Five things on Friday #381 (2024)

Reading. Writing. Reading your own writing. Reflecting. And more.

Things of note for the week ending Sunday July 21st, 2014

#381

Hey friends.

As I start this week's edition it's 18:03 on Friday July 19th. I'm in the garden. The sun is on my face and the rotten cold I've been fighting all week seems to finally abating. We are thankful.

Illness knocking me out of a couple of social events aside, it's been a good week.

A decent brief (if I do say so myself) submitted into LEGO for [redacted] (I'll talk about it when it goes live), an advisory board meeting for ONE QUESTION, a banging creative review for [also redacted] AND, to top it all off, a remarkably intellectually fulfilling session of James Caig's LIFE SENTENCES first thing this morning.

What is LIFE SENTENCES, James?

Well, 'Life Sentences, an event in draft for strategists who write' is a completely unrecorded (be there or miss it) hour and 15mins or of strategists that write, coming together to share their writing (by reading it out loud, I should add). Deftly led by strategy consultant, James Caig, the sessions are about sharing and then exploring writing. Where it comes from, what it means, and where it can take you.

Alongside fellow writers Andy Nairn and Kit Altin, I was one of the speakers today. My for own bit, I read a tightened up Thing 5 from last week's edition 'Out by the bins' (thanks Robbie).

Andy Nairn read from his latest novel the Trail of Blood, and Kit read from her first book (coming soon). Both fiction. Both brilliant.

It was fascinating. Andy’s writing reminded me of - and this is a bizarre reference but honestly: Back to the Future. There isn’t a single scene or word in that movie that is wasted. It’s such a tight film. Andy’s prologue to The Trail of Blood did just that; every word and description put there to give you the tiniest clue as to what and where we were, and what was going on. I loved it.

Kit’s on the other hand was like an emotional time machine. The scene which she read took you to an emotional place, as well as a physical one, and immediately landed you in heart-felt turmoil, urgency, and yearning. Again: the word choices working so hard to take you to specific places. I felt lucky to be in the room, let alone sharing the floor.

Thinking back on it now, I keep coming back to what it means to be intentional. With word, with thought, with deed. What is the intentionality behind what you are saying? How hard is this part of your writing working? What can you cut? What can you sharpen? How can you make it cleaner?

As James Caig said to me at the top of my session ‘James, as someone who ships 2000+ words a week, you have every right to be here’ (which was nice, and needed - thank you) I wonder how I might take that intentionality into my writing. I wonder further what it’d mean to write fiction. I haven’t written fiction since school (I still have some of the stories). The challenge of it. The change of it. The thrill of it.

Something to noodle on I guess.

So yes. Life Sentences is a great way to spend an hour and a bit on a Friday morning. Follow James Caig (linkedin or eventbrite) to find out when the next one is.

Strategists write.

And it's great.

--

What else can I tell you?

I think that's it if I'm honest. Some parish notes are scheduled but I think I'll save them for the outro. Truth be told I've been so rough this week I didn't think you'd get an edition this week so we're lucky we're even this far.

Shall we crack right on?

Let's.

TO THE THINGS!

I don’t think I’ve read Animal Farm since GSCE English but it’s just one of those books that stays, y’know?

So when I saw the article titled as above, I knew I wanted in.

Citing everyone from Nike to Boeing, VW to Patagonia, Google to The Post Office… understanding what your brand values are is important. Letting them be watered down, adjusted, and fundamentally changed (two legs better) will ultimately only spell disaster.

A good, short read. With a good metaphor at its heart.

Worth keeping.

This is actually a thing.

“At the start of this month, Sweden launched a new law allowing parents to transfer some of their paid parental leave allocation over to the grandparents during a child’s first year. A couple will be able to re-allocate 45 days of their joint 480-day allowance (240 days each), while a single mum or dad can pass on 90 days. The move comes 50 years after the Scandinavian nation became the first ever country to introduce paid parental leave that could be split between both parents.”

