Properly thought-provoking post this on cognitive offloading substack.nomoremarking.com/p/are-we-liv...

Fascinating study which shows that when a broader set of psychological dimensions are considered overall mental functioning peaks between the ages of 55 and 60. There's hope for me yet theconversation.com/worried-abou...

Almost a decade ago I wrote a report for the IPA on the Future of Agencies, and used a framework to define a key dynamic for the future: systems and empathy. I've found myself thinking a lot about this now we're truly in the age of AI. onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

Off the back of the latest WARC Future of Strategy survey I did some scenario planning for the future role of the strategist. Interested to know what you think onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

A powerful piece from Cory Doctorow about the ongoing enshittification of the internet, using Amazon as a 'Prime' example (see what I did there) www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

OH: 'Every time I go to a meeting there are four pillars and they're different from the last four pillars' 🤣

I truly believe that intellectual humility and curiosity will be a key differentiator in the era of AI. So this week I've written about the paradox of information abundance, Virginia Woolf, and why we need more institutionalised doubt in business. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

I've been working with the BBC this week on how they use AI. I love the BBC. What it does and how it does it is needed more than ever and the licence fee is exceptionally good value for what we get and what it does for the country

Did some teaching today at Venice International University. Such an amazing place. History + great architecture + lovely food

Clients that tell you when you're invoicing too little. Those are the kind of clients I like

AI is in many ways a perfect Dunning-Kruger storm. But by working with it in the right way we can amplify and extend human cognitive ability rather than outsourcing it. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

One of the biggest problems in big company innovation is connecting the flow from pioneering experiments and ideas to the realities of execution. This execution gap is where good ideas go to die. I've written up a few thoughts on what to do about it onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

Nothing like being in the city that the IDF decide is going to be their next target. Heard the blasts from my hotel room and thankfully all safe, but crikey

In this week's newsletter I've written about AI and high creativity, and about how lived cultural philosophies capture the essence of what AI generated art struggles to create, but also how technological change can take creativity in entirely new directions. onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

There are some really interesting stretch use cases for how strategists and planners can use AI at each stage of the planning process and in this week's post I've written about some of the ones that hold real potential. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

I'm being grumpy but there's a certain type of 'thought leader' over on LinkedIn that is clearly using AI to source and summarise reports and research about AI to then post. If you haven't thought about something you can't call yourself a thought leader

Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive page on how to tell if something is written by AI en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Using AI for scenario planning, simulation and strategy testing has been a real eye opener for me. It enables you to do things that were simply not possible before. So I've outlined a full six stage workflow for doing this in this week's newsletter. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Whenever I travel for business my melon consumption skyrockets (breakfast buffets ftw)

One thing I found about using ChatGPT5 is that the next steps it suggests are way better. As long as it understands enough context up front, instead of needing to craft complex prompts at each stage to go further, I've found that I've just needed say 'yes please'

I love mavericks. Taiichi Ohno was a relentlessly curious production engineer who changed an entire industry. How he did it is a lesson in the value of persistence, the power of observation, and how constraints can catalyse innovation. onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

A nice counterpoint to the prevailing AI-will-take-junior-jobs narrative from Antony Mayfield - hiring MORE young people not less, not because they are 'AI native' but because 'they have fewer preconceptions and prejudices about work and how it gets done’ antonym.substack.com/p/antonym-th...

I'm not an AI sceptic, nor am I an AI evangelist, but I do want to understand what it all means and a key part of that for me is to be cognisant of the limitations of AI and the specific areas where AI cannot match human sensibility and capability. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Just said to a client that I'd rather not do Slack. Juggling multiple projects at once you can easily end up trying to keep track of email, Slack, Teams, WhatApp and Discord messages. It can be a bit of an inbox mess and you just miss stuff.

A view on how we seperate fads from trends, how technology scales, and the likely second and third order effects of AI open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Off the back of all the scarily good Veo3 videos, this is one of the best articulations I've seen looking at the future implications of AI on how cultural content gets made. Such an interesting and insightful take. www.tiktok.com/@zauey/video...

As I get older I'm getting mildly obsessed with how our perception of time changes across our lives. This post by Yana Yuhai on the neuroscience of time perception talks about why time felt slower when we were kids contemplationstation.substack.com/p/why-time-f...

