Karena de Souza is a compass for humanity's journey toward the future. Like a hiker's magnetic aide that swings as the hiker navigates around boulders and over fallen logs, Karena's writing provides gentle course corrections around, or through, the obstacles of life. A strategist with a storyteller’s soul, she blends the logic of a programmer with the lyricism of a poet, making complex ideas about work, education, and climate feel like dinner-table conversations. She’s the kind of futurist who can convince a luddite to embrace AI while showing the astrophysicist that a child's grubby fingers hold more mysteries than all the stars.
She’s raised leaders while crossing continents, and her writing reflects that global heartbeat — nurturing, witty, and packed with metaphors. Her newsletter feels like a warm cup of tea passed across generations. She asks big questions with childlike curiosity, and her courage is rooted in a deep commitment to family, integrity, and action.
I read this out to my husband, Cassandra. Geez, what a masterful edit!
"She’s the kind of futurist who can convince a luddite to embrace AI while showing the astrophysicist that a child's grubby fingers hold more mysteries than all the stars."
One of my hobbyhorses is varying sentence structure and length. The AI version you posted did a poor job of that. I'm still not happy with my edits, but it's a bit better.
One of the "tricks" I learned from political speechwriting is the masterful pause followed by the ending tagline. I tried to apply that here.
I am so honoured that you would take time with this, Cassandra! (For those reading these comments, Cassandra is a published SciFi author, and now I discover political speech-writer!)
Now that I am back to my home routine, we have to schedule a zoom call.
I will gladly raise a glass and toast to the vision of community for the next year. I’m always inspired by your commitment to it, starting with family, and rippling outward to the human tribe.
Rick, you are in the running for that bragging rights award! I don't know if you know that the working title for my second book is Ripples? If not, you are real-life ChatGPT memory mode, extrapolating from my many dots!
But honestly, thank you for that generous and delicate way of encapsulating my dream. I do start with family, and I do intend a great destiny for our human tribe.
So I kinda took your advice, Becky, and stayed off the boards for a little. Boom! Came back to 17 hearts, 5 comments and a restack. Wow.
But the algorithm-hunter in me says 'what about that first hour of interactions?' How do you solve for that? Most of your audience is awake when your email goes out?
Oh that's interesting, I never thought of that! I've benefitted from being on the opposite timezone so I just schedule it for my 8am and my workday starts very soon after that. I tend to reply late since I'll be preoccupied
For YouTube, I schedule it to go out when I'm sleeping. I'm way too susceptible to the stats 😅
Dan the man! What a duo.
Don't you love his smile? And his ability to get things done? Unfortunately for Dan, our meetings are never just an hour! We just get chatting.
Haha, always good to see a smiling Dan!
"watching Dan (educator-turned-coder) wield his magic on Airtables behind the scenes to help the WoP editors"
This made me smile.
I bet that was one lovely sprawling conversation! :)
Karena de Souza is a compass for humanity's journey toward the future. Like a hiker's magnetic aide that swings as the hiker navigates around boulders and over fallen logs, Karena's writing provides gentle course corrections around, or through, the obstacles of life. A strategist with a storyteller’s soul, she blends the logic of a programmer with the lyricism of a poet, making complex ideas about work, education, and climate feel like dinner-table conversations. She’s the kind of futurist who can convince a luddite to embrace AI while showing the astrophysicist that a child's grubby fingers hold more mysteries than all the stars.
She’s raised leaders while crossing continents, and her writing reflects that global heartbeat — nurturing, witty, and packed with metaphors. Her newsletter feels like a warm cup of tea passed across generations. She asks big questions with childlike curiosity, and her courage is rooted in a deep commitment to family, integrity, and action.
Karena doesn’t just tilt the future.
She coaxes it into bloom.
I read this out to my husband, Cassandra. Geez, what a masterful edit!
"She’s the kind of futurist who can convince a luddite to embrace AI while showing the astrophysicist that a child's grubby fingers hold more mysteries than all the stars."
I'm glad you liked it.
One of my hobbyhorses is varying sentence structure and length. The AI version you posted did a poor job of that. I'm still not happy with my edits, but it's a bit better.
One of the "tricks" I learned from political speechwriting is the masterful pause followed by the ending tagline. I tried to apply that here.
I am so honoured that you would take time with this, Cassandra! (For those reading these comments, Cassandra is a published SciFi author, and now I discover political speech-writer!)
Now that I am back to my home routine, we have to schedule a zoom call.
Love you Karena! Such a contribution to the world!
Humbled, James. Because I see who you read regularly. Thank you. And right back at you. Are you still on sabbatical?
I will gladly raise a glass and toast to the vision of community for the next year. I’m always inspired by your commitment to it, starting with family, and rippling outward to the human tribe.
Rick, you are in the running for that bragging rights award! I don't know if you know that the working title for my second book is Ripples? If not, you are real-life ChatGPT memory mode, extrapolating from my many dots!
But honestly, thank you for that generous and delicate way of encapsulating my dream. I do start with family, and I do intend a great destiny for our human tribe.
hahaha scheduling takes me off of the edges of the nerves
So I kinda took your advice, Becky, and stayed off the boards for a little. Boom! Came back to 17 hearts, 5 comments and a restack. Wow.
But the algorithm-hunter in me says 'what about that first hour of interactions?' How do you solve for that? Most of your audience is awake when your email goes out?
Oh that's interesting, I never thought of that! I've benefitted from being on the opposite timezone so I just schedule it for my 8am and my workday starts very soon after that. I tend to reply late since I'll be preoccupied
For YouTube, I schedule it to go out when I'm sleeping. I'm way too susceptible to the stats 😅