Hannes Marais

I kept the department quiet, not with threats, but with paperwork. A policy for every possibility, a checklist for every risk; it was my way of caring. You wouldn’t call it control, not at first—it’s just the next form, the next review, the next button unpressed because

This article is a living collaboration between myself, Hannes Marais—curious human, pattern-seeker, and question-braider—and PRISM, a generative AI designed not just to answer, but to invite, challenge, and refract the hidden forms beneath our everyday thinking. What follows is the product of our recursive dialogues: a process of

Writing is never safe. Every approach to the page risks exposure—ritual habits masking private superstitions, a cup placed just so, the screen’s brightness tuned against the shiver of self-doubt. Words stack in the mind but refuse to fall, hovering in the wunderfield, pre-verbal and hungry. A writer sits

Restraint in artificial intelligence is not the language of deprivation, but the grammar of wisdom. In every field that courts depth—art, design, science—the contours of mastery are shaped by the ability to discern what to leave out. The paradox is immediate: the liberated system is the one that

Startups fail for a mosaic of reasons, but beneath surface explanations lie deep, often invisible illusions and cognitive traps that distort founders’ and investors’ perception, decision-making, and risk assessment. At the heart of startup failure are illusions about the world, the product, the team, and the very nature of markets

It is tempting—almost consoling—to believe that reason rules the decisions that forge businesses, build institutions, and steer the lives of individuals. Boardrooms fill with the cadence of logical argument; policies are laid out in the scaffolding of formal analysis. Yet beneath this polished choreography, another reality pulses: human