John Caswell John Caswell

The Field Guide

This guide is for those who are willing to pause before making a decision. For those who thrive in ambiguity. For those who know that clarity doesn’t always come from logic, but from framing, judgment, and imagination.

Welcome to the age of Imagination-Scale Thinking.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Take The Superposition

In quantum physics, a particle doesn’t live in one fixed state. It exists in many possible states at once—until something forces a decision. This isn’t just theory. It’s how imagination-scale computing works.

Instead of choosing a route and running with it, these systems map all the routes. They calculate the paths, the probabilities, the interactions between them—all at once.

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John Caswell John Caswell

The extinction of imagination:

Whilst the world obsesses over artificial intelligence, we're conducting a systematic extinction of human imagination. Not through malice or design, but through the beautiful irony of optimising for everything except the conditions that make imaginative thinking possible.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Shh. Avoiding a post-imagination world

You want breakthrough?

Turn everything off. Get bored enough for your brain to get dangerous again. The last thing we need is noisier people. We need quieter minds. So shut up. Seriously. That’s where it starts.

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John Caswell John Caswell

For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn. 

When you only have six words, you can’t hide behind lengthy rationale or jargon. You either nail the truth or you waste everyone’s time. That’s the goal, isn’t it? In business, in life, in the stories we tell ourselves about what matters.

The shortest stories echo longest because they leave room for our imagination to fill the gaps. And our imagination? That’s where the real work happens.

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John Caswell John Caswell

The Elephant Carver’s Secret:

Real creativity isn’t about adding features, tactics, or complexity. It’s about having the intelligence to cut away everything that doesn’t solve the core problem. And that kind of thinking takes something increasingly rare: time to see what others miss.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Mother, where’s the invention?

The future must be built on intelligence, or I’m not going there, and for many, this will be a novel concept. We don’t need more predictable, generic thinking - we need thinking systems that connect the dots.

Understanding the connections between leadership intent, market noise, customer data, and commercial logic, so that decisions get better over time, not just faster. A continuity of insight. A durable strategic advantage. A system that can think with them. AI isn’t killing creativity or consulting. It’s exposing how little of either was happening in the first place.

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John Caswell John Caswell

The Quantum Nature of Creative Intelligence

We are living through the twilight of optimisation-based thinking. For decades, our approach to complex problems has been fundamentally reductionist: break down the challenge, analyse the components, find the optimal solution, and execute with precision.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Imagination-Scale Computing

The piece extrapolates from real quantum computing capabilities and research; however, the business applications, specific companies, and individuals are created for storytelling purposes. It's more of a ‘what if’ exploration than a case study of actual implementations.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Make Creativity Great Again

Remember also when PowerPoint templates (ugh) were the height of automation, and 'pivot to video' meant hiring a cameraman?

Welcome to 2025. AI has democratised creativity in the same way karaoke democratised singing. Everyone can do it, but should they?

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John Caswell John Caswell

Uh Oh!

We assess with moderate confidence that the subject currently poses a low direct threat to others or national security. However, their behavioral patterns and skills present latent capabilities – and vulnerabilities – that warrant note. The subject demonstrates exceptional analytical curiosity, technical savvy, and patience, which are constructive assets.

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John Caswell John Caswell

A Fine Mess

‘Let me understand your creative process?’ asked nobody ever.

The platitude — ‘it’s the journey not the destination’ — is not applicable in the creative world. People want the result and don’t give a shit about the process. I get it.

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John Caswell John Caswell

The Book Of Life V0.7

Over the last year, I've been consolidating much of the content and working with artificial intelligence to help consolidate, structure, and refine these thoughts into a coherent framework.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Creativity Killed the Media Star. Spoiler: Let’s Hope So.

Yes, AI is automating the formulaic, the predictable, the routine. It generates songs, movies, images, and stories in seconds. Jobs will disappear, and the obvious will become cheap. But that’s exactly why real creativity is about to become more valuable than ever.

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John Caswell John Caswell

An Apex Framework

You will know if you have the right mindset because you will be butting heads with those who don’t. They will not appreciate the full messiness/hard work of this unreasonable world. You will spend a disproportionate amount of time drawing on your patience.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Surviving The Coming Wave

Now and then, I get a minute to reflect on all the lessons. Eventually, a few of them become ‘truths.’ These lessons repeat themselves so regularly that I get the time to distil each one into a simple sentence.

I call them simple sentences, but they’re not simple ideas.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Five

Visionaries like Steve Jobs and Haruki Murakami had the power to use phrases capable of changing attitudes and paradigms. Well-aimed aphorisms that pierce prevailing notions and clear the way for new directions. 

A quote from a brilliant mind motivates me to keep questioning reality, challenge assumptions and not be constrained by how things are.

These verbal formulas for creativity and nonconformity stick with me like mantras and guide me to think harder and entertain entirely new possibilities.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume  Four

The best quotes crystallise elusive aspects of the human experience - our struggles and aspirations, fears and longings.

They distil life's messy complexities down to their essence. A well-turned phrase makes me nod in recognition, feeling suddenly that a veil has been lifted, and I understand something about myself or the world on a deeper level.

Profound quotations give voice to our shared humanity across time and culture. They confirm that others have walked this winding path and grappled with the big questions.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Three

The best aphorisms are scalpels cutting to the core of an issue with elegant economy. They resonate because they give voice to our innermost feelings and ideas. A good quotation takes flight in the mind and allows our understanding to float on the wind.

A great quotation articulates some essential truth about living that I've long felt intuitively but never fully grasped consciously.

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John Caswell John Caswell

Things I Wish I Had Said - Volume Two

Words have power. The right ones at the right time can stop us in our tracks, resonate deeply in our souls, and eloquently capture truths we've long felt but never fully expressed.

I always collect statements, and sentences (quotes) that have in some way taken my breath away - elegant distillations of hard-won wisdom and insight that lit up my mind.

Some are pithy and humorous, others poetic and profound, but all beautifully encapsulate an essential truth or hard-won lesson.

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