#257 Making Sense of AI, Time to Move on, Perspective, How Propaganda Really Works

Stubborn Visionaries & Pigheaded Fools, In Search of Banksy, Miniature City, Juggling and more

Hello,

My kids’ exams are done. The school annual day is behind us. Summer holidays are officially here.

This one feels special. A long-awaited vacation is around the corner. My parents will be home right after. In between, there’s some work and a lot of new curiosities to explore. The next few weeks look packed. The good kind of packed: Busy yet happy and full of energy.

I plan to keep publishing Stay Curious through this stretch, with a small twist.

You’ll see special editions built around themes, curating the best of what I’ve discovered and saved over time. I’ll dip into the archives and bring back ideas worth revisiting. That’s the beauty of timeless stories. They stay relevant, no matter when you return to them.

That’s the plan starting next week.

For today, here are five ideas we’re exploring:

1. Cedric Chin offers a framework to make sense of AI.

2. Steve Blank reminds us that most relationships don’t last forever.

3. A Smart Bear asks a hard question, when do you stop, and when do you push through?

4. Doc pulls together a thought-provoking set of ideas that shape the world we design.

5. And a Russian voice breaks down how propaganda really works. 1984 feels timeless for a reason.

And of course, the usual Little Moments of Joy, including an investigative piece finding answers to Who is Banksy.

I hope something here excites you. Let’s get into today’s ideas.

💡 How to Make Sense of AI

Cedric Chin’s new piece on sensemaking is my first pick for today. It fits the moment we’re in.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the core idea.

Read: How to Make Sense of AI

Like most useful advice, this is simple but not easy. The good part is that you’ve a reference or an approach to try. See if you’re up to try this.

---

The next two pieces come from my friend Garima’s newsletter, Deep Fried Thoughts. She has a sharp eye for interesting ideas and turns them into stories that feel light, witty, and easy to read.

If you enjoy Stay Curious, you’ll likely enjoy her work too. It’s worth a subscribe.

⏰ Time to Move On

A short piece from Steve Blank reminding that most relationships aren’t forever.

Almost every one of us will go through breakups, either initiating them or being on the receiving end. Rather than thinking that equals failure, consider it a type of a life pivot.

Most of us grow up with a belief that “real” relationships are permanent. That if something mattered once, it should always matter in the same way. That longevity of a relationship alone equals success. It doesn’t. Permanence is comforting, but it isn’t how humans, markets, or institutions actually work. People travel with us for a while then the convoy reconfigures as life roles and needs change.

Read: Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships End

Steve does a beautiful job outline myriad reasons that cause a relationship to end. It feels bittersweet to read. These are things we feel, but choose to ignore.

---

🐻 Stubborn Visionaries & Pigheaded Fools

How do you know when to stop, versus when to push through? You don’t, not even in hindsight. A Smart Bear suggests that there is very little difference between stubborn visionaries & pigheaded fools. You could be pushing hard and achieve “success through perseverance”. Or you could be pushing hard and reach “failure through obstinance.”

But not trying is guaranteed failure to reach any possible success, so you should try. All you can do is minimize a better decision in the fork in time when you could quit or sustain.

When you realize you cannot know which scenario you’re in, you realize that the job is to find out which one it is as quickly as possible, which means to cease your dithering, make a strong decision, keep your eyes open, try to measure what’s happening as objectively as possible, hope for S1, but allow for S2, to not feel guilty if you guessed wrong, and not feel cocky if you guessed right.

He offers a few techniques & tactical questions that can help knowing which path you’re on. A few of them sound really helpful and worth noting down.

Are you still enjoying the project and learning something from it?

If the team has run out of ideas and conviction, consider pivoting. If the team has run out of ideas and conviction for pivoting, it’s time for a full reset or quit. Do you see yourself doing this in 12 months? If not, you might as well stop now.

Is the product noticeably better than alternatives in the market or will be there soon? If the answer is no to both, consider stopping.

Penny in the air: Go for a long walk and listen deep inside. Often I already know deep inside, but just don’t want to admit it to myself.

Go back to “The Why” that set you off on your journey to begin with. If you now have more information to assess the credibility of that why, re-assess. If you still have the same information available and still believe in the why, press on.

Read: Stubborn Visionaries & Pigheaded Fools

PS: I had covered this piece in #151 a couple of years ago, so I went back to what I wrote then.

It struck a chord back then. It hits even harder now.

---

👀 Understanding Perspective

Doc has a series titled Syntax with the following premise:

This series examines core concepts shaping our designed world, tracing their origins and dissecting their practical significance.

It includes short yet very thought provoking essays around concepts like process, craft, interface, critique, taste etc. Words that we use too often, without paying too much attention to what they mean.

It’s a brilliant series, with each post containing one of the sharpest articulations of the topic in concern. Let me pick a piece from the Perspective post to give you sense.

A quick definition:

On how Perspective is a position, and not just a view point…

Read: DOC • Perspective

I highly recommend this entire series.

---

⚠️ How Propaganda Really Works

Watch: I’m Russian. Here’s how propaganda really works.

The title says it all.

It’s just a 9-minute video, but it offers a sharp, thought-provoking take on something we use far too often.

For a long time, I thought propaganda was something that only worked on people who weren’t very smart. I really believe that. I thought I can tell when something is nonsense. I can recognize manipulation. I’m not a child. And that belief itself is exactly what propaganda relies on. Because propaganda doesn’t need to make you stupid. It just needs to make you tired. When you live inside it, propaganda doesn’t arrive as an event. There is no moment where you say, “Ah, yes, now the propaganda has begun.” It’s just the part of the environment like humidity, like background noise you don’t consciously listen to, but which still affects how you feel.

---

✨ Little Moments of Joy

Also known as “Everything else…”. The small things that brought warmth, sparked joy, and made me appreciate life a little more.

1. In Search of Banksy is an investigative report by Reuters that tries to crack one of art’s biggest mysteries: Who is Banksy? It plays out like a film. The story moves from a bombed-out Ukrainian village to the streets of London and into downtown Manhattan, following clues that feel almost cinematic.

2. Colossal seems to know my love for miniatures, paper crafts, and cityscapes. It keeps sending gems my way. One such find is Charles Young’s work, where he builds a growing city of meticulously crafted miniature paper buildings. I love it.

3. The Library of Juggling has attempted to document every juggling trick, popular or obscure, in one place. This is why I enjoy wandering the internet. You never know what sparks someone’s curiosity enough to build something like this. (via Dense Discovery)

---

ICYMI, here is the link to last week’s post.

#256 Identity Migration Framework, The Art of Comedy, World Building

---

That’s all for this week, folks!

I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time.

See you next Monday.

Pritesh