Strands of Genius: Abandon Originality, Long Term Changes, Mental Health Survey, Orville Peck
plus: our thoughts on being guided by illusions
WRITING FROM | Athens, GA
WORKING ON | inspiration session for a UK-based organization
LOOKING AHEAD
Sept 10 - Oct 5(-ish): Athens, GA
Oct 5 - 23: Nashville, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Oh hello. Are you tired? How long does one need to sleep in order to not feel tired? A month? A decade? We hope you have found some vim this Tuesday morning and if you haven’t perhaps we can sprinkle some on you, virtually, of course.
First of all, don’t forget the discount code from last week: Use the code GENIUSSTEALSYOU20%, valid until 30th September to get 20% off the Workshop Tactics Deck.
Being tired, long term bone tired, the feeling of being tired, which may or may not come from physical exertion or a lack of food, sometimes arises when we don’t have a finish line in sight. Running coaches will sometimes say pick a tree in the distance to run to and then, when you get there, pick another one further off, to give yourself little achievements to buoy your spirit along the run. Little achievements are great, celebrate them. We give you permission to celebrate the tiniest achievement today. Feel free to let us know what it was, and how you celebrated.
For many of us, this is a busy period of the year, racing towards the annual exhalation of the holidays, the seasonal celebration that famously has the power to bring us together, and we need that, as we do every year.
It’s only 14 weeks until Christmas, 10 weeks to Thanksgiving, 6 weeks to Halloween, 3 weeks to Columbus Day and 3.5 days until the weekend. It’s also 7 weeks until the US Election so please make sure you are registered and have made your arrangements and, um, possibly buy a helmet.
Now, of course, the end of the year and beginning of the next one is an essentially arbitrary punctuation point we all decide upon. But we all decide to rest before if it and all get that burst of renewal, we all get decide to put our pasts behind us and first foot into the future.
You are not your past and you are not your imagined future, but imagining one can help with the tiredness of the present, as long as you remember not to be guided by illusions at the expense of the reality of the present. More on that below in our thoughts on…
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
a warm welcome to Athens, Morgan & Colin, Elmo, Elliot, Appleby Mews, walking trails, phone dates with friends, Lovecraft Country, The Boys, salmon & asparagus, Thai garlic sausage from Revival Butchery (gah we miss this place), Charley the grey cross spider, Avengers [PS4, very impressive], Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn [its original title, which was apparently too confusing, but this is better than the majority of DC’s output], Get Organized with the Home Edit [Netflix. As people without a home watching this has a strange, fantasy quality]
and
The Annual Creative Industry Mental Health Survey from our friends at Tank and YOU, especially if you respond to it. (Please oh please tell ‘em how you’re doing!)
:: THE LINKS ::
5 MAJOR WAYS THAT U.S. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR HAS CHANGED - LONG TERM
The long-term impact of COVID remains to be seen, but we’re beginning to see the shape of some of the longer term behavioral trends take hold. David Morrissey outlines 5 here - 1) Home as Headquarters; 2) New Table Stakes: Value, Availability & Convenience; 3) All Digital Everything; 4) Yearning for Escape and Comfort 5) Do-Good Brands. There are some great statistics within, and thoughtful nuance throughout. (Camp King)
ABANDON ORIGINALITY
Regular readers will know we believe originality is a myth, but we also talk about how using it as a creative yardstick is an unhelpful conceptual handcuff, blocking avenues of thought and creating a constant sense of unease [has it been done before?!] which makes the psychological safety needed for creativity much harder to manifest. So we were glad to discover that we aren’t the only ones. The Zhuangzi (莊子), a classical Chinese philosophical and literary text, apparently provides a similar line of thinking. It suggests “striving for originality can actually be counterproductive when it comes to achieving genuinely fresh results” that novelty is less important than integration. (Elemental Medium)
CREATIVE INDUSTRY MENTAL HEALTH SURVEY
Has it been a year already? [LOL] Tank has once again issued their annual survey, building on the last two years of research into the mental health of the creative industry and they “hope you can share your voice here (anonymously) in an effort to make positive change.” We agree, this is an important topic for everyone, but especially for us, and especially now. (Tank)
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: ILLUSIONS AND [UN]HAPPINESS ::
According to Taoist thought, as explained in the Te of Piglet, unhappiness is “the result of being guided by illusions”.
