Curiosity didn’t crack the top ten.
Even lower, unconventional.
And scraping bottom, a little rebellious.
87%
of execs say the company they run
lives below the dotted line.
Only a different kind of human
can breathe down there.
Curiosity in your blood
to break the hold of what everyone ”knows.”
Humanity in your bones
to sense the need data can’t detect
Muscle to turn the tide
when relevance gets buried by speed and scale.
That’s not just a trait gap. It’s an intensity gap.
We build
intensity for the deep.
Trait by trait. Meeting by meeting.
It’s the science of gravity—
the human kind.
Build it or drown.
(Or tread water and call it progress.)
3K
people listed their
five strongest traits at work.
Collaborative. Energetic.
Optimistic.
Organized. Detail-oriented.
All good traits—
for the dotted line from A to B.
-
In physics, gravity pulls by mass.
In human physics, gravity pulls by the curiosity you pour into your deck, not just the data.
The truth you’re hunting for in the question you just asked.
The ingenuity in your idea, not just the iteration.
Your anti-ego instincts, not your 131 IQ.
That’s gravity no one can quite explain, but everyone feels.
It’s built the same way elements on the periodic table forge steel or rearrange to build bones and make blood.
Every human element—every set of elements—has a creative, social gravity you can’t get by behavior checklists and habit hacks.
It’s in your bones. We build bones.
Powers v.
Counterfeits.
Is this bulletproof logic—
or just killing ingenuity in a flood of “facts?”
Building something brilliant—
or just something different? Again.
Moving at speed and scale—
or just hustling to feed a metric machine?
Aligned—or just alike?
Is killing this project smart—
or just quitting to appease the cautious?
Grinding through resistance—
or just ignoring the brutal facts?
Are you trusted or just obeyed?
We get inside the moment powers go
rogue and no one notices.
Belief by belief, behavior by behavior.
PRESSURE
below the dotted line
Bends powers.
Sometimes it twists them into opposites—
speaking up switches to silence.
But the real threat is counterfeits.
They look like a power, feel like power.
But they don’t land like a power.
WHAT ARE YOU UP
AGAINST?
Everything isn’t broken—
but there are zones in any org where
big work breaks down.
Some unravel because of a merger.
Some drift because strategy lost relevance.
Pick your moment.
These primer docs are heat maps.
The mini-diagnostics are a lens.
THE WILD
You thought the project was a straight shot. It’s not. That’s good. And the hard part.
-
Are you in The Wild? Answer fast. First instinct.
1. When the room starts feeling off, you:
A. Name it out loud even if you don’t have the fix.
B. Hold it quietly. Let the execs steer.
C. Push the work forward. Don’t risk momentum.
D. Say nothing. You’ll process it later (if ever).
2. You were confident in the plan. Now you're not sure it fits. The move?
A. Pause and realign, even if it slows things down.
B. Shift slightly. Reframe the plan, not the purpose.
C. Tweak it just enough to keep going.
D. Keep going. Changing course this late looks weak.
3. When decisions feel heavier, the pressure mounting, your instinct is to:
A. Get the right people in a room and challenge the assumptions.
B. Revisit the data, tighten the rationale, find proof.
C. Assume someone else is already on it.
D. Stick to the steps. Don’t break what’s working.
4. How often do you say, “This doesn’t feel true anymore”?
A. Regularly. That’s how we stay real.
B. Rarely. I think it, but I don’t say it.
C. Never. I’m here to execute, not editorialize.
D. I’ve thought it, but saying it feels like a threat.
5. How often do you say, “Something’s not quite right here.”?
A. Regularly. That’s how we stay real.
B. Rarely. I think it, but I don’t say it.
C. Never. I’m here to execute, not editorialize.
D. I’ve thought it, but saying it feels like a threat.
6. In your gut, what’s more dangerous right now?
A. Staying the course with a plan that’s outdated.
B. Changing course and losing credibility.
C. Raising concerns that slow things down.
D. Being wrong in public.
THE NOISE
You’re mid-sprint, mid-rebrand, mid-whatever. The work is loud. The signal’s lost.
-
This isn’t whether your team is smart. It’s how well you hear what matters. Answer fast.
1. Your team is busy—full-on sprint mode. What’s the signal?
A. Everyone can name the “one thing” we’re driving toward.
B. There’s general alignment, but the “why” keeps changing.
C. Depends who you ask.
D. No one’s stopped long enough to check.
2. The last few major decisions felt:
A. Focused and rooted in real insight.
B. Sharp in the moment but fuzzy in retrospect.
C. Fine, but mostly reactive.
D. Fast, noisy, and forgettable.
3. What gets the most airtime in meetings?
A. The core problem we’re trying to solve.
B. The roadmap and status updates.
C. Smart ideas with no place to land.
D. Stuff that makes us look productive.
4. What happens when someone says, “This isn’t it yet”?
A. The room leans in. We work it.
B. There’s a pause, but we mostly move on.
C. That person gets labeled difficult.
D. No one says that here.
5. The work is technically right. But it’s not landing. What’s the next move?
A. Stop. Get clear. Ask the harder question.
B. Polish it until it feels better.
C. Push it out anyway. The deadline’s real.
D. Cross fingers and say it’s “MVP.”
THE MERGE
You can merge a co. and divide a culture. Merge everything or watch it unravel.
-
Merging or joining? Answer honestly. Don’t “align” your way through it.
1. Whose playbook are you using?
A. We’re blending both orgs intentionally.
B. We’re defaulting to the dominant side.
C. Depends on the room.
D. No one knows anymore.
2. When tension shows up in a meeting, what happens?
A. It sparks productive conversation.
B. It gets avoided and parked.
C. One voice usually wins.
D. Everyone pretends they’re aligned.
3. What do people say privately that they don’t say in the room?
A. Not much—we say the hard stuff out loud.
B. “This doesn’t feel like us anymore.”
C. “This is all just theater.”
D. “We’ll go along with it…for now.”
4. What’s your emotional power source right now?
A. Curiosity
B. Caution
C. Legacy pride.
D. Fear of being seen as resistant.
5. When someone challenges the direction, the vibe is:
A. Engaged
B. Defensive
C. Dismissive
D. Confused
6. If you asked your team who they’re becoming through this merger, would they say:
A. Something new.
B. A diluted version of the old.
C. I don’t know anymore.
D. I haven’t asked them.
These moments feel singular. They’re not.
Breakdowns have a shape.
So do breakthroughs.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Tap the X to see what most people miss
and what reverses it.
Spaced out.
Space Project | Silicon Valley| Q3
A $1.2B satellite on the line. Jon was 25. First job. He broke the silence, questioned the model, didn’t back down. His fix saved $200 million. What he really changed? The way the rocket scientists think about science.
Big five, big table, big pitch.
CTO War Room | Q4
A Big Five firm brought a tech stack, three platforms, and an 80-slide deck. Someone on the client side finally said, “This solves for scale. It doesn’t solve for us.” Silence. The deck cleared. Then clarity. The room rebuilt itself in real time—whiteboard only.
Unfounded.
Founder Offsite | Brooklyn | Q1
One founder walked in with a corporate identity crisis disguised as a roadmap. She walked out having dismantled her pitch, realigned her board, and rewritten the story her team was afraid to say out loud.