Strands of Genius: People Without Internal Monologues, Faris Fighting Binaries, and ICYMI: The Ads from the Super Bowl
plus: our thoughts on secret date nights, and a month of creative challenges from our friend Steve
WRITING FROM | Greenville, SC
WORKING ON | the School of Stolen Genius
LOOKING AHEAD
Jan 1-Feb 3: Greenville, SC
Jan 18-20: Charlotte, NC (Rosie)
Feb 3-17: Nashville, TN
Feb 17-28: Beersheba Springs, TN
Feb 29-March 15: Nashville, TN (Rosie)
March 1-15: London, UK (Faris)
March 4-6: London, UK | Big TV Festival
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
We’ve come to the end of Whole30 and our time in Greenville. We head to Nashville today, after one last class at Greenville yoga. It’s hard to leave; It feels like the end of summer camp. Of course we’ll see Rachel and Mike again, but not in the near future, which is sad. But Nashville is calling, and we’ve got a lot going on in February. We’re excited, too. Emotions are weird like that, the juxtapositions creeping in ever so often.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Our hosts Stella&Chase&Mike&Rachel, WE LOVE YOU and we’re so incredibly thankful for our time together! Our Greenville Yoga crew, 3 stars on Mario Kart races, trees in the backyard, palo santo cones, screwball peanut butter liquor, old fashions, football.
:: THE LINKS ::
SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO INTERNAL MONOLOGUE
Ryan discovers that some people have no inner monologue and it ruins his day. Do you have that voice inside your head? One you can dialogue with? Yes? Us, too. Which is why we were also baffled by the fact that some people don’t have that inner voice. It’s fascinating to think about how other people think, and this is certainly worth diving into. (Wordpress)
FIGHTING THE BINARY
Faris was a guest on The Deep Dive Podcast with Philip McKenzie and they talk about binaries, strategic fragmentation, inspiration, processes, curiosity and creativity, generalists vs specialists, hip-hop, free jazz, short term-ism, management by metrics, mental accounting, psychology experiments, medieval cathedrals, air quality in Delhi and more... (Deep Dive)
ALL OF THE SUPER BOWL ADS, ICYMI
Annnnd in case you were refilling your snack bowl during the commercials, or skipping the big game entirely, here are all this year’s Super Bowl commercials in one place. (Vulture)
:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: SECRET DATE NIGHTS ::
Secret date nights are a thing we’ve been doing since well, the early days of getting together. The canonical secret date was when Faris surprised Rosie with tickets to The Little Mermaid when she had just arrived back from a work trip. All Rosie knew was the dress code, and where to meet Faris.
That’s the key, really: Take on the planning without involving your partner, and build up excitement through surprise. If you really want to get creative, you can throw in a false flag or two (ie: Be sure to be wearing a red button on your front left breast pocket when you arrive.)
We’ve had secret date nights that have involved making dumplings in a Chinatown kitchen, Broadway shows, walking from Union Square to Times Square blindfolded together (yes, really), tasting menus, burlesque shows, even city-wide scavenger hunts. We even had a sneaky double secret date night that required Faris to get a drink at a bar, where he and our friend Julia ran into each other, totally unexpectedly (but not by Rosie & Clay), only to find they were being double secret date night’ed when the bartender delivered a ransom-style-note cut from magazine letters featuring clues which eventually led Julia & Faris to where we needed to be (back at the house, after Rosie & Clay had cooked the lobsters.)
Why are they so special? Because organization can be overwhelming. Logistics are tiring. You’re not offloading any cognitive burden on your date, all the while you’re intuiting what they might like to do. Except, unlike a surprise birthday party, it’s low stakes. The more you enact Secret Date Nights, the easier they become to do. As a giver, you’ll become more comfortable with the narrative elements of surprise. Or if you’re like Rosie, you’ll learn to be a better receiver — because you’ll see that everything turns out just right, even when you don’t have control.
Don’t let yourself off the hook just because you’re single. Secret date nights with friends are totally a thing, too.
:: AND NOW… A MONTH OF CREATIVE CHALLENGES ::
Our friend, Steve Chapman, is behind WHAT THE FEBRUARY!? “29 daily creative/weird/wonky challenges to celebrate the most non-conformist month of the year. Some challenges are solo. Some involve others. Some are artistic. Some are social experiments. Some are simply odd. Plus a handful of challenges set by specially invited guests. Begins 1st Feburary 2020. To take part follow @stevexoh or the hashtag #WTFEB “
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Getting to meet like-minded folks is one of the best parts of living nomadically, so please let us know if you see if we'll be in a city near you :)
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 :)
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/TalkDescriptions2019