The Horse Nobody Notices

Imagine a world where almost everyone is running on autopilot. And doesn't know it.

What would that world look like?

My sense is that they'd rush around solving problems they themselves created, wondering why the problems keep coming back. Sound familiar? Look at your organization. Look at your social media feed. What do you see?

They'd live inside their minds and call it reality. They'd argue over what they see, never questioning the lens they see through.

They'd be Trojan horses carrying a lifetime of hidden beliefs, judgments and stories through every gate they enter.

Christopher Nolan, director of The Odyssey, calls AI a Trojan horse made of glass. Everybody can see what's inside. He's right. And that's exactly what makes it the wrong horse to watch.

The glass horse gets inspected at every gate. The wooden one, the mind, rolls through unquestioned. AI doesn't add the distortion. It amplifies what's already inside us, at machine speed.

I know because I spent decades inside that horse without noticing.

Commanding, planning, fixing. I was certain I was seeing clearly. Catching my own lens in the act was the beginning of everything I now teach.

So don't take my word for any of this. It isn't an idea to agree with. It's something you have to catch happening in your own mind.

That's what we do at Odyssey, our free monthly gathering. Fitting name, it turns out. We meet the fourth Thursday of every month.

Request your invitation here: seedifferent.xyz

And if you've become disillusioned with the frameworks, the models, the endless fixes that don't fix anything, that's good news. That's not a crisis. That's the beginning of seeing.

— Bill

(Private Odyssey sessions for teams and organizations available upon request.)