How AI is ushering in a creative renaissance

For centuries, we’ve worshiped at the altar of productivity, measuring success by how much — and how fast — we can produce. But as artificial intelligence increasingly takes on the busywork of modern life, a profound shift is emerging: the value of creativity over productivity.

In a recent essay, Sari Azout, founder of the knowledge management tool Sublime, argues for reclaiming our chaotic, unpredictable, and deeply human creative process. In a world flooded with instant, AI-generated content, playing it safe is a losing game. Instead, she writes, the future belongs to those who create work that is authentic, original, and resonant.

Key quote: “I believe there are two plausible scenarios for the future of knowledge work. There’s one in which as machines become more human-like in their capabilities, we paradoxically become more machine-like in our pursuit of productivity, focused on efficiency and keeping busy above all else. But there’s another where we lean into ways of working that are more intuitive to us as humans, harnessing AI to help us create more meaningful work.”

The new industry of space tourism

Space tourism has long been more hype than reality — plagued by exorbitant costs and technological challenges.

But as my former Inc. colleague Christine Lagorio-Chafkin explores in her recent piece, the tide could be turning. Companies like World View, Space Perspective, and Zephalto are reimagining near-space travel with serene, balloon-powered ascents to 100,000 feet. Tickets, starting at $50,000, are far more accessible than the $1.25 million price tag of a Blue Origin flight.

“It’s a beautiful dream,” Lagorio-Chafkin writes, “this idea of a gentler, safer, greener space journey — and it is one that opens up going to space to folks beyond the Musks and Bezoses of the world.”

Key quote: “Ask the founders of these companies what’s holding it back from becoming a reality, and they’ll level with you: The technology is one to two years out from total reliability. Then there’s replicability of flight results, the necessary regulatory ecosystem developments, and FAA compliance. If that’s not enough to manage, consider that some of these companies are also building world-class luxury tourism operations, with hotels and spaceports at remote locations from Norway to Australia to Saudi Arabia. Not to forget the balancing act of maintaining enough financial runway to actually finish these technologically complex, manufacturing-heavy jobs.”

A few more links I enjoyed:

The Things You Can’t Buy – via Nick Maggiulli

Key quote: “‍When you’re young the one thing that you generally don’t have is money. You can’t travel the whole world because of money. You can’t buy a house because of money. On and on. As a result, it’s easy to overly focus on money. This is what I did throughout my 20s. I emphasized accumulation. But, once you start to have some money, your priorities change. You can say no to things that you wouldn’t have said no to before. You can make better choices. You can think more long-term. Ultimately, you can leave money on the table to maximize other metrics.”

The risks and rewards of contrarian views – via Goldman Sachs

Key quote: “The most successful investors recognize that “pound the table” ideas are rare — and that they require extraordinary patience and conviction. That’s according to Dawn Fitzpatrick, CEO and CIO of Soros Fund Management, the principal asset manager for the Open Society Foundations.”

A Conversation with Simon Johnson about Technology and Prosperity – via Behavioral Scientist

Key quote: “This summer, I interviewed Johnson about the relationship between technological progress and prosperity, including how societies have made these choices in the past and what our decisions about the current wave of AI could mean for our future… In our conversation, Johnson helped make sense of this question through the lens of economic history. He also shared his perspective on the kinds of work AI will likely transform, how to better evaluate the utopian and dystopian visions of AI, and the tension between building what we can versus what we need.”

From the archives:

Mind the Gap – Paul Graham (2004)

Key quote: “When people care enough about something to do it well, those who do it best tend to be far better than everyone else. There’s a huge gap between Leonardo and second-rate contemporaries like Borgognone. You see the same gap between Raymond Chandler and the average writer of detective novels. A top-ranked professional chess player could play ten thousand games against an ordinary club player without losing once.”