[This is different from the more personal condition of being ‘guided by voices’, which sometimes happens because of illness and is an hallucination. Approximately 13% of the general population will experience this at some point. #notadoctor]
The illusions taoists are concerned stem from a failure to see and accept things as they really are.
“Unpleasant feelings come from illusions: fear from What Might Be (which hasn’t happened yet), sadness from What Might Have been (which is not necessarily what would have been), and so on. Piglets, living in fear of What’s Coming Next, What Can Go Wrong, What If I Do Something Foolish, and such, cannot enjoy and make the most of the present moment. Later, they look back and realize they didn’t live it.”
Most of us will look back at this year with the feeling that we didn’t live it.
The future, we keep hearing, is very uncertain and it’s true, we have no idea what is going to happen, or when. But we never did, we just liked to believe we did.
That belief, our certainty about the future, is just another illusion. When we are forced to confront realities that don’t conform to what we wanted, or worse, expected, it makes us angry or sad or anxious. The universe stubbornly refuses to conform to our plans for it, and the Way Things Are is not the Way We Want Them To Be. Grr. This is understandable, we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t roam the past and future, trying to fit our reality into our illusions. It’s when we mistake illusions for reality and are guided by them, unhappiness follows.
However, one way to try to dismantle the power our illusions have over us is to remember how easily we are misled and how little we know. Events seen from different angles have very different interpretations [see classic Guardian ad] and, what’s more, we build our illusions from the things we think we know.
How surprising have the events of the last 4 years been? It seems like everyone was (and is) continually surprised nowadays because the Way Things Are are not at all the Way We Expect Them To Be. It’s upsetting but it’s also a reminder. We know little, are often wrong, and the universe is constantly surprising us. Even now, at the end of future present of history, when we know so much, we get surprised again and again.
So, if you aren’t feeling very optimistic, or are tired and think today is going to suck, try to keep in mind, if you can, how little we know. The universe might just surprise you.
Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it. - Chuang-tse
THE SCHOOL OF STOLEN GENIUS PRESENTS
SCENIUS & CULTIVATING COLLABORATION ::
Across industries we tend to want to credit individuals - from the award shows to inventors. But the truth is: the lone genius is a myth. Innovation doesn't come from individuals but from collaboration. Punk rock empresario Brian Eno suggested we call it 'scenius' - intelligence that comes from the scene, from the group. His actual definition is: "Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole culturalscene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius." So what then are the conditions that make innovation and collaboration possible? We’ve got four of the seven class segments live for Members & Apprentices of the School of Stolen Genius. (Don’t forget: We’re hoping that if you work for someone else we can help you expense this.)
:: AND NOW… LEGENDS NEVER DIE - ORVILLE PECK X SHANIA ::
“The point is combining ultra-sincerity with a heightened version of who you are at your core.”
Orville Peck is a gay, masked country singer who wears incredible outfits and has great videos. He “came out of nowhere in 2018. Now he’s singing with Shania and celebrating country’s glamorous, dramatic past”. He also clearly understands branding, per the quote above. HT to our awesome friend Troy for turning us on to Orville. We miss you Troy!
WHAT’S NEW @ THE SCHOOL OF STOLEN GENIUS PRESENTS
INTEGRATIVE BRAND MODELS :: AVAILABLE
INTEGRATIVE BRAND MODELS :: PDF & VIDEO
Featuring a downloadable PDF of the deck and the hour-long presentation with Q&A, you’ll learn about a variety of brand models, the evolution of brand strategy, and how this applies to marketers today. All members may access the bundle for free, alternatively you may also purchase the bundle as a one-off.
Our in depth interview with guest curator Shann Biglione, head of strategy at Zenith Media NYC, is now live for members.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)