Use #Mindcandy as a strategic sensing engine to help leadership teams identify the signals they are missing. It fuels the strategic conversation about what is next. It is also the thinking behind my latest book, “Stop predicting: 13 lessons from 1,400 attempts to see what was coming“.
There is no escaping robotics
AI is leaving the screen and getting a body. Robots are becoming faster, stronger, and more capable. More importantly, their brains are improving. They can increasingly see, navigate, learn, adapt, and operate in unpredictable environments. The real signal is the convergence of AI, sensors, batteries, actuators, simulation, and advanced manufacturing.
Once the brain catches up with the body, automation escapes the software layer and moves into the physical economy.
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/26/robot-brain-builders-are-pushing-out-of-their-gpt-2-era/
- https://singularityhub.com/2026/08/24/unitree-claims-new-humanoid-robot-outruns-usain-bolt/
- https://www.dw.com/en/us-china-trump-humanoid-robots-ban-trade-artificial-intelligence-elon-musk/a-78181288
- https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-08-23/Humanoid-robot-takes-on-tennis-testing-AI-s-next-frontier-1PQ73bW4mSQ/p.html
The leadership question
Which parts of your business become automatable when AI can think, move, and manipulate the physical world?
The future fitness move
Map the physical work in your organisation and ask what changes when capable robots become cheap and reliable enough. The robots are coming. The strategic question is whether you are watching early enough.
The other prompts:
AI Is Undermining Leaders’ Judgment. Here’s What to Do About It.
Two interlocking capacities shape a leader’s ability to produce original thinking: breadth of perception (noticing weak signals and adjacent patterns beyond the obvious) and independence of interpretation (forming your own view rather than deferring to the model’s or the group’s).
https://hbr.org/2026/08/ai-is-undermining-leaders-judgment-heres-what-to-do-about-it
Research: The Innovation Problems AI Can’t Solve
Every innovation team now has the same tools: the same foundation models, similar prompt libraries. Yet the results are wildly uneven. Some teams report a creative renaissance while others report a flood of homogenized, forgettable ideas that all sound like they came from the same person. The reason isn’t which model you’re using. It’s that generative AI acts on the human bottlenecks buried inside that process.
https://hbr.org/2026/08/research-the-innovation-problems-ai-cant-solve
The new economics of starting up in 2026
Today’s founders are building without waiting for perfect conditions. Rather than sweating the seemingly ever-present uncertainty, they’re finding leverage in new technologies, making disciplined decisions about where their money goes (and comes from), and adjusting their plans as economic conditions evolve.
https://mercury.com/blog/startup-economics-report-2026
Mini Brains Grown for Five Years Matured Like Human Brains
Organoids begin life as a collection of stem cells. Within weeks, they spontaneously produce a range of brain cells. Neurons form circuits that spark with electrical activity. Gene expression resembles that of early fetal brains. Some organoids learn to control small, isolated muscles. Others link to spinal cord organoids and process pain signals.
https://singularityhub.com/2026/08/25/mini-brains-grown-for-five-years-matured-like-human-brains/
Choose your player
The easily defined gamer no longer exists. Gaming has become more global, social, and diverse, which makes chasing the average player the costliest mistake in the industry.
https://www.bain.com/insights/topics/gaming-report/
Heat-defying purple fabric reflects 88% sunlight, keeps skin 14°F cooler, repels water
The material is made of a metal-organic framework with zinc oxide nanoparticles.
https://interestingengineering.com/science/purple-fabric-reflects-sunlight-stays-cooler
