Practicing Wisdom — Issue #14

Who’s writing the script?

This week I kept coming back to a quiet but unsettling realization: most of our behavior is downstream of defaults — and the defaults are increasingly set by whoever holds leverage. Prestige shapes culture. Liquidity shapes governance. AI shapes decisions. And in private markets, the absence of exits is reshaping the entire ecosystem.

Role models teach us scripts. AI tools are starting to write them. Private equity can’t recycle capital fast enough to maintain its rhythm. And when systems stop clearing, whoever controls the inside writes the rules.

The question isn’t whether we’ll adapt.

It’s whether we’ll notice who’s steering before we forget how to drive.