Strands of Genius: The Obsession with "Getting Ahead", Nationally Representative, Music Elevated by Fans Through Streaming and Social Media
Strands of Genius: The Obsession with "Getting Ahead", Nationally Representative, Music Elevated by Fans Through Streaming and Social Media
plus our thoughts on: procrastination
WRITING FROM | Los Angeles, CA (Ashley)
WORKING ON | SOSG & client work
LOOKING AHEAD
March 7-10 | Isla Holbox, Mexico
March 10-12 | TBD: Holbox or Cancun, Mexico
March 12-17 | Nashville, TN
March 17-21 | Atlanta, GA
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
As Rosie & Faris mentioned last week, you’ll be hearing from me, Ashley, this week and they’ll be back with you on March 15th. Things have been moving and the new and improved SOSG has us feeling all kinds excitement :)
On my end, personally, there is some additional happy news! I believe I’ve mentioned before, but I play soccer for the United States Deaf Women’s National Team, and this past Friday we found out that we are officially part of the US Soccer Extended National Teams — something we’ve been working towards for many years now! I’m thrilled that more people will be exposed to the incredible women and men of the USA Deaf teams!
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
reorganizing and consolidating storage units, the smiles and tears that come with going through things & memories, Billy & Mary Anna who came to help mom and me move things from unit to another, Uncle Mike and his masterful stacking skills, Hannah & her birthday shenanigans, my Nike Air Max shoes that continue to be my comfortable go to’s, friends from GA who sent us a DoorDash gift certificate, US Soccer, my Deaf soccer teammates, and YOU, of course!
:: THE LINKS ::
THE OBSESSION WITH “GETTING AHEAD” IS FAILING YOUNG PEOPLE
I found myself nodding along to nearly all of this essay on “getting ahead” and “behindness”. Society tells us we’re supposed to be at a certain point in our career by such and such age age, we’re supposed to be married at this time, we ought to own a house in this window of time, and so on. We’re using these milestones to track our worth and ultimately we fall into the arrival fallacy - “the false illusion that once you attain a goal or reach a certain place, your happiness, your sense of stability, will be everlasting”. Upon arriving at this point, we come to think what we’ve done is not as successful as what’s coming next or who we are is incomparable to who we will be. “It’s where this sensation of behindness stems from, at least partly: The idea that external achievements are markers of internal identity and value means that, a lot of the time, we have zero sense of who we are when we’re not actively in pursuit of something.” So, who are we when we’re just standing still? (Catapult)
THE FUTURE OF ‘NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE’
The definition and parameters around a ‘nationally representative’ sample in market research has been evolving, but the implementation is lagging. Why deviate from tried and tested practices? Graham Idehen, director, customer success – Europe, Middle East and Africa at Lucid, and a co-founder of the Colour of Research (CoRe) shares, “I think there’s hesitation in terms of actually implementing and executing it because of the fear of the unknown – ‘what does this mean I have to do? How does this impact my business? How does this impact my data?’” (Research Live)
MUSIC ELEVATED BY FANS THROUGH STREAMING AND SOCIAL MEDIA
TikTok and other social media platforms have helped catapult the revival of listening to full albums. In the case of Disney’s “Encanto”, the album started at #197 on the Billboard 200 chart and is now at #1 for its eighth week. Soon after the film’s release on Disney+, Ken Bunt, the president of Disney Music Group says people were posting on TikTok “that these characters look like me and my family, that I’m seeing myself in this picture. Then it fairly quickly moved into another phase, where people were doing the dances and singing to it.” The album brings a level of authenticity and exposure to culture, and the social media videos helps contextualize the songs on the album in a way that radio never could. (The New York Times)
Strands of Genius is currently read by 13,000 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: PROCRASTINATION ::
After reading the above article on “behindness”, I started to ponder the word “procrastination” and whether that comes into play around my own thinking about "behindness”. From there my mind went to the scene from Ted Lasso where Hannah Waddingham’s character starts talking about “procrastination” as a tactic to stall from talking about what she really needs to talk about.
She begins to explore the etymology of the word before she gets cut off, so naturally in my own efforts to procrastinate from whatever the hell is actually on my to do list, I’ve decided to finish her exploration of “procrastination”. It comes from the Latin procrastinat- ‘deferred till the morning’, from the verb procrastinare, from pro- ‘forward’ + crastinus ‘belonging to tomorrow’ (from cras ‘tomorrow’). So that all makes sense, but I was particularly drawn to this New York Times additional explanation which says,
“Procrastination is also derived from the ancient Greek word akrasia — doing something against our better judgment.”
This is interesting. The article goes on to share,
Procrastination isn’t a unique character flaw or a mysterious curse on your ability to manage time, but a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks — boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt and beyond…
‘Procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem,’ said Dr. Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa.”
In a 2013 study, Dr. Pychyl and Dr. Sirois found that procrastination can be understood as “the primacy of short-term mood repair … over the longer-term pursuit of intended actions.” Put simply, procrastination is about being more focused on “the immediate urgency of managing negative moods” than getting on with the task, Dr. Fuschia Sirois, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield, said.
So if it’s an emotional reaction, I can’t help but wonder if ‘procrastination’ has become more prevalent in our lives today as a result of living in the constant state of ‘behindness’ or always getting to the arrival fallacy. If I’m always thinking there’s something better ahead, then why not procrastinate in the interim to fight off what you already know… that you and/or society is not going to be satisfied once you reach that goal/point…
:: AND NOW… USADSA BECOMES PART OF US SOCCER ENT ::
Join a community of people looking to work smarter, not harder.
Enroll today >
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? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.
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 :)