The Weekend Wind-Down #21 - July 14, 2024

This weekend my wife just got back from a huge work project in Bali and I've been down with the flu, so things didn't really go according to plan, but I made the best of it, trying to rest up and spend some time with my daughter.

What I read this week

Although the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Mongols are all more well known, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire was a fascinating look at the first true empire which started around 3,000 years ago. The Assyrians are known for recording their battles and the gruesome way they treated the peoples they conquered. But, it turns out that their civilization and society were much more nuanced and complex. What stood out to me was how familiar their story seemed, most of the challenges, politics, and religious turmoil are all echoed in many countries today. It was also amazing to learn that just a couple of generations after their fall, their story was lost in the sands until it began to be rediscovered in the 19th century. People living in and around the ruins of their grand temples and other structures had no idea who built them or where they came from. It resonated with another quote I heard this week, "Our descendants will hardy know who we were. How many of us know our grandfather's father? After our death we will be remembered for a few years, and a few years later, our history, our photos, our deeds go into the dustbin of oblivion, we won't even be memories." Pretty dark, but it speaks to me on what is really important in life and how we should be prioritizing our time and energy. Most people we know and things we do will be forgotten before we are even old, but the way we treat our families will affect them the rest of their lives, and that's really all we should expect and hope for. It may not sound like much, but it's the most important thing we do.

Most interesting marketing report I saw this weekend

The LinkedIn B2B Marketing Benchmark report showed up on my feed and it's huge! There are 99 pages of insights from B2B marketers in 8 countries, including Singapore. First of all, I love this kind of report, I've created my own in the past for IT service providers and I think they are a fantastic type of content to engage audiences. The two biggest trends I saw are not surprising, but good to see. First, there is a strong move toward B2B marketers being more revenue-focused, second, Gen AI and data analytics are quickly growing in importance and are seeing wide adoption. The most surprising part of the report to me was on "Collaborative Communication" which they say is key for B2B marketers to be successful in the future. In my mind this has always been a key part of our job and chance at success, but evidently that isn't always the case. In the survey 54% of people said there is only some synergy between marketing and other departments and 10% said there is no synergy at all. I don't know how any marketing team can be successful without close cross-functional collaboration. There are lots more nuggets in the report, so it is definitely worth a read!

What I'm celebrating this weekend

Today is my wife and my tenth wedding anniversary! I guess ten years is considered a pretty successful marriage already these days. I'm lucky to have found her and kept her for this long and I look forward to many more decades together. Our story is pretty wild, it's surprising we ended up together, growing up across the world from each other, and now living in a country that neither of us are from. Being in a multicultural marriage as well as being immigrants adds another layer of challenges, but it keeps things interesting. I'm no marriage expert, but I'm proud to have reached this milestone, and now with a young daughter, our marriage is stronger than ever and we are working hard together to raise her and build a good life together.

What I watched this weekend

I've always loved TED talks and recently I've been volunteering for TEDx Singapore. We are planning an event in November, and as part of that preparation, I've been watching more talks, especially local ones. This talk by Liu Thai Ker, the architectural mastermind behind modern Singapore, was inspiring. Since independence, in the last 60 years, Singapore has transformed into one of the world's most modern cities. There are some world-class level structures and projects, like the mass rapid transit system that has 140 stations across 6 lines, the reclaimed land (22% increase in land mass), Marina Bay Sands and Jewel, and more. But what Liu focused on and what doesn't stand out immediately, is the public housing and different integrated living areas that make day-to-day life convenient. Everything has been planned out to be functional, from schools, hospitals, malls, shopping areas, public parks, so that no matter where you live in Singapore everything that's needed is nearby. Sometimes visitors think that Singapore doesn't have charm or culture, it is too planned out and lacks the beautiful chaos that many other parts of Asia have. But that's by design, as Liu said in this talk, if you want to have a functional and convenient city, you have to plan long-term around the needs of the people and land. Singapore has been cultivated into a truly great city to live in.

That's all for this week, enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

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This post was originally published on my website at https://nicholasbraman.com/2024/07/14/the-weekend-wind-down-21-july-14-2024/