SCRAP_STRATS_v188

yearning for time

Jul 25, 2025

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

I’ve written about Strategy as a craft before. But came across this linkedin post that makes the opposite argument. A craft is defined by the craftsperson being in full control of the output. Quality is judged by technical ability and accumulated skill. But Strategy is only as successful as it’s power to drive action. the best thinking in the world built on decades of experience is worthless if the client doesn’t buy it or the creative team doesn’t get it.

a craft has an output.
Strategy is all input.

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

New agency name idea

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

Re-used artifact from version 142

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

While we’re reusing old content, I think this is worth including at least a few times a year

~ While we’re reusing stuff:

nearly 8 years later after writing the introduction to the strategy and planning scrapbook, there is still not much I would change. (except maybe 7 and 8 – those could probably be a little less esoteric)

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

A recent Steve Walls post talked about a rule he has to never write a brief about an audience he hasn’t spent time with. I kinda forgot about it, but I used to have the rule too.

Or at least spend time away from your desk talking to people relevant to the brief. I do a lot of alcohol work so I talked to a lot of bartenders. A lot of liquor store clerks.

I guess that post from Steve sparked two things in me;

I need to get back to talking to people. I don’t know how I let it fall off my set of “must dos” but it did. Covid broke the habit I guess.
I’d actually argue that talking with people who know your audience is more insightful than talking to the audience themselves. We are not very reliable narrators for ourselves. Insight requires distance. Observers notice the things the observed do not.

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

Bad creative ideas aren’t born, they are beaten into existence from something more pure.

𝓃ℯ𝓍𝓉 ➢

I’m reading Stranger in a Strange Land right now and the man from mars kinda reminds me of interacting with the current iteration of AI. Somethings blow you away but with others it is like instructing a child. I am testing out Agent Mode currently to find me flights to NY and it has been struggling to adjust the departure time window for a solid 5 minutes, talking to itself the whole time; “Hm. I seem to have overshot the slider to 4:55pm by mistake”