I've found that using synthetic personas can be an excellent way to explore new thinking, challenge assumptions and generate ideas, so I've written up a workflow for how I (and the teams I've worked with) have used it to do just this onlydeadfish.substack.com/p/fish-food-...

One of the most useful but undervalued ways of using AI engines is to use them as a thinking partner to open up new lines of exploration, initiate new ideas and challenge your own assumptions or thinking. I've written about some of the most useful techniques here open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Have we got personalisation all wrong? In this week's newsletter I explore a totally different way of thinking about so-called 'hyper-personalisation at scale' and how some critical building blocks towards this are starting to emerge. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

There was a lot that resonated with me in this lovely post from @tomcritchlow.com about why blogging is so important to him tomcritchlow.com/2025/06/27/t...

This seems like a good way to start a hot day

In this weeks newsletter I've written about complexity bias in three key areas of AI application: prompting, product strategy and innovation, and AI systems with examples from an Australian radio telescope, Homer Simpson and the London Underground. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

This summary of Microsoft's (well-shared) research shows the stark reality of what modern knowledge workers are dealing with: 117 emails and 270 notifications a day, 2 minutes between interruptions, little work/life separation www.microsoft.com/en-us/workla...

Getting quite bored of 'magic prompt' posts over on LinkedIn. You know the kind of thing... 'Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT to supercharge your x or y'. Working well with AI is not about magic prompts

Why do so many big projects far exceed the original budget and time, and often fail to deliver the perceived benefits? In this week's newsletter I look at 'Gigantomania', and useful principles for adopting new technology which originated 100 years ago open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

This is a fascinating look at the evolution of TV genres and the startling decline in sitcoms open.substack.com/pub/statsign...

'Superagency' is a way of describing how AI can amplify human capability. It sounds great. But there are two very real risks with Superagency - the illusion of expertise, and the erosion of human agency and motivation. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

Fully integrating GenAI into my strategic workflow has been a complete game changer for me so I thought I'd share how I do it. I've detailed a full strategy workflow with AI embedded, using ChatGPT Project Space as an example, in the latest edition of my newsletter. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

AI LinkedIn gurus using AI to summarise Mary Meeker's AI Trends Report is the most meta thing I've seen in a while

Wow. Gemini Deep Research goes deep. Doing some research for a project and it's analysed 200+ resources and sites in a multistage process. It's amazing but it's almost TOO deep for what I need which raises the question about needing to specify the level of depth required each time you use it

These AI generated interviews of people from the Tudor period in England are hilarious. But also, on a more serious note, show us a great way to learn about history. www.tiktok.com/@impossiblea...

Spotify and other streaming services have changed music in some very interesting ways. In this week’s episode I explore how we shape our tools and then our tools shape us - something that will be interesting to consider as AI tools become more ubiquitous open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

'This is more than a question of quality or taste; it’s a deep uncertainty about agency, intent, and presence. Readers detect a “hollow center” in the prose, a structure of feeling without anyone actually doing the feeling.' Tina He on AI's lack of soul fakepixels.substack.com/p/ai-heidegg...

'A year ago people were saying "it’s not AI that will steal your job, it’s someone using AI that will steal it". It’s pretty clear that was just comfort talk.' @brucedaisley.com with some sobering thoughts on AI’s impact on knowledge work www.makeworkbetter.info/p/accepting-...

Had my first request from a client for a workshop on critical thinking and AI today. A sign that this is becoming more of a concern maybe?

Some Friday afternoon light entertainment. An hour and 20 minutes of every single Premier League footballer saying how to pronounce their name (via The Rest is Entertainment podcast) www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wmA...

It’s easy to forget in the hype around AI that almost every industry has undergone paradigm shifts driven by technology before. The shift from the silent movie era to ‘talkies’ gives us some excellent lessons for how technology can transform creative industries. open.substack.com/pub/onlydead...

This morning I chatted to Houda Boulahbel and she mentioned a piece she'd written which is a brilliant articulation in one post of the fundamental differences between linear, design and systems thinking, but also why each one of these is necessary. Loved it medium.com/systems-thin...

I feel this is perhaps a British thing but I really dislike the use of the word 'insane' to describe something which is really good.