#26 Is working less the key?

W/C 4 October 2022

Hello and welcome to #26. I write this on the eve of quite a big work project going live. Which got me thinking about the chaos of creativity and how the start and ends of that process are fairly straight forward (ish) but the middle, well that is another story. Often messy and demanding a lot to navigate. It also probably is in my mind after seeing all the tributes to Dan Wieden other than the agency. I know nothing of him as a person other than his work but death in the social media era is quite a peculiar experience to watch and some of the quotes and of course work felt inspiring.

By the way, I am at Ad Week in New York 16th October until 20th - if anyone is going to Ad Week NYC, drop me a line.

Now, on to the #content.

1. Mars outgoing CEO on succession and leadership.

Slightly different start this week, these pieces can be a bit fluffy but there are a few interesting nuggets in this. In particular the callout below. I started writing more (and this SubStack) to force myself to read and explore my viewpoint but the last 4 weeks have been quite focused on one thing (see opening par). I found the piece reassuring and one of my greatest fears is that I become boring. Working less might be the answer.

2. Tik Tok’s For You Page changed everything for the use of AI

Excuse the headline which jars and that it is a Tik Tok heavy edition this week, wait til you get to the links below. Bit of hyperbole but there’s something in it. I worked in AI years ago, the last 3 years have seen the use go to incredible places.

Some tweets all about Tik Tok, it turns out.

1. Tik Tok data thread

   Adina Gitomer @AdinaGitomer

   I’m currently working on a project using TikTok data, which you might know because it’s become my whole personality. A few things to note for other researchers.. 🧵

2. Tik Tok is real time news

   Taylor Lorenz @TaylorLorenz

   TikTok is undeniably the place for real time news content. So many hurricane livestreams happening (and inevitably people ripping other people’s hurricane livestreams and pretending they’re real for $)

Odds and ends, basic links. Pure linkage.

• The Fake men on Hinge. What a ride.

• 3 Things employees really want, Career, Community and Cause.

• Twitter is becoming Tik Tok. What happens after Tik Tok?

• Cool AI use in Fashion with Snap.

• TikTokization of everything. There’s a theme emerging in this Substack isn’t there?

• I find leaders really interesting in the public eye and Mayer is one of those. Some thinking on Candle Media’s investment strategy.

• Streamers need to love non-fiction too.

• Elon hasn’t made an appearance on these pages for awhile, here are some of his texts.

• When social media holds the nuclear codes. Scary.

• Breakdown of how the jokes work in 2 mins of the Simpsons. Long read.

• Google and new visual search.

Bonus.

Industry is back on TV in the UK. I know it’s been on in the US for a while (damn HBO co-pro giving the US first dibs!) but it is incredibly tense, anxiety-inducing (in the good way?) and over-the-top drama with proper pace. S1 was strong, S2 carries on. I love it, it’s like Skins x Sex Education x Margin Call but with better sex scenes.

All the spelling and grammatical mistakes in this Substack are on purpose to test you, actually. Well done. You got them all. No, I don’t need to know about them, you have that kudos.