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By Matthew Homann —

Idea Surplus Disorder #112

In this edition: A perfectionism audit, a reminder that friction and obligation add meaning, and the decline of reading for pleasure. Plus: Seth Godin on talking dogs, bold AI prompts, the gap between leaders’ words and actions, and why the future belongs to AI drivers, not passengers.

Idea Surplus Disorder #112

In this week's edition of Idea Surplus Disorder: a perfectionism audit, a reminder that friction and obligation add meaning, and the decline of reading for pleasure.

Plus: Seth Godin on talking dogs, bold AI prompts, the gap between leaders’ words and actions, and why the future belongs to AI drivers, not passengers.

And as always, you’ll find a mix of fun finds, practical insights, and thought-provoking quotes to help you lead, live, and think more intentionally.

I'm Matt Homann, and I'm glad you're here.

Ideas + Insights

Try a perfectionism audit (from The Friction Project):

In The Systems Bible, John Gall proposed the Perfectionist’s Paradox: in complex systems, “striving for perfection is a serious imperfection.” Pressures for perfection cause needless effort and delay, interfere with learning from imperfect prototypes, and provoke despair.
Many things that are worth doing—or are required by others—aren’t worth doing well. Or, as Gall preaches, ought to be done poorly. In that spirit, ask people to identify tasks where the standards are too narrow or too high, or that are enforced with too much zeal.

A reminder that where you live (and work) matters:

The richness and meaning arises in part from choosing it at the expense of all other places you could be and things you could be doing. Accepting a place’s shortcomings, the things it lacks, and its imperfections is essential to appreciating everything it does have to offer.
Though it’s now possible to eliminate a large chunk of friction and obligations from our lives, that doesn't mean that doing so will help us thrive. As we move into this bizarre era of AI-assisted living, I’d argue that the quality and meaning of people’s lives will increasingly be determined by whether or not they realize that fact. Whether or not they recognize that while drudgery, routine, and obligation are now optional — they are also a big part of what makes life meaningful.

This makes me so sad: daily reading for pleasure has declined by nearly 40% in the last twenty years.

I love Seth Godin's take on AI:

It's probably the talking dog thing, which has two parts. Part one is if you meet a talking dog and its grammar isn't very good, don't forget that it's still a talking dog. It's still a miracle. But number two is just because a talking dog said it doesn't mean it's important.

Here are some ways to make your AI bolder:

  • Add weird constraints. Force creative breakthroughs by setting up artificial limitations. Example: “Help me explain [X] using words a 12-year-old would understand, but make it engaging enough for experts in the field.”
  • Insist on strange cross-pollination. Require the borrowing of concepts, frameworks, or terminology from vastly different domains. Example: “Analyze my [business / creative project] through the lens of marine biology. What patterns or ecosystem principles could apply here?”
  • Apply disaster movie logic. Push an AI assistant to consider a workplace problem with the urgency of a crisis scenario to explore unconventional ways to quickly address a slow-moving issue. Example: “This team project has 48 hours before catastrophic failure. What unconventional resources could we deploy? What rules would we break to succeed?’
  • Embrace absurd analogies. Challenge the AI to reply in terms that may seem silly at first, but may yield unexpected clarity. Example: “To help me simplify the most confusing aspect of my presentation, explain my fundraising strategy [X] as if it were a board game instruction manual.”

From the same article, more prompt ideas:

  • “Offer 5 surprising, bold suggestions for specific ways to improve the following piece of writing. Along with each suggestion, include a detailed, creative explanation with your rationale.”
  • “Act as an unpredictable, brilliant writing coach who offers strange, quirky, creative suggestions. Provide specific, granular input.”
  • “Point out blindspots. Spotlight what others with radically different perspectives might find problematic if they were to read this with a critical eye. Offer a list of unconventional suggestions for addressing these issues.”

Change is about what leaders do and not what they say:

If there are gaps between what leaders say, do and believe they will not be able to bring about change.
Today the challenge to change is not tech or strategy but aligned incentives, truthful conversation and trust.
Leadership must inspire with clarity. Be absolutely candid as to what is being done and how it is being done and show that they are doing exactly what they expect of others.

Are you an AI driver or passenger?

AI passengers will happily delegate their cognitive work to AI. They’ll paste a basic prompt into ChatGPT, copy the result, and submit it as their own. They won’t fact check. They won’t push the AI to verify its sources or consider decisions from multiple angles.  
AI drivers will insist on directing AI. They’ll do some original thinking themselves, use AI to pressure-test their assumptions, and rigorously check what it says. They won't accept AI-generated results they can't validate. They’ll look to AI for a conversation – not the answer.

Long term, the economic divide between these groups will widen dramatically. AI drivers will claim a disproportionate share of wealth in the next decade, while passengers face a false security. They're using cutting-edge technology but becoming increasingly replaceable, all while believing they're on the right side of the AI revolution.

What is your organization's Busy Work Black Hole?

You're already a writer:

Let’s start with an observation: You are already a prolific writer... That seems prodigious, but if you look at your own correspondence — every email, text, and post, every tweet you’ve cast into the soulless void that is Twitter — you will likely find that you have written more, by this point in your life, than Gandhi’s entire life’s work. You’re an internet user. A netizen; you write more text as an afterthought each day than most people pre-1980 did on purpose.

Things fall apart for a million different reasons. Things fall apart consistently for one of a few reasons:

  • People
  • Process
  • Systems
  • Incentives
  • Alignment

Fun Finds

Words of Wisdom

If you don’t know where you are, you probably don’t know who you are. – Ralph Ellison
Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem. — John Maeda
Excellence emerges from intimacy with imperfection, mastery is built through befriending failure, and the path to creating one perfect thing runs directly through creating many imperfect things. – Maalvika
Those who don't build must burn. – Ray Bradbury
You can’t automate what you can’t articulate. – Chauncey Nartey
Too many of us are slaves to our lifestyle. We build a business (or career) that we hate, to enable us to buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t even like. – Jayson Gaignard
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. ― Ursula K. Le Guin
A phone is a device for muting the anxieties proper to being alive. – Sam Kriss

Up Next From Filament

Every month, Filament delivers an incredible mix of free programming and professional development. You can find links to sign up for all of our upcoming events, including PlayDays, Wavelength, NSFW, and SuperCollider here.

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