Josh Allan Dykstra

This is my favorite rant from Hello Tomorrow (so far)... volume up. 😎 // We live in a world where everything — and I mean everything — has been turned into capital. Don't believe me? Let me show you...

We are in a continual state of being gaslit by the holders of capital, my friends. Here's how to un-gaslight yourself.

I've spent MANY episodes explaining our current challenges: petrodollar, global debt, neoliberalism, the economic loop... I understand how large the current problems are. But HOW do we fix them? Resisting optimism is definitely NOT the way. Let me explain why...

Did you know the U.S. actually passed a law to PREVENT more World's Fairs?? After 1984, the World's Fair story in the U.S. becomes a huge bummer... ...and I believe we are ALL worse off because of it. Here's why.

Time to talk about my favorite World's Fair: 1964 in New York City! This Fair was a mess in many ways, but it's also remembered fondly by many. More than that, it teaches us something profound about the important role government plays in fostering optimism.

Did you know we held a World's Fair right in the middle of the Great Depression? 1933, Chicago. The audacity feels hard to process... and yet... 39 MILLION PEOPLE CAME. What's going on here??

Have you heard of the "White City?" Our first stop on the World's Fair tour is 1893 in Chicago. The city is rotting and the White City is gleaming. What can we learn from this story about optimism...?

Have you ever wondered why we don't do World's Fairs anymore...?? The answer is so much weirder (and lamer) than you'll ever believe. New episode of Hello Tomorrow, available today! 🚀

Leaders: your organization might work a lot like our government. Please, don't let that happen.

Many of us have already seen the solution for this problem of budget opaqueness... in a now-deceased online personal finance tool! #MintforTheCommons

When a system is incomprehensible, it becomes unaccountable. When this happens, the "fog" stops being a side effect, it's started being the actual PRODUCT. And the beneficiaries are the same people who wrote the budget in the first place.

As far as I can tell, in the last 250 years of the U.S., NOBODY has ever commissioned a comprehensive, systematic study of what Americans actually understand about where their tax dollars go. Um, I think this is a problem.

What percentage of the U.S. federal budget do you think is spent on foreign aid?? Most people won't even get CLOSE...

Do you have any idea what a "trillion" is? Spoiler: No, you don't. Because you can't... our brains just don't work that way.

You know exactly where you tax dollars go, right?? Yeah, of course not! But... WHY? Wouldn't we be better citizens if we actually knew what was happening...? In this week's episode of Hello Tomorrow, I get real with you about government budgets, why they're opaque, and what we should do instead.

This week's Optimistic Rebellion: 1. Reclaim "Luddite" — it used to mean "person concerned with fairness around new tech" 2. Find and support new politicians — we need more folks to support workers! 3. Talk about WHY we hate A.I. — help people understand and go deeper on their feels

Your people are probably lying to you about A.I. Not maliciously, just... statistically! Today's Leadership Lens: let your people co-create your A.I. future at work. Everything will work better if you do.

This one's about government. Yeah — I KNOW. Government right now feels completely useless. But a *functioning* government is likely the ONLY entity on earth powerful enough to help us make the kind of future we want, so please hear me out...!

I get really sick of "mainstream media pundit"-type folks dropping the ball when they could stand up for people and for good ideas. In this clip, I give the Hard Fork Podcast a good forking, and tell you exactly why an A.I. Shared Wealth Fund doesn't require the "U.S. to transform into Europe." 🙄

I don't think we're anti-technology. I think we're anti- a whole bunch of other things that SURROUND A.I. technology...

"Hey you, Luddite! Yeah, you!" I had NO idea this is who the Luddites actually were. ...or that I actually AM one. "Hey you, Luddite! Yeah, you!" I had NO idea this is who the Luddites actually were.

You've probably heard data centers guzzle water. And drive up energy costs. But they don't have to do EITHER of these things...!

How do you feel about A.I.?? I honestly had no idea there was THIS much hatred floating around, but the data is VERY clear in this moment... New episode of Hello Tomorrow, available now!

