Strands of Genius: Why Scooby Do, Allostatic Load, Leaderism is the Problem
plus: our thoughts on stress, its relationship to big tobacco, and why moms are the best
WRITING FROM | Greenville, SC
WORKING ON | School of SG, Community
LOOKING AHEAD
April 16-May 22: Greenville, SC
May 14-May 17: Clayton, GA
May 17-May 22: Nashville, TN
May 23: Faris’ Birthday
May 23-29: Beersheba Springs, TN
May 30: Rosie’s Birthday
May 29-July 1: Greenville, SC
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Oh hello, gosh is it Monday already? Huh. Wouldya look at that. The days are long but the weeks are short. How was your ‘weekend’? What did you do? Hit reply and tell us something you did that made you feel better.
We tried, oh how we tried, to sourdough. Rosie got advice from a dear friend - a former spy who is now a baker - and Faris tried a few different bakes. Look, it tasted like beer which we think is the point, but we didn’t get the big holes and doing the starting and sponging, it takes so long and the outcomes are so uncertain. Faris thinks he will return to the NY Times No Knead Speedy, should he bake again soon. Rosie is taking this as a learning opportunity: She learned that she does not have fun when baking, and is going to stick to handstands instead.
Strange days lead to strange bedfellows and new challenges, but new opportunities too. Genius Steals is producing a spot that should go live shortly - watch this space - that we are every excited about. We didn’t expect that to be something we would be doing during COVID quarantine, but it has come together well thanks to Rosie’s tireless efforts and a team who are all pulling for the project.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
MOTHERS! THANKS MOMS ALL OVER THE WORLD {except the UK which has a different date because there it was originally a day for Christians to visit their "mother" church so domestic servants were given the day off to return to their hometown and worship with their families} {psh, we’re only kidding, of course we’re just as thankful for UK MUMS too!} FOR EVERYTHING. Especially now, and especially always. Mothers are often the lynchpin of families and societies, the generational missionaries communicating values into the future, supporting everyone’s needs and fears. They too often do the endless amounts of emotional, cognitive and physical labor it takes to raise a child, in any situation, without getting commensurate credit. They suffer thanklessly hence the societal guilt expressing itself in a tokenistic day of gratitude. And of course especially to our mom Judy and our mum Pam, always and forever, for everything you have done and do.
You don’t have to be a mom to be a maternal force in the world. Thanks to all of those who identify as a maternal force, too, because we all need some tender loving care.
:: THE LINKS ::
WHY SCOOBY-DO WILL ALWAYS BE POPULAR
Critical exegesis of the most popular culture exists very much inside the vesica pisces of one of Faris’ Venn diagrams and this delightful piece is no exception. Why has the most formulaic cartoon imaginable lasted more than 50 years with almost no fallow periods? The intriguing thesis here posits that the team is divided into culture and counter-culture, or conservative and liberal, or parent and child, operating in partisan but confusing ways, to unveil the machinations and abuse of power in society. As Joss Whedon once claimed “All great fiction is Scooby-Doo-like.” (Atlantic)
BRAIN FOG AND YOUR ALLOSTATIC LOAD
Some people are using the Great Pause to refine and build life skills and be productive without distraction and are probably crushing it. If you aren’t, don’t worry. If instead trying to do anything at all makes you tired and anxious and you would mostly like to stay in bed, that’s normal. It’s because of the allostatic load - essentially the ongoing build-up of stress around life, money, health, relationships and the future that cannot be dissolved until this is over. If you aren’t anxious at all during this, you are a psychopath. Sorry, that’s science. (Thanks to Rosie’s dad, Scott, for introducing us to the word allostatic! It’s a good one.) (Vice)
LEADERSHIP ISN’T MIRACLE CURE, LEADERISM IS AN ILLNESS
We all tend to fall for the great man of history fallacy. Looking backwards we ascribe outsize influence to leaders, and in times of crisis we look to leaders - but that may be dangerous. A psychiatrist who’s also a professor of organizational behavior observes that times of crisis usually evoke familiar images of generals or endurance athletes. Instead, he argues, “a public health crisis is not a war or a race.” We tend to prefer charismatic leaders of procedural managers, but that inevitable leads to the cult of personality and a tendency to rely on authority figures to fix our problems. (Fast Company)
:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: STRESSING ABOUT STRESS ::
Stress is a relatively recent scientific idea and its origins are somewhat murky. Not in the sense of being unclear, but rather that they are…suspicious. In the 1930s, an endocrinologist named Hans Selye tortured a lot of rats in a variety of ways for science. The surprising result was that upon autopsy, regardless of how they were tortured, the internal damage was always the same and there was some specific damage to the adrenal gland. And that’s how we got the thesis that a persistent state of stress begins to do physical damage to the body. So far so good, and it feels intuitively right, especially if you have ever experienced stress.
The murkiness comes from the proselytizing passion of Seyle - he wrote 39 books on the concept of stress - and the fact that all of his research and promotion was funded by Big Tobacco, who were keen to find a new thing to blame heart disease on and create uncertainty. Funding alone isn’t prima facie evidence of corruption, although it always seems to influence, but “in the case of Selye they vetted ... the content of the paper, they agreed the wording of papers, tobacco industry lawyers actually influenced the content of his writings, they suggested to him things that he should comment on." Cool, cool.
"Selye was one of the major scientists of the 20th century; he was nominated for a Nobel Prize 10 time. I feel it's impossible and it's misleading to talk about stress without acknowledging the fact that he had a very, very close working relationship with the tobacco industry. And they helped him to shape his ideas, and he helped them to shape theirs."
So is stress real? And can it really make you sick? The challenges of health science are complexity and duration, it’s extremely hard to measure the solus impact of anything diffuse, and it’s hard to track people across lifetimes. However, it does appear to be real, with studies suggesting especially that for young children it can causer long lasting damage.
But people respond differently, it won’t make everyone sick. Some people thrive on stress, and science doesn’t have simple answers for complex questions (it leaves fantasies to children, advertisers and politicians.) The allostatic load is a 90s rebranding of stress, around the accumulation of cortisol and other stress hormones in the body.
Science is complex but you can move it from the abstract to the particular. How do you feel? Is it good or bad? Is it making you want to do things or hide? Do you feel well? What can you do to find comfort? Maybe stress is an energizer for you, maybe you are struggling. Don’t let generalities, performative productivity, or soporific snark on social media make you feel bad, either way. You do you. Or try to.
:: AND NOW…MAKING WFH BEARABLE ::
Ravey the bear is in quarantine, too, and has taken over Faris’ instagram account
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 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 :)