A note on process, because this form of expression is a little different for me. It starts with pen and paper. I bullet out the theme and the hooks rattling around in my head, then I read the page back and connect them out loud, dictating the essay into the plain text editor I use for work, which is Sublime Text (shout out to Sublime Text. I’ve been using you for eighteen years, and I’ve never paid for you). I move that into Microsoft Word, and then I type more and edit what I spoke. Finally I run it through Grammarly, because I can’t spell. I think I have a dusting of dyslexia…undiagnosed, but likely.

The photos are mine. Some of the art is MidJourney.

I’m calling this “brazed writing”: the bullets are the jig that holds the pieces in position, the spoken draft is the parent metal, never melted, and the edits are the filler pulled into the joints. Essentially, I’m converting the ideas in my head into text using modern technology.

I’ve worked in corporate innovation for eleven and a half years. I have advised innovation labs and R&D departments, probably over 200 of them in my career. I’m just taking my own advice with this new method.