Category: Contentions
-
Contentions: Publish, don’t send
I previously wrote about the idea of your email inbox as a place to find good writing (this post started as an email). “Publish, don’t send,” is one of the mantras of the UK’s government digital strategy, which Matt Jukes discussed in an interview with InfoQ: There was a real benefit removing the thinking and…
-
Contentions: Services companies vs. full-time employees
Rand Fishkin wrote a really great piece on why companies should hire more services companies (e.g., agencies, studios, consultants, etc.). I’ve worked full-time at a Fortune 500 company and at a series B funded startup, as a fractional marketing leader, and as an outside independent expert or the project owner for my own services company,…
-
Contentions: Culture turned outwards is brand, turned inwards is product
If you walk into any of the Din Tai Fung branches in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, amongst dozens of other places, you’ll see the open kitchen through a big window. (Even the bootleg Din Tai Fung in Canada has a big window.) You know how the food is being made; the process and the experience…
-
Contentions: Article, series, zine, publication
It’s easy for gravitational pull—fear, doubt, uncertainty, lenience, confusion—to draw a project out longer than it needs to take. Especially at a large company, it feels like the more time and money you have, the better it’ll turn out. Of course, that’s not true; I’ve done projects with plenty of time, and some with tighter…
-
Contentions: On curation, nostalgia, and people
I recently came across an issue of Wired Magazine in 1997, the issue where James Daly edited a long listicle entitled “101 Ways to Save Apple.” Looking back, there are some truly outlandish ideas in there (the first point is to get out of the hardware game, the second is licensing the user interface out…
-
Contentions: The editing opportunity
With more people interested in writing with A.I. and A.I. word processing software, there’s probably going to be even more words floating around online. While it solves the problem of actually putting words on the screen—an A.I. can spit out hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of words in a second—some really important problems…
-
Contentions: On Non-Coercive Marketing
Rob Hardy wrote a really great manifesto entitled, “Non-Coercive Marketing: A Primer.” Here are the principles, which he breaks down in full at his post: Optimize for aligned, empowered customers Surrender control, and embrace emergence Cede authority Treat people as ends, not means Enough is enough Play long games…
-
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
People in Hong Kong have incredible taste in graphic tees. I was just running errands and saw a guy wearing a shirt that said, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” This was the most thought provoking moment I’ve experienced in a mall. I instantly whipped out my phone and wrote it down. It articulates an…
-
Contentions: What does a vision for your company’s media operation look like?
I’d previously written, when it comes to content marketing, “ROI is meaningless with vision.” (One problem with this field: we use content marketing to describe too many things.) One way to think about this is showing people why they should be interested in the problem your business is solving: the same way DeSerres promotes art…
-
Contentions: Viewer discretion is advised
Beware people and products that position themselves to create a problem; to exacerbate a discomfort and dissatisfaction in your present life. For example, that job you were entirely satisfied with doesn’t look as appealing as the creator who claims to make passive income and is recording a video from a beach in Hawaii. Usually, someone…