strat.scraps.one.five.eight
life is a festival of disruption
“This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the moment it is all that links them together.”
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Been wild past week or so. My dog had a toe amputated, daughter’s daycare flooded, it’s 96 degrees… We need a term for the version of burnout that is more “week-old balloon animal” rather than “overworked break pad”
Which is all to say, this week is going to be extra… something. I don’t know I haven’t written it yet. But expect more non sequiturs and typos than usual.
🤙
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I have found a lot of meaning and value in working with Junior strategists. But even after 13 years of doing this, I still find it hard to be comprehensive in providing all the info, direction and advice that’s needed.
Probably because that’s an impossible task…
But I’m going to try anyway…
I have started building out a google doc called “SO YOU WANNA DO SOME STRATEGY”
It is about 10% complete, but any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. (I am going to remove viewing access in the next couple weeks though while I work on it)
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Some updates and announcements:
Congrats to the 6 people who were randomly selected for a free month of
, which has become one of my favorite publications.1I have a WIP updated “services” page. The correct way to do this would have been getting the content locked in a google doc AND THEN start to design it, but it is more fun the other way around. Will be ported over to website soon(ish?).
I am likely taking august off, and picking back up in September. Do you have a project coming up in Sept that could use some support (see above services doc)? Let’s chat.
For the last few volumes or so, I have been hiding links to dropbox resources in every newsletter. there are at least 5 hidden links in this one.
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To continue the downer sentiment of this volume, I wonder how much this is actually true. Of course it entirely depends on the context, but much of the time, I suspect things become more difficult with experience – as the more you know, the less anything exists outside the complexity of real life.
Something like juggling though, this is probably true?
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Who are the olive consultants?
What I mean is – there’s that anecdote about the Airline executive who noticed people picking out the olives in their in-flight salads. She decided to cut out a single olive from each salad and saved some obscene amount of overhead.
This was a chance observation. But who does that kind of consulting as an industry/profession?
McKinsey and the like come in and make recommendations that basically view people as expensive olives, but “layoffs” is the lazy villain solutution.
I want category / product use observation to inform product/business decisions in unexpected ways.
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This really can’t be improved upon..
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WHERE DID ALL THE JINGLES GO?
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The painful reality →
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Most ad careers last longer
than most ad agencies…
Not sure what that says about the agency model, but it definitely makes the case for elevating the people you hire over the agency’s POV or process.
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I am an advocate for process when applied intelligently… but too often it turns into mandated indecision.
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A few fellow internet writers I discovered this week;
Pritesh’s Stay Curious
The below is by Farnam Street / Brain Food, but I only found it through Pritesh.
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And these two points from Wes Kao’s Newsletter post on how to better explain yourself.
Be more explicit than you think you need to be. You are always clearer in your own mind vs others’ experience of listening to you. This is why every leader feels like they have to repeat themselves, and I’ve come to believe there’s no way around this. You should treat it as a constraint so you won’t be as frustrated when it happens. And you should be prepared to be more explicit than you think you need to be.
Stop talking sooner. After I’m on a roll giving a monologue, at some point I’ll stop to ask what resonated and what my direct report heard. At that point, I usually realize they got 20% of what I said. “But my brilliant point about x! What about the thing I said about Y? They didn’t even mention my insight around Z??” Let the other person share what they’re hearing.
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Saw this somewhere and it prompted a few thoughts.
I feel attacked.
What does “finished” mean with digital goods? Seems like the concept of a software patch killed finality.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the above (whether or not I follow the advice), I wonder if the digital version of this advice is “publish something” – just get it out there, whether or not its done.
This is potentially problematic as it can lead to audience capture (while the book by Matt Klein is sold out, there is a gpt you can chat with around the topic). On the other hand, it can hold you accountable, lower the barrier and clarify areas to focus for incremental builds.
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One of the bigger traps I see in ads is not giving the audience enough credit. When you give “2+2” instead of “4”, it engages, rather than simply hoping it is seen.
An incredible version of giving your audience some credit from Joel Stein.
(the thing being promoted here, Ideas on Acid, is also great. Tell your department head to expense it, they are fun but also really well thought out as a tool for thought.)
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WEEKLY MONSTER
Fun little surprise this week: My Release Radar cover image is an album cover image that I made for the band FRANK.
Bonus item…
I love accidental photos. Not sure how I manage to take so many, but this is a new favorite for sure.
(I’m going to start doing this a bit more regularly. the majority of giveaways will be to paid subscribers, because I feel like I owe you something for paying for the exact same version of the newsletter… and this seems like a good balance of incentive without paywalling access altogether.)
Thanks for the kind mention Alex.
Why it's never just 'the work' is the best pick of this week. Such clever thing - make me go wow at every level. Thanks for sharing this.