#40 Garbage Can theory and Brainrots
Read to the bottom for a fun Tik Tok and short sharp links
Hello and welcome to #40!
I’m on holiday this week, soaking up family time. Between pool sessions I’ve managed to squeeze in plenty of reading, and those stray work thoughts are finally fading into that sweet, hazy background.
A few Substack subscribers (I’m as surprised as you are!) have asked for more about my career, so I’ll put together a post on that soon.
Also—Jet2 Holidays from last week: song of the summer? I think so. Check out the TikTok below for a laugh and a fantastic impression.
Alright, let’s get to the #content.
🔗 1. Bitter lessons of the Garbage Can theory of workplaces
This was something I really enjoyed reading, but nearly skipped it - even though it’s one of my favourite newsletters. This is the line that got me; “organizations as chaotic "garbage cans" where problems, solutions, and decision-makers are dumped in together, and decisions often happen when these elements collide randomly, rather than through a fully rational process”
A thoughtful piece on AI, workplaces and adoption. My view: adoption is never as certain or fast as people expect. 🔗
🔗 Bonus piece 1.1 - Know one knows anything about AI - I enjoyed this read too.
🔗 2. Coin Master and Monopoly Go
There isn’t much written about mobile games in most computer game commentary. There are a couple of great outlets, but most conversations online are about console or PC. So I’m going to throw in some things I read around the industry I work in. This link is a good start on two of the big titles around - I play both quite often.
Mobile is a fascinating sector, scientific and also creative. I love working in it and have learnt more in this part of games than anywhere else I’ve worked.
🔗 3. Roblox football game with 350k discord members pre-release
I am fascinated by Roblox and I also think football games are open for disruption (hi EA FC), see Rematch. Here is a different vibe. But fascinating nonetheless.
🔗 Bonus: How I built Steal a Brainrot - I’ve done a lot of research on Italian Brainrots as my son is so into them, it’s quite odd but funny? Not sure.
🔗 4. How Octopus Energy used Culture to get to the top
I am an Octopus customer - not that it means much - but I love their App - for any non-UK folks, it’s an energy company. This is a good piece on how they work in the company, you can tell in their App that a lot goes into their business. Take note British Gas.
🔗 Quick links
Links that I’ve also read this week - short and sharp.
Are campaign phases irreverent now? - I loved this piece.
The theatre of leadership development (long read)
Celebrity partnerships in mobile game - I’ve done a lot of these things of celeb work in my career, some have worked incredibly well and others for lots of reasons. Really, it comes back to what you’re trying to achieve - not rocket science.
Is AI killing grad jobs - not yet from the data.
A fun Jet2 Tik Tok 👇
I honestly can’t get enough of it.
Bonus
Not watched TV for a week! So none here, looking forward to Destination X when I get back. See you next week
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.