“For the simplicity that lies on this side of complexity, I would not give a fig, but for the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity, I would give my life.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Uncertainty and Opportunity
As the Age of Acceleration looms before us, we are in a period of extreme uncertainty.
However, in the very core of my being, I believe that this moment of complexity will leave us with the tools to create a bright and abundant future for us all. I don’t know what that future will look like, but I know we can get there. I see with certainty that the destructive forces are not capable of surviving the oncoming waves of complexity, and the technology developing around us will put power into the hands of ordinary people.
We are all trying our best to understand the world around us, but we are confronted by a fundamental unknown. It’s human nature to be frightened. Furthermore, we are being overwhelmed by powerful, wealthy forces trying to use this chaos to shove us into techno-fascism and environmental collapse.
But none of this is definite.
That future of terror is not yet fact, and I know that we can create something better. And we reach that abundant future through one another.
The world is complex and vast, perhaps now more than ever. One person is incapable of understanding it all on their own. We need as many perspectives as possible. We are being shown the future through one specific lens, and that lens is flawed and incomplete.
And that’s why I want to create this podcast. I have tangible hope in this bright and abundant future, but I cannot imagine it alone.
Do you feel the same?
I’m looking for a co-host who shares this powerful hope, but can see the things that I can’t. I’m looking for someone working toward that bright future, but who comes at it from a completely different angle — someone skeptical about different things, and finding hope in places I don’t. I think productive disagreements that push us to widen our worldview will get us the clearest idea of our future. I hope to do that through camaraderie and challenge.
Together, each episode will approach an issue (or an aspect of an issue) and try to create an all-encompassing collage of opportunities in order to create a shape closer to the truth.
About Me
Fifteen years ago, I had a transformational experience when I worked on the board of a Quaker school, where I learned about the Quaker tradition of non-hierarchical decision-making and problem-solving. I was exposed to the unlimited power and potential of human connection and collaborative work. My purpose in life is to lift up the profound connections that all of us share with the rest of humanity, so those connections are visible and tangible and celebrated as a source of insight, joy, strength, and belonging.
After a 25-year career in the recruiting and staffing industry, I left to dedicate my life to this effort. My first stage is speaking, and my talk, “The Pyramid Has Collapsed: Finding Abundance in the Midst of Disruption,” details how to lead in the Age of Acceleration amidst a collapse of the command-and-control orthodoxy.
The Structure
Structurally akin to Hard Fork, Radiolab, or This American Life, I envision that this podcast will be constructed around as many perspectives as possible through a collection of interviews on a topic, not a guest-of-the-week type format. Yet, the heart of the show will be the dynamic between the two hosts. Our banter, our insights, and our growth will anchor the possibilities we explore. Through the conversations we have together we will shape an image of that bright future.
I have a few episode ideas, but I want to know what feels the most pressing to you. What possibilities do you find haunting, intriguing, confusing?
Here are some possible questions we can explore in each episode:
- What are the fears?
- What are the hopes?
- What can come of this, both good and bad?
- How can this actually fit into our lives?
- How can we use this to create a brighter future together?
Overall
Fundamentally, I hope that this podcast will allow us — me, you, and our audience — to realistically imagine ourselves in abundance. It will be a project driven by opportunity, hope challenged by truth, and fear challenged by understanding.
I truly can’t wait to start talking.
Is This You?
If this potential excites you, or if it brings someone you know to mind, please contact me at [email protected].
Some Sample Episode Ideas
I’m including some loose ideas for possible episodes to create a better picture of the project. However, I am guessing these won’t be the topics we end up going with in the end — we’ll come up with those together.
The End of the Beginning: How the Tools of Giants Became Everyone’s
The giants got obsessed with cutting costs and keeping control, so they used AI to freeze their own processes in place — and in doing so handed their playbook, and the tools to run it, to the exact people who can rebuild it without their blind spots. The advantage that once took a giant’s scale now belongs to boutiques, small teams, and individuals. The edge is passing to the many.
David’s New Slingshot: Why Now Is the Best Time to Be an Entrepreneur
The giants have never been slower or more exposed, and the tools that once took a thousand-person company now fit in a single founder’s hands. This is the rare moment when one person with conviction can take the same technologies those corporations built and turn them back on them — and win. The stone has never been easier to pick up.
The Wisdom in the Room: The Answers You Need Are Already on Your Team
Most organizations still run on an ancient management model, one built when only sovereigns had access to information. It’s breaking at the seams, cutting them off from what they need most right now: the full knowledge, insight, creativity, and ability of their entire teams. The organizations already breaking that mold — pushing decisions to the edges, trusting the intelligence of the whole — are running circles around the hierarchies still waiting for permission from the top.
From Company to Community: How Workplace Collaboration Changes Society
For most people, work is where they learn command and control — disengaged, unheard, waiting to be told what to do — and they carry that lesson home, into their families, their neighborhoods, their politics. But collaboration is just as contagious. When work becomes a real community, people carry that home too, and the habits of listening and trust and shared decision-making seep out of the office and into a society that badly needs them.
The New Normal of ‘Oh Crap’ Moments: How the Best Teams Turn Not-Knowing Into an Edge
The problems coming at us now are genuinely new. No expert, no playbook, no genius at the top has the answer — and the old reflex of looking up the chain just freezes everyone. The teams that thrive treat “oh crap” as normal. They pool wildly different perspectives, run small experiments, and find their way through problems no one person could have cracked — until working in the unknown becomes the thing they’re best at.
The Acceleration Principle: Why AI Is Only the First Wave
AI is eating our whole field of vision right now, but it’s only the first wave. Robotics, fusion, quantum, CRISPR, brain-computer interfaces — a dozen more are cresting behind it, and as they arrive they’ll start to merge and recombine into disruptions nobody can predict. Getting through it won’t mean surviving one more change and going back to normal. It’ll take a new kind of leadership, one built to live and create inside constant, compounding upheaval — which is exactly where the abundant future gets made.
