Upstream #198
Hey. There you are. Hope you’re well. Quick thing, next weekend Oct 12th, I’m running 50km in the mountains of Mourne. Please sponsor me here. Thanks ??. Right, let’s go.
“Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.”
Maya Angelou
culture // main character ????♀?
Recently, we referred to?the rise of solo dining as a sad trend. People who enjoy it, angrily defended it as anything but. For lots of people, it’s pure joy. But, when you add it to?a rise in solo travel?and solo living. And when?life feels too busy for friendship,?and you find yourself feeling the “post-rescheduling thrill”. And when more and more people working remotely aren’t forming close relationships with colleagues. It sketches an outline. Which links to a great read on the perils of Main Character Syndrome?(MCS), and the danger of living in our own self interested algo filtered worlds. Amplified on social media, our need for attention, turns others into merely Non Player Characters (NPCs). We’re becoming less interdependent. Fact. But what does it mean for compromise, tolerance, and empathy, when others matter less?
brands // hyper brands ???
A few weeks ago, YouTuber Mr Beast had?a memo “leaked”?on the web. It was about how to succeed in Mr Beast production. A manifesto for success, at the gamification of attention. Like or loath him, he’s ace at it. His?ruthless focus on retention & views, built an empire?worth over $700m a year. Which he uses to make more content. And he’s churning out products too, inc?the most recent collaboration with KSI & Logan Paul, with the launch of Lunchly, a lunch pack for kids (yuk). The algo is now in their lunchboxes (sigh).?As Prime and Mr Beast Burger fade, Lunchly rises. Mayfly brands, that burn brightly and die. Hyper brands, hyped for feeding frenzies. With the same churn and burn formula, that drives Youtube views. Brands not designed to build, but to ship (by the palette). In the attention wars, it’s good to look at the winners.
领英推荐
creativity // scary ideas ??
Oscar Wilde said “all great ideas are dangerous”, and those that aren't are “unworthy of being called an idea at all”.Good ones can be breakthrough. Game changing. Which is great. Unless, of course you don't want your game changed, or your through broken. Here Rory Sutherland talked about how creative and useful insights are often met with hostility. Companies can operate in a mode of avoiding imagination or subjective judgement. New things don’t fit old systems. Creativity and imagination means uncommon thoughts, uncommon ways, doing new things or old things in new ways. And in the battle between exploit vs explore, most people favour exploit. The way we’ve always done it etc. And yet, 70% of employers say creative thinking is most in-demand skill. Like the truth, we want it, but can’t handle it.
technology // secret cyborgs ??
This piece by Ethan Mollick on?AI in organisations was great. Research shows that 65% of professionals in the EU are using AI tools, with big individual productivity gains (one study found AI halved working time for 41% tasks).?But while lots of individuals are seeing gains, companies aren't. Leaders say they aren’t seeing it being used. What’s happening, is a silent revolution with secret cyborgs. People are scared to talk about it because if AI can do it, maybe their jobs aren’t safe? Or maybe they’re using it to get ahead and win praise, and want to horde the knowledge. Organisational gains he says, requires R&D by the organisation itself into AI use (outsiders don't know what you do or how you do it). Go to the crowd (not the lab) and have a widespread test and learn approach. And replace fear, with incentives for experimentation and productivity gains. As the saying goes, when the winds of change blow, build windmills, not walls.
Five random (ish) things:
watching // rain ???.
In keeping with the weather, here’s David Lynch listening to rain, smoking, and reflecting on art. It’s quite ASMR, in a weird way. His ramblings are fun, like “An idea is a thought that holds more than you think when you first receive it” and “Little fish swim on the surface, but the big ones swim down below. If you can expand the container you’re fishing in, your consciousness, you can catch bigger fish”. Enjoy. For a bit. Or a lot. Who knows.