brand & strategy | tinkering @dukeu
vancouver | durham
Joined October 2022
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folks in tech should be reading more ethics. as time goes on, they/you’ll end up with a disproportionate amount of power (and responsibility) over the trajectory of this world.
in the nicomachean ethics, aristotle argues that an inquiry can only be as precise as its subject allows:
> math deals with things that are always true
> ethics deals with human action, which shifts with circumstance
therefore: you can’t expect the same certainty from both. an agent could probably regress a few traits out of a 10 y/o, but treating her as the output misses the whole point that not everything that counts can be counted.
in the 2000s, one of make-a-wish midwest chapters had a major burnout problem. it grants wishes to children with life-threatening conditions, but with 800 ill kids and resources for only 1/2 them, some died while waiting.
it was at a conference at disneyland, the ceo learned that disney employees were allowed to invent their own job titles. so, she went home and named herself the “fairy godmother of wishes,” then invited her staff to do the same.
over 2 years, 85% of the staff interviewed said the titles helped them carry the weight of the job.
so here’s to the imagineers (disney), geniuses (apple), flavor gurus (ben&jerry's) and sandwich artists (subway) of the world 🫶
"we call it field storytellers"
omg enough it's just fucking content creation. everyone has been doing it forever. you send a person with a camera to document a business. it's called making a video to promote your email job.
why does tech twitter feel the need to be so precious and rebrand this job every 20 minutes on here?
i'm sorry you aren't a forward-deployed heart feelings engineer. you're just someone who makes content for a saas business. i feel insane.
enjoy the read :D
jstor.org/stable/43589302
amy ᯓ★ retweeted
Thoughts on what to post.
There's much noise on the platform. I find it easy to be swayed by the wind. But it's essential to stay rooted in who you are and what you innately feel drawn to post.
Trends come and go. Creative marketer role goes viral one day, cosign lists the other. There's the pull: "Oh, I should be the head of content guy." Or: "I should be the person in front the video."
It's great to follow someone known for x, y, z. But I've learned it's even more awesome to follow someone because of who they naturally are. They can talk about music and Grok Bot x Notion setups and travels and I'd still invested.
When I was starting out, I would try to fit in these niches of being "X" person, but I've found the slower, more rewarding route long term is to simply post what you want to post, express what you want to express, and go from there.
Just post. People follow people.
what this means for tech:
- invest in creatives now. unlimited to those with tech experiences.
- avoid the generic look and language (default fonts, launch video formats, “ai-powered,” “agent for”).
- build the brand identity early and use it with consistency. across website, launch film and product.
- give the cd authority (over product, partnerships and launches, etc).
it’s clear that brand (narrative, visuals) has become the next moat, as seen in the rising hiring demand for those with ‘taste’.
and i don’t think this trajectory is a coincidence. with access to tech democratized and tech itself commoditized, we’re hitting the same roadblock luxury fashion hit in the 1980s.
until the 1960s, couture was fashion (even tho only a small elite could wear it). then a younger generation jumped in, desiring clothes that were both stylish and affordable.
voila! ready-to-wear became the new fashion, and couture lost its influence.
and as the bar to entry lowered, brands scrambled, launching lines and licensing labels. by the 1980s, many famous labels had become overexposed.
their solution: giving one person authority over everything the customer sees. a cd like tom ford in the 90s at gucci was responsible for: clothing design, stores, advertising...
it’s clear that brand (narrative, visuals) has become the next moat, as seen in the rising hiring demand for those with ‘taste’.
and i don’t think this trajectory is a coincidence. with access to tech democratized and tech itself commoditized, we’re hitting the same roadblock luxury fashion hit in the 1980s.
until the 1960s, couture was fashion (even tho only a small elite could wear it). then a younger generation jumped in, desiring clothes that were both stylish and affordable.
voila! ready-to-wear became the new fashion, and couture lost its influence.
and as the bar to entry lowered, brands scrambled, launching lines and licensing labels. by the 1980s, many famous labels had become overexposed.
their solution: giving one person authority over everything the customer sees. a cd like tom ford in the 90s at gucci was responsible for: clothing design, stores, advertising...
i think of art as a selfish pursuit.
as an artist, your role is innately subjective yet the mark you leave on this world is inherently direct.
some have claimed that art (and the analysis of it) is the only escape to the instant gratifications sold by modern day technology.
but at its core, you're selling your subjective views for the common commodity of attention. so it's really not all that noble and glamorous.
but in spite of that i think art matters. it's the curve you design onto a robot, the bold colors you assign to a brand, or the interactions you engineer into a website.
and b/c of its impacts, i think art should be done intentionally and responsibly. though i'm struggling to define what that means.
to my creative friends:
do you think there are prerequisites to art? something to systematically learn to acquire 'taste' and build with intent.
if you cold dm an architecture studio you biked across ⋆˚꩜｡
you might just find yourself with some new friends + a book on the architecture of bc !!
everyone should work in sales (e.g., retail, creative agency) early in their career. the adversity you face will make you exceptional at (1) embracing failure (2) figuring shit out and (3) hustling.
mom and i are out having dinner while dad’s home grinding away b/c they got bored of retirement and decided to re-enrol in college. now he’s home tryna figure out psets for the both of them.
anywhoozle meet mr crab 🦀
