Work

At heart, this is a manifestation of a general undervaluing of our own work: we still navigate the workplace as if getting paid to produce knowledge means we’re getting away with something, and have to do everything possible to make sure no one realizes they’ve made a massive mistake.

When a brand can hold two opposing ideas without collapsing, like sex and idealism in American Apparel’s case, they reflect peoples’ inner conflict back to them, and that’s a magnetic energy to project.

Knowledge work rarely follows linear patterns. Our most valuable contributions often come from reflection, seemingly "unproductive" conversations, exploration of dead ends, and invisible mental processing.

A big reason why brands previously paid a lot of attention to posting cadence on Old Social was to not show up too often in their followers’ feeds. With New Social, that is less of a concern. It’s a game of hitting the algorithm jackpot, and, for some brands, taking more shots on goal will be the answer to winning big.

For all the talk of coherence in the world of branding, it is tension that is the real engine of meaning.

A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.

The compulsion to LARP is for those who have to feel accountable to some larger salary god, one who takes earthly shape in the form of our manager, our manager’s manager, and/or our coworkers, all of whom are constantly deciding whether or not we deserve the salaried, privileged position in which we’ve found ourselves. This is largely bullshit, of... See more

A true personal brand is about being of service. If you have something to offer the world, it's selfish to keep it to yourself.

And if you can honestly project how you serve people, then there's nothing salesy or cringey about it.

A personal brand is the directing of attention, and it's something you have to take responsibility for. It's hard work,... See more

In the coming years, we will see more and more people publicly embody contradictions, and that will make it hard to categorize them in the algorithm of our minds. We will be forced to find beauty in the weirdness we’ve tried to optimize away. Merriam-Webster named authentic Word of the Year in 2023, but on the eve of 2025, it turns out we’ve been... See more