Culture - Basic Arts

Are we using AI backwards?

Before we begin, a word of warning: I know very little about AI. Because of this, some of my explanations below may be a bit

Going deep on strategy with the Hungry podcast

An exciting change of pace this week, where I’ll give you a break from the essays and point you instead to my recent appearance on

Availability cascades: who decides what’s important, and what isn’t?

Here we are with part 8 of my cultural context series, where we explore some of the macro forces that guide the world within which we live and strategise. You

The coming of the desperate brands

A note before we begin: the below describes a trend which I’m sure is true, but which would benefit from more research than I’ve had

Google, enshittification, and the lure of parasite brands

Recently I’ve come to an important conclusion: Google sucks. I don’t mean it sucks as a business model, or that it sucks ethically, or that

What does meaningful work really look like?

The other day I saw a great couple of tweets from a user called Madeon, which I repeat here in full: “I think it’s a

ChatGPT, the Amish, and the friction deficit

You join me again for part 7 of my cultural context series, where I examine some of the silent macro forces which influence the currents of the world

The crushing tedium of excellence

Here we have part 6 of my cultural context series, in which I try to illuminate some of the hidden forces that define the world in

Waitrose, the cost of living, and the lure of the trend trap

What are trends for? In the minds of most businesses, trends are see as things to follow. They represent the movement of the market in

“The great flattening”: A visual companion

These essays tend to be a bit wordy, so I thought I’d mix things up today with a few pictures. This is courtesy of blogger David

The schizophrenia machine: How brands remake our identities

Below is number 5 in my cultural context series, following the previous ones on the post-cultural myth, horizontal loyalty, supernormal stimuli, and concentration. I hope you find it useful, or at least interesting.

The post-cultural myth, and how it permeates everything we do

We’ve been pretty technical recently, so figured it was time for another longer macro-trend piece, continuing on from the ones I did on horizontal loyalty, supernormal stimuli, and concentration.