What do you know? The systemic problems that came to a head in 2020 didn’t disappear.
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I had a realization re; the whole stupid “is advertising an art or science?” debate. I was pouring liquid silicon rubber to make a resin mold and somehow for the first time had the thought: “damn art requires a lot of science” — No shit. I’ve been an “artist” most of my life and somehow it just hit me that you need to understand the physical science of your medium. Some paints don’t mix. Plaster requires the precise correct amount of water. Heat keeps the bubbles out of your resin.
Science is for the application of the idea. But keep it the fuck out of the ideation process.
Hotter take: I think this applies to strategy as well. You need to know what you’re talking about but any Strategy that comes directly from fact is going to be pretty bad.
PIRATE READINGS FOR PIRATE PLANNERS
I’ll be honest, I can’t remember what I’ve already shared here and what I haven’t. I was pretty aggressive with the number of downloads I was sharing off the bat, and my standing library of things I still haven’t shared is probably pretty slim.
So, two things: 1. I’m not going to try super hard to avoid duplicates. I’ll probably start re-sharing things I shared early on. 2. A few folks have emailed me, but if there’s a book you’re looking for and don’t want to shell out cash for a digital file, let me know and I’ll start including requested books.
Anyway, here are the stolen goods:
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Hillbilly Elegy. This is a really well written book about the author’s experience growing up as a “hill person” from Kentucky who managed to end up going to college (Yale). But the story isn’t about his success, rather how so many are failing and why. A really interesting book to be reading during the DC riots. I can’t say I understand the Trump Cult mindset, but I do have stronger insight into the culture of the poor Scots-Irish who make up so many of our fly-over friends. I’m still reading it, can’t vouch for the whole thing, but great so far. Dropbox Link: (.mobi File)
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Another I haven’t actually read yet, but excited to do so. Our human world, culture, technology are indeed changing at an increasingly rapid pace. This is one of the reasons I don’t like trend reports. You shouldn’t be making major business or branding decisions based on whats true this year. That’s what the CIA did and their re-brand will be out of date in no time. I can’t even reference trend reports from 2019 because that was truly a different culture. Dropbox Link: (.mobi/.epub)
ARTICLES AND READINGS
“Toys are the future of Philosophy” Published by Jonathon Keats on Nautilus. As an aspiring toy maker, this was a fun read. It’s more narrow take on the POV that the things we invent are often guided by the way we imagine the future to be. In a sense, we have already designed the ways things look in the future from the past. This goes further than design though and talks about technology. Would we have the apple watch if Dick Tracy hadn’t had a wrist phone?
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All of meteuphoric. Especially the Opinions page. It’s written by a woman named Katja Grace who works in AI, but is one of the best insight writers I’ve come across. Here are a few fun examples:
Thinking is more fun than reading because it is more like ‘chasing’ than ‘searching‘. It’s interesting that reading isn’t better suited to chasing. I like to think that thinking is better than reading as a first step to understanding a topic, but I haven’t read a lot about this.
Calling your mother on Mothers’ Day tells her less about your affection than calling her any other day of the year. In general if you want to seem caring, it can be best to do things you know to be useless.
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Fridge Detective. This isn’t an article but a subreddit. “A subreddit where you post a picture of what is in your refrigerator and people deduce things about you and your life based on your fridge.” It’s fascinating.
STRATEGY SCREEN-CAPS WITH LIGHT COMMENTARY
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