Now

It can be hard for anyone to keep up with my mercurial ways. I barely know what I am up to, either. And yet the emergence of ‘/now’ pages offer us something a little more enduring than a social media update, and a little more authentic than the performative propaganda found in an ‘about’ page.

I am inspired by Maggie Appleton’s /now page, and seek to do something similar. The intent here is to keep this page updated as my interests and inclinations evolve over time. It used to be that I would share a ‘/word’ page (as per The ‘Choose One Word’ Ritual of Becoming program conjured a few years ago)... yet ever since I turned what was a rather personal ritual into An Actual Thing, it kind of lost its magic to me. Thus I need to sidle up to it surreptitiously, so as to evoke the effect once more. This may take some years.

In the meantime, it’s April 2023. I have emerged from what has felt like an extended sabbatical questing amidst the frontiers of web3 and regenerative finance. I’ve never been more hopeful about our ability to collectively coordinate amidst complexity, at scale. That is to say: I am not terribly hopeful—but: more so than before. For I have now gleaned the hint of the fact that it may well be possible to judo-flip the current global economic system into something more sacred, wherein the preservation and regeneration of life-sustaining ecological systems are recognised as economically valuable. Profitable, even.

Yet for this to work we would need a ~system that is transparent, shared, public, open-source, immutable and censorship-resistant. In other words: it would need to be blockchain(s). After many years of seeing the same coordination failures plague traditional enterprises, I’ve become increasingly impressed by what is being developed within web3 (beyond the speculation and hype). The challenge now, though, is to translate the insights from this emergent frontier to those who have yet to venture into the dark forest. I’m working on this.

I’m also working on my third book. I’m very excited about this, but it is taking its own time. Friends of the foxwizard will receive early previews of this book as it is written.

Also—seven years after How to Lead a Quest was published—it seems to be that enterprises are taking questing quite seriously. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a dozen or so large enterprises in the cultivation and pursuit of strategic optionality. (I know that doesn’t seem like a large number, but the work was/is deep, and I am but one wizard).

I’ve noticed many events are now integrating conversations about artificial intelligence, climate change and blockchain technology quite earnestly. These have been elements in the ‘quiver of options’ for clients of mine since 2016, but still: it is good to see such matters finally make their way into more open conversations.

That’s probably all for now. If I were to have a Word this year, it would likely be mercurial. This, of course, is a hat tip to Mercury, the Roman façade of Hermes, the trickster god of crossroads and paths betwixt; protector of heralds, orators, travellers, merchants and thieves. An apt god.