Why you aren’t getting better.

It just means that in an industry where divergent thinking is an advantage, your divergent thinking is pulling from the same sources as your contemporaries.

(This is the “best practices” problem. When a platform or channel tells you what the best practices are, it’s a list of 1) what everyone is going to be doing for the next year, 2) guidelines for... See more

There will be a constant temptation to do the work in a way that doesn’t make the work good or effective, but instead makes it convenient or easy. The path of least resistance generally doesn’t lead anywhere you’re interested in being, in my experience.

The key isn’t in being obstinate and insisting that only you know the one true path. It’s in rank... See more

Don’t focus on giving people they thing you know they’ll accept, give them the thing that you know will move the needle.

Some starting points for other people to learn from? Adjacent industries (education, film / tv, and publishing all have interesting lessons to teach), the OGs (retired / legendary ad people love to write books about the good old days and the first principles hold up nicely), and academics (imagine a ‘grown up’ version of our world, but with infinit... See more

Where this really becomes harmful, is when someone with a style that fits well with an agency, becomes management. This is when you see an entire department delivering work in a way that fits the preferences of a leader, rather than the needs of a problem or a client. Training a team of people to act as though your personal style is the only good w... See more