Strands of Genius: The Detour, Epistemological Disagreements, I Think Therefore I Tweet
Plus our thoughts on: spreading the thanksgiveaway
WRITING FROM | Nashville, TN
WORKING ON | planning our 8th Annual Whiskey Weekend!
LOOKING AHEAD
Nov 26-7 | Nashville, TN
Dec 7-15 | Beersheba Springs, TN
Dec 15-19 | Atlanta, GA
Dec 19-21 | Athens, GA
Dec 21-Jan 4 | Nashville, TN
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
The Thanksgiveaway is almost upon us!
Just by being a subscriber, you’ll already be entered to win items featured from our guest curators, along with 1:1 consulting hours.
However, we’ve also got a few ways for you to earn some extra entries, capped at 100 entries per person. All you have to do is share a link to the newsletter in some capacity, or forward any of our emails, and cc ashley@geniussteals.co on or before November 30th. The drawing will take place on December 1st.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Judy&Lil&Jason&Simon&Porter&Vera, fire-pits, new car smell, Natural Bliss, bagels, sparkling water on tap, & YOU.
FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO A FRIEND
and cc Ashley@GeniusSteals.co for additional entries into this month’s giveaway for products from our guest curators this month <3
If you appreciate this newsletter in any capacity, we’d love if you would do us a solid and share it with someone else who might also enjoy it.
:: THE LINKS ::
THREE KINDS OF PROPAGANDA
BoingBoing summarizing Jonathan Stray’s work Defense Against the Dark Arts, considering three different kinds of propaganda and why they work. “As I've written before, we're not living through a crisis about what is true, we're living through a crisis about how we know whether something is true. We're not disagreeing about facts, we're disagreeing about epistemology.” (BoingBoing)
THE DETOUR BECOMES THE PATH
Faris’ column for Mediacat this month is a musing on the power and surprising impact of side quests, in games and life. “Why not sample a few different stories, see what suits? How can you invest in your own resilience? What’s the origin story of your next decade?” (Mediacat)
I THINK THEREFORE I TWEET
Our friend David wrote this elegiac love letter to Twitter, highlighting all the ways it has impacted his life (one way being that we met and then worked together!) with some thoughts as to what might come next. “Which brings me back to the beauty of Twitter. All takes are welcome, especially the flaming hot garbage takes. And if you’re lucky enough to post one such take and avoid becoming the “Main Character of the Day,” the fleeting nature of the app, the fast-paced new cycle, and our general human predisposition to barely pay attention to, or remember, anything that doesn’t directly affect us, means most people can get away with being wrong on Twitter and the world will hardly notice.” (Medium)
Strands of Genius is currently read by 14,000 subscribers. Support us by becoming a member of The School of Stolen Genius, or encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe. If you’re interested in sponsoring this newsletter, hit reply and let’s chat!
: HELP US SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS LIL NEWSLETTER, PRETTY PLEASE ::
Just by being a subscriber, you’ll already be entered to win items featured from our guest curators, along with 1:1 consulting hours. However, we’ve also got a few ways for you to earn some extra entries, capped at 100 entries per person.
All you have to do is share a link to the newsletter in some capacity, and send an email to ashley@geniussteals.co on or before November 30th.
Here’s the scoop:
Sharing on social media = 5 extra entries, per platform. You’ll send a link to your post(s) to Ashley.
Sending an email to your team/department = 25 extra entries. We hope your team will thank you! Forward your email to Ashley for your extra entries.
Sending an email to your whole company = 50 entries. Damn, look at you willing to use that all-agency list serv. Thanks, we appreciate that! Forward your email to Ashley for extra entries.
We would like to grow our subscribers so obviously this is helpful for us and we are incentivizing that a little bit but we also believe that sharing is caring, that people we meet always tell us they find this newsletter unique and useful amongst the advertising industry, both broad and personal, and if you like it, wouldn’t people you like enjoy it too?
We’ll select winners on December 1st, and announce the winners on December 5th.
:: WHAT TO SHARE ::
We’re leaving that up to you. We’d love for you to share what you love about the newsletter, or why you read it, or what you appreciate about it — but just sharing a link will still get you extra entries.
We’ve flagged some of the more popular editions of Strands of Genius here, in case you want to share a past edition:
There was that edition where we explored grief, which included links about overcoming productivity dysmorphia, when a major life change upends your sense of self, and 3 questions to ask about trends.
Or the edition where we highlighted social media bans around the world, which included links about why community matters so much, retouching and influencer marketing, and shrinking The Gap (how the clothing brand lost its way.)
We covered the tough topic of abortions in May, and included links on big ideas in advertising, why Marvel is the most important cinematic innovation of the 21st Century, and why analogies are superpowers.
The newsletter we received the most responses to was when Rosie wrote about what it’s like working with a spouse, and included her favorite writings from Faris, including a post about America, Freedom & The High Cost of Healthcare, toxic nostalgia, how to get lucky, and Stone Junction.
And then there was a follow-up from Ashley, our Director of Operations, who wrote about what it was like working with a married couple, and included links on the nature of fame and attention, Italy’s B Corps, and the gay history of camels.
Or the time when Faris wrote about constraints, and included links on playing with brands, how tenderness and attention are related, and why we love the word ‘smooth.’
Rosie was a little nervous to send the newsletter where she talked about waning ambition, but it turned out many of you shared the same perspective. That edition also included links on why the return to the office isn’t working, the six forces that fuel friendship, and the first edition of the Warc Attention Economy podcast.
And there was the edition where we shared our favorite questions to ask, which also included links on being wrong, the insane cost of cars, and nine ways to channel stoicism to help your anxiety.
You can find and search the entire archive of Strands of Genius here, if there was an edition we didn’t spotlight that you loved and wanted to share :)
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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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