Strands of Genius: Toilet Paper is Bad, Weirdest Things Learned At Work, Open Letter to Adland
plus, our thoughts on: panic, pandemics & hope
WRITING FROM | Nashville, TN & Leeds, UK
WORKING ON | taxes (ughhhhhh)
LOOKING AHEAD
Feb 29-March 15: Nashville, TN (Rosie)
March 1-15: UK (Faris)
March 15-April 15: Mexico City, MX
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Hello from both sides of the pond! Faris is in Leeds, Rosie is in Nashville. The day Faris left Nashville, a tornado tore through it destroying about 40 buildings and killing a number of people. Rosie and family and everyone we know are fine, but it makes you think, doesn’t it? To be grateful when the vagaries of chance don’t hurt anyone you love. You can be grateful for that most days. We live in panicked times. #panicbuying of toilet paper has led to shortages in the UK, conferences are being cancelled apace, much uncertainty prevails. It seems likely that for the foreseeable future that the only thing that is certain, is that things will remain uncertain.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Katy&Greg, Duncan, Tanya&Ali&Maya&Ruben, Cristina&Ryan, trains, new and old friends, relying on the kindness of strangers, hearing your voice and others that speak like you, cask ales, halloumi pies, magazines, hacking time zones for collaborative productivity, and, of course, YOU!
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:: THE LINKS ::
TOILET PAPER IS TERRIBLE
Anyone who has travelled to Asia or the Middle East or some parts of Europe or indeed many parts of the world have to negotiate the bum gun or bidet spray. It seems weird until it suddenly seems like a much better idea. Perhaps this particular moment will lead the end of toilet paper, since it’s currently not very available. Here are the many, many reasons why the bum gun is superior. (Bum Gun)
WHAT’S THE WEIRDEST THING YOU LEARNED WORKING ON A CLIENT?
This was the question Faris asked on Twitter, which has led to an ongoing and increasingly interesting series of things you probably don’t know, but would surely find fascinating. Someone called it the “most interesting thread so far in 2020”. We’ll take it! (Twitter)
OPEN LETTER TO ADLAND
The diversity, or lack thereof, conversation has dominated the advertising discourse for some years now and yet little seems to have changed. Amy Kean, who heads up innovation at Starcom and is the author of “The Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks”, penned this open letter, because she, and many others, are “sick of the bias and sexual harassment. The mums screwed over after mat leave; the brazen, untouchable bullies; the handsy CEOs at Christmas parties and the racist, homophobic jokes.” There is still so much to be done. (Dear Adland)
:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: PANICDEMICS ::
Fear is contagious. But you knew that, right?
Emotions are signals, whether in people or the media, and our behavior is driven by them. People are panic buying toilet paper in the UK (and this obviously makes absolutely no sense), but once it is reported, it triggers a cascade of similar behavior. If we think something is about to run out, we want to hoard for our family, which makes the problem worse (or creates a real problem out of what started as an opportunistic scaremongering piece of journalism primarily designed to attract attention rather than inform the public.) This is obviously a problem.
The media is not simply a mirror, it refracts and magnifies. Mass mediation makes small things big, literally because of the above, and cognitively because of the availability heuristic. People are disproportionately afraid of shark attacks, despite being vanishingly rare, because of Jaws and the news media that knows it can trigger Jaws-like duh-duh emotions by highlighting shark attacks. Emotions drive sales and clicks. Fear sells toilet paper.
The inherent problem with spending 12 hours a day in media (for your mind and everyone else) is that it presents a completely upside down view of reality. News, by definition, are things that happen with the least frequency, but they are shown to us with the highest frequency. The result is that we are scared of all the wrong things. Instead of being rightly afraid of governmental or corporate corruption, which impacts every element of every person’s life, but is diffuse and hard to understand, we instead fear sharks and monsters and diseases.
Especially new ones, because new is scary, even though the old ones we know kill many more people than most flash-in-the-pan(demics). In an increasingly globalized world, pandemics become increasingly likely. What matters most is the resilience of the medical, political and social systems, which are all crucial when managing crises of this nature. The worst time to suddenly care about something that takes years to build and test is when you need it, which is entirely too late. The problem with agile thinking and OOODA loops is that these schemas of strategic response occlude something vital - the long, slow, unexciting building and maintenance of infrastructure. That said, it’s never as bad as you fear it will be.
Fear is an extremely potent emotion that, like outrage, is too easily manipulated by media and demagogues. Fear is contagious. But so is hope.
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” Frank Herbert, Dune
:: AND NOW… ACTION SHOT! ::
Faris speaking at
The Big TV Festival
last week in the UK.
He’s still working the French tuck but the gig went great. #NotSupreme
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Getting to meet like-minded folks is one of the best parts of living nomadically, so please let us know if you see if we'll be in a city near you :)
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 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 :)
SPEAKING
We're currently booking speaking gigs for the year.
Check out full descriptions and key learnings from our talks on here:
http://bit.ly/TalkDescriptions2020