The Uncertainty Mindset 2019-2020

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#47: Industrial unpredictability

vaughn2nd January 2021 at 3:34pm

This issue is about how uncertainty can be an antidote to sameness and therefore a distinctive source of value and an asset in thinking about product design.

Industrial food, produced for scale and thus benefiting from and afflicted with sameness and predictability, never has the possibility of surprising and delighting the consumer in this way. Artisanal food, which is not produced for scale and thus needs neither sameness nor predictability, has at least the potential to surprise and delight. (And is more likely to be grown in ways that are sustainable.)

However, it's hard to create food and other products that are uncertain in ways that surprise and delight. It can sometimes be the result of happy accident but is more often the product of native taste and skill combined with consistent attention to detail over time—it relates to style, which is something that, at the moment, only humans can possess.

You can find it here: #47: Industrial unpredictability