Strands of Genius: TV Meets Fruit Machine, When AI Competes, Oatly Goes to Miami
Plus: The Effectiveness Equation
Strands of Genius is a newsletter from the co-founders of Genius Steals, Faris & Rosie Yakob. They are award-winning strategists, facilitators, creative directors, writers and public speakers who get excited about working with smart people on interesting challenges. You should probably go ahead and hit reply so we can collaborate on something together :)
:: THE UPDATE ::
The summer is too hot, but apparently appearing at Cannes was helpful since we can barely keep up with all these new business leads! We are now mostly booked for the summer but hit us up if you might need our particular flavor of creative and strategic consulting in the autumn!
Faris made it back into the USA, which is nice, but the fact that we worried about it speaks volumes. (Truly, we even worry about mentioning this here.)
We are rebuilding some health related routines as well as we can - it’s hard to start again after a break, right? - and finally getting around to some more colorful touches to our home with painting and such. Feels good to nest, to build something for yourself, that is divided from the ROW.
:: THE LINKS ::
TV MEETS FRUIT MACHINE
A media meditation on the nature of current video platforms. Intermittent variable reward is the mechanism that the gambling machines uses to hijack the brain - a reward is possible but you don’t know when, so you keep pulling the bandit’s single arm. “For You combines two of the most addictive technologies of the 20th century: the fruit machine (which plays with our anticipation as to what will pop up next) and television. Among the many concerns about TikTok is the sheer amount of time it devours: the average British user dedicates more than 42 hours a month to watching videos which rarely last longer than thirty seconds.” [LRB]
WHEN AI COMPETES (COMEDY SHOW)
As we manage the complexities of AI writ large, there is comedy to help collapse the tension. Thanks to our friend Andrew for this one: James Johnson stand-up on Deepseek vs OpenAI. [Youtube]
OATLY GOES TO MIAMI
One of our favorite people, Billy Linker, has been doing some amazing work with Oatly. His latest? “Yes, that’s correct, Oatly went to Miami and built a mobile café out of the back of a 1992 Cadillac Brougham D’Elegance, then cruised around town making custom coffee drinks inspired by local legends, including a mermaid, twin tennis pros, the bouncer from SPACE and 87-year-old Cuban character actor Ruben Rabasa (the steering wheel guy from I Think You Should Leave).” It’s great content all around. Nice work, Billy & team Oatly! [Oatly]
:: STEAL THIS REPORT ::
The Effectiveness Equation - new from Google
This week, we’re writing to you from London, UK. We’re especially thankful for:
Chatt, Mars & Lauren, & Steph, Jennifer&Jade, Summer, Ringo&Anna, The Sandman, Foundation, Ancient Apocalypse, painting walls, taking walks, Superman, solo cinema, apple cider vinegar, baked potatoes, spring cleaning (yes even though it’s summer) ... and YOU!
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. You can hit reply to this email if you’ve got anything to say, and we’ll endeavor to get back to you promptly!
rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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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. We have a distributed team ourselves, an 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 :)