Strands of Genius: The Rising of TikTok, Meme Culture, So Much Is Still To Be Learned

Guest curated by Philippa Dunjay, Freelance TikTok Consultant

Nov 30, 2023

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, PHILIPPA DUJAY ::

LOCATION: London, UK

Hullo! I'm Philippa Dunjay - and I met Faris over Twitter years before I ever met him in real life. As a baby strategist he sent me a stack of books off Amazon - this kind gesture meant more to a struggling junior than he ever could have realised. We've been in touch ever since and finally met irl a few years back.

After a decade in advertising, I landed my dream job as Head of Strategy at TikTok Creative Lab. Finally a chance to professionally make memes! Creative Lab had three amazing years before they closed the whole department in June, so I've been travelling the world, freelancing as a TikTok expert and strategist, and studying our glorious AI future.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): We have loved following Philippa’s (or Pip as we know her) journey over the years on Twitter and were thrilled when we finally got to meet up in person. It warms our heart to hear that Faris’ book recommendations were able to contribute to your journey. Congratulations on landing your dream job Pip (from ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed. I wore his sward Phillippan)! We are so happy that you are enjoying life and can’t wait to see everything that is to come.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE RISING OF TIKTOK

If you're curious about how TikTok rose and where it might be going next, this article is an excellent look at the history and future of the product. ByteDance (the larger corporate company) has been running for 11 years already, and was worth billions before it ever launched in the West - Douyin / TikTok was its second mega product. Really nails everything in how it rose so quickly, from its use of music as meme-making to its watermarking of shared videos. (The Split)

MEME CULTURE

Jay Owens always has a very perceptive view on what's really going on online. I've long been obsessed with what memes really mean - a relatable insight wrapped in a neat copy-able and culturally communicative unit. Memes reveal cultural truths. And they add use humour to make sense of the crazy post-modern hyper-content-consumption world we live in. (Medium)

SO MUCH TO STILL BE LEARNED

In a slump of ennui, I read a Tweet that said the answer was to get really, really, really into your special interests and follow them all the way down. Reading this wonderful article about the mysterious eel prompted me to create a personal special theme of 'the sea' - books about eels, jellyfish, sea plastics, and scavenging whale corpses soon followed - and the (algae) blooming of my intellectual curiosity. (New Yorker)

Looking for more from Philippa Dunjay? Coming Friday, look for an interview from her in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: My friendship group are obsessed with a German card game designed to teach children economics called Cow Trader.

:: City :: London forever and always.

:: Book :: Nearly impossible to pick - but if you haven't read Milton's sprawling epic, Paradise Lost is both stunning and often surprisingly funny. He also wrote it when completely blind, committing 20 lines to memory at night before dictating them to his daughters in the morning. (Unrecognised female labour, what ho!)

:: Podcast :: Bruce Daisley - Eat Sleep Work Repeat

:: Album :: The romantic in me will always love Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

:: SEEN FROM ABOVE ::

A view of the world's largest plane storage and preservation facility, from @dailyoverview (Instagram)

Thanks for reading!

I offer TikTok strategy consulting and half day training workshops (based in London or remote) so check out www.pipdunjay.com or email me on pipdunjay@hotmail.com

- Philippa Dunjay

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 14,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

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 :)

Strands of Genius