Dear reader,
Last week I attended a real estate event. But before the keynote speaker even started, I was already on my way home. Because I couldn’t watch it anymore.
I think I’ve reached my limit. I can no longer stay in places where Conformity has become so deeply embedded that nobody even notices it anymore.
It was 30°C outside. Yet half of the people were wearing jackets.
Whyyyy?
And before anyone misunderstands me: I genuinely like these people. I respect them. Many are incredibly intelligent and highly accomplished. Which makes it even more frustrating.
Because who exactly is making you wear that jacket? The client? The market? Your competitors? Or some invisible system that convinced everyone this is simply “how it’s done”?
One after another they arrived. Blue suits. Jackets. Uniforms. And suddenly I couldn’t do it anymore. I felt myself shutting down. So I told my husband I was crashing. To be fair, I’d been awake since 4 a.m. I called an Uber and went home.
And during that ride, one thought kept returning: There is still so much work to do. Not because these people lack intelligence. The room was overflowing with brainpower.
But intelligence alone isn’t enough. We need Imagination, creativity, playfulness. And before all that : The Courage to think independently. What would happen if people realized that most of the rules they obey were never really rules at all?
What would happen if they finally gave themselves permission to be fully themselves? Permission to take off the jacket. Literally, but mostly metaphorically. Because the world doesn’t need more people trying to fit into the same mould.
Please. Wake up. The whole world needs your weirdness. Your superpower. Your talent. Your original way of looking at things. The thing that makes you different is probably the thing that makes you valuable.
And yet so much of it remains hidden behind Conformity. Hidden behind unwritten rules. Hidden behind the fear of standing out.
Next week we’ll explain the concept of the Mindmark. The idea emerged after the March 02025 competition Shift in Amsterdam, where architects from around the world were challenged to create a building, monument, or concept capable of changing the way people think.
At least, that’s how I interpreted the challenge.
Our answer to this competition was not a Landmark, but a Mindmark.
Because, as Yoda from Star Wars wisely said:
“Named your problem must be, before solve it you can.”
And perhaps that’s exactly where change begins.
By finally giving a name to the invisible systems that shape our behaviour.
The systems we obey without noticing. The rules nobody wrote down.
Because once YU can see them…
YU can choose.
And maybe that choice starts with something surprisingly simple.
Taking off the jacket when it’s getting TOO hot.
– Véronique Orens, architect and Editor-in-Chief of this beautiful Crazy Circus
*****
4 — Okay, Véronique, thank YU. Very interesting words. I hope it will resonate with some readers. But, as YU saw in the newsletter banner : it’s a newsletter of Inner Critic. She was complaining again.
0 — Yes, Veronica, I’ve seen it too. Some things never change. Go ahead, Miss Sabotage!
*****
1 — TOO late again! Can’t keep up, can YU? Not even a weekend edition! YU loser!
2* — Actually… once in a Blue Moon, YU need to get your priorities straight. Besides, gotta keep them hungry, right?
1 — This whole newsletter thing is ridiculous. Just stop it.
2* — Oh honey, this is only the beginning. And way too much fun. Besides, even if we wanted to stop, Véronique is just following her intuition now. No matter what.
And besides, we were busy working on something else : The closing keynote for the Mind-Body-Space Symposium in Amsterdam.
4 — Ooooh! Who’s doing the presentation?
2* — Captain sent her picture to the organization.
4 — Captain? She’s the most boring one of all of us.
2* — I know. We need to fix that.
4 — What picture did she send?
2* — …This one.
4 — Nooooooo! Not that one! She looks a bit forced with that pineapple dress and those two different earrings. Come on, Nikki ‘O. Tell her!
2* — Just because I’m Architype Courage doesn’t mean I have to be the one hurting her feelings. But I do have an idea…
4 — I’m always Curious about new ideas.
2* — Of course YU are, Veronica. So… What if we do a… Mutatio Animarum?
4 — Without telling the organization?
2* — Obviously.
4 — Don’t YU think they’ll notice?
2* — No, don’t think so. Besides, they invited us to speak. Surely they weren’t expecting Conformity.
4 — We are getting cockier by the day.
1 — TOO bold! Now they’ll cancel YU!
2* — Let’s see about that. One cannot organize an entire symposium about Mind, Body and Space and still have an ego that fragile.
4 — That’s actually a very good point.
1 — YU’re TOO sure of yourself.
2* — No. No. We finally stopped asking permission.
*****
My name is Miss Sabotage. I’m Architype 1 : The Inner Critic of Véronique Orens.
I have a full-time job.
Deleting posts right after she publishes them. Warning her when she loses two followers. Whispering the things people might say behind her back directly into her brain.
And when nobody says anything at all? I invent even worse comments myself.
I am the voice that keeps her doubting. Not because I hate her. Because I’m trying to keep her safe.
What Véronique is attempting should be avoided at all costs.
To make my point, I speak in extremes. I use the word TOO constantly.
TOO emotional. TOO weird. TOO ambitious. TOO feminine. TOO much. TOO late.
The problem is… she’s listening less and less.
Honestly, it looks like she’s about to release the Kraken. Luckily, I’m still here trying to stop her.
She claims the entire team behind YUGENING believes in the vision. That they’re excited. That they want to build something extraordinary together.
I don’t believe a word of it.
I try to stop her from dreaming too wildly.
For years she’s been talking about creating architecture comparable to a new Apple Park, but even more human. More uplifting. Evidence-based and non-evidence-based. Buildings that emotionally affect people instead of merely functioning.
She wants to take her office all the way because she genuinely believes the world deserves to discover how talented the entire team is.
What incredible arrogance.
While she lives in a fantasy world filled with futuristic hobbit-like architecture, strange creatures, Yunatics and vibrating humans…
I will make sure she keeps both feet firmly on the ground.
Finally someone in this Story that starts making sense.
