Clayton Christensen

Winslow Homer's Breezing Up: a man and three boys sailing a catboat in fair wind, leaning confidently into the sea, with a schooner visible on the horizon

On the Bubble

Why Self-Disrupt?

The environmental imperative is the reason to begin. This is about why you'll be glad you did it. Have to versus get to. Part I of a two-part conclusion.

Wang Meng, "Simple Retreat," ca. 1370. A scholar's hermitage nestled in energized mountains — the retreat as a reservoir of calm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.

Simplicity

More Joy, Less Work

Abundant energy and intelligence are arriving just as the culture demands simplicity. The brand that sells "enough" will own the biggest business opportunity in history.

Tiny figures lost in Piranesi's impossible prison of arches and stairs—architecture so vast and self-referential that individual optimization becomes meaningless.

On the Bubble

Transformative Ends, Incremental Means?

The era of incremental change is rapidly coming to a close

Vincent van Gogh’s The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix), showing a compassionate figure helping a wounded man onto a horse, rendered in expressive brushwork.

On the Bubble

Empathy Is a Strategic Capacity

It enables worldbuilding where time and value are not yet fixed, providing a path to product–market fit before markets, metrics, or demand signals exist.

Painterly night scene of an ancient Greek sailing vessel beneath a circular constellation of luminous stars, symbolizing a constellation of ideas guiding the close of A Circudyne Odyssey.

Circudyne Odyssey

A Circudyne Odyssey

Closing out a season tracing a constellation of thinkers and ideas behind circular transformation — sharpening how we see perception, storytelling, and imagination, and preparing the ground for a harder question: what circularity must now deliver.

Painterly image of Earth aligned beneath a black monolith, with the Moon and Sun above, rendered in a mythic, cosmic style inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Circudyne Odyssey

McLuhan, Perception, and the Role of Brands Today

Marshall McLuhan argued that experience shapes behavior before understanding. In a moment defined by overload and institutional fatigue, this letter explores what that insight means for brands, and why helping people see has become their responsibility.

Digital illustration of Homer, the ancient Greek poet, gazing toward a radiant circular future city, linking timeless storytelling traditions with a coherent vision of the Circular Century.

Connection

You Don't Need Better Storytellers

Stories begin with choices. Without internal coherence, even the best storytelling can’t help us imagine, or choose, the future we need.

Neo-Impressionist maritime painting: large sailing ship and small vessel with pirate flag connected by rope in stormy seas. Dramatic citrine yellow light breaks through blue storm clouds.

Self-Disruption

Beyond Organizational Charts: Why Self-Disruption Requires Vision, Culture, and Values

What practitioners miss about Christensen's self-disruption theory—and why it matters for scaling circular innovation

Impressionist painting of glass pavilion atelier on American boulevard. Crowds watch craftspeople work on futuristic car through floor-to-ceiling windows. Golden light, Monet-style brushwork.

Modularity

Modularity Theory: The Compass for Circular Innovation Strategy

Bundling and unbundling—business history's endless cycle. Modularity theory explains why circular products fail when they're caught halfway between.

Pop art milkshake with striped straw on yellow table. Window shows sunlit meadow with dome structure and rolling green hills—a circular economy future in yellows, teals, greens.

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

From Milkshakes To Meaning

Clay Christensen showed us how to understand consumer preference beyond the A|B test. That key unlocks product-market fit for the Circular Century.