2024 Year in Review
Looking back and forward
2024 is drawing to its inevitable end, and I wanted to once again take a look back at my work in Futures over the course of the year. It’s been another great year engaging with the University of Houston Foresight Program, the Association of Professional Futurists, and the field more generally.
Learning
This year I took two very theory-heavy classes: Systems Thinking and Social Change. Each of these was a challenge, because they were deeper than Intro, but also less application-focused than Futures Research, I had to let the material percolate to make sure I really understood it. Like last year, the best way to do this was often by trying to write coherently about the ideas in this newsletter and finding out the limits of my understanding in real time as I typed.
I also ran a big Futures project at work over the course of 2024 that taught me so much about how to practically implement the Framework Foresight methodology. I plan to write more about this soon, so stay tuned!
Writing
At the most fundamental level, I was able to keep to my weekly posting schedule. This means I've posted over 100 issues of this newsletter! All together I've had over 7,000 views on the content, which is enough to believe I’ve made a difference for someone1. I have enough of a back catalog at this point that I created a custom page to help people find all the content.
This year I also experimented with some new features in Substack, including video and Notes. I think the diversity in format is a great cool, and I love being able to share the actual words and voices of my interview subjects. The newsletter grew from 51 subscribers to 131, which I’m very happy with; I don’t know what the natural saturation point is for what happens here, but I look forward to getting closer to it over the next 12 months.
My top three posts from 2024, :
My June interview with author Karl Schroeder (he kindly boosted this to his much larger Substack audience)
My April review of Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence about working with AI
My January interview with Earthborne Games founder Andrew Navaro
Connections
In addition to all the learning and writing, I dipped my toe into the broader world of professional futures. I was able to attend the UH Spring Gathering in April, and I met tons of students, faculty, and alumni in person for the first time. It made me feel like I’m one member of a really wonderful and supportive community.
I am also a student member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and earlier this year I joined their North America region advisory group to help with a few tasks. They want to build regional hubs that can host events and bring together futurists semi-autonomously under the larger APF banner, and I helped to write the agreement that would govern these hubs. It was a great experience that reminded me that so much of the world is just whatever we collectively decide it should be (but that change is slower than it seems like it should be), and most of the work is finding enough people to step forward to make it happen.
The Year Ahead
Next semester I plan on doing another project2 rather than take a class, so I am going to do something different to provide regular content in this newsletter. I’m pretty excited about what’s coming but not quite ready to share. I expect to resume classes in the Fall, or maybe Summer if something irresistible is offered. Also, in May I’ll be going to the Spring Gathering celebrating the 50th anniversary of the UH Foresight program. By the end of the year I hope to be 70% or more finished with the program.
Bonus Content: Music
Like last year, I wanted to take advantage of the end-of-year feeling to share some amazing music that, regardless of when it came out, I heard for the first time this year. Combining this with the 2023 songs may almost be enough to construct a psychological profile of me to rebuild a reasonable facsimile using AI after I’m crushed by a pile of A24 movies so pretentious it takes rescue crews hours to excavate my smug corpse.
“Just Exist” by Eliza and the Delusionals (2020): I think this is the highest quality-to-exposure ratio of any song I’ve ever heard. This is a tiny little band from Australia but I’d be hard-pressed to name anybody with a better feel for 90s-alternative-style pop hooks. People have compared E and the D to the Cranberries, which works if you squint just right.
“Mistake” by Middle Kids (2018): OK another last-ten-years-female-led-alternative-band-from-Australia3 recommendation, and the vibe is pretty similar to the above but with a slightly higher guitars-to-vocals focus. Tons of great songs to choose from, but I think this is the best balance between musical energy, lyrics that strongly evoke imagery and associated emotion, and melodic hook.
“Bull Believer” by Wednesday (2022): if you still have a soft spot in your cynical, ennui-filled heart for grunge, this Southern4 update to the genre will warm whatever you have left of a soul. Another one of my 8-minute darlings, this meanders from angst to 90s nostalgia to a scream that rivals a pre-spiritual-awakening Meg Myers. I had the pleasure of seeing Wednesday in concert in May and would recommend it to anyone with the opportunity.
And, in case this hasn’t come across your radar yet, because you missed a footnote in an August newsletter or whatever other excuse you have, stop what you’re doing and go watch Hundreds of Beavers. It’s what film was invented for, and possibly the best use of $150,000 in human history.
Cover image by Marisol Benitez on Unpslash
This is not above the threshold where I would regularly get comments as a form of feedback (or maybe I’m just not being provocative enough).
One of the coolest parts about the UH program is that they do real futures projects for clients and have students assist the faculty and alumni. It’s one of three ways to graduate (the other two are a thesis or an independent project, like if you did something for your employer). I’d love to talk about both projects, but of course that’s not how consulting always goes.
When I asked my Australian friend Jen about these bands, I got a blank stare, so it seems like they haven’t cracked the zeitgeist over there either.
There’s a futures connection here about how their hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was devastated by a climate-change-amplified hurricane that also created critical shortages of medical supplies, but it’s the week between Christmas and New Years and I can’t be bothered.