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Because somewhere along the way, is it possible that standard work might be handcuffed to or confused with the seductive but dangerous concept of best practice? And if that is the case, this coupling has quietly and sometimes catastrophically dulled the very creativity that Lean was meant to inspire and unleash.

Every October, when the lights flickered and reports went missing, the staff swore they could hear faint whispers echoing through the corridors. Some claimed they were the cries of abandoned improvement projects; others said it was the rustling of forgotten data sheets. But the veterans all agreed on one thing... the ghosts of failed processes still haunted Sigma House.

Since childhood, I’ve been captivated by stories that stretched the imagination... "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "Lost in Space", "Star Trek", "The Matrix" and, of course, "Star Wars". Beneath their adventure and spectacle, these tales shared something timeless: the belief that curiosity and courage can transform the world.

We often think of the “singularity” in technological terms — the moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Nearer" brings a fresh perspective where he assesses his 1999 prediction that AI will reach human level intelligence by 2029. But the reality unfolding today feels less like a single event and more like multiple forces colliding at once. We are witnessing a tsunami of change coming at us from every direction!

For decades, the global order has felt familiar: the United States at the center, its dollar the default currency, its alliances framing the rules of the game. But the ground is shifting... Slowly, unevenly, and chaotically, yet unmistakably. We are not yet at the end of U.S. dominance. But we are clearly witnessing the end of U.S. unchallenged dominance.

Creativity and resulting innovation has always been our survival strategy. Creativity pulled us through ice ages, plagues, wars, and crises... fire, farming, flight... the microchip. Every breakthrough, including the advances in artificial intelligence we ar witnessing and experiencing today were born from the creative spark to imagine differently, then act. But here’s the uneasy truth: Our role as sole authors of the future may be fading.

We celebrate creativity as the spark behind innovation, progress, and human achievement. But let’s be honest... it doesn’t always flow freely. We all too often find ourselves blocked, stuck, or silencing our own ideas before they ever leave the page. Why? Because creativity has enemies. And they’re sneaky!

We’ve all had them... flashes of insight in the shower, on a walk, pedaling furiously on your Peloton, or during a late-night brainstorm. And how many of us share the experience of seeing a new product or service and saying: “I thought of that… but I didn’t do anything about it!”

Creativity has shaped our survival—from the time early humans gathered around fires to share stories of the hunt and preserving them with prehistoric cave paintings that offer vivid and mysterious windows into the earliest days of humanity. While other species evolved fangs, claws, or wings, we evolved imagination.

It turns out, creativity behaves a lot like a muscle. Use it, and it grows. Ignore it, and it gets a little flabby. But the beautiful part? Even 15 minutes a day can rewire how you think, how you problem-solve, and how you see the world around you.

If you think about it, creativity is why we’re here at all. Long before we built cities or wrote symphonies, we were imagining things that didn’t yet exist—tools, stories, futures—and turning them into reality. Creativity gave us language, culture, and problem-solving abilities that kept us alive when physically stronger species disappeared.

We’re entering a time where machines can generate propaganda at scale, manipulate markets, and — in the wrong hands — wage cyber or even physical warfare autonomously. And we still don’t fully understand the why behind many AI decisions, even as we let those decisions guide our lives.

But as societies evolved, cities grew, borders expanded, and systems of governance replaced campfires, we moved toward broader identities: citizen, professional, global neighbor. The tribe, one might think, was left behind. Yet in today’s digital, divided world, we’re seeing a profound return to tribal thinking, what has been referred to as a "retribalization of identity", and it's shaping everything from politics to personal relationships to the very fabric of democracy!

On the surface, it was a show of force: a midnight strike, a presidential announcement, and the thunder of bunker-busting bombs over Iran. But as the smoke clears from Trump’s direct assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—what’s left behind is not just geopolitical fallout. It’s a further widening chasm in the foundation of global military restraint.

I’ve been thinking, lately, a lot about the role of fiction—specifically science fiction—in shaping how I see the world. Not just for entertainment, but for the doors it quietly opens in our minds. Watching "Star Trek: Discovery", I found myself less fixated on alien diplomacy or warp drives and more intrigued by something subtler: the sheer persistence of curiosity.

The rise of artificial intelligence has sparked global debate—about jobs, misinformation, and ethics. But there’s one challenge that’s often overlooked and yet quietly growing louder: AI runs on power. A lot of it. And all that power needs cooling. Often, a lot of water.

The promise of AI—more convenience, faster access to knowledge, and support in solving problems—is undeniably powerful. But with each task we offload to a machine, we must ask: Are we still engaging our own minds in the process?... Is our capacity and capability for critical thinking expanding or... contracting?

Rebuilding American Industry Takes More Than Tough Talk... US President Donald Trump returned to Pittsburgh — once the beating heart of American steel — promising to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50%. The crowd cheered, "USA! USA!. The headlines flared.

Let’s be honest... When most people hear the word statistics, they think of long-forgotten math classes, blurry chalkboards, and professors who spoke in Greek — literally and figuratively. If you loved statistics in school, congratulations... You’re a unicorn! If you hated it, then you are in good company.

At RPM-Academy, we believe that success in the "future of work" no longer belongs to the busiest, but to the best coordinators of intelligence—human and artificial.