Future Design Inquiries. July 2026

Hello from ENSO, a future design company. We’re sharing the things that make us think, bring us joy or shift our perspective. 

What we’re reflecting on

The greatest hack for men

I recently heard Laurie Santos say that while women will do lots of things together — go shopping, have coffee, hang out while one of them is cooking — the only thing that men will reliably do together anymore is play or watch sports. In 1990, 55% of men had six or more close friends, and by 2021 that had dropped to 27%. This paucity of social time can’t be good for us. Which perhaps is why the World Cup was so magical. In the name of research, I went to England’s quarterfinal and semifinal games; particularly because I wanted to feel for myself what it’s like when thousands of otherwise-repressed English people sing Wonderwall and Hey Jude in collective catharsis. I can report: it’s spine tingling. And the camaraderie of the fans following each team was really special — we had an amazing time with students, teachers, police officers and tech bros. So perhaps the answer is just to have one World Cup after another? At least then England might win one in my lifetime. (SB)

The greatest hack in business

Shareholder primacy is intellectually easy … one goal to shoot for. By contrast, ‘good’ business feels so damn complex; how can we optimize for shareholder returns AND climate impact AND employee wellbeing AND customer satisfaction AND supply chain vitality? In my experience of many company cultures, the blocker is rarely values — most people agree business should be better — it’s the intellectual challenge of navigating competing interests. But I’m also convinced that we humans are totally capable of this: we each do it in our individual lives every day. We mesh our earning aspirations with family, friends, community, and ethical obligations. We do this so often that it becomes subconscious. Underneath, there’s a mindset at work: optimizing for the long game. It’s in that mindset that apparently competing forces stop being in tension — they collapse into one: long term thriving. The clearest hack to replicate this in business is to constitutionally orient it for the long term. Patagonia, Rolex and Novo Nordisk are all hard-coded to be managed for indefinite success, and 15 other companies have joined them this year, including a major boat company, Grady-White. In each of these cases, the long horizon protects their success, rather than gambling it on short term gain. Eddie Smith, Grady-White’s CEO said, “This company has a soul, and I didn’t want to lose that.” (SB)

The greatest hack in nature

Human society runs on a clear agreement: human life has value, and therefore we have rights. But when it comes to nature, that simple formula gets squishy. Trees are alive, and have value, but do they have rights? Robert Macfarlane’s book, Is A River Alive?, is a beautiful exploration of this paradox: rivers are clearly alive — if you need persuasion, ask whether a river can die — and they are the critical source of so much other life, yet traditionally they’ve had no rights. The Te Awa Tupua Act of 2017 in New Zealand granted the Whanganui River legal personhood — meaning it can have legal advocates in court. This same idea surfaced in America, where Yurok Tribe declared personhood for the Klamath in 2019, and where Amy Bowers Cordalis, the tribe’s former general counsel, was instrumental in undamming the Klamath River, bringing life back to the ecosystems that depend on it. Macfarlane, Cordalis, and the NYT’s David Gelles were recently in conversation about this philosophical and legal shift, at the wonderland that is Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. If we made this shift more broadly — to confer rights to nature — how wildly might the world change? (SB)

Productive nostalgia

There’s an alarming stat that shows 45% of Americans would rather live in the past, versus 14% in the future. The discombobulating nature of the current era is clearly breeding a yen for the past that is probably as inaccurate as it is unhelpful. But not all nostalgia is bad. Gen Z is leading the charge on a return to everything from knitting to woodworking to independent bookstores to shopping malls, all of which are enoying a comeback. Instead of using nostalgia to ruminate about how bad things are now, they’re using it to course correct some of our worst cultural habits (like too much solo time and too much technology). Nostalgia isn’t necessarily a rejection of progress – as Clay Routledge writes, nostalgia actually increases positive attitudes about new technologies. “Gen Z is not opting out of modernity, he says. “It is opting out of the assumption that the digital world must consume the analog one.” That seems like a good lesson for all of us: There’s nothing wrong with looking back, as long as we can figure out how to bring the best of what was there into the present, and the future. (HS)

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

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

• This analysis on how AI has changed internet culture
• This fun profile and house tour with Elin Hilderbrand, the Nantucket novelist who has written one book per year (!) for 24 years (!!)

• This excellent story about Robby and Michael Rosenberg, whose parents, Julius and Ethel, received the death penalty in 1953 after being convicted of being spies for the Soviet Union. Come for the gripping back and forth of whether or not they were innocent, stay for the remarkable realization that their boys turned out to be – despite it all – relatively normal and happy men. 
• Turn your handwriting into a font
• This story of an orthodox Jewish woman using social media to fight for orthodox women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce

• Common Mythconceptions: This easy, digestible site debunking the most contagious falsehoods

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. Reimagining the future of the seas, and exploring what a new frontier in maritime might mean for the world
2. Building awareness and new behaviors for childhood safety, when there's already too much to do.
3. Helping artists sustain an artistic life over the long term, and designing the space and tools to help artists everywhere thrive. 
4. Changing the world of work: the labor market is the engine of prosperity, but ~80% of people are not engaged or thriving. We’re working to change the system.

Thank you for being part of the network that fuels our optimism and expands what’s possible. We’re grateful for you, and we’re committed to creating positive futures together.

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Reach us at news@enso.co

See you next time.

ENSO • 115 W California Blvd #9101 Pasadena, CA 91105