Your weekly dose of innovation, ideation, and inspiration from Matt Homann.
This week in Idea Surplus Disorder: how to ask your manager for what you really need, why leadership can be both lonely and angry, and what happens when innovators succeed. Plus: smarter AI prompts, team-confidence tests, and the marketer who sold books by selling shelves.
This week in Idea Surplus Disorder: the tension between thinking deeply and moving fast, a diagnostic for leadership maturity, and the risks of outsourcing thought to AI. Plus: smarter client focus, attention collapse, and insights to help you lead and think intentionally.
In this edition: Lead up with confidence, handle conflict with curiosity, and rethink how you use time. Also, the “temporal crisis” of modern work, the choice between Octopus-style adaptation and strategic hibernation, and why fewer meetings lead to happier, higher-performing teams.
In this edition: how internal “non-competes” clarify shared projects, why imagining a new CEO for your life drives change, and what building hills can teach about leadership. Plus: expeditionary teams, imperfect productivity, and the upside of office politics.
In this edition: feed your subconscious, build action stacks, the costs of search, cracks as paths to change, why leadership matters even in flat teams, and how resisting AI can sharpen your skills.
In this edition: the surprising power of simply trying in a world where effort is undervalued, whether social media is entering its final days, why cognitive offloading may be making us dumber, and how to spot (and avoid) terrible decisions.
In this edition: the upside of squeaky wheels, the discipline of intentional amateurism, and the surprising benefits of stress in hiring. You’ll also find fresh thinking on subtraction as a leadership act, AI as a recruiting coach, and why questioning your expertise might unlock your next big idea.
In this edition: the art of delegating the right work, why leadership makes teams stronger, and how change resembles climbing cracks in a mountain. Plus: treating AI like resistance training, the paradox of pleasure reading, and why our attention may already be compromised.
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.
In this edition: why culture is really just your company’s last 50 days, how to test your strategy with sharper questions, project trading to force hard choices, spotting “snow leopard” trends, and a devil’s advocate prompt worth stealing.
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