Strands of Genius: Equilibrium, Advertising: The Game, Middlescence
Plus: How to be distinctive
WRITING FROM | Thailand
WORKING ON | ~living that sabbatical life~ (little bit of writing to do)
LOOKING AHEAD
Aug 24-Oct 1 | Koh Lanta, Thailand
Oct 1-5 | Bangkok, Thailand
October 5-22 | Japan
Oct 22-Nov 4 | Isla Mujeres, MX
Nov 4-Nov 12 | Nashville, TN
Nov 12-23 | Chattanooga, TN
Nov 24-Dec 5 | Isla Mujeres, MX
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Hello darlings, Faris here. Hope you are OK and having a good time. If not, consider that this may be simply a necessary dramatic challenge in the overall narrative arc of your life.
One of the things I liked to annoy people by saying during the pando, as an intense pressure-cooker microcosm of life itself, was “Where do you think we are in this movie?” Obviously there is no way to truly know, and the movie never really ends, that’s at least partially the point, but we have strong tendency to position our lives inside grand narratives.
Human memories are a tangled mess of preferential construction where ongoing highlights of reality are assembled into narrative or ludic frames - this is what happened to me and what I did, this is where I’m going, this is how I won or lost - that elide most the details of daily life. This is by design because memories are mostly created or ‘retained’ due to their ability to change our unconscious standard operating procedures. The model breaks and then adapts, over and over.
The first article I (Faris) ever had published outside of student journalism was about the quarter-life crisis (as an intern at a lad’s mag in the late 90s and they were as ridiculous and sometimes toxic as you may have heard). This idea has become salient again as it does every once in a while as young people question the dominant narratives they have been fed growing up on encountering the realities and trade offs of the working world.
“Crippling anxiety, depression, anguish, and disorientation are effectively the norm,” Ms. Byock writes in the introduction of her new book, “Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood.” (NYTimes Gift Article late 2022)
Probably so culture can recycle the same ideas over and over again, we seem to collectively forget anything that happened more than 20 years ago. By way of illustration, here is a BBC article about the quarterlife crisis from 2002.
“In the US it's called the "quarter-life crisis" - a term coined by two twentysomethings who interviewed hundreds of their contemporaries and uncovered a sense of hopelessness.
However different their circumstances, many of them felt adrift and unsure of anything in their lives.
"At the moment, the common issue is alienation. People feel lost, there is question of why do they do all this? The 'why' is really about saying 'Is this it? And if this is it, do I really want it?'“
LOL! Each generation goes grows up and encounters new feelings and situations for them.
Due to the facts that we are living longer and especially in the advertising and marketing industries we tend to age out of many (most?) jobs by our mid to late 40s, people are once again considering the midlife crisis, but a bit more seriously. Lots of people are looking for guidance for the ‘next stage’ of their adult life, professionally and personally, which is perhaps why a number of brilliant advertising thinkers have become coaches in the last few years.
The crisis has recently been rebranded ‘middlescence’ - see the link below.
I feel like we have been working on this transition for a decade and will be working on it forever more because the old narratives of what makes a life no longer seem very relevant.
Perhaps here can look for inspiration beyond the rat race ladder C suite, as many people are now exploring what life and work look like outside of the 9-5, if they can.
This is necessary to accept our inevitable physical deterioration with grace but is also crucially about passing on our wealth and power to the next generation so that they might flourish. In the final stage we renounce all worldly things and wander the earth as a sadhu, contemplating the mysteries of the universe, which is true wisdom. OK, so not every Hindu does this, but there is logic to the progression.
One criticism leveled at the modern hyper-capitalist world from this point of view is that it is immature, stuck in the second phase of accumulation, unable to find deeper meaning or pass things on to the next generation. Just ancient wisdom, perhaps, but as a culture we haven’t carved out new roles or support systems for the ever increasing number of older people.” (Faris for Mediacat)
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
all the staff at the Lanta Sands, our Virgo babes, Ashley and Chelsea, The Expanse, time off, Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, laab gai, Paper Girls, Rosie’s travel planning (aww thanks babe!), cycling, & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
THE BALANCE OF BRANDS
Faris wrote an unbalanced column about equilibrium, considering design, economics, advertising and the 2002 movie.
“John Williams adopted Game Theory for the systems analysts at there and popularized the theory outside of the academy with the publication of the delightfully titled The Compleat Strategyst, including jolly illustrations.
At the heart of this thinking is the idea that humans make perfectly selfish rational decisions when balanced. This brutal interpretation, built into the foundation of economics, is the cold Randian heart of modern neoliberalism.”
(MediaCat)
ADVERTISING: THE PLATFORM GAME
When ACD Aisha asked someone she has been mentoring to show her “something that reflected his ~true~ abilities as an art director, outside of ads” she wasn’t expecting him to build a platform game about what its like working in agencies. What out the timesheets will get you!
(Personal side HT @aishamadeit)
MIDDLESCENCE
“What’s needed in middlescence, for many professionals, is the chance to work out their “elder” identity. That reset often includes a life transition — perhaps from a corporate job to something more purposeful, perhaps a new career. Perhaps doing nothing at all (finances allowing) while you regroup, mentally, physically and spiritually 😇.” (Archive link FT but that emoji is from the original!) (Archive Link)
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:: HOW TO DISTINCTIVE ::
JKR x IPSOS
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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 in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, 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.
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