from living things through the pronoun ‘it’ rather than ‘she/they/he’ – this essay explores language that affirms our kinship with the natural world.
orionmagazine.orgEssayThe Babelian Tower Of AI Alignment
Here’s where the rub lies, human values and contrasting conceptions of the good life are too diverse to fit one universal model.
The luckiest generation?
Gen X had the ’92 recession. Millennials had the 2008 crisis. But now, Gen Z might just have it made, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.
fastcompany.comEssayWe Need To Rewild The Internet
What do forests and the internet have in common? When we simplify complex systems, we destroy them, and the devastating consequences sometimes aren’t obvious until it’s too late.
The Ambling Mind
With a slow, deliberate pace you can think freely and more creatively. Exploring the value of taking a walk, especially when you’re feeling a bit stuck.
When Did Everything Become a ‘Journey’?
Previously the word ‘journey’ was used in relation to a destination, a trip. And now, well you can have all kinds of journeys - typically in health and wellness. A linguistic look into the evolution of these semantics.
nytimes.comEssayWhy it seems like the sky is falling for digital design, and how to come out of the storm stronger
Post-pandemic tech boom, many companies worldwide are re-evaluating design’s role in business – designers must evolve and adapt to the market.
The (unpretty) State of Culture, 2024
Ted Gioia is seeing a culture shift where tech is exploiting dopamine for profit, leading to a decline in happiness and the rise of a post-entertainment society focused on addictive distractions.
The Death of the Big 4: AI-Enabled Services Are Opening a Whole New Market
A hypothesis for how consulting and professional services may evolve in the age of AI-assisted everything.
The hardest part of building software is not coding, it's requirements
Why replacing programmers with AI won’t be so easy – it always needs human input, ideas and requirements.
The drug pilots take to stay awake
Well, this was a surprising piece – learn about how the military (not commercial pilots!) are trialling this medication to help improve alertness during some less-stimulating but essential flights.
bbc.comEssayMy McLuhan lecture on enshittification
An examination into the process of “enshittification”, a term coined by author Cory Doctorow about how platforms colonized the internet, why all those platforms are degrading so quickly, and why it matters.
Your Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Is a Big Lie
Is it time to drop the vibes-based approach to environmentalism for something a little more robust?
What the 5 love languages get right, and what they get very wrong
While love languages often help couples get in the habit of communicating better, just this one approach isn’t going to last in the long run –– we need a balanced diet.
Six Ways AI Could Disrupt Your Business
How can boards better understand the potential impacts of AI? An exploration into six scenarios that all boards must consider — and then act upon.
How to be Alone with Your Thoughts
With unlimited media available to consume at every moment of the day, many of us have stopped listening to or engaging with our inner monologue. But unsurprisingly, harnessing the power of silence can have profound benefits.
The B2B Brand Imperative
When it comes to B2B branding, not everyone can easily understand the value and subsequence importance – but what if we look at it through the lens of demand?
invencion.comEssayThe age of average
In an age where literally everything looks the same, is it time to introduce some originality into design, culture and life?
Whatever the Problem, It’s Probably Solved by Walking
Nourish your body and soothe the mind, there are ample gifts in your amble.
Brainstorm Questions Not Ideas
Despite its popularity and apparent collaborative approach, research has shown group brainstorming to be a waste of time - here’s what to do instead.
The Strangely Beautiful Experience of Google Reviews
A chaotic yet wildly entertaining experience of people’s thoughts - the good, the bad and the ugly.
How moral can AI really be?
A year after OpenAI released ChatGPT, the chatbot is surprisingly good at parroting human values. It may be as ethical as it’s going to get.
What OpenAI’s tumult can teach us about employee loyalty
After the recent leadership chaos, one investor explores an essential factor she considers when taking risks on companies–employee loyalty, and where does it lie?
The Origins of Office Speak
An oldie but a goodie - what does your office buzzword language say about you?
theatlantic.comEssayThe Challenge of Degrowth: Fashion’s Only Solution
Is degrowth feasible, or is it fundamentally incompatible with the idea of a successful, profitable fashion industry? Interline explores.