We’re just about to hit the summer holidays here in the UK. Six weeks of the year when the government just, oh I don’t know, expect parents to figure out how to manage their children and their jobs for days on end? I mean this is fine. Sure. Grandparents on the other hand? Absolute saviour. Some of them still working on the other hand (thanks ever-delaying retirement age), that makes things tricky. This new Swedish law, that helps that - and I think it’s a great idea. Especially, per the quote above, for single parents who need more help than others.

One question:

UK when?

I know. I’m as surprised as you are.

It's interesting. I've been torpedoing idiot marketers (and agencies) talking about [what they think is] tHe mEtAvErSe since the start of 2022.

And yet, every now and then a bunch of new things come along that make me go 'Oh. Oh no. Those idiots are still out there'

This week, what with Matthew Ball doing pre-release press for the updated edition of his 2022 book, ‘The Metaverse: The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything’, we've had a whole bunch of new stories cropping up talking about metaverse this and metaverse that.

It’s almost like - and hold on for the shock of your lives for a moment - it’s almost like the people and publications that spent 2022 talking about how WONDERFUL the colours were on the Emperor’s latest threads (and how we'd all be wearing these latest fashion trends in years to come) are all having a collective whiplash of realisation in 2024 and going ‘Oh wait, this hasn’t happened - was the Emperor wearing clothes are all?’

I mean, the breathtaking pace at which crypto folk became metaverse officers became spatial computing* professionals became artificial intelligence experts has been nothing short of extraordinary. Darwin would be stunned at so many evolutionary steps taking place at such pace.

And yet here we are, in mid-2024 still talking about what THE METAVERSE might bring.

But hey, we could do with a laugh. Here are three things worth your attention.

1. The Information (subscription required) is reporting that REALITY is coming to Meta’s REALITY LABS. Citing exect sources aiming to decrease spending on the cash-burning department by 20% by 20226 (with those savings happening this year - Upload VR / Coin Telegraph).

2. Jokes aside, I like Matthew Ball’s writing and thinking. His interview with Boz from Meta is worth a read/watch. As an aside, the Meta CTO only says the word ‘metaverse’ once, and even then it’s related to someone else’s work. I am telling you, someone somewhere on their comms team has told them to stop using the word so much (Xbox ‘TV’ comes to mind).

3. Here’s WIRED with ‘The Metaverse Was Supposed to Be Your New Office. You’re Still on Zoom’ - quote “But this doesn’t mean the vision is dead. Rather, experts say, companies are looking for the best use cases for the metaverse.” - a solution looking for a problem? I for one am disturbed by these ground-breaking revelations.

-

‘But James, where are you on these things?’

It’s a good question. My position remains unchanged. The metaverse doesn’t exist. If you’ve watched my original presentation on this (THROUGH TO THE END) then you’ll also know that I accept and support the idea that metaversal experiences do.

It’s what Tim Sweeney describes as

“An online social entertainment experience in a real-time 3D setting. You and your friends, going around having fun together, in a 3D world.”

It’s the drivel inbetween that drives me crazy.

We've been there.
We've done that.

Buttondown now has a search function. Do me a favour and search the newsletter for the mentions (in fact, let me do it for you), you'll soon have enough evidence to kick most things to the dirt.

-
*a term that literally only became widely known in June 2023 because Apple refused to use the M-word. Imagine having your Linkedin bio description decided by a press release out of Cupertino? A noodle for another day.

As part of the LIFE SENTENCES brief (see intro, above), the ask of the guests was to 'bring something along to read'.

Five short words.

Five, harmless, short words.

I asked a couple of people, ‘Hey, sorry to ask, but what’s the best thing of mine you’ve ever read?’.

Before I asked them, it’s probably worth mentioning that I really wanted to read ‘Being Human’, from 2008. Bizarrely, and for a long time (back then), I personally thought it was one of the better things I’d written. There is a simplicity to it I enjoy.

