What's to come in 2025?

This week, Wild Prognostications returns! Jess, Aaron, and Joey make their predictions for the new year, discussing micro-social media [3:30], platform madness [6:52], nihilistic design [13:10], weaponized compliance [18:32], graphic realism pivoting to novel gameplay [24:05], dressing up [30:38], blockbuster novels [33:15], and a runaway AI crisis [36:56]. They don’t talk about supervillain Daniel Dumile.

references

• The Atlantic: We’re All in ‘Dark Mode’ Now
• Unreal Engine
• Hazelight Studios
• Techradar: Nintendo Switch 2: what we know about the next-generation system so far
• The New York Times: Rebecca Yarros’s ‘Onyx Storm’ Is the Fastest-Selling Adult Novel in 20 Years
• A Good Day To Die Hard
• The Mitchells vs. The Machines
• The 2024 CrowdStruke outages
• Vulture: The Brutalist Is Half of a Great Movie
• "Missing" by Everything But the Girl

How do we respond to the competing incentives of hybrid work?

This week, we revisit our conversation from Critical Nonsense 290! Hybrid Work, this time with special guest and workplace design leader Amanda Stanaway of ERA-co. She joins Joey and Jess to talk about belonging, productivity, the corporate Kool-Aid, burnout, human connection, and hammocks. They don’t talk about hard-boiled eggs.

references

• Amanda Stanaway
• ERA-co
• WORKTECH Academy: Flight to character: a fightback begins against homogenous global offices by Amanda Stanaway
• The Atlantic: The Anti-Social Century by Derek Thompson
• Chicago Booth Review: Humanity Is Carried on the Voice by Nick Epley
• The Egg Pod

Why would you break up with your best friend?

This week, Joey and Jess talk about para-romance, frenemies, communication styles, emotional proximity, work relationships, and boy and girl bands. They don’t talk about Whodini.

references

• Oprah: Should You Really Break Up with That Friend?
• Black Love: How to Grieve Women Friendships That No Longer Serve You
• Elle: We Need to Talk About Our Ex-Best Friends
• Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships by Robin Dunbar
• Connectome
• The Atlantic: The Anti-Social Century by Derek Thompson