_CONNOR
ABOUT US
a lab at the intersection of
science, culture,
and capital
We identify the principles of independent thinking.
Then we teach them to AI natives.
THE CHALLENGE
The problem humanity needs to solve (soon)
AI doesn’t democratize opportunity.
It gives infinite leverage to experts and renders beginners obsolete. By automating entry-level tasks, AI removes the training ground for beginners.
It also greatly reduces the motivation to obtain knowledge in the first place. Instead of leveraging our thinking, we much rather delegate it.
How does this affect those still learning to think?
We’re already witnessing a decline of human cognition, education, and mental health, hitting Gen Alpha hardest.
Reddit post by a teacher (Oct 13, 2026)
AI-SUPPORTED THINKING
The unwanted "side-effects" of AI-supported thinking
GenAlpha already had a challenging start with Covid disrupting their education and independence. Now LLMs make it even harder to embrace learning and independent thinking.
Cognitive Offloading
What are the longterm effects on our cognitive abilities when we fully rely on AI to provide a starting point and/or the solution?
Contrarian Thinking
Will we still be able to hold a belief, judgment or worldview without AI confirming it? When every decision is made with AI, at what point will we officially stop owning the decisions we make?
Uncertainty & Discomfort
How does constantly available AI assistance affect our tolerance for struggle and operating around uncertainty? If we learn to avoid friction, how will we learn at all?
What new skills will we learn?
Non-sequential thinking
Human learning has always been sequential: we try, get results, adjust, and try again. Algorithms don't work in sequence. They allow us to launch thousands of parallel experiments simultaneously.
Will we adapt to finding solutions by running a multitude of agentic experiments without providing direction?
Learning without Doing
In the past, expertise was based on experience. We did the work to understand the work. Can we skip experience and still acquire expertise? Will we be able to guide and evaluate AI systems on tasks we’ve never executed ourselves?
OUR FOCUS
The "side-effects" of AI supported thinking
Cognitive Offloading
What are the longterm effects on our cognitive abilities when we fully rely on AI to provide a starting point and/or the solution?
We've been here before
-> We had to invent the gym.
When we stopped doing physical labor we had to start using artificial weights to keep our bodies healthy.
Will we need gyms for our brains?
MEET CONNOR
The Think Tank
-> The goal:
Finding the formula behind intelligence and independent thinking. Preserve and progress it in the age of AI.
Connor operates in sprints, each sprint is dedicated to one clearly defined aspect of human intelligence.
Step 1: The Formula
We bring together those who excel at innovative thinking, and scientists who can identify their patterns. We then explore how constant AI support can alter these patterns.
Step 2: Awareness
We spread awareness and ignite conversations through collaboration with artists and creatives in film, gaming, music and fiction.
Step 3: Action
We brief the next generation of entrepreneurs to build the tools that will help us to better co-exist with AI.
Sprint 1 (BETA):
Contrarian Thinking & The Power of Being Wrong
SPRINT 1
The Thesis:
Excellence is achieved through non-conformity.
The Method:
Step 1 = The Formula
We curate a Think Tank with creatives, entrepreneurs, scientists, and athletes who achieved outstanding results by thinking differently to dissect their thinking process and principles.
We look for shared patterns in:
- their general approach/lens
- selection of information,
- emotional reaction to opposition,
- decision making criteria.
We research the circumstances that shaped their thinking. We also explore how they strategically and emotionally deal with being wrong.
-> The outcome: The Contrarian Thinking Formula
Step 2 = The AI Effect
Think Tank with low- and high-performing students (ages 19-25).
We partner with cutting-edge schools (currently in conversation with Pepperdine) and low-income area schools. We give GenAlpha a problem to solve that requires contrarian thinking, observe how their principles and approach differs from the approach of the "expert thinkers", as well as their emotional (stress) response.
We aim to understand how their thinking differs, which steps are the most challenging for them, and how they use generative AI.
-> The outcome: The GenAlpha Snapshot
Step 3 = The Projection
A final round table with outstanding thinkers, futurists, and macroeconomists to explore the trajectory, based on the findings and their expertise.
The goal is to go beyond the obvious. We search for black-swan events, blind spots, and unexpected consequences.
-> The outcome: The Human ScoreCard
The formula of contrarian thinking, its differences with GenAlpha, and it's trajectory.
Participants Think Tank (tbc)
Samy Kamkar [tbc]
Famous grey hacker turned founder with a $300m exit
Festus Ezeli [tbc]
NBA Champion
Golden State Warriors
Sean Wu [tbc]
Rhodes Scholar, Stanford
LAUNCHING THE DISCOURSE
Culture
We turn the The Human Scorecard into a creative brief and competition placing it directly into the hands of the most relevant voices in culture, art and entertainment.
Our focus:
- Film/TV
- Gaming
- Music
- Fiction
- Advertising
Beyond individual creatives we also partner with movie studios, and publishers to reach artists at scale.
The Output:
1. The Campaign
We partner with creative agencies to create fun, quirky, powerful campaigns and PSAs promoting the thinking principles we discovered in our sprint.
2. The Platform
We publish a platform curating all work produced from the brief. The most defining pieces are showcased at an annual flagship event.
THE VENTURE ARM
Capital
We translate the findings into an actionable, strategic brief for emerging founders. We partner with accelerators and run design-thinking sprints with selected EIRs to ideate and build solutions addressing our findings.
The Output:
Market-tested ideas for applications focused on protecting and elevating our thinking with the use of AI.