Endeavorance
The point of our blog isn’t to show you how up to date we are with buzzwords and jargon. It isn’t to instruct you with how-to guides, tips, tricks, and hacks. It isn’t to encourage, endorse, or engage in conformity. The point of our blog is to provoke, to counter popular notions, to question the status quo, to prompt your imagination, and to challenge you to think and achieve more than you might otherwise. Whatever happens, it’s worth the endeavor.
Endeavorance
The point of our blog isn’t to show you how up to date we are with buzzwords and jargon. It isn’t to instruct you with how-to guides, tips, tricks, and hacks. It isn’t to encourage, endorse, or engage in conformity. The point of our blog is to provoke, to counter popular notions, to question the status quo, to prompt your imagination, and to challenge you to think and achieve more than you might otherwise. Whatever happens, it’s worth the endeavor.
Duplicity is the New Competence
After recent revelations about the homogenization and routinization of everything, I suppose it makes a bit of logical sense that we should now be on to trivialization. But this latest revelation seems somehow more dire than its predecessors in that it has the...
The HIPPO in the Room
Trying to get through a recent post of nearly 4,000 words, which turned out to be an infomercial for an equally windy 124-page report from Deloitte, put me in mind of this passage from Alice's Restaurant, since the post contains ... ... twenty seven eight-by-ten color...
Ideology vs. Ideation
An ‘ideology’ is like a spirit taking up its abode in a body: it makes that body hop around in certain ways; and that same body would have hopped around in different ways had a different ideology happened to inhabit it. (Kenneth Burke, 1897-1993, from Language as...
Tickled Pink (Floyd)
A client told me she'd gone to Madison Square Garden to see David Gilmour on the last night of his recent North American tour. Hearing that gave me gifts of reminiscence both nostalgic and whimsical. Thinking about David Gilmour and Pink Floyd always reminds me of the...
Finding Dick Clark?
Dick Clark has been gone almost four years. But his past — the origins and ethnic derivations of the celebrity entrepreneur and perennial New Year's Eve fixture — remained stubbornly murky ... until now. According to Clark's Wikipedia profile, he was born Richard...
LinkedIn is Taking Itself Out
The blind squirrel found an acorn. It was bound to happen. After stumbling around in an amaurotic crepuscule, falling out of a few trees, and living in a virtually opaque stupor, the scansorial rodent finally discovered what empiricists working with even modestly...
Tapping the Vain
You had to know the trivialization of everything would find its way into business at some point. You had to anticipate superficiality, like water, would eventually seep into every nook, cranny, and formerly purposeful aspect of our lives. And so it has. In fact,...
Popularity is the New Productivity
When I took my first full-time job (in a major U.S. insurance and financial-services corporation), my boss said to me: "The quality of your work doesn't make any difference. The only thing that matters is who you know." It remains one of the most cynical things I've...
Junk (Food) Science
According to the WORM (World Organization Rescuing Meaning), the number of bored people in the world has more than septupled since YouTube was invented. Nobody's really sure why that is, other than the fact that it constitutes innumerable attempts to prove Andy Warhol...
Cute is the New Credible
Attention brand managers: In case you haven't yet gotten the memo, you now work for your social-media person. That's right. According to the social-media person who authored this gem — "Branding isn't dead, but it's no longer in your control" — your brand is her show,...
Innovation is the New Fear
Some syntactical constructions are a little harder to penetrate than others. The following snippet requires a hammer drill with a diamond bit to permeate, after which it could still stand some explication. The snippet comes from an article entitled, "Why The Best...
Vanishing Point
Uh oh. That crashing sound you hear is the fast-tracked hysteria of digital marketing hitting the wall. At least one digital agency wants you to think it's had an epiphany, that it's recognized the corner into which it's painted itself and found a way out: "Digital...
Up Before Breakfast
In yet another manifestation of the universal truth that one man's crisis is another man's blessing, I humbly offer this: "McDonald's all-day breakfast is causing a crisis in the fast-food world". Crisis? Aside from the fact that Jack In the Box, Dunkin' Donuts, and...
