Perspectives
Notes from the information environment.
Essays, field notes, and methods from our analysts on how narratives form, move, and matter across Southeast Asia.
- Method
What Your Research Agent Doesn't Tell You
A version of this comes up in nearly every recent ministry conversation we have: “We use Deep Research for this, and the output seems fair — it just doesn't quite hit the mark.” The shortfall is rarely the prompt. It is what never got read — an unstated boundary the agent's own output never draws.
- Field note
Vendor or Partner? Five Questions Before Your Next Media Intelligence Procurement
A ministry comms team gets to the end of a procurement cycle. Three vendors are shortlisted. On paper they look indistinguishable. The team picks one — and two years later isn't meaningfully sharper than before. The reason isn't that they chose wrong; it's that the RFP itself was asking 2020 questions.
More perspectives forthcoming.