Brendan O'Keefe — founder of one to eight
Why I created one to eight and the afterschool agent.
I changed my mind about a lot of things in my late 50s. This is the story of what changed, and where it led.
I spent most of my career in technology, mental health, community work, social media and marketing. I was an early adopter of everything —electronic music in the 80s, the internet, e-learning, data analytics, and eventually AI. By the time ChatGPT landed, I was already deep in AI space.
But somewhere along the way, something shifted. I started watching how technology, especially the always-on, algorithm-driven kind that was affecting my own children and the greater community.
The same tools I'd spent years championing were quietly reshaping their minds, their relationships, their attention, and their sense of what matters. And I wasn't sure the benefits outweighed the damage anymore.
The more I watched, the more I saw it everywhere. Young people who couldn't sit in silence for five minutes. Teenagers with thousands of followers and not one friend who'd show up at 2am. Graduates with degrees who couldn't cook a meal, fix a tap, or name what they actually believed.
A generation swimming in information and starving for wisdom learned in the 'real world.
The darkness I couldn't ignore.
I don't say this lightly, but the closer I looked at the direction of things, the darker it felt. Not in a dramatic way… in a quiet, creeping way. The surveillance, the manipulation, the addiction-by-design, the loneliness masquerading as connection. The feeling that we'd built a world that was optimised for everything except human flourishing. Who is the AI serving? This is a question I keep coming back to.
And in the middle of all that, something unexpected happened. My interest in Jesus — in God — started growing. Not because I was looking for it. More like it found me. The more I saw the darkness, the evil in media and politics, the more I wanted the light. Not as a posture or a brand. As a real, honest, daily choice. I chose the good side. And I keep choosing it.
My message was supposed to be about something older, deeper, and more essential: the things a young person needs to actually survive and thrive as a human being. The things no app can give them. Based on my life experience...
The eight essentials
I didn't start with eight. I started with a question: what does a young person actually need to live well, not just economically, but as a whole person?
Around the same time, I was watching Christian videos on YouTube. A couple of random videos inspired this angle, not in a dramatic, lightning-from-heaven way, but in a quiet, persistent way that I couldn't shake. I felt a strong push to make this specifically for the next generation — to equip them to take responsibility for our earthly world, not just survive in it.
The answer came quickly. It came down to eight things. Not a curriculum. Not a programme. Eight human essentials.
- 01 — The ability to sit in silence
- 02 — Your body as a temple
- 03 — Useful real-world skills
- 04 — Digital self-defence
- 05 — Real community
- 06 — Knowledge without Wi-Fi
- 07 — Prescribe nature
- 08 — Tested convictions
These eight essentials come from a Christian worldview — unapologetically. But I believe they're good for everyone, because they're about what it means to be a fully alive human being, not just a productive one.
This is one to eight. A guide, a weekly meetup, and a community for anyone who wants more for the next generation than what the screens are selling them. By nurturing and helping young people grow in a rapidly changing world, we're seeding them with the core skills for life — not just to get ahead, but to hold steady online and offline activities promoted daily.
If you've read this far, you're probably feeling some of the same things I feel.
That's okay. That's the start. Let's do more.
onetoeight.org