Edge of Impossible

An Expeppermint by James Todd

What becomes possible now?

Human capability and technology come together to penetrate the unknown and undoable.

Give an idea another look ↓
The edge of what we can do, opening left A pale wedge labeled Known and Possible opens to the left and shows what people can do together. Technology / Tools marks its upper boundary and People / Process marks its lower boundary. Arrows along both sides point outward into the dark, unknown or undoable territory labeled Here be dragons. The edge of what we can do Technology / Tools People / Process Known andPossible Here bedragons Unknownor undoable
Adapted from James’s doodle. The arrows show tools and ways of working expanding what we can do together.

Work where certainty runs out

Growth mindset starts with the idea that we can keep developing our own capabilities. The frontier of what humans can do together keeps moving, too. New tools and new ways of working together let us do things that used to be out of reach. That growing frontier is what Edge of Impossible is about.

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to do and can point to the thing I can’t do yet. That’s the edge I’m interested in. A new tool, a different arrangement, or someone else’s skill can open up a move I couldn’t make before.

What I want to know is whether the opening will hold when I try it. I’ve learned to look for a small test whose result I can see for myself.

Field note · September to November 2026

A morning page for what matters

I wanted one click to bring my tasks, connections, and reflections together so I could make progress on what mattered.

At first, working with my robot partner Pixel was uneven. It wasn’t always clear whether background work had happened or whether I could trust what I was seeing. We kept experimenting with the tools and the way we worked together.

Over two months, Pixel’s capabilities improved week by week with regular product launches. I developed more skills, and we refined our process along the way. Today, our morning page is relatively stable. We can get more done each day and still protect time for what matters offline.

Morning page · Illustrative mockup

An example morning

MITs
  • Publish Edge of Impossible
  • Complete schoolwork due today
  • Two applications
Connections
  • Lunch with David
  • Three five-sentence updates (5SUs)
  • Schedule with Coop
Reflections

Closeness is not reducible to calendar management, but reliability often is.

Which moments would I regret treating as ordinary today?

Time offline
Morning yoga, with an afternoon fallback.

What might deserve another look?

Think of something you wanted to do but set aside because it felt beyond reach. What stood in the way?

Since then, have the tools changed? Have you learned something, met someone, or found a better way to work?

If something has shifted, what’s one small test that could tell you whether the idea is worth another look?

If the missing piece is still missing, put it on your Possible When list. Consider ______ when ______. What would you notice that tells you that condition has arrived?

You can keep an idea alive without keeping it mentally active.

Take the test to your robot partner

I want to try [idea]. The part I currently can’t do is [specific barrier]. I can bring [skills, people, time or tools]. I need to protect [privacy, money, time or another limit].

Help me design one small test. Say what you can prepare, what needs a person’s judgment or action, and what we could observe to learn whether the barrier has moved. Ask me about any gap that would change the test.

Finish the sentence “I’ll know more when…” Decide where you’ll stop. If the barrier holds, write down the part you can now describe more precisely. If it moves, name what you can do now.

Possible When

For example: “Consider another rental when suitable financing is available at 4.5% or lower.” A current quote at that rate would prompt a fresh look at the numbers.

There’s a connection to adaptive planning. Walker, Haasnoot and Kwakkel (2013) describe signposts to monitor and triggers for revisiting or adapting a plan. See section 2 of Adapt or Perish: A Review of Planning Approaches for Adaptation under Deep Uncertainty.

I’ll explore Possible When in more depth on its own.