In this issue:
- Becoming an intellectual bodyguard
- Power Hour: The Endangered Species Act, solar roads, the war on meat, and more
- The Human Flourishing Project: Tracking mental metrics
Becoming an intellectual bodyguard
When I was 22 years old I decided I wanted to be an “intellectual bodyguard” for businesses that wanted to fight for their freedom.

At the time, I had no interest in or enthusiasm for the fossil fuel industry, but I believed in general that value creators did not do a good job of defending themselves (let alone championing themselves) in the face of attacks on their freedom.
Today, I’m happy to get to do a lot of work as an “intellectual bodyguard” for freedom-fighting energy producers. At my company, the Center for Industrial Progress, we call it Messaging Solutions. Organizations who have difficult messaging challenges involving crucial stakeholders come to us, and we create true, pro-human messages that resonate with these audiences.
This year has been our most active ever on the Messaging Solutions front. Some projects we’ve worked on this year are:
- Telling the truth about battery vehicles
- Giving legal teams more persuasive arguments against bogus lawsuits. (This is unfortunately a growth industry)
- Explaining the future of oil and gas to investors
- Educating and motivating employees about the value of their work
- Crafting policy one-pagers
- Helping shape utility disputes
- Arguing against bad policies like carbon taxes
- Countering ESG activism
I like working on these projects because they have a lot of impact and because I get to work with committed, passionate people, who:
- Believe they have a lot at stake in getting the messaging right
- Stand for energy freedom and human flourishing
- Want to be honest and authentic
While our client names and projects are confidential, I’m optimistic that in the not-too-distant future you’ll recognize more pro-human, pro-energy arguments coming from some significant organizations and companies.
If you have a high-stakes communications project that we might be able to help with, feel free to reach out. Just send me an email with the answers to 3 questions that I like to ask about every messaging project:
- What is your mission? (What are you trying to accomplish?)
- Who are your markets? (What audiences are you trying to persuade?)
- What are the monkey wrenches? (What obstacles are getting in the way?)
Power Hour: The Endangered Species Act, solar roads, the war on meat, and more
On this week’s Power Hour, Don and Steffen discuss six topics:
- Trump reins in the Endangered Species Act
- Blocking the energy infrastructure blockers
- The war on meat
- “Green energy” utopianism
- Frameworks for persuading vs. frameworks for manipulating
- Solar roads = the worst roads + the worst solar
The Human Flourishing Project: Reengineering routines
On the latest episode of The Human Flourishing Project I discuss three recent disruptions to major life routines and how I reengineered my routines to get back on track.
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Alex