But I wanted another piece to fall back on and i wanted something that other people thought was good vs what I thought was good. So yeah, I asked, and my friends answered. And.. well:

‘Why’s that?’ I asked
‘When you write properly you do some great words’

A few minutes later, Robbie replied.
‘It’s a good question.. …It’s writing below the surface. One or more layers. Getting beyond CONTENT and the what and the where and who to the how and the why. Not that the CONTENT isn’t fine and useful and even interesting and funny and informative. But it’s getting underneath that that becomes interesting because then it’s really you. Not just your voice.’

Two things then happened.

Content for content’s sake, even.

Writing. Vulnerability. Words that matter. That inspire. That change. That have purpose and intention.

That’s what I’m interested in.

So I’m going to leave you with two questions.

1. What are you hitting publish on next, content or proper writing?

2. What’s the best thing YOU’VE ever written?

I’ve been thinking about sharing some notes and reading I’ve collected through the recent therapy sessions.

This is the start of that. It might be the end of it too. We’ll see how we go.

Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning.

You have to love.

You have to feel.

It is the reason you are here on earth.

You have to risk your heart.

You are here to be swallowed up.

And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness.

Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.'“

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.

ENJOY.

• 11 things to say when someone asks you 'What is an insight?' (Bookmark this).

• ‘Nobody can be entirely impartial’ - good interview, this.

• Hello to everyone working at Havas, what’s the atmosphere like about this?

• Charlie Brooker, talking about games, for BAFTA.

• This trailer for A Different Man (A24) makes the film look incredible. In.

• This week, in ‘content theft dressed up as AI’, WIRED is reporting Apple and Nvidia have been stealing from YouTube.

• Also this week in 'CONTENT THEFT DRESSED UP AS AI’, Mumsnet (that’s right), is taking on OpenAI.

• Want to sponsor Fesshole? You can.

• Crispin Glover & Back to the Future Part II. I knew this had gone legal (for some reason) but I never knew the detail. A good watch for any BTTF fan.

• I’ve been thinking a lot about M.A.S.K. this week.

• How a Ricky Martin Song Became the Anthem for ‘Marvel vs. Capcom 2’

• Roblox + Advertising. Legislation… when?

• A ‘full mouth check’ with Komtu the Hippo. Potential nightmare fuel.

• Bob Newhart (RIP) - The Toupee

Very nearly didn’t give you my gaming playlist. I’ll stick it here: This week I've been playing Dungeons of Hinterburg on Gamepass. There's something really quite quirky and gorgeous about it.

Going to knock that over and then maybe pick up SCHiM (which I have been waiting for FOREVER).

I’ve also got a NEW TOY on the way which I can’t wait to show you.

A few parish/appearance notices.

• I’m still speaking at The State of Social in Perth next month. I’ve started the skeleton of the deck and I’m excited about where it’s going. Will I see you there?

• Think with Google Firestarters. I’ll write about this in the next edition but my episode should be going live early next week (I’ve seen it now and thankfully, I don’t sound like an idiot - I hope you like it).

• One Question returns to Bristol in September, to ask the question ‘Who is responsible for our Mental Health?’. I was at the first one of these and it was superb. I’m going to try and be at this one too. In Bristol? Want to come? Register your interest here.

• The 2025 Richmond Digital Marketing Forum is happening in March next year. This is a ways off but they’ve started sending out updates and I’m in them so I may as well tell you lot I’ll be there, eh? I’m doing a session on games marketing and, along with some other smart people (hopefully), hopefully provide a decent day of learning around digital marketing trends for the year ahead.

Final bit on this, if you’re interested in booking me to speak at your event, then either hit reply to this or get in touch on Linkedin.

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And with that, this edition of Five things on Friday is coming to a close. It’s 18:58 on Sunday. The kids have got pizza on the way and we’re watching Clone Wars. I’m still feeling rough (might be sinusitis, given how long it’s taken me to write this thing this weekend) and so I’m looking forward to hitting send on this and closing the laptop.

One final final thing: it looks like I’m travelling a fair bit over the coming weeks (Australia, Denmark, Italy) so Five things on Friday delivery might be a bit patchy between now and September.

Fair warning.

Until next time,

Whatley out x

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