:: THE UPDATE ::

We’ve officially made it to summer! It’s my favorite season of the year, and it’s when I feel most alive.

I really thought it was Dane Cook who had a joke about summer being the best season, and I tried to find it for you, but alas, I did not have much luck! Whoever it was spoke about living in LA, and how when he’d shared that with others, people made comments about LA missing all four seasons. To which Dane Cook (or some other comedian) responds, “I don’t need all four seasons, I just want one. The best one. Summer.” I so identify with that.

I do not want four seasons. I despise winter, and being cold. I don’t like sweater weather, or weather where pants are required. In Fall, the leaves turning are pretty, for sure, but the colors do not make up for cooler temps, or having to wear more clothes.

Spring is my number two ranked season, only because it’s like a Thursday: You know the good bit is coming soon.

In summer, the peonies bloom, the lavender thrives. We eat tomatoes the same way we eat peaches, biting chunks from the side, letting the juices drip down our chins. We go for walks with berry picking gloves on, and a grocery bag for our spoils, dropping pins so we remember to come back to the best places for future harvests. We play board games outside. In fact, we live outdoors as much as the sun allows: working from porches and gardens, cooking on BBQs, dining al fresco. Tis the season for shorts, swimsuits and sundresses. For meandering walks. For napping in the sun.

As I write this, though, a cold front has hit the UK, and it’s 52F / 11C. It’s rainy and windy and my fingers are numb. I do not want to go for a walk, instead I would like to teleport my hot tub from Chattanooga to the UK and spend the rest of the day daydreaming there, but this is where technology fails me. Some days it’s obvious we’re living in the future, and some days, we’re still dreaming about the future we were promised ;)

We’re going to be based out of the UK until the end of August, so if you’re also in or nearby to London, please hit reply and let’s grab a coffee!

We will be attending the launch of The Anti-Ultra-Processed Planning Cookbook at C4 on Wednesday if anyone here is also going…Comms Planning is back, baby! Again. So it goes ;-) We’ll update you on the book and such in a fortnight - be lucky in the meantime. We love you.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE NEWSLETTER SUBJECT LINE THAT KEPT COMING BACK TO ME: “i drink wine, i don't count my sleep score, i never use AI, i cancelled my amazon AND I AM HAPPIER THAN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

• Optimization culture is cracking. Sleep scores, macro tracking, frictionless living are all leading people to report they've engineered all the joy out of their lives. Now they (we) are actively, loudly rebelling. One writer this week called it "the great unoptimizing." The idea that conformity was never actually the cheat code. That clean, quiet, same-as-the-one-next-door is tired, and culture is already moving on.
  
  Here's the irony that's been sitting with me: we spend our days arguing that brands need to stop sanding down their distinctiveness to appeal to everyone (and therefore no one), and then go home, track our sleep, try to be healthy, make sure we're watching the shows everyone else is loving, and quietly make ourselves more palatable.
  
  And now AI is doing it at scale. AI means everything is a sea (slop) of sameness. Even brands are talking about how agency pitches are looking closer and closer to the same (is it bc the client wrote a tighter brief? agencies are better at what they do these days? or because everyone is using AI and arriving at the same ideas...)
  
  I can't help but coming back to this idea... the weird, unoptimized version of you is actually the competitive advantage! (Especially in the freelance market!) [Trend Report]

CONNECTED INTELLIGENCE

• Faris’ column is about the perennially persistent problem of knowledge management and dissemination in large organizations. Insight is genuinely a particular thing, just not exactly the reified strategic currency we overly fetishize in marketing. We reflect on observation to create compelling theses to explore. Like an idea, an insight is usually an non-obvious connection that inspires. Making sure research, or historical learning, is leveraged properly by any team that could use it is inherently challenging. Here’s where an AI layer could help:

  “Connected insight solves these problems by creating an evolving, connected view of the consumer that builds a knowledge base over time, making it usable overnight if needed. Research becomes a layer rather than a distinct phase in a long process, an ongoing engine for innovation instead of isolated reports. AI allows organizations to collate what insight leaders and practitioners hold in their heads: the context, patterns, contradictions and opportunities.” [WARC]

DO NOT LET AI DO YOUR WRITING

• It’s hard not to feel strongly about AI slop when you’re in the business (directly or indirectly) of slingin’ words. Kriss writes, “As it stands your sub-literate scrawlings are the best thing about you. At least they’re yours. But you people don’t listen. However bad a writer you think you are, you are not worse than AI. But you still keep letting it do your writing for you, as if I won’t be able to tell. Listen: I can tell. I can always tell. You think I won’t notice, but I will.” I’m sent so much writing that has been very obviously written by AI.
  
