Summary: The partisan divide in the country, in which we all live in our own epistemic bubbles, isn’t a cultural or political shift — it’s a consequence of the technologies that make it easy for anyone to become a content creator. Attention is limited, but content is almost unlimited. In that situation, content that provokes…
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…
Summary: For now, excellent content requires a human writer, but creative teams are being downsized in hopes that AI can fill the gap. When Moses told Pharoah to let his people go, Pharoah said, “I guess these guys have too much time on their hands. From now on they have to make the same quota…
Summary: It’s no surprise that employees and executives have different opinions about what’s wrong with the workplace. Is one of these disconnects the belief that employees want to be like the executives? My friend Todd Lebo from Ascend2 sent me a copy of the Arbinger Institute’s 2024 Workplace Trends report. What caught my eye was…
Summary: Understanding someone requires more than knowing facts about them, or even their perspective. It involves grasping the story they live in — their narrative, conflicts, and worldview. Looking at things this way fosters empathy, reveals motivations, and makes it easier to collaborate across different perspectives. Each person constructs a story of his life in…
Summary: Many of the workplace attitudes and “demands” attributed to Gen. Z are just rehashed Baby Boomer ideas. At the MACMA Holiday Extravaganza in New York last week, Farrah Bostic from The Difference Engine and Valentina Bojanini from TED were asked how to deal with generational differences in the workplace. They downplayed some of the…
Summary: Split tests work when you’re optimizing for a single goal. They aren’t appropriate for issues that are more complicated and nuanced. I’m a big believer in A/B testing. You can significantly improve marketing results by using the right headline, the right color, the right image, the right guarantee language, and so on. I’ve done…
Summary: It’s too easy to fall for logical fallacies or to allow cognitive biases to cloud our judgment. Be sure to know them so you don’t fall for them yourself, or inflict them on other people. Watch out, world! My superpowers are starting to emerge! Last week I was on a camping trip with some…
Summary: How can you tell whether you have “imposter syndrome” or whether you actually are inflating your abilities and accomplishments? The answer is to get objective and external validation. I frequently hear concern about “imposter syndrome.” My general reaction is that “imposter syndrome” is actually your conscience telling you that you’re not “all that.” Although…