Future Design Inquiries. June 2024

Designing the future

Futures happen by default or by design. Here are some things we think push past the default.

Hello from your friends at enso, a future design company.

For anyone new here, we’re sharing the things that make us think, bring us joy or shift our perspective. And we welcome your reactions, additions, and suggestions – reach out news@enso.co.

If you no longer wish to receive our periodic updates, you can unsubscribe by clicking the link at the bottom of our emails.

What we’re reflecting on

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

Will this be the last election where the Electoral College is relevant?

Of all the weird nuances in our elections process, perhaps the most nonsensical is the Electoral College, born as a compromise when the Founding Fathers couldn’t agree whether Congress should pick the president (seems good this method didn’t make it), or whether the people should directly elect him (or her…someday). The middle ground was to choose intermediaries and thus the Electoral College was born, resulting in 5 elections and counting where the guy in the White House was not, in fact, the people’s choice. But, that reality might be about to change. Over the past few years, one Democratic and one Republican strategist have been working together on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which would legally require signatories (states) to commit to pledging their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote nationally. To date, enough states have signed on to equal 209 electoral votes, and enough additional states having passed the compact in at least one state chamber – with ultimate passage expected – for them to hit the 270 threshold pretty soon. (Whoever earns 270 electoral votes wins the presidency). It doesn’t look likely to happen in time for this cycle. But it looks like the Electoral College might actually be obsolete by 2028. This is a huge development and I’m surprised at how little coverage it’s gotten, but I’m heartened at the progress being made towards shoring up our democracy. For more on all of this, I highly recommend Isaac Saul’s interview with the two people working on this (part of his excellent daily newsletter, Tangle). (HS)

Efficiency vs. Humanity in the age of AI

Last year, we moved into a new house and I took pride in the fact that I was developing an eye for decor. Hours of scrolling through Instagram helped me hone my taste, and decorate our home in what felt like a true expression of me. That is, until I started noticing the same styles and pieces in other people’s homes – people who, presumably, have algorithms that look a lot like mine. Was an algorithm actually responsible for the style that I thought was mine? Or did it simply filter through the millions of options on the internet, and help me find my style faster? If I’m happy when I look around my home, does it even matter? One of the next frontiers in AI, says Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, will be in dating. “There is a world where your [AI] dating concierge could go and date for you, with other [AI] dating concierges,” she says. “And then you don’t have to talk to 600 people. It will then scan all of San Francisco for you and say, These are the three people you really ought to meet.” Which could lead, as Tyler Austin Harper points out, to a massive atrophying of those skills that make us human – the ones that help us form deep and meaningful relationships. Which sounds a lot more ominous than my home decor choices not being as personal as I thought. So where is the line? At what point are we sacrificing humanity for efficiency? Because on the one hand, skipping those 600 bad dates sounds nice – less pain and rejection, less wasted time and more time with the people who really matter. On the other hand, how can we know what’s right for us without the slips and struggles that tell us what’s wrong in the first place? This, I suspect, will be the true challenge of AI: when is more efficiency better for humanity? And when is it worse? (HS)

The moral ecology & a posture of joy

David Brooks wrote a lovely paean to ‘the middle manager’, but it really could be to ‘the good citizen.’ While ‘conflict entrepreneurs’ are trying to tear society apart, it’s people in everyday roles that ‘give us a shot at sticking together’, in their daily acts of living by morals, fostering younger generations, serving others, bringing warmth to relationships. “The crucial struggle of our time is not merely the global macro struggle between democracy and authoritarianism; it’s the day-to-day micro-contest between the forces that honor human dignity and those that spread dehumanization.” Maybe we can celebrate those a little more? (SB)

The science of memories

I really enjoyed this post on memories. It turns out research shows that memories go up in value over time whereas stuff we buy decreases in value over time. Which makes total sense, but I’d never thought about it. And it’s more evidence that experience gifts are the best gifts. What’s more, you can actually make long-lasting memories, that is, do things to make a memory more intense. Research shows that if you do something 1/ unique, 2/ exciting and 3/ related to something you’re already interested in, you’re more likely to remember it clearly. Something to think about when you’re planning your next trip (or weekend, for that matter). (HS)

What went wrong with capitalism?

