The Pseudo-Manifesto of a Sudo-Intellectual - Part 1

Turning foolish musings about the world into innovative, holistic, and collaborative sudo-solutions for societal dysfunction

Thought of and Written by Logan Jensen, Sudo-Intellectual Candidate

Edited and enhanced by GPT4.5, Claude, and Grok; Artificial General Intelligence Candidates

For: You, the sudo-stakeholders of this pseudo-society.

With support provided by: The pseudo-shareholders of this sudo-society in the making.

Preface: Explaining the Pseudo-Sudo Joke

This manifesto relies heavily on the wordplay between "pseudo" and "sudo," which serves as both a conceptual framework and a guiding methodology. While the distinction may seem technical at first glance, it encapsulates the essential balance between theoretical exploration and practical implementation that defines Sudo-Intellectual.

"Pseudo" is derived from the Greek word for "false" or "pretend" and is commonly used in academic and technical contexts to indicate something that mimics the appearance of legitimacy without fully meeting its criteria. For example, pseudo-science may adopt the language and presentation of science while failing to adhere to the rigorous standards of the scientific method. More broadly, "pseudo" often describes ideas that are speculative, unconventional, or in early stages of development—thought experiments that may or may not withstand critical scrutiny.

"Sudo" is a command in Unix/Linux operating systems (short for "superuser do"), which grants temporary administrative privileges to execute specific tasks that would otherwise require higher authority. It enables authorized users to make targeted, controlled changes to a system in a secure and accountable manner. In essence, "sudo" is about authorized intervention, allowing users to override default settings for the purpose of maintenance, improvement, or troubleshooting—ensuring that necessary changes can be made without compromising overall system stability.

Together, these two terms create a meaningful juxtaposition:

1. "Pseudo" represents exploration, speculation, and theoretical ideation—ideas that may be novel but untested.

2. "Sudo" represents precision, implementation, and controlled execution—the process of turning a refined idea into an actionable and impactful change.

This contrast reflects the core methodology of Sudo-Intellectual: using speculative, pseudo-intellectual approaches to generate innovative ideas, then applying sudo-intellectual rigor to refine, test, and implement the ones that demonstrate real-world viability.

The interplay between these two elements mirrors a broader intellectual superposition, where ideas exist simultaneously as bold but impractical speculation and targeted, feasible intervention—only collapsing into one or the other when tested against reality. This is akin to Schrödinger’s Cat: until we examine an idea closely, it remains in a state of both potential success and failure.

The goal of Sudo-Intellectual is not just to generate ideas but to differentiate between pseudo-solutions (compelling but impractical first-principles solutions as thought experiments) and sudo-solutions (actionable, practical, and popular solutions as strategic plans). The process of iteration, refinement, and stakeholder engagement ensures that we are not merely engaging in theoretical exercises but creating solutions with real potential for meaningful impact. The fact that “pseudo” and “sudo” sound identical when spoken serves as an important check for clarifying whether the solution they mention is meant for thinking purposes or doing purposes.

An Introduction to the Pseudo-Intellectual in Charge

Just Who Do I Think I Am?

I am a pseudo-intellectual— a pejorative title that I embrace with sincere irony and informed naivety I am a jack of all trades, and a master of some, knowing a little about everything, and a lot about a precious few topics of deep significance. I am a modern-day shaman developing magic potions in my hut at the edge of society hoping a visitor passes by for a sample. I am a devout heretic, leaving orthodoxy on a quest through the dark forest of forbidden ideas. I am a technocratic populist, ever in search of what people want and need and how to provide it the most elegantly. My pseudo-intellectual wanderings have led me out of the garden of police society, but I now return bearing seeds of the fruit I found outside, but I’ll need you, dear reader, to discern whether the fruit I bring back is good.

I am a one-man think-tank, a strategist without a battlefield, a theologian without a congregation, and an architect without a building site. I collect ideas like artifacts, not to hoard them in a dusty museum of thought but to fashion them into working models, both ones that exist already and models yet to be invented. My interests range from sacred scripture to speculative fiction, from political theory to urban planning, and from system dynamics to folk wisdom. My passion project is blending them all into a strange alchemy of interdisciplinary mischief, that, if I am so lucky, may turn into a magic potion to ease societal dysfunction in some way. I see no hard borders between disciplines, only different languages describing the same underlying patterns that make them up.

