A person may feel free even when confined or incarcerated, and likewise imprisoned when able to roam unrestricted, owing to and owned by no one. Freedom isn’t about space or the number of options we have in any given scenario, but the control we wield in choosing...
Read More
Changes in our digital experience have no associated ‘moment’, and so no memory is created. We don’t remember the instant we make a new digital connection (whether it’s Tinder, Facebook or LinkedIn). It happens sometime during the daily commute, or when we’re out shopping. There’s no sensory input – sight or smell or sound – so the instant cannot be recalled...
Read More
Automation isn’t evil. As a precipitator of performance and efficiency, it’s the stuff of dreams. Pursuing automation blindly, however, leads us towards a cliff edge, with nothing other than manmade systems to prevent our fall. ..
Read More
Being human once meant living in close communities, hunting, socialising, breeding. It meant existing in tandem with the earth and nature, a close and intimate relationship that’s foreign to our modern mindset. Now, we view the natural world with scepticism. We build fences around it and place warning signs; we crop and trim its contours until it falls within our definition of safe...
Read More
Personal time is a luxury. The more we see of information, the more deep, innovative thinking escapes us. This is paradoxical to the common view of technology as an enabler – producing tools and services that improve our quality of life. We’re no longer required to visit shops for our favourite products, just about anything can be delivered to our door within a day and we’re less connected to the food we consume than ever. Instead of empowered, we’ve grown detached; our attention is amenable, up for grabs...
Read MoreMarketing isn’t like other fields. Its transient landscape means the names of channel champions are lost to capricious winds. It’s not like there aren’t experts, but the lack of go-to marketing mentorship serves to illuminate a single irrefutable fact: marketers aren’t in control, not really. The steadfast expert of today is the foolhardy amateur of tomorrow – wisdom blossoms into madness and experience into ‘oh, is he still here?’ ...
Read MoreBrand is the idea. Reputation is the reality. The latter is the accumulation of everything you do and have done, whilst the former is the image you’re packaging and shipping to the world. Because of this, a bad reputation can easily compromise a brand strategy. If somebody tells us that they’re a fun loving, kind and generous chap, we’re unlikely to believe it if everything we know of them forms a counter image...
Read MoreThe ability to reside predominately in the present is a key enabler for success. This, we know, is contrary to popular believe. Too often we’re taught to dream of our futures, to focus on the realisation of our goals and use the taste of euphoria to incentivise our day-to-day strife...
Read MoreOur attitudes toward success and failure can be quite debilitating. Disney isn’t entirely to blame; we all perpetuate the idyllic fiction, that any outcome must be clearly etched in terms of success and result. We have a toxic view of failure because it’s the converse of success, and too often we consider the relationship in binary terms: win and loss, victory and defeat, yes and no. We either emerge on top or sink into the ceaseless void of anonymity and shame. But success and failure are muddy terms, and they reside at non-opposing points in a very open space of interpretation...
Read MoreOur obsession with how much we earn is partly due to our society, and partly something we’ve inherited. Success is about reward – but rewards can be both tangible, as in cash bills squeezed into a wad, and intangible, as in the skills, brand development, knowledge and reputation that we acquire as a result of the work we do. These are equally essential to understanding where we’re at, and recognizing our progression pathways...
Read MoreOur battle with authority starts when we’re born. It starts with our parents, our relatives and older siblings, and later extends to our teachers, bosses and government. How our early relationships develop inform those that follow – shattered bonds and broken paradigms create indelible senses of mistrust, whilst strong family units provide enduring armour against the world...
Read More