Thinking Will Never Go Out of Style

June 22, 2026

Good morning! Happy Solstice!  (Without modification, the greeting works equally worldwide.) Such a SMART idea to splash 22 hours of sunshine upon the Spencer Glacier at this time of year! Happy Feast of Fatherhood… IF that is your thing. I suppose it could be said none of us exists without a father — but for considerably less effort than for the mother. Oh, and how about golf?  I didn’t get to watch it, but __________ apparently won. How are your brackets coming along? It’s an interesting process the futbol* people use to arrive at a field of 32 — from among 48… you get three chances to make it into the tournament.

• Looking for an A+ theatre experience?
  • Come From Away — playing right now at The Guthrie in Minneapolis = Wow!
• Kudos to longtime reader, friend, and erudite philosopher, Brian, for suggesting a perhaps more plausible explanation for the gratuity drop on weekends.
  • His explanation:  Restaurant meals (and beverages?!) on a business expense account occur mostly Monday – Friday… when gratuities MIGHT be more generous.
  • Does this suggest something about Brian — or something about expense accounts in general?
• Have you listened to — or read — your own eulogy?
  • Our children, grandchildren, and a few close friends gifted us with that experience last weekend.
  • It was the anniversary #45 of our marriage to one another.
  • Adult children arrived surreptitiously from Alaska, Washington City, New Jersey, Chicago, and numerous points between there and here.
  • We were not in the know, completely surprised — and filled with joy.
  • Lots of logistics, lots of love, lots of laughter, lots of warmth, lots of memories, lots of gratitude.
  • Life is way too short.
• Will you be going to the Aspen Ideas Festival?
  • Which is better, Davos or Aspen?
• Marketing:  The topic about which everyone is an expert.
  • Today’s topic:  Artificial intelligence; i.e., robotic regurgitations  of data already baked in the pie.
    • Hint:  Artificial intelligence can only produce what a human uploads…
    • … another hint:  100% of artificial intelligence is two things — a zero or a one… think about it…
    • … Yes, it is MUCH more complicated than that, but that is the truth of the matter.
    • Artificial intelligence is faster, much faster — and more thorough, much more thorough, but… it can’t produce what doesn’t already exist.
    • Which leads us to:  If EVERYONE has the same (artificial) intelligence, will humanity trend toward one size fits all?
    • Analogy:  A 1970s-era calculator didn’t teach us math… it helped us to do math faster and more accurately.
    • The hyuuuuge capitulation:  Mediocrity — or sameness — perceived as perfection with the cunning help of artificial intelligence — is the new inevitable norm.
  • Here at Without A Vision Consultancy, we think thinking will never go out of style.
    • Humans don’t buy stuff… they buy emotions, identity, status, relief, and belonging… it’s a psychological/ emotional/ social experience.
    • You have to actually understand people to market to them… what they’ve already tried that didn’t work… what keeps them up at night.
    • Artificial intelligence is 100% logic, it has no emotion, it has no empathy, it has no connection… it has uploaded data, that’s all.
    • The human edge is contributing the stuff artificial intelligence can’t — and then using artificial intelligence to speed up application.
    • And so, use artificial intelligence as a sparring partner.
    • Use it to pressure-test your ideas, to go faster once you know where you’re going, to handle the execution once you’ve done the thinking.
    • The great flattening toward mediocrity isn’t coming, it’s already here.  (Informed by Murray)
      • Remember the principle of regression toward the mean?
• Scott Kirby:  “The best thing I learned while in the Air Force Academy — for life and for business — was this:
  • ‘No excuses, sir’.
  • As a cadet, something might happen that’s not your fault, but there are still consequences.
  • If someone asks you about it, you have to say, ‘No excuses, sir,’ and you have to accept the consequences, whatever they are.
  • It’s so common in the business world for people to make a list of excuses.
  • Oh, the weather.
  • Oh this, oh that.
  • All these things that are not my fault.
  • Out chief operating officer says, ‘It may not be our fault, but it is our responsibility.'”  (Kirby, CEO United Airlines)