Upstream #201
heterodoxy ????, simplicity ??, new boxes ??, avatars + clones ??, plastic ??.
Hey. Welcome back. Been an eventful few weeks. Though, these days, nothing really shocks us. We’ve seen the wizard behind the curtain. We’re in the rabbit hole. Anyway, keep the faith. Right. Let’s go.
“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”
Derek Sivers
culture // heterodoxy ????
Maya Angelou said “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”. Feels pretty relevant for the US election results. Trump now represents them again. In maybe every sense. As this writer put it,?"Trump has changed us by revealing how normal, how truly American, he is”. They should now stop pretending Trump isn’t who they are. Scott Galloway said “it was supposed to be an election on women’s rights” but it became more about?the heterodoxy and manosphere. The Rogans, Petersens, Musks, Dana Whites, Hulk Hogans and Tucker Carlsons, endorsed his hyper masculine promise, and their young male fans listened,?“young men, especially those without a college degree, have expressed feeling unfulfilled, dissatisfied with their jobs and lives, and desirous of a society and home life with traditional gender roles”. Bros and others, felt ignored (imagine). And Latinos wanted more money. Trump listened. And in a new era for online campaigning, where?mainstream media lost its grip, where?Trump voters were less likely to follow political news or get news from traditional sources…..podcasts and influencers became the new battleground. The lessons are clear and globally relevant:
Hope we learn something (we prob won’t).
brands // simplicity ??
This week?M&S won Marketing Week UK's Brand Of The Year. Among other?things, their brand value rose 38% year on year, as measured by Kantar’s Brand Z. Mark Ritson wrote about it, citing a list of things including; a ruthless focus on quality and value, getting positioning right up front, engaging in brand revitalisation programs, spending the right amount (ESOV), investing in good creativity (building some that in house), being always on, across a range of media, and most importantly, getting the product right. Seems simple. Tough to do though. Great brands make it look easy.?Also, just like M&S great brands actually look good. We often forget that simple fact, as?this piece on brand aesthetics?reminded us. We also often forget that good brands are interesting and positioned in interesting ways, like?Mullet Wine. It’s positioned to appeal to a younger, adventurous audience, calling itself a "hard wine”, and just like a mullet it has a “business at the front, party at the back” nice simple ideology. It’s hard work to keep things simple and not to fall for complexity bias, but the good stuff is always simple.
creativity // new boxes ??
We live in a quantitative world. Data. Performance. Effectiveness. Returns. This stuff dominates. In work, and at home, we count.?The quantified self?and all that. It?turns joy into competition.?"The problem with quantifying everything is that we can’t ever rest. Our end state is a growth state — a philosophy that defines boardrooms shouldn’t inhabit our bedrooms or morning coffee”. It’s an example of?self sabotage and the art of doing dumb sh*t. We want creativity and innovation, but sabotage it with a culture driven by; the fear of being wrong, the comfort of complexity, herd mentality, the illusion of progress and the confidence of ignorance.?Deviation from the norm, is exactly what we need more of, but we focus on measurement, data and performance. On box ticking. We speak not because we have something to say, but because we have to say something. As this piece says "We desperately need extra boxes….If we don’t seek new boxes to tick, we’re not innovating — we’re just keeping ourselves busy. And busyness without purpose is the worst form of self-sabotage". Yeah, new boxes sounds interesting.
technology // avatars + clones ??
Move over chatbots, AI avatars are here and may soon be?in your team meetings spouting the same bullish*t. You can even create an AI clone to attend the meeting instead of you,?here’s instructions how?using HeyGen. AI agents also continue to gain momentum (Open AI just launched theirs?to take over your computer) and here’s?a breakdown of the kinds of things agents will be doing;?from basic chatbots for answering facts, to generative agents that create text, video or audio content, to a super system that manages multiple complex, tasks across domains without human intervention.?AI is also about to transform how we navigate the web. Within a couple of days of each other?Perplexity shared instructions?to make it your default web browsing search tool, Open AI launched?a new AI search function, and?Google launched AI overviews. Which may mean?the?death of search?as we knew it, as it?could completely reorient our relationship to knowledge, prioritising rapid, detailed, abridged answers over a deep understanding and the consideration of varied sources and viewpoints.?No nuance. No serendipity. Not sure if that kind of convenience good or bad?for us??We'll see.
Five random (ish) things:
watching // plastic ??
Been listening to this, and learning it on guitar. A really simple chord structure, but tricky to play. Lyrics feel quite relevant for where we are right now. You know,?she looks like the real thing, she tastes like the real thing, my fake plastic love etc etc.?Anyway, this version from Phoebe Bridgers and Arlo Parks, is lovely. Enjoy!