The way to greater confidence is not to reassure ourselves of our own dignity; it’s to come to peace with our inevitable ridiculousness

— Alain de Botton in ‘On Confidence’

Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“I would argue what unlocks celebrity is a certain collapsed distance. It’s inhabiting a fantasy of intimacy and proximity. All forms of technology collapse that distance.”

[SHUMON BASAR_NEW MODELS PODCAST]

— age of relevance report

Consumers are now increasingly segmented into semi-private digital spaces, whether unintentionally (via an algorithmic bubble) or intentionally (i.e., Discord, close friends stories, BeReal, etc.)

As a result, some brands are engaging with wildly varied audiences and subcultures to create mixtures of interests, values and identities that are totally

At the origin of all good non-fiction writing is someone who thought: I want to know more about that. I want to understand how it works. I want to know where it came from and who was responsible for it. I want to understand its implications. It is a child gazing at the stars.

— How to write

Brand marketing requires a new operating system today:

• From fixed to fluid

• From singular to multifaceted

• From didactic to dialogic

— Zoe Scaman, New Cultural Codes

https://x.com/julesterpak/status/1794558327050953133?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

A common thread on the same video — the comments section isn’t universal, but hyperpersonalised. How might that further divide us?

The role of planning/strategy is point imagination and resources (time, people etc) in the right tasks that matter (so that they can have maximum effect). Identifying and articulating the task with imagination and rigour is at the heart of a planner’s role. It’s the art of choice and point of greatest leverage.

— W+K's Martin Weigel on our industry’