Career ethos

The strategist who only understands the “front stage” of a brand: messaging, insight, positioning...will quickly hit their ceiling. The strategist who understands the backstage — how things actually get made, distributed, and measured will become indispensable.

the greatest temptation is to mistake articulation for insight.

Why is it conventional to pretend to like what you do? The first sentence of this essay explains that. If you have to like something to do it well, then the most successful people will all like what they do. That's where the upper-middle class tradition comes from. Just as houses all over America are full of chairs that are, without the owners even... See more

Ultimately, the public-facing version of strategy mostly teaches presentation, vocabulary, formatting, and pattern-matching. It does not teach judgment or what to pay attention to. It does not teach cultural literacy. The hard work of cultivating those is uniquely yours to take on.

But staying culturally engaged doesn’t mean being chronically online. There’s real value—both personal and professional—in staying curious and open without losing your mind along the way.

When you build that habit, you rely less on strangers’ hot takes or hype-cycle reports and more on your own intuition and interpretation. Sometimes a cultural reporter’s take will feel hollow or unsubstantiated. Other times, you’ll read something and think, oh—that’s the thing I’ve been sensing but couldn’t name.

“Imposter syndrome is a made-up concept. Confidence (even when you’re figuring it out) will take you much further. It’s OK (and sometimes necessary) to pause, pivot, and start all over. Do not marry a job, a company, a brand. Nothing is forever, and that’s a good thing! Staying open-minded has been the real game-changer for me. It’s taken me places... See more