Making the Case for Human Ingenuity

Inquiry's output, sparked by belonging

The Brief Case 📚→💼→📈→📊

“Intelligence is not something which exists, but something one does. It is active, interpersonal and generative, and it manifests when we think and act.”

James Bridle

A restaurant in New York City decides to serve a complimentary glass of champagne to someone dining alone. The gesture becomes part of their signature service.

To lower the amount of damage that happens during the delivery process, leadership at an e-bike company decides to include an image of a flat-screen TV on their bike boxes. The move works, spectacularly. People, intentionally or unintentionally, believe that a flat-panel TV needs to be handled with more care than a bike. Or perhaps the delivery company bosses have a mandate to reduce the amount of damage claims from high-priced electronics in their shipping care.

A New England school considers how to use a newly developed piece of property, walkable from but not close to their main campus. At one point, a problem becomes clear: the most amazing physical space, educational experience, or educator can be present at the new site, but people won't use the site if it is not convenient (or delightful) to actually go there. A member of the planning group suggests that they design a hayride experience to transport students and their teachers to and from the new site.

What do these three examples have in common? In their quiet ways, they celebrate a kind of lo-fi human ingenuity. While the AI wars are raging, we have decided to make the case for one of our favorite forms of intelligence — one that lends a little grace, joy, delight, or ease to the world.

Human ingenuity, of the kind we are celebrating, is not born of rigorous data collection and analysis. It is not manufactured because it happened many times before or received the most votes or clicks. It is not the economical choice (though it need not be a costly choice, either). It is an action born of a blend of “I notice” and “I care” and “let’s try.” Think of it as inquiry’s output, sparked by belonging.