a strategist’s convictions

It comes down to the difference between post-rationalising and pre-rationalising. Right now, we live in a moment of pre-rationalising: we won’t commit to anything unless we can justify it in advance. “Do I have the dashboard? The metric? The deck? The support?” If the data doesn’t say yes, nothing happens. Post-rationalising is the opposite: you... See more

Culture isn’t coded – it’s lived. Pattern recognition here is a practice. And it’s also longitudinal: how do these ideas mutate year after year? That immersion gives you something no AI can replicate.

the true benefits come from understanding, savoring, and timing the consumption.

Becoming a sommelier provides you discipline to become fully intimate with reality. Encounter the real, observe it, build language or something that relates to it, and then give people opportunities to encounter it themselves. If they make their own observations and understanding as a result, you’re creating value. If you’ve built something real,... See more

Yet, despite this abundance of enthusiasm for cultural research, it often feels like it’s easier than ever to slip into the gravity well of banality. Cookie-cutter essays optimized for algorithmic engagement. Hot takes stripped of depth. Fleeting fads interpreted as extreme, paradigm-shifting hyperbole. We resort to dramatic binaries, either... See more

The fight over vocabulary is never just semantic, it’s always about power, permission, and what becomes possible.

To name something is to define what it can do, what it means, how we relate to it, what power it holds over us and we over it.

if you want to master something, you should study the highest achievements of your field.

That model is dying because it doesn’t match the shape of the work anymore.

The work now is faster. More fluid. More intuitive. It doesn’t move in a straight line from brief to execution – it loops and iterates and responds in real time to culture and data and platform changes. It requires people who can think and make across disciplines. It... See more