Exceptional storytelling and the myth of superhuman AI

I recently spoke with Angus Fletcher for an upcoming Big Think interview — and before that conversation drops, I wanted to share an essay he wrote based on his fantastic upcoming book, Primal Intelligence, which I just finished and highly recommend.

Angus is one of the most original thinkers I’ve come across: a neuroscientist by training, with a PhD in literature from Yale, and now professor of Story Science at Ohio State’s Project Narrative — the leading research center for how stories shape the mind.

His core idea is simple but powerful: in volatile, high-uncertainty environments, intuition and imagination outperform logic and data. AI may be fast, but humans still win at adapting, storytelling, and spotting the exceptions. And what I love most about his work is how deeply interdisciplinary it is.

Angus argues, for instance, that modern executives might learn more from Shakespeare than an MBA — and I agree. As he writes: “Shakespeare fills his plays with characters who are exceptions to conventional narrative formulas: Hamlet is an action hero who thinks deeply; Cleopatra is a cold-blooded schemer with a loving heart; Falstaff is an old man who behaves like an adolescent.” He continues:

Key quote: “By giving us characters who break archetypal patterns, Shakespeare opens our minds to the exceptional. In the words of Hamlet: ‘As a stranger, give it welcome.’ Embrace things because they are different. Because characters like Hamlet activate intuition, Shakespeare’s readers have a history of anticipating the future. Shakespeare reader Nikola Tesla spotted the exception known as the AC motor and used it to usher in modern technology. Shakespeare reader Marie Curie spotted the exception known as radioactivity and used it to usher in modern physics. Shakespeare reader Vincent van Gogh spotted the exception known as aquamarine and used it to usher in our modern color palette. To boost your intuition, don’t think in patterns. Instead, think in exceptions.”

Music and nature as leverage for creativity

My good friend Paul Higgins recently had the chance to sit down with Victor Wooten, the five-time Grammy-winning bassist and, more importantly, one of the most fascinating thinkers I’ve encountered on the subject of learning, mastery, and what it means to truly listen.

Victor’s work feels like a message many of us need right now — especially for those of us thinking deeply about quality in business and life. He teaches music the way children learn language: through play, intuition, and trust. At his music camps, students learn not just scales and rhythm, but how to track animals and attune themselves to the natural world.

His core belief — that wisdom is shared, not imposed; that beginners deserve to be treated as equals — is a blueprint for leadership, for teaching, for living. If we’re serious about building resilient systems or enduring institutions, we need to stop looking only to spreadsheets and start listening to the artists — and to nature itself.

Key quote: “Whenever we get out of sorts in life, what do we do? We go take a walk in the woods. We take our shoes off, walk through the grass. We go to the beach — we need a vacation. We return to nature to settle ourselves, right? But the people who live close to nature on every continent — the Aboriginals, the Eskimos, the Kalahari Bushmen, the people in the Amazon, the natives in every culture — they’re just as natural as can be, because they never left it. Most of us, though — the so-called civilized people — we’ve closed ourselves off from it. We say, “I need to be in my house, turn up the air conditioner, turn up the heat,” instead of embracing what’s natural. Sometimes, we’re supposed to be cold. Sometimes, we’re supposed to be a little warm. We’re supposed to stand in the rain — things like that. The camp is about bringing people back to their naturalness, in ways they’re not even conscious of. And one of the main things is that we’re surrounded by nature 24/7 at our camp.”

OUTLAST field notes: How Laird & Company Survived Prohibition

There’s a story I love from the days of Prohibition.

When the 18th Amendment swept across America, it destroyed thousands of businesses overnight. Breweries collapsed. Distilleries shuttered. Entire supply chains evaporated. But not Laird & Company.

Founded in 1780 and recognized as America’s oldest licensed distillery, Laird & Company didn’t cling to what it had always done. Instead, it pivoted. When selling alcohol became illegal in 1920, the Laird family retooled the business to produce apple juice — and medicinal whisky.

They used the same apples, the same orchards, the same infrastructure — but changed the output. It was a radical move, and it worked. When Prohibition ended 13 years later, they flipped the switch back.

Today, the company is led by the 9th generation of the Laird family. They still produce apple-based spirits — including their legendary apple brandy — and they still operate with the same ethos that got them through America’s most economically and culturally volatile moments.

The lesson is clear: survival necessitates a combination of responsiveness and creativity to weather market conditions. Laird & Company didn’t outlast because they were the biggest or most well-capitalized. They survived because they were nimble and didn’t fight the tide. What this story teaches is simple: lasting power often comes from knowing when to shift course entirely, especially when the world shifts around you.

A few more links I enjoyed:

Aliveness (what machines can’t make) – via Gianfranco Chicco

Key quote: “‍During my engineering studies and soon after when I started working in a startup just as the dot-com era was about to burst, friction was the enemy. Things like publishing and selling online were cumbersome, and the associated logistics almost impossible for all but big companies. Over the last two decades we’ve achieved remarkable convenience for mundane digital tasks. Now, on the verge of yet another technological paradigm shift it looks like we’ve optimized in the wrong direction. We’re solving for convenience in areas that should remain human whilst ignoring where efficiency would genuinely help. AI-generated music floods Spotify because it makes more money for shareholders, not for musicians nor because it enriches human experience.”

3 ways to find and invite more wonder – via Jonny Thompson / Big Think

Key quote: “‍There’s an odd paradox regarding human happiness, where people often remember themselves as happy, but rarely feel themselves as being happy. Happiness is in hindsight. It’s conjured or constructed in reflection. A big part of this is that happiness often involves a kind of egolessness. It’s when you forget who you are. And so, the paradox is that if I am to be happy, I have to lose any sense of the “I.” In this week’s Mini Philosophy interview, I spoke with [poet and writer Maya] Popa about one of the oldest and most common forms of egolessness there is: wonder. Wonder is a library with many books. There’s religious wonder, aesthetic wonder, scientific wonder, and the wonder born from love. But according to Popa, they are all joined by one thing: Wound is the Origin of Wonder.”