Strands of Genius: Back to the Future Reunion, Survival Isn't Enough, Sex in the Time of CoVid, School in Session
plus our thoughts on motivation, memories and time
WRITING FROM | Nashville, TN
WORKING ON | http://schoolofstolengeni.us
LOOKING AHEAD
May 17-May 20: Nashville, TN
May 23: Faris’ Birthday
May 20-28: Beersheba Springs, TN
May 28-July 1: Greenville, SC
May 30: Rosie’s Birthday
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Oh hello, gosh is it Monday already? Huh. Wouldya look at that.
Just kidding! That was last week.
Well, as we said, the days are long but the weeks are over in an accelerated heartbeat —and here we are again.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Despite not being a sports fan, Faris did grow up during Jordan’s heyday and even he got caught up in it. Anyway, The Last Dance on netflix is very compelling. Injustice 2 is an interesting twisted pokemon-like extension to the classic fighting game format. Bavette [or flank] steaks from Grass Roots butcher, Devs [haven’t finished it yet but it’s good you should watch it Nick Offerman is amazing], Midnight Gospel [philosophy as animated sci-fi on Netflix], the SNL finale, Josh Gad, disc golf [frolf], Rachel&Mike&Stella&Chase, and this episode is in memory of Faris’ brother Ramzi and his wife Lyndsey’s cat Olly, that was just killed in a road accident. This is terrible but we are grateful for the love and joy he brought them for years. I’m so sorry bruv&sis.
THE SCHOOL OF STOLEN GENIUS PRESENTS
BEYOND BORING BRIEFS
Tuesday, May 26th: 9a PT / 12p ET / 5p GMT
It’s been our most requested presentation, ever since we initially delivered it. We’ve helped big agencies, small agencies, red agencies, and blue agencies re-think their briefs and briefing process.
Buy a single pass for $150 — or a membership to The School of Stolen Genius for only $25/month. We’re excited about this experiment in building community and more in-depth learning opportunities, and looking forward to We’re hoping that if you work for someone else we can help you expense this. Let’s do this!!!
:: THE LINKS ::
TIME TO GO BACK TO THE FUTURE
There are suddenly many, many people doing many, many Zoom things, of various varieties. As with any new media format, it takes time for people to embrace its particular grammar and context and find the great native ideas. Josh Gad has found and made one, for charity. In Reunited Apart he gets the casts of classic movies back on screen together and it is pure joy. Goonies was first, Back to the Future second. (YouTube)
HOW TO BE HOPEFUL BECAUSE SURVIVAL IS INSUFFICIENT
Many people are going to be struggling for a long time, so survival might fairly be all they are considering. For society however, surviving isn’t enough. This long read is a sensitive and ultimately hopeful elegiac on the ways things were and what we chose next. “We’re being asked to choose how we prioritize the things we value. This question of how we “open the country,” as it’s being put, is also a question about what and who survives. It is not merely for the president to answer, or for governors or mayors or bosses either. It is a question for each of us”. (Atlantic)
SEX IN THE TIME OF COVID
When we tell people we live on the road and work together, many people [mostly, but not always, men] say something to the effect of “Oh I don’t think I could work with my partner - we would kill each other!”, which is always hilarious and also very sad. Regardless, most couples do not experience each other all day everyday as we do. It’s hard, it takes a lot of adjustments [what do you talk about when you are together literally all the time?!] and yes, even we are struggling, despite all our experience of endless proximity. Anyway, your sex life might be affected by this experience and that’s OK but here’s how it might be playing out. (Quartz)
Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 11,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, becoming a member of The School of Stolen Genius or encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.
:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: MOTIVATION ::
Are you feeling motivated? If you are, what does it feel like? If you aren’t, what does that mean? Motivation is, like all the substructural mechanisms of human behavior, mysterious. Motivation is the willingness to put effort into goals. So there are three things right there that can mess it up. You need to have goals and the reasonable expectation they are achievable. You need to have effort, which might be depleted by work or illness or pandemics. And, finally, you need willingness, which is perhaps the tricksiest part of the definition, since it’s essentially a synonym. Damn circular language. The sensation of willing, of wanting, or of being able to make oneself do something, and how different those two feelings are, despite leading to similar behaviors.
In “very compelling” The Last Dance, Michael Jordan comes across as a generally likable, kind, charming and pleasant sociopath. OK I take that back, not literally, [and he does seem nice] but his “will to win” competitive streak is the driving force of every aspect of his life and relationships, which is a lot. And might make you the GOAT. But it might not [see his baseball career].
Motivation insight often rests on what is known as Self Discrepancy Theory [coined by Higgins + huge thanks to Phil Barden [Decoded] for his invaluable input on this]. This suggests that in our interior life we have divided conceptions of our self. We have the sense of who we are currently, really, in what we feel and how we act. Then we have the idealized version of ourselves, the person we believe we could be or want to be. Finally we have the ‘Ought Self’ which is our vision of ourselves filtered through what other people expect from us. [This tripartite structure so closely resembles the Freudian Id, Ego and Super Ego it makes me suspicious, with Id taking a positive spin in this version.]
So this motivation theory suggests that the discrepancy between different versions of ourselves is what creates motivation, the willingness.
Or not.
You are probably familiar with the idea of cognitive dissonances, which this seems closely related to. You can either change your behavior to avoid it or you can change your mind.
Similarly, there seems to be two different typologies of response [and one imagines the delta between the selves must be in some way determinant to the effect, even though that delta is imagined]. Some are motivated to act by the self discrepancy.
As with dissonance, we can (and do) adjust our ideals over time, to manage the discrepancy. However, we can’t adjust our understanding of society the same way and sometimes our actual self doesn’t match our ought self. “When this happens, we’ll feel that we haven’t lived up to others’ expectations—and that kind of failure produces “agitation-related emotions” such as guilt, fear, self-contempt, and anxiety.”
Which I think goes some way to explaining the different coping responses we are all experiencing. It mirrors lots of different aspects of the human psyche, pulled between two poles on a spectrum. Some people are driven to experience feelings of achievement, some by the avoidance of negative outcomes. Exploration versus safety, novelty vs familiarity. Where you lie on that spectrum will impact everything in your life and can change with context.
All of which is to say, once again, it’s OK however you are feeling and coping, and we love you.
:: AND NOW…THE KIND OF MAGIC YOU CAN EXPECT WITH THE SCHOOL OF STOLEN GENIUS ::
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
Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Send ‘em our way!
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 :)\