How We Misunderstand Language Through Grammar
Here’s why most writing advice is not merely pointless, but corrosive. A lot of the things we think we know or believe are simply grammatical residue. A classic example: “It is raining.” There is no “it.” It only exists grammatically. Yet, we come to believe in an it. And then illusions of agency haunt our […]
The Path Over Points
Goals matter more than metrics. Trajectories matter more than goals. I suppose those statements go against most conventional wisdom. I still stand by them. Goals are more like way stations on a path. Perhaps they have numbers attached to them, but the numbers are not the meaning. Case in point—weightlifting. It’s taken me just under […]
Memories from the Web’s Frontier Days
I don’t see many people gushing with excitement about digital culture anymore. One underappreciated difference between the “web” now and 30 years ago is that you couldn’t just colonize other places. For me, digital senior that I am, that’s also a big part of why the joy seems gone. At the risk of making myself […]
Unwrapping Success: Cutting Through Marketing Clutter
You probably know the feeling. What stands between you and the thing you want is layers of unnecessary packaging. You thought you were getting something good, but you have to risk slicing open a finger to access it. There’s even a Wikipedia page for “wrap rage.” The marketing lesson is this: stop frustrating your customers […]
Seeking Authenticity in a World of Manufactured Goals
The world is full of fake goals. Fake goals are those that are artificially induced, goals that are not your own, but you somehow end up believing they are or should be yours. You get stuck in goalishness. There are the goals some influencers try to convince you to have so that you buy their […]
Aligning Marketing Actions with Strategic Insights
“Marketing sometimes has this activity reflex, where they just go and do things without really taking the time to properly align those things with the underpinnings of the problem.” As quoted in an excellent article in The Financial Brand by Sean Allocca Marketing trends like growth marketing and demand generation play a dual role—they are […]
Marketing Meets Animal Ethics: Rethinking Strategies in Light of Science
Can marketing catch up to animal science? The answer lies in the 117 powerful words below. Scientists are increasingly willing to concede that animals have the capacity for consciousness and that such an understanding entails ethical responsibilities. They are walking away from the moral disregard of behaviorism. It relates to marketing in that so many […]
Avoiding Unsavory Marketing Tactics
Don’t adopt tactics that are more ick than tact. At any given moment, there are voices shouting at you trying to get you do the wrong thing. They want you to second-guess your moral instincts. Maybe things really are different in some new world they trick you into imagining. They want you to reject your […]
The Power of Interaction Without Expectation
A more accurate title for Charles Duhigg’s Supercommunicators would be “How to Use Friends and Get Things From People.” Some of the insights are interesting enough, until you realize they are a guide to straight-up sociopathic behavior. Even if you make it up with the lipstick of “connection,” using vulnerability to obtain an outcome is […]
The Persistent Patterns of Media Consumption
Meet the old feed. Same as the new feed. Back in the day, after your dose of comix entertainment, you’d see a barrage of ads like this. After you read about the heroes you aren’t and the lives you don’t have come the gimmicks sold by promises pegged to whatever perceived shortcomings you might fear. […]