📝 Originally published (in Japanese) at forge.workstyle.tech.
In a series of satirical videos, I had an AI production team (a planning meeting of 12 roles) write the scripts for the third episode. After reviewing the finished video, the client sent back the following feedback:
Mark Zuckerberg doesn't just test things when he's unsure; he tests everything. We should emphasize "trying everything" in the copy, right? Otherwise, the content feels like, "Wait, you're testing that?"
Where in the video is the part about Bill Gates' "obsessive close reading"? The humor comes from the idea that he over-reads too much, so the content and copy should reflect that absurdity, like, "Wait, you read that too and are concerned about it?"
Turn inability to make up your mind into madness.
The evolution of the Zuckerberg version went like this:
Initial Draft (Me)
Sam Which one do you prefer?
Zuck Both.
Sam I need to make a decision.
Zuck Already shipped it.
Sam How about B?
Zuck Marginal difference. We already have a million users.
Final Script by the Production Team
Sam Which one do you prefer?
Zuck Let's try both.
Sam We already tried.
Zuck Next up: deciding.
Sam Deciding?
Zuck Let's try that too.
The team cut the "1 million users" line because it implied unauthorized large-scale user experimentation. What remained was a coherent story contained entirely within the boardroom: "Let's test the decision-making process too."
It was enough for a smart person to say something slightly different; there was no insanity involved.
Here is the idea the client pitched:
Touching a boiling kettle while saying, "Huh? It's hot? Let's test it." But because that's completely normal for him, his expression doesn't change.
Then, they added this:
What if at the end, he gets burned and his hand swells up as big as his face?
Here is how the dialogue turned out in the final draft:
Sam Which logo?
Zack Put out both.
Sam That kettle is hot, you know.
Zack Hot?
Zack Let's test it.
(Screen flashes to "Post-Test" for a split second)
Zack It was hot. ← Visual of swollen hand appears
Sam Told you so.
Zack Hearing about it and testing it aren't the same thing.
From comparing logos to a steaming kettle. The subject of verification leaps straight from work to his own body. He doesn't bat an eye. And with that final line, you realize that in his own mind, it makes complete sense.
The Gates episode. The first draft only had the document page numbers jumping from 128 → 3 → 1. The madness of the deep dive wasn't showing through yet. The client's instructions were this:
Pack it in up to the fourth character on page 42.
Sam How's the document looking?
Gates The footnote on page 17.
Sam What about the main text?
Gates The source is from 2019.
Sam ...What about the main text?
Gates The fourth character on page 42 has a different font.
I hadn't even mentioned the main text once. I wasn't even looking at pages; I was looking at individual characters.
The Nadella episode. At first, it ended on a good note: "Let's connect with our competitors."
Even with enemies, we want to collaborate. The punchline was: "Ah, a mosquito!" "A mosquito? Let's connect."
Sam Competitors are using the same features.
Nadella Let's connect.
Sam They're coming to crush us.
Nadella Even more so, let's connect.
Sam ...Ah, a mosquito.
Nadella A mosquito?
Nadella Let's connect.
The right side of the collaboration diagram changes from "Competitors" to "Mosquito."
Reading the team's meeting logs makes the reasons clear.
All of these are valid points. However, when everyone insists on what is "correct," the conversation converges on a safe middle ground that offends no one and contains no contradictions. Madness can only be born by shattering that consistency.
Here is the setup that worked best:
For the kettle episode, the team proposed skipping ahead to the instant "after the test," bypassing the touch scene entirely. When image generation models couldn't properly draw a swollen hand, we had another AI generate it as an SVG. When it came to turning creative leaps into concrete realities, the AI did an exceptional job.