This Week on The Weird Canadian
Two conversations.
Two completely different topics.
One uncomfortable through-line.
We talked about division — how viral ideologies spread and fracture communities.
And we talked about AI failure — why 95% of enterprise AI projects collapse before they ever deliver value.
On paper, those seem unrelated.
They’re not.
🧠The Psychology of Division
(From Tumbler Ridge to Trump)
This conversation hit heavy.
We unpacked what “viral ideology” actually means. Not as a buzzword. Not as some academic theory.
But as something real.
Something that spreads.
Something that embeds itself in identity.
When belief stops being an idea and becomes who you are…
Any disagreement feels like a personal attack.
That’s when nuance dies.
That’s when media narratives get weaponized.
That’s when communities fracture.
And here’s the uncomfortable part…
It’s not just a left problem.
It’s not just a right problem.
It’s a human problem.
We’re living in a hyper-connected system that amplifies outrage faster than understanding. And most of us don’t even realize when we’ve been emotionally hijacked.
That’s not weakness.
That’s design.
But design can be redesigned.
🤖 Why 95% of AI Projects Fail
Everyone’s screaming about AI.
Nobody’s fixing their data.
Most companies don’t have an AI problem.
They have a plumbing problem.
80+ disconnected systems.
Thousands of brittle integrations.
PDF invoices in 2025.
We call it “AI strategy” but it’s usually just hype duct-taped onto chaos.
And here’s the deeper parallel…
An organization with siloed data can’t think clearly.
A society with siloed belief systems can’t think clearly.
Garbage in, hallucination out.
Whether it’s GPT or a human brain.
The Through-Line
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Division spreads when systems aren’t grounded.
AI fails when systems aren’t grounded.
In both cases, we skipped the fundamentals.
We wanted speed.
We wanted power.
We wanted scale.
We didn’t do the hard, boring work of integration.
And yeah… integration is unsexy.
But it’s everything.
If You’re a Weirdo Building Something
Here’s what matters:
Fix foundations before chasing hype.
Challenge narratives before adopting outrage.
Integrate systems before layering intelligence.
Protect nuance like it’s oxygen.
Because it kind of is.
If this week’s episodes made you uncomfortable…
Good.
Growth rarely feels cozy.
If they made you think…
Even better.
Next week:
We’re going deeper into the systems underneath economic machinery.
And I promise… it’s not what the headlines are telling you.
Stay weird.
Stay curious.
And don’t outsource your thinking.
— Cody

