Brilliant framing as always, Kevin — I love your framing of the classic exploit explore polarity. What feels increasingly clear, though, is that AI and humans together can create entirely new hills — not just climb or find them. But for that to happen, the human has to invite inefficiency — to frame the interaction as a wandering search for something genuinely new, not a race to optimize what’s already known. That kind of co-creation feels like the next phase: reshaping the landscape itself.
The unspoken bit at the end is, can AI do this? Or because it is optimising from its training data, will it to some extent always need humans for this bit?
Most of us are taught to optimize what already works — to climb faster and higher — but it takes courage (and often humility) to step off the peak and start building something entirely new.
What stands out to me is how this applies not only to innovation but to relationships and leadership. True collaboration requires the same willingness to “devolve” for a bit, to unlearn what made us successful before and explore unfamiliar ground together. That’s often where the most meaningful progress begins.
Great piece … you’ve been on a roll. Makes me also consider the insight of making what we want to maintain (from Nat Eliason’s recent post on vibe coding. )
So it’s not just hill making … but hill-maintaining, too … Creativity as an infinite game of upkeep.
I love this metaphor. Maybe AI could get better at seeing which hills are promising as they increase in size and then extrapolate points on how the hill might look in the future? How many data points would it require and from how many different angles would it need data to make a projection?
This is very fascinating. It goes deeper and broader than what @categorypirates do in their category design business.
One could see echos of theology and philosophy of humility and suffering in this piece. It feels like the echos of the principles life whispering in this article.
Brilliant framing as always, Kevin — I love your framing of the classic exploit explore polarity. What feels increasingly clear, though, is that AI and humans together can create entirely new hills — not just climb or find them. But for that to happen, the human has to invite inefficiency — to frame the interaction as a wandering search for something genuinely new, not a race to optimize what’s already known. That kind of co-creation feels like the next phase: reshaping the landscape itself.
Yes, this is my hunch. We need the AIs to help us build new hills we could not create on our own.
The unspoken bit at the end is, can AI do this? Or because it is optimising from its training data, will it to some extent always need humans for this bit?
95% of humanity also sucks at hill making. Love the concise analysis of where AI is heading. Will be fun to watch.
Loved this essay - very thought-provoking.
Most of us are taught to optimize what already works — to climb faster and higher — but it takes courage (and often humility) to step off the peak and start building something entirely new.
What stands out to me is how this applies not only to innovation but to relationships and leadership. True collaboration requires the same willingness to “devolve” for a bit, to unlearn what made us successful before and explore unfamiliar ground together. That’s often where the most meaningful progress begins.
Great piece … you’ve been on a roll. Makes me also consider the insight of making what we want to maintain (from Nat Eliason’s recent post on vibe coding. )
So it’s not just hill making … but hill-maintaining, too … Creativity as an infinite game of upkeep.
I love this metaphor. Maybe AI could get better at seeing which hills are promising as they increase in size and then extrapolate points on how the hill might look in the future? How many data points would it require and from how many different angles would it need data to make a projection?
beautiful piece. Thanks you for sharing it
This is very fascinating. It goes deeper and broader than what @categorypirates do in their category design business.
One could see echos of theology and philosophy of humility and suffering in this piece. It feels like the echos of the principles life whispering in this article.
Well done, good sir!