I Burned The Jacket 🔥

I have a challenge for you.

It will take about 10 minutes. It might change how you think about trust, AI, and what it means to notice something real in a world optimized to look authentic but isn't.

Ready?

Go to www.nolasimon.com and find the rabbit hole. 🐇🕳️

Here be dragons. Or, you know, fluffy chicks. Depends on my mood. 🐣

Don't look for a link. Don't scan the navigation. Just look. Notice what you notice.

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Still here? Good. That means you're that person.

You signed up for this newsletter years ago. I never emailed you. That's on me.

In 2020 I thought the most valuable thing I could offer was what I'd pioneered: hybrid and remote work, before it had a name, before anyone thought it was possible. I rode that wave for years.

Then I did something dangerous.

I kept thinking.

George Michael is my blueprint for career reinvention. Burn the jacket. Blow up the jukebox. Hire the supermodels.

Faith just got remastered and released on vinyl. Everything old is new again. I don't even own speakers that work with my turntable anymore — streaming is my jam — but in George, we trust.

Same energy.

When you blow up the past you are left with what remains. And I've realized that I'm a researcher at heart. A strategic futurist.

The hybrid/remote chapter made me. It doesn't define me.

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This newsletter is where I think out loud about trust, signals, and what's assembling itself underneath the decisions that feel obvious.

Here be dragons.

If you're here out of habit — this is a good moment to choose a different page below. I mean it.

I'd rather keep the dragon hunters. The people who live life as a choose your own adventure.

If you found the rabbit hole — you already know you belong here.

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Lewis Carroll was a teacher and a writer.

Not a futurist.

I mean — a futurist would have given Alice a rope at least.

"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again."

Gotta have faith. 🎤

Nola

Happy Easter 🐣 (Supermodels are so 1990)