Strands of Genius: The Return of Thin, Optimism is a Necessary Delusion, How Old Do You Feel
Strands of Genius: The Return of Thin, Optimism is a Necessary Delusion, How Old Do You Feel
plus: event swag that is actually cool!
WRITING FROM | Long Beach, NY
WORKING ON | Conference Mon-Weds, Workshops Fri/Mon (sleep on Thurs lol)
LOOKING AHEAD
Feb 26-March 9 | Long Beach and New York, NY
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
We just wrapped our first in person event of the year and it was fantastic. Bumped into an old friend (Hi Corey!), met lots of new ones, and had a genuinely fun, engaging time with the two agencies who put the event on. Since they have a strong heritage of excellent experiential work, the event was very well designed, from the pre-connects, to logistics, to branding and of course plenty of experiential elements — plus, a great party to top it off. As I spoke about a lot of the last couple of days, events are only partially about the content (and I’m speaking here as, you know, the content). They are importantly about the attendees getting to interact with each other around the social objects like the talks and in the workshops and building social bonds in informal ways, because culture requires some level of shared experience or knowledge to coalesce.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Inspira - a brand activation agency drive by IQ + EQ, and Enthuse - a purpose driven women-owned partner for start ups with a fantastic foundation to support female founders. A huge thanks so much to Kim, Regina, Ross, Brigette, Jeff, Kristy, Bobby, Kathyia, Lorenzo, Corey, Miguel, Long Beach NYC, all our new friends & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
LIFE AFTER FOOD - THE RETURN OF THIN?
Another conversation that came up spontaneously with several people over the last few days was something we hadn’t heard about - the off label use of diabetes drugs to lose weight that has apparently taken Hollywood by storm is why lots of celebrities suddenly got…thinner. Demand has grown so rapidly that diabetics are finding it hard to come by. Many celebrities appear to have, let’s say, become aware of it but only outspoken people like Elon Musk and Chelsea Handler have openly admitted it. The company making it is exploding thanks to off-lable use “Sales figures bear out that the GLP-1 drugs are going gangbusters. Novo Nordisk’s operating profits are up 58 percent since 2017, the year it introduced Ozempic, and sales of the GLP-1 agonists grew 42 percent last year, accounting for 98 percent of the company’s overall growth.” The whole piece is fascinating, considering the body positivity movement and how it seems to have been flipped back to thin is beautiful, how money distorts health markets, and how word of mouth actually spreads. (The Cut) (Article free for a limited time — click fast)
OPTIMISM IS A NECESSARY DELUSION
Faris’ new column for Mediacat focuses on prospection, hope, accurate predictions and cognitive biases and suggests that whilst optimisim tends towards inaccuracy, it’s necessary for us to build enough motivation to try against overwhelming odds. They say pessimists are right and optimists are more likely to be rich because you have to take a shot, and then another, and another, with no guarantee of success, to create the possibility of it. “A brighter future can’t be built entirely in the fantasies of the past.” (MediaCat)
HOW OLD DO YOU FEEL?
Faris’ dad says he still feels 19 - he will be 80 this year (his exact birthday isn’t known but for the sake of getting a passport when he emigrated, it is set in the middle of July). How old do you feel? Because apparently this happens to all of us, in differing amounts. “Why do so many people have an immediate, intuitive grasp of this highly abstract concept—“subjective age,” it’s called—when randomly presented with it? It’s bizarre, if you think about it. Certainly most of us don’t believe ourselves to be shorter or taller than we actually are.” We seem to have an image of ourselves in our heads that lags reality, so looking in the mirror gives a little shock as we get older. “Adults over 40 perceive themselves to be, on average, about 20 percent younger than their actual age.” How old you are in your head also isn’t exactly the same as how old you feel, but “Could it be that feeling younger is actually dysfunctional and no longer helping you focus on what’s going on? That’s the more complicated question.” (Atlantic -Archived link)
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AND NOW THIS…GENIUS STEALS THEMED SWAG FROM OUR EVENT
Before our arrival, we were all gifted custom Nike By You gift cards to design our own — because the theme was Kickstart! Then, to kick off our day 2 workshop, the team were given dope Yetis and a bunch of cool stickers (if we do say so ourselves!) to decorate them :)
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
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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.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)