Essay archive

Essays from The Spotted Ape on Substack.

The Laboratory Fallacy

Design

Strategy

Systems Thinking

Football offers a surprisingly rich archive of strategic thinking. There is a peculiar irony in the story of Osvaldo Zubeldía, the Argentine football tactician who, in the…

The Hinterland Paradox in South Africa

Geopolitics

Security

Africa

Throughout 2024, while South African soldiers died fighting M23 rebels in the DRC, the insurgent group’s political leadership maintained operations from a Johannesburg…

From Seabed to Orbit

Geopolitics

Space

Arctic

When President Trump declared last week that acquiring Greenland represents “a national security priority” and his press secretary confirmed that “utilising the U.S.…

Wisdom is Like a Baobab Tree

Wisdom

Epistemology

African Philosophy

Ecology

Consider the baobab (Adansonia digitata). A tree that looks as if it has been planted upside-down. A great, gnarled trunk surmounted by a tangle of branches that resemble…

The Matthew Effect: Why a Harvard Degree Works Like a Birkin Bag

Education

Social Inequality

Prestige

“For to everyone who has, more will be given.” — Matthew 25:29

The Flying Spotted Ass Ape and the Psychology of Creative Formation

Leadership

Creative Process

AI

Team Dynamics

Does your team have a Spotted Ape? A brightly coloured B-24 Liberator from 1943 offers a lesson for the AI age: creative mentors who can bring order to chaos with a light…

HAL 9000 and the Market’s Moloch Problem

AI

Ethics

Market Dynamics

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” [1]

Playing in the River Before the Fire

History

Nuclear Weapons

Memory

War

The recent eightieth anniversary commemorations of the Nagasaki bomb have brought back memories of those Cold War years when the fear of nuclear annihilation seemed to be a…

Moholy-Nagy and the Art of Remote Creation

Art History

Design Theory

AI

Remote Work

It is Germany, 1922. László Moholy-Nagy lifts the receiver of a telephone. On the other end, a porcelain-enamel factory in Weimar (Figure 1). Calmly, almost…

The AI-UX Iceberg That Could Sink Figma

AI

UX Design

Product Strategy

Future of Work

Design Tools

User Experience (UX) expert Greg Nudelman recently published a provocative piece arguing that the collaborative web application Figma “is the Titanic that is about to hit…

AI’s Avalanche Is Coming – Are You Ready?

AI In Design

Design Strategy

Creative Technology

Business Strategy

Generative AI

The recent viral clip, shared by Harry Shimmin, mirrors the seismic upheaval generative AI is bringing to the design space. What began as a distant hum—tools quietly…

Baudrillard’Dor: Channeling Lies Wide Shut

Baudrillard

Dor Brothers

Media Manipulation

Simulation

During this time of saturation in American media coverage, especially surrounding the U.S. election, the Dor Brothers have been at it again! Their latest mind-bending…

Co-Create or Die! Key MIT Insights on AI’s Impact in R&D

Generative AI

Design Innovation

Co-Creation

AI Future

Creative Tech

AI In Design

Design Thinking

“You have to swim with the sharks in the sea…” — Johnny Clegg, “Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World,” 1989

Creativity in the Age of Machines

AI

Creativity

Design

Automation

Generative AI

Future of Work

Art and Technology

On 60 Minutes, Bill Whitaker asked Giacomo Massari of LITIX (a company using robots to carve marble sculptures) what many are thinking:

Designing Neural Media: Allado-McDowell’s Compelling Typology Incorporating AI

AI

Design

Neural Media

Generative AI

> “It’s the end of explanations, a great increase in reality is here.” –K Allado-McDowell and GPT-3, Air Age Blueprint

Frog Goes Hip-Hop: Jumping Into Creative AI

AI

Creativity

Design

Animation

Generative AI

Berlin-based artist David Szauder recently shared a video that left me both mesmerised and unsettled. Seemingly inspired by the enigmatic frog deity Kek—an ancient Egyptian…

Klarna’s Karma on Black Friday: When AI Devours Marketing

Generative AI

Marketing

AI in Business

Design Innovation

Klarna, the Swedish payments giant, has taken a revolutionary approach to its marketing strategy by handing over complete control of 30 campaigns across 45 countries to…

Will AI Take My Job? Unlikely—But it Might Eat My Admin

AI

Generative AI

Future of Work

Creativity

Harvard Business School’s latest paper, Generative AI and the Nature of Work, has some eye-opening insights for creatives. Spoiler: AI won’t replace you just yet, but it…

Warren McCulloch: Pioneer of Neural Networks and AI

AI

Neural Networks

Generative AI

Ethical AI

AGI

Warren McCulloch

“What is a number, that a man may know it, and a man that he may know a number.”