Why, What If, and How the Hell Do We Fix It?
Dictated while walking my dogs. Written for anyone tired of things that should’ve been better by now.
It’s early morning in East Point, Georgia.
The sun’s just starting to stretch across the cracked sidewalks. My two huskies—Fatimah and Bomani—are pulling me through the quiet rhythm of a neighborhood that’s not quite awake yet. It’s May 15th, and you can feel summer yawning its way into the air. Not hot yet, but close enough to make you respect the clock.
This isn’t a blog post I sat down to write. It’s something I started saying out loud, recording into my phone while the dogs sniffed corners and peed on the same tree as yesterday. I wasn’t trying to sound profound. I was just thinking.
About innovation. And questions. And how everything starts with something that pisses you off.
My advisor, Tyrone Smith, recommended a book called A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. In it, Berger lays out a simple three-part framework that’s been circling my head ever since:
1. Why?
2. What if?
3. How?
So I started walking that loop in my mind. Here’s where it took me.
Why?
Let’s be real—this is the beginning of everything. Innovation starts when something sucks.
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Why does marketing feel like lying with extra steps?
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Why do most marriages fail—not just legally, but emotionally, years before the paperwork?
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Why do dating apps turn human intimacy into an anxiety-driven video game?
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Why can’t I find a damn restaurant open after 10pm that doesn’t involve gas station sushi or regret?
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Why is it so hard to make good brisket? (Real brisket, not that Instant Pot nonsense.)
And for me, this morning:
Why is it still so hard and expensive to make a professional video for a real estate listing?
It’s 2025. I can deepfake the Pope in a Balenciaga hoodie, but I can’t get a clean 30-second walkthrough video without hiring a drone team and a retired videographer named Chuck? C’mon.
That’s the question that lights the fire. Why is the place we all start, even when we don’t realize we’re doing it.
What If?
This is where you stop ranting and start dreaming.
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What if marketing didn’t feel gross, but actually felt generous?
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What if marriage came with performance reviews and re-commitment options instead of lawyers and shared Spotify logins?
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What if dating apps felt more like a trusted friend setting you up and less like playing roulette with your heart?
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What if some genius opened a soup dumpling and jerk chicken spot that stayed open past midnight and played D’Angelo on vinyl?
And this morning:
What if I could just take a few regular-ass phone photos of a house and turn them into a professional-quality real estate ad—automatically—with AI?
No shoots. No drones. Just a clean result.
How?
Now we get into the kitchen. This is where the thinking gets spicy.
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How do you build tools that don’t just work but feel like magic?
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How do you engineer trust into a product that touches people’s lives, bodies, relationships?
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How do you stitch together OpenAI’s ImageOne, a few agents, a smart prompt, and a clean UI… so a realtor doesn’t need to understand any of it to get value?
I don’t think it’s about inventing a new model. It’s about listening deeply enough to really hear what people need—and then building the wrapper that meets them where they are.
We don’t need more fancy AI. We need better damn wrappers. Simple tools that solve hard problems without making the user feel stupid or dependent.
The Loop Never Ends
You think you’re done once you build something? Nah.
You just loop back around.
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Why aren’t people using it?
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What if we made it faster?
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How do we get this in front of the right people?
The “Why / What If / How” loop is a spiral staircase. You don’t climb it once—you live on it. Every new level gives you a better view.
Fatimah’s Still Pulling
By now, Fatimah’s ready to sprint and Bomani’s tangled in my legs. I’m sweating under a hoodie I shouldn’t have worn. But I’m also fired up. Because this is how ideas are born.
Not in boardrooms.
Not on whiteboards.
But in moments of friction.
Moments of clarity.
Moments where you just can’t help but ask:
Why the hell is it still like this?
That’s the seed of innovation.
The rest is just the courage to answer.
– Cameron Clarkson