Did serendipity have a hand in landing you here? Let's prod that probability.
May I introduce myself: Max Kaizen. Creative technologist. Collector and connector of ingenuity from across the ages, cultures. and species. Why? Because our human lives are absurdly brief, and business models opportunity EVERYWHERE.
Yup, MAXIMILLIAN KAIZEN.
I know. My name evokes a Teutonic colossus, right?
IRL: more pocket-sized, wizard creative technologist than battle-ready barbarian of yore.
But here we are ... lace up yer boots, let's go.
INTELLIGENT LEISURE nerdy escapades, learn-togethers, makeathons, citizen science expeditions, writing retreats and sabbaticals yield more a-ha! breakthrough innovations than brute-force and big budget R&D could ever hope to. And always have.
Trust me, I know about helping old systems adapt & transform ... (with citations and experience)
I equip bright people craving the thrill of meaningful ambition again ... to boldly venture beyond their ken.
To reply to big changes with adventurous ingenuity, discovering the quests & friendships they didn't realise would help them feel most alive.
NARRATIVE FORESIGHT
Because if I said everyday time-travel to rewrite the future, would you stay?
Narrative foresight isn't predicting the future, nor the sexy futurist showmanship of sparkly new gadget and consumer trends. It's more of the preventative health reality check-ups, workouts and veggies version of futurism. Inoculating against future shocks and expensive surprises.
It requires hunting down the many hidden stories coursing under the surface of reality, to name the monsters, unflinchingly detail the fiascos. Then rewrite the scripts, and rehearse our part if one of the dystopian disaster flicks we foresaw, starts playing at a reality theatre near us.
Shortening the gap between freak-out ➔ figure-it-out takes getting our reps in. Never in isolation. It takes MANY kinds of minds, community inventory, role-play and skill-discovery to evolve through complex transitions, be they personal or planetary. Abstract dread ➔ action-packed invitations to plans + practical adventure.
It's also the realm of strategic mythmaking for those with big responsibilities. Cultural diplomacy. Placemaking. Film, food and fashion as soft power? You know it. We deal in big time, thick data, tiny actions and deep nerdery in decision-craft for this high stakes period.
Be Prepared
"Prepared for what?"
"Why, for any old thing"
- Lord Robert Baden Powell (Boy Scouts)
INTELLIGENT
LEISURE
Genius is no tame thing. Epiphany flirts from the periphery. It's often slippery, serendipitous, silly. Refusing to shimmer up with reliable certainty upon command or calendar. It's here where brute-force brilliance and deep pockets come up short in trying to industrialise innovation.
Unfurling our surface area to "luck" with intelligent leisure: unusual friends, skill sabbaticals, writers retreats, grownup field trips, creative tech tinkering, cultural immersions, raiding the adjacent possible. Anything but leaving it to chance alone, if we want to chart our own journey in this one lifetime.
= doing things that aren't for your resume, and where income isn't the only outcome. Surprisingly often, supercharges both.
Nothing is boring when you see the clues hidden in everything.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries,
is not "Eureka!"
but "That's funny..."
- Isaac Asimov
CHARACTER DRIVEN R&D
Too often we mistake WHAT to DO next, rather than WHO to BE next.
Heartbreakingly, I've watched too many brilliant people squish themselves into a role too small for their soul: the seemingly safe/sensible choice in the hot industry, high status or the one too lucrative to turn down. Rather than the arena that they secretly long to wholeheartedly test themselves within.
Or suffering the unanticipated weirdness of retirement, realising their identity was tethered to their lofty job title.
Developing our own character, and quests, outside of social utility and standing, is a gift few people afford themselves. Wealth and fame don't confer it. It's earned in frustration, awkwardness and daring that we can't delegate.
But once won, it's like a comforting skeleton key ⚷ We can take far more courageous and interesting risks, negotiating our terms with relief. Trusting internal clarity over external validation offers the freedom money can't buy.
Self importance obstructs learning
NATURE'S OPERATING SYSTEM
Okay, so this is the heart of my own quest. Odds are absurdly long but the maybe is enough for ambition: the chance in our lifetime of bringing LIFE roaring back.
Silicon-based intelligence may become the rosetta stone for decoding the ancient language of life on our planet. Helping us work with this 3.8 billion year old operating system, written in chlorophyll and encoded in mycelium networks. Though we don't yet have a roadmap, we do finally have the tools to swerve out of the doom loop.
But first, rewilding our imaginations to see beyond our coin-operated reality.
"It's still magic even if you know how it works."
- Sir Terry Pratchett (A Hat Full of Sky)
IT'S ALIVE!
SYMBIOTIC INTELLIGENCES
The Enlightenment forged many of the great engines of reality that got us here. The freedoms, rights and scientific progress have been key to human flourishing. But our needs, and knowledge have outgrown its 250 year old "apps" - political, financial, educational.
Clinging to the old operating system means we're endlessly patching corrupted, overheating systems, riddled with malware. Like any good reinvention, it takes fitness, focus and sometimes a new set of friends. New skills and tapping into the extelligence around us.
There's no time to waste. But it's not too late.
The Enlightenment ⏛ The Enlivenment *:･ﾟ
