idle gaze research ethos
“With an idiosyncratic outlook and skill set, the power weirdo — and its subset, the gonzo futurist — is particularly well-placed to deal with a turbulent decade. With an eye on the road ahead, she can meet or dodge situations as they arise, charting a clear course through the VUCA battlefields of a turboparalytic world.”
Too many brands are obsessed right now with chasing whatever’s currently ‘trending’. When everyone is trying to figure out how to jump on the latest 24-hour micro-fad - whether it’s coquette, cottagecore or being ‘demure’ – what they should really be focusing on are the more meaningful cultural movements that will impact their business. I call... See more
Auste Skrupskyte Cullbrand • In conversation with Alexi Gunner
cultures, audiences, and meaning operate on layered time:
• Spiral time: What's old returns transformed not repetition, but reformation.
• Deep time: Strategy shaped by legacy, myth, generations. Moves beneath the quarterly surface.
• Rupture time: Crisis, collapse, revelation. Not gradual change but cultural fracture and reassembly.
zoe scaman • The Work
research is a way of life
it is an ongoing process that should be fun and led by curiosity and a desire to explore what is unknown to you
it goes beyond what formal education tells you research is— it should not feel like something you have to do. it should be something you love to do because research exists everywhere— research is looking up a
... See more“In the process of chasing cool, brands have lost the purpose of analysing culture. Most of the signals considered ‘trends’ today are really nothing more than frivolous entertainment.
We’ve come to confuse what is ‘trending’ with what is a ‘trend’.”
Matt Klein, head of global foresight, Reddit
As Matt Klein wonderfully said:
"For every push, there’s a pull, and for every action, a reaction. And more often than not, contradictions or polar opposites in culture are related to one another.
"For every push, there’s a pull, and for every action, a reaction. And more often than not, contradictions or polar opposites in culture are related to one another.
SEED CLUB 🌱
"Interesting theories are those which deny certain assumptions of their audience, while non-interesting theories are those which affirm certain assumptions of their audience."
We don’t just report research, we bring to life visions of better worlds in better futures to motivate the many and activate change. Because when you think of better futures like memes (by which we mean, the academic, Richard Dawkins, OG definition of memes), you can start to see the potential in their propagation. You open up, in Kiana’s words
... See moreradardao.xyz • Multiplayer Futures
The hidden work behind great art: How Jerry Seinfeld's relentless effort and comfortable struggle created effortless-looking comedy
TRANSCRIPT
Yeah. I think kind of like the through line is just like the humanizing, like great artists and creators and like just the long, the many years and like the slight efforts that accumulate and like someone like Seinfeld, like the all art is disguising work. He was saying that like some other comedian said to him, like your whole act is a
... See more