Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit […] and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit."

Not often I get to say this, but: OK, I'm off to Greenland!

Still into steampunk or afrofuturism? You're so behind the curve it's not even funny anymore. All the cool kids are into GiscardPunk now. youtu.be/KKhnDzRgsW8

Sometimes you just write for the joy of it – this was one! I’ve written on pop culture and management before but this piece might be my wildest yet: leadership and management as part of pro wrestling. Includes playacted anilingus, because of course it does. 🌀 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fascinating read on the Tony Blair Institute and the cozy relationship it seems to have with Oracle. Might be extra interesting for Finns, as this is where the former PM went to work. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Well, masculinity needs to develop with the times… (But why is there no Grumpiest Cat Dad-category? Both our cats would vote for me in that category...) www.trendwatching.com/innovations/...

On my Substack – Creative Class Contrarian – I continue with the more educational, and often snarky, explanations and analyses of common innovation terms, models, and tropes. alfrehn.substack.com/p/12-the-5-m...

RIP Robert Redford.

New format for my Substack, yet the snark remains. Now with curious curation and a very angry essay. alfrehn.substack.com/p/11-the-new...

Kommentoin (vähän) Ruotsin ja Tanskan "kulttuurikaanoneja" ja näiden roolia. Ainakin sain hieman suitsuttaa Carl Barksia! yle.fi/a/74-20181987

Finally! Jellybeans that taste like gravy, sweet corn, and gravy, for when KFC doesn't give you diabetes quite quickly enough! Thanks, #innovation! www.yardbarker.com/lifestyle/ar...

Charming piece on "obstacle parenting", which I suspect will go megaviral. Expect a book deal, parents misinterpreting this in awful ways, and a backlash. thewalrus.ca/my-job-as-a-...

Happy and proud (with a side-order of humbled) to have been selected to serve on the board of directors of University of the Arts Helsinki, home to the Academy of Fine Arts, the world-renowned Sibelius Academy and the Theatre Academy. www.uniarts.fi/en/articles/...

A powerful, and needed, defense of the em-dash in writing, as well as an exposé of how people think it's a special sign of AI writing are uncultured buffoons. www.theringer.com/2025/08/20/p...

Imaging being so unpleasant a person that you manage to turn people against an entire industry. It's almost impressive. gizmodo.com/elon-musk-is...

Is Banksy a woman, and patriarchy just refuses to see it? I'm not sure I buy the argument completely, but there are some pretty solid points made here.

RIP Ozzy.

Observing ChatGPT Agent trying and failing to navigate Microsoft's ridiculous UI and security clusterfuck, and it honestly looks exactly like what I imagine the future's going to be – clumsy IT-systems frustrating other clumsy IT-systems.

So, it seems I'm going to go see Bob Dylan in October. That's nice! Did want to see the man before it get late, too late.

Innovation never sleeps, nor does it take any holidays. Here's the latest issue of my #innovation Substack. This time it's social innovation, in five (5!) minutes (or less). alfrehn.substack.com/p/10-the-5-m...

Just saw Superman with the young son. Sheer. Cinema. Joy. Run, don’t walk, to see this!

Hypernomalization. Learn the term, learn about it, learn to use it. It will be one of the defining terms of this era. Hypernormalization. www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-...

Out now, and so am I. Out of here, that is! Time for some R&R. alfrehn.substack.com/p/9-has-inno...

Just shared the latest issue of my Substack. alfrehn.substack.com/p/8-the-5-mi...

Off to an ephemera-conference on algorithmic organizing at CBS. Such is my rock'n'roll lifestyle.

On the road again. Tomorrow I will be speaking at the NATO StratCom-conference in Riga, about thinking the impossible and the chaos magic necessary to see ten years into the future. As a warm-up I’m mainlining Grant Morrisson-penned comics.

RIP Sly

Interesting take on Jordan Peterson, arguing that he, in the end, is just a sloppier version of the caricatured postmodernism he decries. "Peterson is someone who believes “a woman is a woman” but will also insist that dragons are every bit as valid as lions." thewalrus.ca/is-jordan-pe...

Let's remember that it's Pride Month, and keep it civil. Two aging queens are having a messy breakup, so what? Unlove is unlove.

Don't know about y'all, but I feel this idea of rebooting the Tupac/Biggie beef with two old white guys might have been a mistake. Still waiting for Elon to drop the opening lines of "Hit 'Em Up", tho.

I guess the fact that stupid and nasty people will eventually start attacking each other should give one some degree of solace, but it's still just the soothing warmth of a dumpsterfire...

This is a cover of a classic Led Zeppelin song, but sung in Cree. This is the definition of badass. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW_d...

Things I didn't ever think I'd be doing, ever, yet here we are: Preparing a talk for a NATO conference on chaos magic.

Realizing that I have no immediate or already missed deadlines for texts/writings. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

A day of research applications and rewrites. Or, like most academics would call it, Monday.

Back from the wild, wild world of Eastern Europe. Gothenburg, what a trip!

Our column on AI and democracy just came out as a little Easter-special. politiken.dk/debat/kronik...

Confused about the trade war and promises of re-industrialization? Molson makes clear why the former is stupid and the latter very, very difficult indeed. www.molsonhart.com/blog/america...

A new day, a new interesting spin on "the land of the free". I'd hate to be a US citizen right about now, rights taken away as prices keep rising, and now having to fear being thrown into a prison in El Salvador? Well, FAFO I guess… www.mediaite.com/trump/the-ho...

I would never say that what the US populace really wants to do is to work in coal mines and toil in factories. That would be arrogant of me, not to mention a bit racist to say this is what Americans are good for. So I wouldn't. Anyway, here's Trump saying that. gizmodo.com/trump-says-a...

Ah, the sweet taste of innovation! Have you always longed for a toothpaste that tastes of fried chicken and eleven special herbs and spices? You're in luck! www.mentalfloss.com/kfc-toothpas...

Does what it says on the tin: "This is part of a series, "The 5-Minute Innovator", which you can read in about five minutes without being a speed-reader. May contain traces of snark. alfrehn.substack.com/p/the-5-minu...

A Hint of Moon in the Copenhagen Evening.

Sent out a WIP on leadership tropes among sweaty men in leotards to my private email list. What a way to start a Sunday!

Beautiful Copenhagen - this sculpture across the water from our flat, by my gym.

Beautiful Copenhagen, a moment in town.

Word of the Day is ‘ingordigiousness’ (18th century): extreme greed at the expense of principles.

Government thrillers writers everywhere: "…and then it turns out that the conspiracy DOESN'T go all the way to the top! I know! The people in charge were actually the GOOD guys all along! It'll blow minds, let me tell ya…"

The #mustread of the moment, on the rise of the "Soy Right", a multitude of whiny complain-y manchildren of all sexes, the kind with "Kanye attitude but Drake feelings". https://maxread.substack.com/p/soy-right-ascendant