Future Design Inquiries. February 2025

Hello from your friends at enso, a future design company. Futures happen by default or by design. Here are some things we think push past the default. And we welcome your reactions, additions, and suggestions – reach out news@enso.co.

For anyone new, we’re sharing the things that make us think, bring us joy or shift our perspective.

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What we’re reflecting on

These nuggets are curated by enso partners Hanna Siegel (HS) and Sebastian Buck (SB).

Optimism takes work. Coffee helps.

You know that we at Enso think a lot about optimism. At many times, now included, it feels hard, and maybe even irrational. But in the hardest times, optimism is critical to progress. People like to ask, ‘are you a glass half full or half empty person?’, but the question contains a cultural myth about optimism that is not helpful. Some research suggests that some optimistic traits can be hereditary, but those traits account for only ~25%-30% of outlook; the majority is driven by environmental factors: the people, cultures, narratives and examples we live around. That means optimism is malleable. And it turns out, caffeine helps: boosting dopamine, our metabolism and adrenaline. Chaga mushrooms regulate our cortisol (ie, reduce stress), and boost mental clarity. Lion’s mane mushrooms support neurogenesis (growth of new neurons), and mood-related neurotransmitters like serotonin. So … Enso made some organic coffee with chaga and lion’s mane, for our friends. We’ll be doing more experiments and limited editions around optimism this year; we’ll give readers of this newsletter all the updates.

Is both-sides-ism the problem?

There is a new poll out from Gallup showing that Americans have steadily lost trust in all kinds of professions (doctors, day care providers, judges, police officers….the list goes on). And it’s common knowledge that we’ve been losing trust in our institutions for years. So at the individual and institutional levels we are facing a massive trust deficit at a moment when the challenges we face demand radical collaboration in order to move forward as a society. How do we fix it? One big problem is that we have come to see each other in stark, zero-sum terms: liberal or conservative, college educated or non-college educated, immigrant or non-immigrant, male or female. And either you fit into one of these categories, but often feel alienated from the other. Or you don’t fit into either category and you feel alienated from all. That’s a lot of alienation all around. Adam Grant thinks part of the solution is a reframe on this thinking. “I do not want to have both-sides conversations anymore,” he says. “Whenever somebody says, here’s the other side, my first question is ‘Can you tell me what the third angle and the fourth is?’” Maybe in order to solve the world’s complex problems, we need to treat each other as the complex beings we really are. (HS)

The Revirescence

You don’t need the Edelman Trust Barometer to confirm it, this is an era of deep grievance. In the great 2024 spasm of democracy, incumbent leaders were voted out around the world. People feel deceived, disempowered, and convinced that the wealthy operate by their own set of rules. But yesterday’s insurgents are today’s incumbents, and it’s not obvious that any of the new regimes are out to solve the grievance, given they ran on it, and stoke it daily. Historically, renewal follows crisis. After the Black Death, the Renaissance ignited a rebirth of humanism, art, and science. After the 18th and 19th-century revolutions, the Enlightenment spread reason, governance and prosperity. In nature, the resurgence of life after devastation is called revirescence—the moment when something long dormant bursts back into vitality. So what shifts the dynamic from malaise to renewal? Roman Kznaric’s ‘disruption nexus’ says it’s the confluence of crisis, ideas, and movements. Every renaissance begins as a series of small revolutions—ideas, designs and innovations that challenge the status quo and illuminate new ways. Let’s make some revirescent moments. (SB)

What if we get it right?

Climate progress often feels like navigating a dense fog of fragmented facts, fleeting crises, and collective anxiety. But what if, instead of drowning in problems, we found joy, energy and elation in futures to work for? Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s What if We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures offers a panoramic view of people and projects building the future — of rural land, cities, finance, culture, politics and communities. For instance: Every $1 invested in restoring degraded forests can generate up to $30 in economic benefits. And another: the Namib desert beetle puts its bottom to the sun and moisture condenses and runs down its belly; architects are using that as inspiration for building design. Rather than angst, the book has wit, clarity, and practical visions. We wrote before about Possibility Journalism of which this is a great example; we need much more of it. But if the grand project is to make people love the future, we need to go beyond the climate-focused books and journalism, to possibility art, film, stories and spaces. The future needs its Coco Chanels, Henry Fords, Walt Disneys and Virgil Ablohs. While many are seeking the comfort of nostalgia, the future needs to shimmer with possibility. (SB)

8 things that made us think, gasp, share and laugh:

• The loneliness epidemic has reached the stage where a host of start-ups are trying to solve it.
• This captivating video of French ballerina Victoria Dauberville dancing on top of a ship’s bow surrounded by floating ice in Antarctica.

• And writers are inevitably asking: Is the loneliness epidemic a myth?
• Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer shows that optimism is hard but necessary work
• Pancho Saula’s images of Madagascar are a poetic experience of the place
• The North Face film, ‘Of a Lifetime’ has jaw dropping cinematography of a ski/ snowboard adventure in Antarctica, with a sweet human story and compelling climate message.
• One of Enso’s heroes, Cristina Mittermeier (Mitty) published a beautiful book, Hope. It’s a visual manifesto of resilience, coming from her journey across 130 countries.
• ‘Crown shyness’, is the phenomenon of dense tree canopies swaying in the wind, in such a way that they do not touch each other.

What we’re working on

enso is a small, senior team so that we can work on just a few initiatives at a time. This allows us to go deep on some of the biggest challenges/ opportunities. Recently, we’ve been working on a few main missions with our partners:

1. Enso’s futures: practicing what we preach, we spent time during our December offsite in Palm Springs considering the path ahead for enso. We discussed seven plausible futures, and aligned around elements drawn from three. While we spend most of our time ‘doing the work,’ it feels great every so often to step back and look at the bigger picture. Or as Tiago said after we’d been hiking through a canyon for a while (another part of the offsite), ‘shall we stop a moment and enjoy the view?’.
2. Design The Future ideas: Thinking and writing about the themes we keep coming back to. Distilling wisdom from those actively designing and creating the future, from a wide variety of fields.
3. A new enso website: We are a future design company that drives growth and positive impact that scales. We’ve been designing capitalism that works better for the last 12 years – learn about us, what we do and why we do it. 
4. Activating the future of climate change work: Helping create a future where humans and the earth thrive together.
5. A brand to radiate optimism: We think restoring optimism in the world is essential. We're exploring building a product, content and community brand around this idea.
6. Radical leap stories around the world: Uncovering the stories of unlikely people creating and solving with technology. 
7. Engaging with the world’s talent leaders: How can we collaborate with leaders worldwide to build the future of work?

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