Future Chi
Episode 24: Hype

This week it’s BMWs (the legendary E38 7 series to be exact), Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic Metropolis, turbochargers and connecting to the universal grid with Tron.

The Episode

The future needs us to work in the present, not live in the past. But with outdated institutions still calling the shots how can the leaders of the future find the right structures to build upon, while maintaining the freedom to be themselves? It’s not just institutions; social media platforms, marketing methodologies and even our backwards health systems are losing relevancy at an alarming rate, paving the way for something we can’t see but nonetheless feel coming.

It’s increasingly important now to cut through the hype, and share what you do and who you are without being trapped in fake cycles of mechanical self-promotion. But how do you get started on the path to being real in a world that expects you to be everything but? How do you raise your signal above the noise and attract those who share your vision? How can you learn the right skills to succeed but avoid institutional conditioning?

In this episode Jost and Leon get into the need for new forms of education, new platforms for communication, and new ways to put health first in order to escape the shackles of the old world, and get busy in building the new one. Jost talks about his past life as a drug dealer, how drugs are the one thing in the world that don’t need advertising to succeed, and how he literally wrote the book on the subject. He also talks about what drives people to be outlaws, how escaping the mundane becomes an addiction, and what the 4th century physician Sun Simiao had to say about the importance of cultivating your true nature. Leon talks about the trials and tribulations of co-founding a design school, the failing business model of tertiary education, and the problem with educational institutions lecturing what to think instead of teaching how to do. He also talks about the crushingly mundane world of LinkedIn, and his vision for a martial arts based design school. Jost and Leon also talk about staying connected to the universal grid, real-life BMX bandits, and what a drug dealer’s ideal car is (it’s not what you think).

All the world’s an ad. But there’s what’s presented to us and there’s what things really are underneath. Don’t believe the hype, get real instead.