Once and For All
A few years ago, I was boarding a flight from Hartford to Atlanta. The weather was cold. So, as soon as the announcement was made that, in the interest of preserving space in the overhead bins for luggage, no coats should be placed in them, most of the people on the...
What’s Not to Like?
That creaking sound you hear is Western Civilization, or at least the English-speaking parts of it, teetering on the edge of the abyss. That's right. We've finally devolved to the point at which Inc., a Forbes publication, has to publish an article about a remedial...
Jumping to Contusions
In the random reading that's something of an avocation for me, I came across this: "Why The Shape Of A Company's Logo Matters". The article purported to present the results of some faux-scientific research conducted by several people, some of whom were anonymous, some...
Programmatic Confusion
This may seem premature. But I'm wondering if you're confused yet. Good. So am I. Since I'm in the marketing and advertising businesses, at least to a certain extent, I'm always curious (Wow! What's that?), intrigued (Hey! That's cool!), and a tad anxious (Whoa! How...
Human To the End
The truth is that the strong don't always survive. Usually the weak survive and the cowardly and the mediocre. They gather their forces to destroy the strong because the strong are at the core of their fear. (Pete Hamill, Forever) The same day I published this...
Utopia Lost
When will they ever learn/When will they ever learn? As a naïve adolescent in the '60s, I bought into all the equally naïve, adolescent claptrap about peace, love, harmony, and understanding. As I got older and more observant, I realized all the naïveté, all the...
Tit for Tats
Whoa! For a second there, I thought it was 2016. Then this yanked me back to reality: "Here's what hiring managers REALLY think of your tattoos" (WARNING: Exhausting infographic to follow.) That's right. In whatever year this is, evidently some people are still...
Oh, Look! An Ambulance!
This was quite the morning. First, I read this, from my horoscope: How exactly do you hold onto your ideals in a world where it seems like the whole game is rigged for greed, competition, and conformity? Then I read this — "John Edwards (yes, that one) looks to profit...
You Won’t See Innovation
Why in the world do we think we'll see, perceive, or even recognize innovation? That question leapt to mind, yet again, when I read this: "Why Real Innovation Will Not Come From Within Your Own Industry". Outside your own industry? If real innovation ever really...
I’m Going Digital
I've fought it long enough. In recent days, there have been reports published by Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture, KPMG, Bain & Company, Booz & Company, McKinsey & Company, and Artie Fleegleman & Company stating that...
Elite At the End of the Tunnel
In addition to being a Leap Year, 2016 apparently will be Elite Year, at least according to John C. Havens, author of "The Elitism of 'Out of Office' in the Age of Automation". That's right. The precious few who find employment, along with being almost miraculously...
A Seasonal Meditation
Bearing in mind that The Hero With a Thousand Faces, From Ritual to Romance, and The Golden Bough are among the most influential books in my life, I offer this reflection, with apologies to real poets everywhere: The venerable holidays are fast upon us now. The...
You’ve Got Male
Because I'm nothing if not fair, balanced, and inclusive, I recognized my duty immediately when I read "The 19 hottest female-founded startups of 2015". So, without further ado, here are your 10 hottest male-founded startups of 2015: The Beer Sling. Adapted from the...
A Punch In the Gut Feeling
I'm a sucker. I admit it. I own what was purported to be the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge. And I own swampland in Florida that promises to be prime real estate as soon as climate change renders it an arid plain — or global warming causes the rising seas to turn it into...
Form Can’t Precede Function
It's apparent from a post I read recently — "Design is Not a Service" — that there must be some sort of potent and pernicious hallucinogen making the rounds. The author of the post, seemingly in the throes of an overdose of the stuff, ranted through 362 words of...
Is Charlie Brown Creative?
I couldn't help thinking about Charles M. Schultz's most popular character (with the possible exception of Snoopy) when I read "The Dark Side of Creativity". The article would have us believe creative people are negative, moody, depressive, impulsive, dishonest,...
I Can See Clearly Now: Part Two
As regular readers of my ravings are well aware, I've had some trouble keeping up with some of the latest developments in eye care, eye ware, and vision-correcting technologies and techniques. Well, I suspect, with no small degree of discomfort, that I may have been...