Just What Do I Think I’m Doing?

I need your help because I also stand atop Mt. Stupid forever at risk of proclaiming my own lack of intellect to the world and enacting it in the decisions I contribute to. As such, I need you to help chart the path toward leveraging the new and different ideas I’ve stumbled upon for the greater good without making foolish mistakes with real consequences. I embrace the opportunity to dive into the depths of complexity and marvel at its beauty but need help understanding what makes it beautiful and bringing a version of it back to the surface.

I am a one-man do-tank, finding the most local application of the strategies, sermons, and blueprints I come up with while searching for more capable collaborators along the way. I play at the edges of institutions, neither fully inside nor entirely outside, acting as a bridge between the orthodox and the heretical, the mainstream and the fringe, the informational silos, and that data lakes. I speak fluent bureaucrat, but also understand the dialect of the dreamers. I stand with one foot in order, one in chaos, one eye on the system as it now, the other on the emergent properties it has yet to express. More than anything, I play whimsically in the sandbox of society, exploring, building, and refining, and new types of societal sandcastles with anyone who will take break and play a little with me.

Just What Do I Aspire to Accomplish?

I strive to become a sudo-intellectual, not content to merely theorize but committed to seeing ideas tested, iterated, and applied. I do not seek to overthrow but to upgrade. I work to transform pseudo-solutions—half-baked idealism, radical speculation, and forgotten wisdom—into sudo-solutions: practical, actionable, and elegantly disruptive innovations that can pass the test of real-world implementation. I build bridges to enact these sudo-solutions where others see walls, I find allies where others see enemies, and I forge consensus where others see intractable divisions. Of course, people are complicated, and I’m not always successful, however many often appreciate the effort it takes and the understanding it brings to engage as a sudo-intellectual. In that sense, my work is not rebellion, but adaptive evolution, guiding systems through the valleys of stagnation and into the next peak of possibility in the societal landscape.

My Personal Journey from Pseudo to Sudo-Intellectual

My Traditional Education

I’ve tried my hardest to make traditional educational structurses work for me, but it’s been a difficult ride. In high school I was always smart enough to do well in class by paying a minimum amount of attention and put minimal effort into school work to get passing grades. I was warned that that wouldn’t fly in college either, but a similar dynamic played itself out in my first year or so. I must have changed my major five or six times in the first two years of college with how avey new class presented compelling topics and interesting projects.

Despite that interest, I never found a niche I felt comfortable in and ended up dropping out several times: once to serve a volunteer mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for two years, once to join the Utah Army National Guard for six years, and once more due to a series of mental health crises I experienced trying to fit together too many disparate ideas while in a Masters of Public Administration program. Writing the Pseudo Manifesto of a Sudo-Intellectual will hopefully be my capstone achievement to complete finally becoming a master of something after coming up jacks my whole life.

My Wealth of Pseudo-Scholarship

While my traditional education and certifications are lacking, I can’t help but toot my horn about the level of Pseudo-Scholarship I’ve engaged in since I started formal higher education. In my case, I’ve read hundreds of books, consumed dozens of Great Courses, listened to dozens of well-produced academic podcasts, and watched Youtube videos of lectures from and conversations with hundreds of top academics. I’ve exposed myself to divergent thinking on Twitter, in-depth compilation Reddit, and a multitude of other ways of absorbing information from the societal zeitgeist. But simply absorbing is not nearly enough. One cannot simply absorb information from the internet in a way that makes sense, let alone in a way that produces useful scholarship.

