I recently founded an innovation studio we call Kandō. What do we do? Well, we build new products - for ourselves and for clients - from idea to scale. This is no dev shop but instead an experimentation engine - a studio whose purpose is to improve how we innovate. This obsession with systems of innovation has been percolating for quite awhile. I launched a newsletter last year focused heavily on both the modes and applications of innovation to begin unpacking my thinking here. But the itch went far deeper than mere scholarship - I needed to start implementing some of these ideas; to actively participate in the innovation of our innovation systems; and thus Kandō was born. The world is far better today than it was a century ago, but this outcome was not inevitable, nor is continued progress. We need to continually experiment with our methods of innovation if we wish to perpetuate the progress of our species. Too often we build just to build - or to build because everyone else is building - not because we’re actively trying to solve real problems. AI is just the latest instance of mimetic mania. I don’t mean to damper such enthusiasm, but there are so many problems to solve in this world - problems whose solutions might fundamentally transform the life of an individual or an entire society. At my core, I’m a student of behavior. As technologists we spend far too much time obsessing over (often false) solutions and far too little time really understanding the problems; understanding PEOPLE. We have lots of work to do, and I’m hoping to play a larger role in pushing us forward.