The kind of “forced-entrepreneurship” moment we're entering could be liberating. More autonomy, more flexibility, more people building things they actually care about…! But we have to build the floor first. Here's this week's Optimistic Rebellion.

My Leader friends, here's what to do with this week's episode. We need your leadership now, more than ever.

If A.I. kills the W-2/FTE job, what in the world do we do?? We need to build a new social contract, that's what! Here's what we need to build.

You probably knew Lyft & DoorDash drivers aren't "employees" so they don't get "benefits." But did you know companies have been using this same strategy inside their offices? My Full Time Employed friends — this one's for you.

Why do we create organizations, at all?? 100 years ago, an economist set out to answer this very question, and his definition has largely worked for all corporations since... ...until now. A.I. is about to unravel the reason organizations need to exist.

The U.S. is completely, utterly alone in the way we give citizens healthcare. It's an abomination. But did you know, it was also... a total accident??

"Does everyone need to become an entrepreneur?" There's a big undercurrent of this floating around, but all the folks I hear are MISSING something important... if you're in the U.S., your healthcare disappears when your full-time job does. Why is no one talking about this?? New episode, out now!

This might be my favorite Optimistic Rebellion so far...

For my Leader friends: I promise this week's "space romp" is VERY relevant to your job. Here's why...

Billionaires + Space Race = Incredible Stupidity

Problem #3 with space: we're getting the order very, VERY wrong. I love Star Trek. But in Star Trek, humans didn't go to space to ESCAPE the Earth. They went there AFTER fixing a bunch of big-ass global problems. We need to get this order right, too, y'all.

Problem #2 with space... ...it would really prefer to kill you. Nothing lives in space. Not me. Not you. Maybe tardigrades. But that's about it.

Problem 1 with space... Well, actually, first — GREAT stuff about space. Then, Problem 1: "Genius Misallocation." And it's a frickin' disaster of opportunity cost.

In this week's Hello Tomorrow episode we talk about space. Fresh off the Artemis II mission, we should be exited and unified... ...but we're not. And billionaires are spending, well, billions, on a new space race. Is this the path we should be on?? New episode, available now!

My leader friends: this is why I spent an entire episode on a word that nobody likes... The organizational world you live in was CONSTRUCTED by this word. And if you understand it, you can stand up to it. #TheMoreYouKnow 💫

Are you clear on what the word "neoliberalism" means? It basically explains the dominant economic policy of the last 40+ years... ...or in other words, it's basically the reason why your financial life feels so damn difficult.

WTF is the difference between neoliberalism, liberalism, and libertarianism...?? And also, I'll tell you how Ayn Rand REALLY felt about libertarians. You can't make this stuff up, y'all.

"Neoliberalism" = how well do you know this word? It's not about politics. It's not even about liberalism, really... It’s about a word that has been quietly messing with your life for decades… even if you’ve never said it. Don't miss this week's episode of Hello Tomorrow, available now!

Three things for leaders: 1) Using A.I. as a cost-cutting tool will accelerate the consumer collapse. Don't do that. 2) Your workers are carrying ambient anxiety; name it directly or lose their trust. 3) Protect the space A.I. creates, don't re-spend it on more work. It's where wisdom grows.

How do we share in the productivity gains from A.I.? A Shared Wealth Fund. Alaska already does this with oil. Norway does it for their entire country. We could do it too... if enough of us want it badly enough.

The future has 3 possible paths. 1 sucks. 1 is hard for billions. 1 goes towards Star Trek. Which path we end up on doesn't depend on A.I. working. It depends on A.I. working for EVERYONE (or not).

We need a productivity miracle to get out of the financial mess we're in. The only thing I can see big enough to do it is A.I. But if the gains are concentrated at the top (like usual), the gains will be effectively useless for our larger collective problem.

We don't just need A.I. to work. We need it to work for EVERYONE. This is a big distinction, with catastrophic differences. If the productivity gains accumulate at the top it will ruin us all.

The U.S. is now so far over our skis on debt, the best hail mary is to pray for a productivity miracle. (Yeah, nobody in the news is using this exact language, but that's what's happening.) And there's really only one contender big enough to deliver the miracle...