Authenticity is the New Integrity
If you read this article from Fast Company — "What Does Authenticity Really Mean?" — you'll get a smorgasbord of options: According to one person cited in the article, "If you want to be a leader, you have to be yourself—skillfully." So, if you were on the verge of...
From the Mailbag: Volume Five
Thanks to the volume of correspondence we receive from you, our intrepid and incorrigible readers, we now have more people working in our mailroom than Santa has elves in his workshop. We're running three shifts, 24/7/365. And we may have to add members to our...
A Hill of Beans
Contrary to what you're likely to expect — and in contrast to the comments at the end of the Business Insider post — I don't have an opinion about this fluff piece: "We tried Dunkin' Donuts' and Starbucks' hottest beverages of the holiday season — and the winner is...
The Singing Client
I happened to hear a Johnny Winter favorite — "Love Song to Me" — from John Dawson Winter III over the weekend. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a client the week before and inspired me to write this verse: To some degree, I disagree; Although, I can't be...
Enough is Enough
I came across a post from some self-important schmo — "My Social Media Doctrine" — that's a perfect indication of the extent to which the rampancy of COTUS (Center of the Universe Syndrome) is fast approaching epidemic status. The post and the schmo reminded me that...
The Straight DOPE
The story you're about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. In my entire working life, only one attempt has been made to stiff me for an invoice. It was the mid-1990s. Having been cut loose from The Travelers Managed Care and Employee...
Too Big to Scale
A gentleman who refers to Australia quite a bit — and spells as if he's from there (behaviour) — has jumped on the bandwagon, the players aboard which are playing a dirge for advertising. He wrote a piece called, "Don't Be Advertising!" And he loaded it with...
Layaway Tuesday
As every consummate consumer knows, the Friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. The term is a marketing and public-relations abbreviation of the full name — Black-Eye Friday — which comes from all the shiners given and received in the shameless,...
The Hum of Technology
I read a post the other day by a British chap who wrote that, when he arrived at his office at 7:30 one morning, the only sound he could hear was the background hum of technology. I immediately wondered: How did he know it wasn't tinnitus? If you clicked on the link...
Happy Thanksgiving
We're going to step away for a few days to be with our families, to rest, to reflect, to recall all of the things by which we're blessed, and to be thankful for every one of them. Here are two short lists: At home, we're thankful for: The love and comfort of family...
The Rhetorical Rumble
Naïveté comes in all shapes and sizes. So does academic detachment. And so it is that we have a match-up of lightweights, who've now squared off three times in what's come to be dubbed, The Rhetorical Rumble. For each bout, they enter the ring with heavyweight...
Get Your DUCKs in a Row
I'm noticing what seems to be a proliferation of a phenomenon called use cases. These seem to constitute vignettes or scenarios in which sellers of products or services illustrate various applications of said products or services — having already elucidated the...
You’re Not Writing For Yourself
There's an old expression in the graphic arts that says this: If you're not creating an effective presentation of a message, it's not design. It's art. So it is with content: If you're not creating an effectively persuasive message for an audience that's expressed a...
To Each Generation Its Own
irony (noun): incongruity between what is expected to be and what actually is, or a situation or result showing such incongruity When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I...
Technology Emerges When It Can
Even though many of our clients provide software and services to the insurance industry, it’s hard to know, sometimes, where the insurance industry stands on technology. It seems as if we go from one extreme to the other: There are posts about research reports touting...
The Doors of Deception
This past weekend, I attended the ninth annual Natural Living Expo in nearby Marlborough, Massachusetts. I have no idea why. Being at the Expo recalled the first time I walked into a hardcore comic-book shop. I was in search of the first two editions of the legendary...
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
If you read my ramblings with any regularity, you know I don't believe in accidents: Everything that's supposed to happen does happen. Everything that's supposed to happen happens in its own time. And everything that happens happens for a reason. Contrary to our...
Aye, There’s the Rub
I have to admit I'm not one to keep up with all of the statutes that govern my particular state, which happens to be Connecticut. Given the possibility that one can find himself in violation of said statutes — however unwittingly, innocuously, or innocently — it may...