Summary: Our obsessions shape how we see the world. Instead of resisting them, we can harness them—finding what’s interesting to build an audience and what’s actionable to create value. Are you ready for the flood of posts, videos, and tweets about “Marketing Lessons from the Big Game,” or “Why the Halftime Show is a Branding…
Summary: Listening to Beowulf exposes you to “kennings,” which are vivid, unexpected expressions — usually a pair of words — that put a different spin on a name or concept. Unlike AI’s predictable phrasing, creative language like kennings breaks linguistic patterns, making content more engaging, memorable, and uniquely human. While I was heating the pan…
Summary: The entire body of “fair use” law assumes human actors. It should not be applied to AI systems without modification. I saw some discussion on LinkedIn about applying the concept of fair use to AI systems like ChatGPT. Fair use is a legal doctrine under U.S. copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted…
In all the complaints I’ve seen about the ban on TikTok, the one thing I haven’t seen enough of is any recognition of the reason for the ban. It’s all “boo hoo, we’re losing a platform.” What about the fact that the U.S. government and dozens of state attorneys general have levied some serious claims…
Summary: This article questions conventional marketing wisdom, arguing that every campaign might not have to have hyped, benefits-focused messaging with an urgent call to action. Maybe the market needs different messages at different times. The temptation to marketing apostasy started when I heard Mark Stiving talk about features vs. benefits. It’s relatively standard these days…
Summary: AI struggles with relevance realization, a human ability to prioritize meaning across contexts. Businesses should evaluate AI systems’ relevance handling, integrate human feedback, and ensure human support for key interactions. In the beginning of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” Evelyn Greenslade (played by Judi Dench) has just lost her husband. In the midst of…
Summary: Mark Zuckerberg defends reducing censorship and fact-checkers on Meta, replacing them with community notes to promote free speech. His move is a response to algorithmic errors, ideological bias, and the threats to First Amendment principles inherent in internet censorship. Mark Zuckerberg has been taking heat for his recent decision to back away from the…