Art direction vs artificial intelligence: A helpful tool or an added hassle?
AI-powered text-to-image tools are presenting a moral quandary in terms of creative ethics. But is there a way to use such tools while expanding artistic potential?
Think You Have SAD? Think Again
It’s that time of year again when seasonal depression creeps in. Whilst recognised and appreciated by the general public, medical professionals have other thoughts.
Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster
This author explains how capitalism doesn’t care if we want to use or adopt new technologies, it’s built to encourage us to want more, and then when we’re burned out, the cycle starts again.
brettscott.substack.comEssayIf you want to live a life rich in meaning, first you must learn how to do nothing
Explore the tools that can bring awareness to the micro choices we make daily - are they aligned with what truly calls and enlivens us?
My AI Predictions 2023 - 2026
An intuitive view, rather than research, of the coming years in the AI space, from someone working in field robots.
Artificial General Intelligence Is Already Here
Making history – today’s most advanced AI models have many flaws, but decades from now, they will be recognized as the first true examples of artificial general intelligence.
Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore
From AI chatbots with various “sassy” personalities to Musk’s chaotic approach to Twitter, sorry X. When did we actually last enjoy the internet?
‘Is It Good Enough to Fool My Gallerist?’
The future of AI art is promising? Renowned American artist David Salle experimented with generative AI and admitted it had eventually inspired him.
E-Commerce 3.0: The Future Of Retail Is Hyper-Personalized
The Klarna CMO on what brands need to do to hyper-personalise product recommendations and achieve the ultimate shopping experience.
Why note-taking apps don't make us smarter
Can the AI evolution of note-taking apps help us organise our thoughts and garner new insights? This journalist explores.
The fascinating evolution of typing Chinese characters
This history lesson offers a brilliant example of how innovations can bridge the gap between the digital world and the real world.
The Burning Man Fiasco Is the Ultimate Tech Culture Clash
Whilst in theory, the core principles remain, in recent years Burning Man has morphed into a confab of tech bros, celebs, and influencers.
wired.comEssayA Creator (Me) Made a Masterpiece With A.I.
When it comes to copyright, machines and creatives, find out why, after extensive research and consultation with experts, this Columnist has arrived at a carefully considered, nuanced position: meh.
What do you do when a project ends? We explore creative grief and how to deal with it
When finishing up a project, feelings of loss, despair, sadness or emptiness may rise to the surface - here’s some advice from the experts.
POV: It’s time we dress for success again. Here’s how
Alongside the influx of work-from-home, came the influx of work-from-sweatpants, have we forgotten how to dress well to stimulate our own feelings of empowerment and drive for success?
How a killer email strategy made me spend £733 on flowers
Email is most certainly NOT dead, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Bloom and Wild show us how it’s done in this brilliant CRM strategy.
The workers at the frontlines of the AI revolution
An exploration into how freelancers across the world are making the most of generative AI to help inspire and improve their creative processes.
Why You Need an Untouchable Day Every Week
Learn how one creative improved his productivity 10 fold. And the good news? You can do it too.
My A.I. Writing Robot
A new wave of artificial-intelligence startups is trying to “scale language” by automating the work of writing. But can it truly replace the insights and knowledge a human brings?
AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years
ChatGPT and other AI systems are shaping up to launch the third user-interface paradigm in the history of computing — the first new interaction model in more than 60 years.
Steve Jobs' 3 Powerful Persuasion Tactics, and How You Can Use Them to Win Customers
With Apple on the mind this week, perhaps we can learn a trick or two from the legendary co-founder.
blog.hubspot.comEssayThe Case for and Against Ed Sheeran
It’s a fine line between original music and copyright infringement in pop music, and Ed Sheeran is at the heart of it.
The Internet Isn’t Meant To Be So Small
The death of Google Reader matters: an exploration into why the internet shrank in size, and well unsurprisingly it’s all down to social media.
Trends have lost all meaning
In the process of chasing cool, have brands lost the purpose of analysing culture? It seems we’ve come to confuse what is ‘trending’ with what is a ‘trend’.
eCommerce Tricks of Transformation: Trick 1
In a brand new series, Strategy Director Việt Hoàng explores the impact of online commerce on our lives and compares it to a magic show, highlighting both the positive and overwhelming aspects.
