Strands of Genius: Animal Crossing, Life Interrupted, Are Humans Constantly but Subconsciously Smelling Themselves?
Guest Curated by Megan Averell
This year we’re aiming to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us, by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. Megan reached out to Rosie and Faris and they all linked up while in Seattle. Ashley met Megan recently at Whiskey Weekend!
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, MEGAN AVERELL ::
LOCATION: Seattle, Washington
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: The Insight Inn
I met Rosie and Faris by reaching out to them and asking them to hang at a bar in Seattle, by reading Genius Steals and finding out where they’d be in the ‘light stalking’ section where they post their next location. I’m a qualitative researcher and former advertising strategist, who started my own business about 5 years ago. And I know where to get great hummus in Seattle, so hit me up if you are ever in my neck of the woods.
Editor’s Note (Ashley): I first met Megan at Whiskey Weekend 2019, and we quickly bonded over a mutual love of soccer and Miller High Life. Megan is easy to talk to, quick witted and provides amazing commentary for playing board games, specifically the game of Life. Megan, I’m looking forward to the day we can attend a Seattle Reign game together!
Editor’s Note (Rosie): We met Megan over the internet, and then in real life over hummus (omg, of course she mentioned it!), and pizza, at Seattle bars, and offices, and again and again in close proximity to fires and board games. Megan is kind and compassionate, but also asks the best questions, and provides perspectives that leave us stroking our chin. She wins the board games we play more often than I’d like, but we still keep her around ;)
:: THE LINKS ::
THE QUIET REVOLUTION OF ANIMAL CROSSING
While quarantined, people are starting to really think about what it is that makes up ‘real life’. For instance, many people I’ve spoken to have realized their commute does not just serve the function of getting from place-to-place, it is a decompression period to help them slough off the day’s stress and negativity before returning home to loved ones. Others have talked about how they miss the little tasks, errands, and rituals that make up a day, like chatting with their barista, getting a haircut, or stopping at the ATM, or getting their dog groomed, and so on. The people at Nintendo couldn’t have known they were timing the latest release of the Switch game “Animal Crossing” so well, but released in late March, it almost singlehandedly drove the Switch to sell out worldwide. In the game, one does basic, mundane tasks like fishing, crafting, checking mail, in addition to ‘bigger’ objectives like collecting species for museums, building out a town, and helping other residents. The gameplay goes slow, and there is no danger at any point— no evil boss, no way for a character to be harmed. It’s seems to be a perfect proxy for the day-to-day life people are missing, without any risks or downside. People are getting to play a virtual ‘real life’ full of the structure they want, the tasks they miss, and are enjoying every minute. (The Atlantic)
LIFE INTERRUPTED - EMOTIONS IN THE 2ND AND 3RD WEEK OF CORONAVIRUS IN THE USA
When lockdown started, I figured plenty of polls would be issued about the way the nation was reacting to the coronavirus outbreak. As a qualitative researcher, I also know that quantitative studies can be limited in drawing out emotion, and particularly, the nuanced emotions people would be having at this time. I decided to conduct 40 hours of interviews with people in my network, talking to colleagues, friends, and acquaintances in 14 states around the country, to understand their emotional state and to try to draw threads between the various experiences I heard about. I’m publishing the results in a series of blog posts (with plenty of direct quotes from the folks I spoke to), and hopefully— you might find some value in this, as we are all living this experience separately, but together. (The Insight Inn)
ARE HUMANS CONSTANTLY BUT SUBCONSCIOUSLY SMELLING THEMSELVES?
Maybe you are touching your face all the time because you are... smelling yourself? The Royal Society published a study positing that humans might be smelling ourselves and others by bringing our hands to our faces. “Over a 20 min observation, 18 participants touched their faces an average of 13.33 times”— and this article posits the reason is obtain information about the people and things we have touched. This article also includes a quantitative study in which they ask people WHAT they sniff, WHO they sniff, and WHY. It’s one that will make you look at your own behavior of “self-sniffing” anew. (That Explains Things)
-a quick interlude for some sponsored content from our friends over at #SMWONE- Social Media Week was one of the first ever speaking gigs I had (says Rosie), and we’ve long been a fan of founder Toby Daniels and his Crowdcentric crew. We’re excited to be partnering with #SMWONE, which will bring together marketers from around the world to confront the emerging challenges of today.
They’re offering a Buy-One-Gift-One pass program. For every pass purchased, they’ll gift one to a small business, nonprofit, professional, or student facing financial hardship resulting from COVID-19. (Have we mentioned that we’re proud to know ‘em?!) At a glance, a #SMWONE pass includes:
Access to all sessions live via an interactive experience or OnDemand. The program will feature 300 speakers and over 100 hours of content across 11 tracks.
The ability to join session breakouts and video hangouts throughout each day, and network and connect in live chat conversations with over 10,000 registered participants.
Access to reports, session recaps, and speaker presentations available for download post-event.
Join virtually May 5-28 via the #SMWONE website.
If you buy your ticket through us, you’ll get 20% OFF with the code GENIUSSTEALS and you’ll be doing us a solid, because we’ll get a referral bonus for sending you.
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
:: Game :: Sequence
:: City :: Melbourne, Australia
:: Book :: “Triangle: the Fire that Changed America” and “Radium Girls” are great examples of beautifully-penned non-fiction books about the working class and working conditions in America
:: Podcast :: “You’re Wrong About”
:: Album :: Right now, Maggie Rogers’ “Heard it In a Past Life”

Did you know goats have rectangular pupils? Welp, now you do.
I’m hoping that some of the learnings or quotes from the COVID 19 study I conducted might be of-use to people on a personal level, and I recognize that communications professionals might find some professional value in it as well. If you do, please consider paying-it-forward by shouting out the blog post to others, or hiring the Insight Inn for your next qualitative research need, or referrals. I know everyone is struggling, but the qualitative research business has ground to a halt for obvious reasons— so any and all leads are welcome.
Megan Averell
email: Megan@theinsightinn.com
linkedin | twitter
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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 :)
SPEAKING
We're currently booking speaking gigs for the year.
Check out full descriptions and key learnings from our talks on here:
http://bit.ly/TalkDescriptions2020
If you're pitching us to others, here's a handy press kit:
http://geniussteals.co/press-kit