Strands of Genius: We're Baaaaack! Care Less, 7 Day Happiness, The In-Between
Plus, our thoughts on: bumping the lamp
WRITING FROM | Beersheba Springs, TN
WORKING ON | a remote training program, an in-person event in February, and slowly
LOOKING AHEAD
Jan 5-19 | Beersheba Springs, TN
Jan 19-27 | TBD
Jan 27-Feb 16 | Atlanta, GA
Feb 16-20 | St. Simon’s Island
Feb 20-26 | Nashville, TN
Feb 27-March 6 | Long Beach and New York, NY
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
It feels like only yesterday that we were turning our out of offices on, and sending a note to let y’all know it would be a month before you saw us again. In that time:
We both survived intense cases of the flu. That part sucked, and we discovered that our recovery styles in times of sickness don’t lend themselves to staying in the same room together: Rosie wanted doors and windows shut, high heat, and home renovation shows. Faris wanted windows and doors open, with fresh cold air from the outside, and history shows. Ha.
Rosie is 99% sure she got Covid again in Mexico, and the flu followed only a few weeks later, which meant she had a persistent cough for more than 45 days. That was not so fun.
We hosted nearly 50 people in the Cumberland Mountains for our 8th Annual Wholemeal Whiskey Weekend, which was a blast. The kitchen cleaning parties rivaled our Great Room dance parties, and our custom bar mats were a party favor favorite.
We spent time in Nashville, Atlanta, Athens, and Beersheba Springs with friends and family.
We found out that we’re going to welcome a niece to the world in May! We’re so incredibly excited and have cried happy tears multiple times.
We were given an archive of letters from Rosie’s extended family, featuring letters written from the 1800s and 1900s. It turns out my family members have always loved milk, that camel rides used to cost 10 cents, that HBM was not impressed with breakfast at the White House when he went to visit Lyndon Johnson, and that our family was known for brining “joy and merriment” to the Cumberland Mountains, even back in the 1800s.
We celebrated NYE in our favorite way: with friends, in our comfies, making an epic meal of Italian-style Sunday gravy.
We cheered on the Georgia Bulldogs as they became back to back National Champions!
We shared tears and stories remembering Stella, one of our all time favorite dogs, who moved on to doggie heaven last week.
We rounded out our holidays hosting a small group of 12 close friends up at the mountain house for MLK weekend, which ended with the excitement of what we thought was a burst water pipe yesterday, but actually ended up being a leaky dishwasher flooding underneath the tiles of the kitchen. Ceilings dripped, tiles were ripped out, and we thought we’d have to head somewhere else early, but thankfully once the dishwasher was removed, we were able to stop the leak. It was an exciting albeit slightly stressful day yesterday, and not one you’d want to do hungover. Oops.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Terry, and his speediness to help us figure out where the leak/flooding was coming from, Ali&Chris for their epic Taste of Athens themed night, Morgan & Colin for their Steakhouse night, Eliz for her delicious butternut squash and black bean tacos, Alex & Collin for pork roll in a bowl, Erin & Eric for the delicious bagels and also for bringing Noodles, the joys of shopping at US grocery stores — including but not limited to Natural Bliss Vanilla Creamer, and ginger sparkling water from Whole Foods, new phones and computers to start the new year & YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
TO PROTECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AND CAREER, TRY THE ‘CARE LESS’ APPROACH
One of the buzzwords from last year was “quiet quitting” — we even wrote about it ourselves. But Anna Oakes pointes out that when junior people care less at work, we tend to call it quiet quitting and add a negative connotation to the idea. When more senior executives do it, we call it finding balance. This article 6 specific techniques to help you reign in work stress while not getting fired. (Vox)
THE SEVEN DAY HAPPINESS CHALLENGE
It was all the way back in 1938 when Harvard started researching what makes a person thrive. They’ve learned very clearly that strong relationships are a crucial part to people’s happiness/contentedness. This article from The NY Times (gifted link, so you don’t need a subscription) outlines 7 discreet actions, most of which don’t take much time at all, to help you enjoy a “more connected” year ahead. (New York Times)
CREATIVITY AND THE IN-BETWEEN
Where do ideas come, how do you manage the end of the year and a new AI tool that creates brand collaboration merch concepts all combine in Faris’ new column about connections, liminal spaces, points of view and where truth is formed. “In those different interpretations is the in-between, the space where we all confuse each other with our different readings of the same ‘objective’ reality, which is also where new combinations can bloom.” (WARC)
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: BUMPING THE LAMP ::
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a groundbreaking movie for Disney, film-making and a generation of young men who felt novel stirrings thanks to Jessica Rabbit.
Part of what made Jessica Rabbit so impactful was the incredible job the animators did - by hand and eye - of creating illusions, especially the illusion of physicality and interaction between the Toons and the humans.
The video at the top explains how this was achieved, the level of commitment to detail that makes this film stand up today.
It generated a phrase coined by Disney while working on the movie: Bumping the Lamp. It means going above and beyond what was expected, watch the video to understand why, it’s delightful.
But as a principle, it extends way beyond animation. It’s why you make beautiful decks, it’s why great movies just work. In some ways, it’s the essence of creativity as craft.
As someone once said or wrote (I’m sorry I can’t remember or find it), a creative is someone who is willing to spend way more time and take way more effort to do something than regular people. We believe everyone is creative, conceptually, but being a creative is also a job for a reason. That’s what makes Roger Rabbit work, incredible attention to detail, because
"Seemingly superfluous details help sell the effect at a subconscious level."
So, this year, see if you can bump the lamp in your work.
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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.
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