Why Chatbots Are Not the Future
The case for AI tools that help us gain clarity in our thinking and actually embrace our human abilities.
Opinion: An internet that women want? It looks like this
With a continued gender divide even online, here is how six experts envision an internet that works better for women.
RIP Metaverse, we hardly knew ye
At just three years old, is the Metaverse ready for an early grave? This writer certainly thinks so.
The web won’t survive AI
Roach worries that internet’s distinction between reality and fiction is about to disappear as AI technology advances. Digital identity may be the solution, but at what cost?
Octopus time
You’ve heard about artificial intelligence, but what about Octopus intelligence? These creatures show remarkable smarts and a unique perception of time. If we’d learn from them, we might enrich our relationship with the past.
aeon.coEssayIs social media is doomed to die?
After seven years at SnapChat, Ellis Hamburger learned about why our most important apps seem destined to disappoint us.
Last but not least—There Is No A.I.
Finally, a long read by computer scientist Jaron Lanier that argues against the term "A.I." and the mythology surrounding it and why we should see it as a tool, rather than a creature.
The age of average
In an age where literally everything looks the same, is it time to introduce some originality into design, culture and life?
Brainstorm Questions Not Ideas
Despite its popularity and apparent collaborative approach, research has shown group brainstorming to be a waste of time - here’s what to do instead.
Stop siloing tech trends and start looking at the bigger picture
Technology is just another tool to help you achieve your goals, don’t forget to integrate it with your strategy and customer needs.
Walking on air: how Jordan launched nerdy Nike into the stratosphere
How the classic sneaker transformed Nike into a cultural success.
theguardian.comEssayFour ways leaders can better support Muslims observing Ramadan
Supporting Muslim employees during Ramadan is essential to foster an inclusive workplace and promote employees' well-being and productivity.
What Have Humans Just Unleashed?
Exploring the immense potential of GPT-4 and the need for responsible development and deployment of AI technologies.
The TikTok ban is a betrayal of the open internet
Wouldn’t it be better to pass real privacy, security, transparency, and other accountability rules for all tech companies, rather than locking out a foreign competitor?
Internet Computers
Is it time for the OS (operating system) to retire and for us to live seamlessly from the cloud? The Browser Company’s CEO Josh Miller certainly thinks so.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
A call for greater emphasis on ethical considerations and social responsibility when it comes to design thinking.
The Radical Act of Eating With Strangers
The pandemic hit social circles hard, so in a time when reconnecting with people in real life, what could be better than meeting new people over dinner?
Ganbrood on finding ultimate creative freedom with AI
The Dutch artist on how AI removes the burden of perfectionism.
How a nonlinear workday might help you get more done
Aligning your day to your energy levels can enable you to be both more flexible and productive.
The Astonishing Transformation of Austin
An in depth exploration into the turbocharged changes Austin has gone through in the last 30 years, and how that feels as a long-term resident.
The Strangely Beautiful Experience of Google Reviews
A chaotic yet wildly entertaining experience of people’s thoughts - the good, the bad and the ugly.
Does Burberry’s redesign signal a new chapter for ‘British’ symbolism?
The new branding is a welcome contrast to the minimalist style that swept through the luxury fashion brands in the last few years.
In Defense of Chatbot Romance
Are we wrong to assume the worst of those ‘falling’ for AI chatbots?
Five strategic prompts to consider in 2023
The YM strategy team reviewed, in hindsight, what they learned in 2022. Expect insightful digital considerations for brands, designers and marketing managers alike.
The Rise of the Tech Bro Supervillain
For decades movie bad guys were easily identified by their moustaches or mwa-ha-has. These days, evil wears a hoodie.
Forward Thinking: What can the creative world expect in 2023?
Uncover the topics, trends, worries and wonders that will shape the design industry in the year to come.
Your stuff is actually worse now
You'd expect that developments in technology, design and manufacturing would lead to great design and better quality products. Well, actually consumerism ushered in an era of badly made stuff...
