Idea Surplus Disorder #97

This week in Idea Surplus Disorder, we explore the power of asking better questions, using strategy lenses to drive better decision-making and conducting "Assumption Audits" that challenge what you think you know.

We'll also dig into why AI might be killing “I don’t know”, how writing helps us escape mental clutter, and why our collective fear of artificial intelligence has been shaped more by science fiction than reality.

Plus, Adam Grant’s insight on cutthroat vs. supportive cultures, Kevin Kelly on the futures we fail to predict, and a mix of fun finds, thought-provoking quotes, and creative ideas to help you think better about work.

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 21 | EmpowerHer SOLD OUT 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.
• March 28 | The Uncertainty Summit is our attempt to help small nonprofits who are worried about their near-term future to gather and think together about ways to be ready for what might come next. Likely sold out as you read this, but we'll likely do another one so share your info and we'll let you know.
• April 4 | NSFW + SuperCollider: On April 4th, 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. 
• April 18 | PlayDays: Unlike traditional workshops, PlayDays aren’t about expertise — they’re about exploring, experimenting, and learning together. In our first PlayDay, we'll demystify essential AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

You can find all of Filament's upcoming eventshere.

Ideas + Insights

There are five types of strategy questions:

• Investigative: What’s Known? When facing a problem or opportunity, the best decision-makers start by clarifying their purpose, asking themselves what they want to achieve and what they need to learn to do so.
• Speculative: What If? These questions help you consider the situation at hand more broadly, reframing the problem and exploring outside-the-box solutions.
• Productive: Now What? Assessing the availability of talent, capabilities, time, and other resources ultimately helps you determine a course of action.
• Interpretive: So, What? This natural follow-up can push you to continually redefine the core issue — to go beneath the surface and draw out the implications of an observation or idea.
• Subjective: What’s Unsaid? This final question deals with the personal reservations, frustrations, tensions, and hidden agendas that can push decision-making off course.

Are we witnessing the death of I don't know?

We no longer sit with questions; we resolve them instantly. We no longer wrestle with ambiguity; we type in a prompt. The result? A world that feels increasingly certain — but is it truly more intelligent?

Here’s the thing: True intelligence isn’t just about retrieving information. It’s about grappling with complexity, navigating nuance, and sometimes, resisting the seductive pull of a quick answer. AI provides rapid responses, but does it encourage real thinking?

Before you give up on a challenging problem, run an Assumption Audit:

List everything you’ve accepted as “just how things are”: industry norms, customer behaviors, technological limitations. Then ruthlessly ask: “What if this constraint isn’t real? What would become possible if this weren’t true?”

Kevin Kelly on The Unpredicted:

It is odd that science fiction did not predict the internet. There are no vintage science fiction movies about the world wide web, nor movies that showed the online web as part of the future. We expected picture phones, and online encyclopedias, but not the internet. As a society we missed it. Given how pervasive the internet later became this omission is odd.

On the other hand, there have been hundreds of science fiction stories and movies predicting artificial intelligence. And in nearly every single one of them, AI is a disaster. They are all cautionary tales. Either the robots take over, or they cause the end of the world, or their super intelligence overwhelms our humanity, and we are toast.

This ubiquitous dystopia of our future with AI is one reason why there is general angst among the public for this new technology. The angst was there even before the tech arrived. The public is slightly fearful and wary of AI based not on their experience with it, but because this is the only picture of it they have ever seen. Call up an image of a smart robot and you get the Terminator or its ilk. There are no examples of super AI working out for good. We literally can’t imagine it.

Why write? To escape your default setting:

Let’s call your mind’s default setting ‘perpetual approximation mode.’ A business idea, a scrap of gossip, a trivial fact, a romantic interest, a shower argument to reconcile something long past. We spend more time mentally rehearsing activities than actually doing them. You can spend your entire life hopping among these shiny fragments without searching for underlying meaning until tragedy, chaos, or opportunity slaps you into awareness.

Writing forces you to tidy that mental clutter. To articulate things with a level of context and coherence the mind alone can’t achieve. Writing expands your working memory, lets you be more brilliant on paper than you can be in person.

I love this insight from Adam Grant on the difference between cutthroat and supportive cultures:

In cutthroat cultures, people kiss up and kick down. They protect themselves by currying favor with people in power and exploiting those without it.

In supportive cultures, people speak up and shield down. They protect others who lack power by raising problems to those who have it.

Fun Finds

• Make your own Viewmaster reels!
• Why is water wet?
• A Million Short eliminates top sites from your search to ensure you get unique info.
• How Many Episodes Should You Watch Before Quitting a TV Show?
• The Girl From Impenama, analyzed.
• The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest awards the worst first sentences in fake novels. An example: "As the sun dropped below the horizon, the safari guide confirmed the approaching cape buffaloes were herbivores, which calmed everyone in the group, except for Herb, of course."
• The 100 Greatest Television Performances of the 21st Century
• Cars + Art. You've got to check this out!

Words of Wisdom

No one ever tells you that bravery feels like fear. – Mary Kate Teske

The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently. ― David Graeber

This present moment was once the unimaginable future. – Stewart Brand

Therapy is like a haircut. You can’t tell me about it, I have to notice the difference. – Hasan Minhaj

The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come. – C.S. Lewis