Idea Surplus Disorder #94

This week, explore the hidden cost of meeting hangovers, why most leadership training fails to create real change, and what you can learn from 50 years of travel wisdom. Plus, surprising insights on AI adoption at work and why writing — even if no one reads it — is still one of the best investments in your thinking.

All that, along with AARP Asteroids, wiki-walking, wiki-toking, doing nothing (for a good reason), and cursor dance parties.

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

Up Next From Filament

We're busy in March and April at Filament, with an incredible mix of free programming and professional development.

• March 7 | NSFW + SuperCollider: March 7th, learn how to connect your organization's purpose to strategy and work the rest of the day (solo or with your team) at Filament and CIC. 
• March 21 | EmpowerHer: Learn how to clear out negative self-talk and refocus confidence in a supportive, female-only space. Together, we’ll explore authenticity, accountability, and acceptance, leaving attendees with practical tools for stronger self-advocacy and a renewed sense of empowerment.
• COMING SOON: On April 18th, we're launching PlayDays. Unlike traditional workshops, PlayDays aren’t about expertise — they’re about exploring, experimenting, and learning together. Each PlayDay invites curious minds to attend, share insights, swap experiences, and “play” with the ideas and tools transforming work. In our first PlayDay, we'll demystify essential AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

You can find all of Filament's upcoming events here.

Ideas + Insights

Instead of focusing on what you've got to have before you can do something and become someone, flip the script to Be, Do, Have:

The traditional line of thinking is Have, Do, Be. A classic example: I need to have more money and fancy things, then I can do the things I want, and then I'll be fulfilled.

Be, Do, Have flips this traditional thinking on its head: I will be Z. Then I can do Y. Then I will have X.

Does your team suffer from meeting hangovers:

In our survey, more than 90% of respondents said they experienced meeting hangovers at least occasionally. More than half said these hangovers negatively impacted their workflow or productivity, while 47% reported feeling less engaged with their work. These effects often resulted from rumination, or replaying parts of the meeting in their mind. Nearly half (47%) of respondents noted harmful effects on their interactions with coworkers, such as feeling disconnected from their team or wanting to spend time alone.

Many of the root causes of meeting frustration can be addressed with more active, thoughtful facilitation. For example, many of our study respondents expressed frustration when their input was relevant, but they weren’t given an opportunity to contribute to the conversation.

Kevin Kelly shares Fifty Years of Travel Tips, including these gems:

• Your enjoyment of a trip will be inversely related to the weight of your luggage. Counterintuitively, the longer your trip, the less stuff you should haul.
• The most significant criteria to use when selecting travel companions is: do they complain or not, even when complaints are justified? No complaining! Complaints are for the debriefing afterwards when travel is over.
• When asking someone for a restaurant recommendation, don’t ask them where is a good place you should eat; ask them where they eat. Where did they eat the last time they ate out?
• You can get an inexpensive and authentic meal near a famous tourist spot simply by walking at least five blocks away from the epicenter. 
• If you are starting out and have seen little of the world, you can double the time you spend traveling by heading to the places it is cheapest to travel. If you stay at the budget end, you can travel twice as long for half price.

Why "Leadership Training" isn't enough:

Leadership training often focuses on knowledge transfer—teaching theories, frameworks, and strategies. While valuable, knowledge alone doesn’t lead to behavioral change. Knowing what good leadership looks like isn’t enough... Without accountability, there’s no mechanism to ensure he practices what he’s learned.

How the System Works is a fascinating series on the interconnected systems that make modern life livable.

Who's using AI? Anthropic (makers of Claude) take a deep dive:

Very few occupations see AI use across most of their associated tasks: only approximately 4% of jobs used AI for at least 75% of tasks. However, more moderate use of AI is much more widespread: roughly 36% of jobs had some use of AI for at least 25% of their tasks.

Overwhelmed? Take the Control Test:

The next time you feel frustration and anxiety creeping in (like every time you check your news app), pause, deep breathe, and ask: Is this within my control? If yes, what’s my next step? If no, how do I adjust to move forward anyway?

And remember, stopping isn't always the same as quitting.

Why blog if nobody is reading? It's because you are writing for:

• Future you. Your posts become a time capsule of your evolving mind.
• One right person. Maybe one day, someone stumbles across your words at exactly the right moment. And that changes something for them.
• The work itself. Consistency beats virality. A hundred posts with depth will outlast a single viral hit.

Speaking of writing, when taking notes, write as if someone else will read them:

Why? Because they don’t know what you know. By crafting a note that’s clear to someone else, you're automatically future proofing it, because your future self is likely to forget much of what you know right now when they're reviewing your note later. So take a note for someone else; it forces you to think differently and distill the information in a way that is future proof.

This is so delightful:

Some people would think that reading a baby a book about farm animals is teaching them about farm animals, but really it’s teaching them about the concept of a book and how there’s new information on each page of a single object, but really, beyond that, it’s teaching them how language works, and beyond that it’s really actually teaching them about human interaction, and really really it’s them learning about existing in a three-dimensional space and how they can navigate that space, but actually, above all it is teaching them that mama loves them.

Fun Finds

• How to see the humanity in everyone.
• Play Asteroids on the AARP website. Seriously.
• WikiTok is like TikTok, but with random, interesting facts from Wikipedia.
• CityWalki gives you interactive walking tours of global cities.
• Do more nothing with your friends – it is good for you!
• Thrift Books for lightly-used books.
• A Cursor Dance Party.

Words of Wisdom

To think, you have to write. If you're thinking without writing, you only think you're thinking. Everyone thinks they think. If you don't write down your thoughts, you are fooling yourself. — Leslie Lamport

Boredom is the secret ailment of large-scale organizations. – John Gardner

It's all right to be a late bloomer if you don't miss the flower show. – Winston Churchill

Pessimists look at the news, while optimists look at the data.  – Hanna Ritchie

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. – Benjamin Franklin

We are specifically designed by mother nature to fool ourselves. – Nassim Taleb

The sense that everything is going wrong has existed in every era, and rightly so since men have found no greater pleasure than in inventing new ways to make each other miserable. – Emil Cioran

Ten people who yell make more noise than ten thousand who keep silent. – Napoleon

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. – Confucius

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about? – Henry David Thoreau