More young people think positively about socialism than capitalism, and it’s hard to deny the negative consequences of extreme capitalism. A lot of people have asked what went wrong, and answers often converge around some mix of short sightedness (optimizing for quarterly reports rather than the infinite game), greed (leaders optimizing for themselves over workers, climate or society), or philosophical naivety (e.g. Milton Friedman creating moral legitimacy for ignoring everything but profit). Ruchir Sharma posits a provocative alternative thesis: that in seeking to mitigate downturns with ‘free money’, governments have fostered oligopolies, exacerbated inequalities and supported ‘zombie’ firms (those financing past debts with new debt financing). “Although leaders often speak of the economy as an ‘engine’, it is more like a natural ecosystem in which humans meddle at great risk to the system and themselves … Economics is not as hard a science as many imagine. The real sciences explain life as a cycle of transformation, ashes to ashes, yet political leaders still listen to advisors claiming they know how to generate constant growth … Capitalism is still the best hope for human progress, but only if it has enough room to work.” Like most simplistic remedies, the ‘smaller government’ remedy doesn’t sit well with me, but with US debt at 120% of GDP and state spending going from 4% of GDP in 1930 to 36% today, reforming government and fiscal policy has to be part of the answer. (SB)

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

• This fish doorbell, developed by two ecologists. Every spring, fish swim upstream to mate along the Rhine in Utrecht, Holland, but get stuck at a locked canal. Want to help them get to the other side? Watch a livestream and when you spot a fish, ring the doorbell and open the lock to let them pass.
• Physics beats ideology: Five years ago, California had more than six times as much solar as Texas. But on May 14th, Texas hit 19.1 gigawatts of solar energy generation, setting the new US record and bumping California into second place.
• “Insist that we support science and the arts. Especially the arts. They have nothing to do with the actual defense of our country. They just make our country worth defending.” - Ken Burns’ address to the Brandeis University graduating class
• Barilla pasta maker hired the composer of The White Lotus theme song to write six songs delineating what specific pastas sound like. Have you ever wondered what Bucatini would sound like in musical form? Here’s your answer.
• The case against goals from the late, great music producer Steve Albini: “To the extent that I could care about that, I would say yes,” he replied. “I’ve lived my whole life without having goals, and I think that’s very valuable, because then I never am in a state of anxiety or dissatisfaction. I never feel I haven’t achieved something. I never feel there is something yet to be accomplished. I feel like goals are quite counterproductive. They give you a target, and until the moment you reach that target, you are stressed and unsatisfied, and at the moment you reach that specific target you are aimless and have lost the lodestar of your existence. I’ve always tried to see everything as a process. I want to do things in a certain way that I can be proud of that is sustainable and is fair and equitable to everybody that I interact with. If I can do that, then that’s a success, and success means that I get to do it again tomorrow.”
• These BTS photos from the Westminster Dog Show

• Herman Miller’s relaunch of their iconic 1973 hot dog poster

• This obit (+ photos) of the photographer Daniel Kramer, who captured iconic photos of Bob Dylan throughout a year and a day in the 1960s.
• Big picture perspective at 92Y:  Fareed Zakaria interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell. Yuval Noah Harari interviewed by Ian Bremmer.
• Alejandra Campoverdi’s book, First Gen, is a compelling tale of her rise from LA poverty to the Obama White House, including the practical, and mental, hurdles involved in realizing the American dream.

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. The business case for work wellbeing: Showing how companies that prioritize employee wellbeing outperform the market – and spreading the word. 
2. Design The Future book: Distilling wisdom from those actively designing and creating the future, from a wide variety of fields. We hope to complete this in 2024.
3. 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.
4. Radical leap stories in Africa: Uncovering the stories of Kenyans creating and solving with technology 
5. Reforming the world of work: Bringing the world’s talent leaders together to build a better world of work.
6. Helping anyone build their future: How can we enable any entrepreneur to build their future through a business that can reach the world? 

Want regular inquiries? Subscribe here to get our thoughts in your inbox every so often.

See you next time.

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