Strands of Genius: Reasons for Hope in a Lonely Century, Everything in the World is Not Awful, Seeing Ourselves in Marketing
Guest curated by Zach Hollander
Each year we aim to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. This edition is guest curated by Zach Hollander, the co-founder, managing partner at Kindred Uncommon.
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, Zach Hollander ::
LOCATION: Austin, TX
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Kindred Uncommon
Howdy creative minds of all kinds. I’m Zach. I spend my days here in Austin reimagining age-tailored living for modern adults who roll their eyes at age-tailored anything. A thing we call ‘Kindred Uncommon’ is a new model for residential communities that mixes sustainable, green campuses and modern, elevated design, built to the centimeter for interaction and connection. Real Community with a capital C. Love my BBQ from Texas, miss surfing in California, and pilgrimage back to the ancestral homeland New York as often as possible.
Editor’s Note (Genius Steals Team): We were connected to Zach through Jared Grant and love what he’s working on with ‘Kindred Uncommon’! So happy to have you here Zach and thanks for the great links!
:: THE LINKS ::
REASONS FOR HOPE IN A LONELY CENTURY
Maybe once every couple years I come across something that blows my mind a little and becomes a filter through which I start to see the world. Noreena Hertz's The Lonely Century was this for me over the holidays. It’s a totally sweeping look about the changes across every corner of our lives that have left a mind numbing share of society feeling disconnected from individuals around them, from their immediate communities, and from any national narrative in which they see themselves. It casts everything from work culture and our technology habits to the resurgence of right wing ideology in a whole new, non-ideological light. And, rare for books like this, it comes with a dizzying number of solutions. You don't have to read it though you can read about it or hear Noreena's wonderful (to my American ears) British accent talk about it on YouTube. (WIRED)
EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD IS NOT AWFUL
Sometimes it’s good to remember that while we perceive almost everything getting worse lately, the overwhelming majority of measures of the long arc of human progress are moving in the right direction. (Vox)
SEEING OURSELVES IN MARKETING
Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks are all in their later 60s or early 70s. You probably don't think of them as senior citizens or elderly, and you’d never know they are the same age as the older adults you see in advertising aimed at people their age. It's not news that most stock photography under-represents most groups and reinforces stereotypes. We all want to reflect the diversity of our communities and customers in our work but many of us don't have the tools or the budget to do this. When I went to look for stock imagery to build a brand aimed at modern, forward thinking older adults, I thought finding anything that represented them as they may see themselves - fashionable, relevant, active, sexy - was going to be a fools errand. I then fell into a delightful photography rabbit hole with Stocksy, scrolling for hours through thousands of images of aspirational, badass older folks, not to mention people of all ages, races, genders, orientations, shapes, and sizes. There is a long long way to go, with race representation in particular, but kudos to the team that helped make this tiny step on a long road for making representation easier to achieve for designers and marketers on a budget. (Stocksy)
Looking for more from Zach Hollander? Those enrolled in The School of Stolen Genius will receive a deep dive from him in their inbox shortly! You can access all our expert interviews for SOSG here.
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
:: Game :: Betrayal at House on the Hill
:: City :: Either New York City or Lockhart, TX
:: Book :: Lord of the Flies
:: Podcast :: Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
:: Album :: Graceland, Paul Simon (all time fav), In These Silent Days, Brandi Carlile (at this moment)
:: GOING THROUGH LIFE ::
“It would be a terrible mistake to go through life thinking that people are the sum total of what you see.” ― Jonathan Tropper, This is Where I Leave You
Eager to connect with passionate, purpose driven folks, especially those who are into design - architectural, digital, experiential - that fosters connection between people of all stripes.
Zach Hollander
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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.
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