Today’s Surprise From History - 🖇️ Fonts are not just a 2025/6 thing
😂😂😂
My sense of the “right” way to handle this puzzle is to think of it as a network and use some powerful result from graph theory to solve it in an instant. But since the only thing I know about graph theory is that it exists, I went about it differently.
💬 Dr. Drang
At first blush, the German heist strikes me as less Oceans 11 and more Sexy Beast.
Engage - Enable - Excite
I’ve been doing this every year since 2019 - which means that this is my 8th rodeo. (My previous words are here.)
After eight years of ‘three words’, you’d think I’d have this all figured out by now. BUT - Intentional | Inspired | Impactful ? To be honest - not as much as it could have been.
‘Intentional’ was meant to be about something more than preparation.
‘Inspired’ is meaningless if it is only in my head.
‘Impact’ requires you to impact something. It hasn’t. At least not in a meaningful way.
Turns out that 2025 was a lot of ‘getting ready’. Not enough ‘doing’. Not to say ‘doing’ was totally absent - but maybe ‘the wrong doing’? Although ‘bread was placed on the table’ - so there is that. Bottom line - it all adds up to 2026 needing to - being - different.
My 3 words for 2026
To remind you dear reader - the words are neither plan, nor strategy - nor even ‘resolutions’ (Freakanomics on that topic). Rather my guardrails for the year ahead - and yes - alliteration once more rears its head.
Engage
Engage by Leighton Robinson on Unsplash
All the interesting work happens at the boundaries. Where people and technology intersect. Where the gap between ‘what we say’ and ‘what we do’ is visible.
SHARED LESSON
I can’t do this by myself. Nobody can. So let’s get that on the table.
Enable
Enable by Leighton Robinson on Unsplash
No more building things. It’s about creating the conditions - the frameworks, the readiness, the structured thinking - that lets you do the work yourself.
SHARED LESSON
Enable capacity. Enable connections. Enable coherence.
Excite
Excite by Jen Theodore on Unsplash
When the conditions are right people want to participate. Friction is removed. Possible becomes fact. That’s when excitement takes over.
SHARED LESSON
Light the spark, don’t control the fire.
Does this resonate? Want to talk more? I would love to.
Let’s set up some time to explore how Structured Thought can be used to help your business transition from the ‘Age of Compliance’ to the ‘Age of Experience’.
Until Then - Have A Great Year.
I’ve been doing this every year since 2019 - which means tonight is my 8th rodeo.
Previous Years
📅 2019 - Uncertain | Less | Different
📅 2020 - Believe | Move | Ascend
📅 2021 - Transform | Transition | Transcend
📅 2022 - Clear | Closer | Choice
📅 2023 - Focus | Flexible | Fabulous
📅 2024 - Transform | Transition | Transcend (sic - see 2021)
📅 2025 - Intentional | Inspired | Impactful
Everything can change on a new years day
Everything can change on a new years day
Everything can change on a new years day
And everything changed on a New Year’s Day
💬 Rage Against The Machine
ð ð 2025 Roundup of Marketoons
I particularly liked the one on Channel Attribution ⦠marketoonist.com/2025/12/m…
Jevons paradox is coming to knowledge work. By making it far cheaper to take on any type of task that we can possibly imagine, we’re ultimately going to be doing far more. The vast majority of AI tokens in the future will be used on things we don’t even do today as workers: they will be used on the software projects that wouldn’t have been started, the contracts that wouldn’t have been reviewed, the medical research that wouldn’t have been discovered, and the marketing campaign that wouldn’t have been launched otherwise.
💬 Aaron Levie
via 🔗Simon Willison
🔗 Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce’s Steakhouse
Ending with … (my bold)
This is the way of things at 1587, which is ostensibly a mashup of jersey numbers but also a credible restaurant tab. Complaining about the prices at 1587 Prime is like complaining about the wind on Mount Everest: predictable, but hardly the worst part of the experience. All the same, there is no need for anything this mediocre to cost this much.
🔗 The Future of Software Development is Software Developers
The hard part has always been – and likely will continue to be for many years to come – knowing exactly what to ask for.
Anyone who honestly wants to be young again has never lived, only imagined, only masqueraded.
💬 Ursula K. Le Guin
Sir Idris - mustn’t forget when we next chat.
CNN’s Harry Enten Says …
.. sorry - what? who?
No idea why - but Lettrboxd suddenly sent about 30 posts from its feed into my blog, so had to spend some time deduping - only to discover that it has also resent all the image used in the feeds - and so added to my upload library. #Weird.
We should all do the right thing by and for our children ...
Protecting children’s online safety should be a top priority for everyone, as they are vulnerable to harmful influences from companies prioritizing profit over safeguarding. Sharing the ‘Words of Jax’,
Me: “Thanks, man. That was awesome. My powers as a driver are pretty limited to dealing with unruly passengers, so that was great.”
Tank Man: “Meh. I work three years as Walmart cashier. This nothing.”
🎥 Kate & Leopold, 2001 - ★★★
I watched this 20 or more years ago - and was reminded of it whilst watching The Knight Before Christmas.
Yes - it is the same story - proving that the premise is not the problem.
🎥 The Knight Before Christmas, 2019 - ½
Not my choice. Not by choice. But watch I did. It is movies like this that will ensure that AI Slop will take over part of the entertainment industry. Dreadful.
🎥 The Lost Bus, 2025 - ★★
It has McConaughey in it - so how bad could it? Yeah. Probably his worst movie ever. Not helped by my opinion of 'fiction based on fact' dramas. But even then there are good ones. This is not one of them.