So, as much as I’d like to toot my own horn about my intelligence, as a pseudo-intellectual, I am what the internet refers to as a midwit, or someone with just enough intelligence to be simultaneously overconfident in their understanding of the complexities of an issue, yet not confident enough to do anything about it. I fall perfectly into the trap of knowing enough to think myself into a box and not find my way out. This combines with a severe case of the Dunning-Krueger effect, where I have relatively little knowledge of a topic and feel overconfidence in being able to apply it effectively. As I make bold claims, ask big questions, and propose grand projects, I inevitably receive critical feedback and quickly fall down into the valley of despair. I often want to scramble back up to the comforting ignorance of Mt. Stupid rather than pursuing the path of mastery by ascending the slope of enlightenment.

Sudo-Intellectual, then is my plan to get out of the midwit trap and make it out of the valley of despair by systematically applying, refining, adapting, and integrating my broad knowledge into plans for pseudo-solutions to the most pressing societal problems I’ve come across. I sincerely hope that this new intellectual journey up the slope of enlightenment will be helpful for my own intellectual progress, interesting and enlightening for others to follow along with, and beneficial to the society that I aspire to serve in some small way.

The Obstacle is the Way

However, the climb up the slope of enlightenment isn't free of obstacles. It takes sustained focus, effort, and accountability to oneself or another, which are not qualities I have in spades. I struggle very much with attention, especially if it's not something I'm deeply interested in. I am certainly capable of putting extraordinary effort into things, but usually only if it's interesting or someone is making me do it. I also tend to exploit accountability mechanisms that aren't sufficiently rigid or inquisitive about how I'm actually spending my time, These are all barriers to my success that I must overcome. I have struggled in the past, but that's not to say I haven't done anything with the skills and obstacles I've been dealt.

When organizational structures align with my strengths, I've produced meaningful and often transformative work. At the MIIS META Lab, I applied my analytical abilities to consolidate homelessness data for logistic regression analysis, uncovering key factors behind successful transitions from homelessness that shaped the Coalition of Homeless Service Providers' strategic planning. During my time with the Utah National Guard supporting CBP Intelligence, I transformed scattered data into coherent narratives through custom data pipelines and interactive dashboards—cutting report production time by over 200% and enabling colleagues to extract actionable insights that would have otherwise remained buried in spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations.

My multilingual capabilities unlocked unique opportunities to bridge cultural divides. I developed remote language curriculum during COVID-19 that prevented training cancellations for over 100 students. As lead of the Utah Coronavirus Task Force translation initiative, I orchestrated 20 military linguists to rapidly produce 390 translations of critical COVID-19 documents into 10 languages—making vital information accessible to diverse communities during a crisis. While serving on the MIIS Fall Forum panel, I contributed to meaningful discussions on gender issues that were both acceptable to all parties and highly pragmatic.

Where traditional organizational structures like the military might have constrained me, I found ways to channel my diverse talents into community impact. I designed a systematic process for analyzing intelligence data using Microsoft Power BI that was adopted as a national program. During my time as a Volunteer Executive Secretary in Queretaro, Mexico, I managed financial operations for 170 volunteers across 80 houses, handling everything from rent payments to expense accounts to preparing for financial audits, to coordinating logistics of getting everyone in one place for a senior executive visit. Beyond the administrative duties, I provided bilingual training and individualized mentoring in both English and Spanish, helping volunteers navigate complex cultural environments they were unfamiliar with, and managed expectations between the volunteer and the leadership. I even dipped a toe into politics as the Utah Regional Organizer for the Yang campaign, where I mobilized 50+ volunteers across the state, turning my passion for policy innovation into tangible grassroots action that amplified previously unheard voices.

Modestly Claiming the Title of Sudo-Intellectual

Many people have more impressive resumes than this, but I am proud of having made an impact in the places I’ve been assigned to serve such that my coworkers remember me and what I did. I’m certainly not an expert, but the spark that made those achievements possible wasn't being an expert in any one field but by cultivating general intelligence, maintaining broad awareness of the many ways to solve problems, and developing sound reasoning faculties to employ in any situation. Through that process, I developed an intuition for problem-solving that employs a sudo-intellectual toolkit to understand, analyze, and integrate seemingly disparate concepts, data, and perspectives into new and innovative approaches. That combination of broad thinking and deep collaboration creates what I would like to call, Sudo-intelligence. And what makes me a sudo-intellectual.