Reality threatened; McKinsey’s future; thoughtstipation: Newsletter 6 August 2025

Newsletter 105. Trump’s ultimate goal is the destruction of reality, or at least how we measure it. Plus, will AI doom consultancies; Johns Hopkins licenses books for a pittance, three people to follow, and three books to read.

The war on reality

We’ve heard past presidents declare war on concepts: the war on cancer, the war on poverty, the war on terror. But they were thinking far too small.

Donald Trump has declared war on reality.

It’s not too surprising. Reality is dangerously out of control. It continues in unpredictable directions. Who among us would not like to have more control of our realities?

But you cannot directly impact the perception of reality on a national or global scale. Our perception of these broader realities is moderated by various sophisticated mechanisms to approximate it. Those mechanisms tell us what’s happening in reality and influence our choices about what to do about it. So rather than declare war on reality, it appears that Trump is declaring war on the mechanisms that reveal it.

The most notable recent example is Trump’s decision to fire Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Following the same methodology that has been in place for decades, the BLS recently published an unfavorable report about the level of employment in the country — including downward revisions of the past two months. The problem is clearly not the economy, so it must be how we measure and report the economy. Erika McEntarfer was a victim of the war on reality.

There’s a pattern here.

The EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have historically measured the state of the climate. Those measurements have reflected a dramatic series of increases in the global average temperature. The solution is obvious: stop measuring the changes in the climate. That’s a lot easier than changing the reality of the climate.

Medical research funded by the government reveals challenges faced by minority groups, such as African Americans and gay and trans people. Solution: stop funding the research. No more research, no more reality.

Another source of independent truth are America’s universities. Researchers there often reveal realities the government would prefer not to deal with. The war on academia is a major front of the war on reality.

The independent press is constantly generating more reality. “News” might as well be short for “new realities.” The Trump administration and Trump personally have pursued suits against most of the major news networks, culminating in judgments against many of them. The head of Paramount’s investigative reporting property “60 Minutes” — an organization pretty much designed to afflict the powerful — resigned under pressure. And Trump critic Stephen Colbert has been cancelled. He, of course, was known for having quipped, in another incarnation, that “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Count another victim of the war on reality.

It’s easy to get discouraged. Reality has no army. It has no way to defend itself. It certainly looks like reality is going to lose this war. A victory in the war on reality would make it far easier for Trump to make decisions untroubled by pesky phenomena like employment statistics, climate measurements, investigative reporters, and satirists.

But reality has an ally.

All of us depend on it on a day-to-day basis.

Collectively, our measurement of reality enables us to make smart decisions, such as whether to buy a house or what disease treatment is likely to be most effective.

We’re used to counting on the U.S. government to measure our reality for us, but clearly, that’s going to be harder and harder moving forward.

It’s time to find other ways to fund it. State governments. Private foundations. Corporations. Non-profit membership organizations.

Yes, folks, we’re going to have to find ways to fund reality on our own — ways that aren’t subject to the political whims of the President of the United States.

It won’t be comfortable. It won’t be quick. It won’t be cheap. But it will be essential.

So look for ways to support reality in the coming conflict.

Because without reality, everything important that holds us together a society will being to fall apart.

News for writers and others who think

The Wall Street Journal asks whether AI will make consultants like McKinsey & Company obsolete. Management consultants succeed by making up new and surprising ideas to hypnotize corporate leaders. AI is a great way to do that far faster and more creatively than ever before.

Johns Hopkins press is licensing books to AI, but its compensation to its authors is tiny, about $100 per book (Publisher’s Lunch, subscription link). The authors can still opt out, and at that price, many should.

Swiss telecom company Swisscom released a children’s book created and illustrated with AI, The Monster Princess, that encourages children to use AI to make their own stories. Depending on your point of view this is an inevitable way to stimulate children’s imaginations or another sign of the AI writing apocalypse.

Ann Handley warns writers to beware “thoughtstipation“, “a cognitive blockage caused by over-reliance on artificial intelligence, resulting in the inability to generate original ideas or think clearly.” Look, all writing and research tools change the way we think. The key is not to let it . . . what was I saying again? Lost my train of thought there.

Three people to follow

Greg Satell , philosopher on writing and thinking

Gabriel Morelli , deep thinker on corporate transformation, especially in pharma

Alice Sullivan , bestselling ghostwriter

Three books to read

The Dark Pattern: The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals by Guido Palazzo and Ulrich Hoffrage (Basic Venture, 2025). How entire companies succumb to immoral forces.

How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence by Matt Richtel (Mariner, 2025). Why puberty sucks — and sucks us in.

Apocalypse: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures by Lizzie Wade (Harper, 2025). Disaster made us who we are — and will determine who we will be.