  What is interesting is how the people who send it to me seem to think that I won’t know that it’s written by AI. I mean, I know there’s no way to 100% check, but as soon as I have an inkling, I plug it into Claude or Chat and ask if AI wrote it and if why or how it can tell. It infuriates me when the answer is always yes, this was most likely written by AI. But then again, I already knew it before I asked. It was so boring, and lacking so much specificity, that of course it had to have been written by AI. [Faris note: also AI enabled writing tends to be way too long, mistaking exhausting volume for value, IMHO] [Numb at the Lodge]

:: I DON’T LIKE COMPUTER ANYMORE ::

The algorithm gets me. I’ve seen this in so many places, been sent it by friends, and sent it to other friends.

@k3nnygrayI DONT LIKE COMPUTER ANYMORE 🔨 💻 #punk #punkrock #musicalcomedy #rock #funnysong @mr_boochie

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This week, we’re writing to you from London(ish). We’re especially thankful for:

the arrival of baby Santi, the announcement of A&J’s pregnancy, Leffe Blonde beer, the CO2 refill for our Sodastream, Waitrose, Tony’s Chocolonely, Claude’s family movie suggestions, a BBQ turned kitchen table hangs, everyone who came, garden center trips, Sequence, Blockus, Backgammon & YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, STEVE XOH ::

LOCATION: LONDON, UK

Hello, I'm Steve, a serial guest contributor to Strands because I am a friend and big fan of the lovely Rosie and Faris who I met when I was host of the world's first silent podcast featuring special guests.

The things that keep me busy change all the time and I like writing bullet-pointed lists, so here's whats keeping me busy at the moment.

• Writing and recording my podcast "Creative Adventures - an accidental podcast". As the title suggests, I never intended to create a podcast but I now get such joy from the flow state I find when I write and record it.

• My pointless project to walk/kayak the entire river Thames. So far I have covered the 27km from the source in the Cotswolds to Castle Eaton and the 70km from Shepperton Lock to Greenwich and am plotting adventures to fill in the gaps.

• Growing a mini wildflower meadow on the windowsill of my flat to attract bees and other pollinators.

• Making a mask out of a water cooler bottle I found and plotting a interactive performance with it at a weird nature reserve by the sea.

• I also make art, do talks, run workshops and stuff like that. I designed my talk “9 wonky projects, interspersed with thoughts on creativity and the human condition (featuring a bingo machine)” so that it is randomly different every time.

Get in touch if you’d like me to bring it to your work, conference, gathering, living room.

:: WE ASKED STEVE FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON CREATIVE BURNOUT ::

Creativity is supposed to be our superpower. But in a culture of constant output, collapsing timelines, and content-as-king (or at least court jester), even the most imaginative minds can run dry. Burnout doesn’t always look like a breakdown—it often looks like work that’s technically fine but missing its soul. For marketers and makers, the pressure to deliver something fresh every damn time is real. But if creativity is a renewable resource, we need to treat it like one. That means knowing when to push through—and when to step back. This theme explores the edge between creative flow and creative fatigue, and how we protect our spark in an industry that often tries to snuff it out.

What’s one creative well you keep returning to when you’re depleted?

I have learnt that the only way out of a creative slump is to learn to love the creative slump. The buddhist philosophy "the obstacle is the path" has become key to helping me with this. When I am feeling burnout creeping in, energy sapping, my mental stability and resilience eroding, I try to move towards it, rather than escape it (which seems to just make it worse.)

I will write about how I am feeling, sit with how I am feeling. It is never pleasant but it always seems to help. My assumption is that these experiences are signals that are as important as those I experience when I am flying and in flow. And often this results in suprising outcomes. When I was feeling terribly lonely and lost on a remote island I moved towards my feelings by creating a "totem of aloneness" that I installed on a beach which then led to me connecting with an entire community and no longer feeling lost and lonely. (I tell this story on episode 10 of my podcast if you'd like to hear it)

What do we get wrong about “balance” in creative work?

I think that we probably have a very human view of what "balance" is. Maybe an overly logical view of work vs life or stress vs recovery. And I think that then trying to maintain this mythical balance actually results in the opposite. I also think that there is a flaw in our thinking in that we forget (or don't like) that this kind of balance has to include the burnout and the difficult stuff. Like if you think of some old fashioned scales - for them to be balanced there needs to be as much of the hard stuff as there is the good stuff. For me the hard stuff is important even though it is always unpleasant.

I have also let go of the idea of productivity and purpose in my life/work. For me the most important thing is finding meaning in whatever I am doing or experiencing. And it is as possible to find meaning in difficult times as it is hard times. And this is how I am thinking about balance nowadays.

How do you automate the boring stuff without killing the magic?

Ha ha. I just don't do the boring stuff. Which of course has big consequences and isn't the best way to earn a living.

:: THE LINKS ::

A FASCINATING EEL RABBIT HOLE A fascinating eel rabbit hole

• I often find myself getting distracted from what I am supposed to be doing to earn a living by falling down a fascinating creaturely rabbit hole. In the past this has included the likes of crabs, crows, amphioxus but most recently I have been captivated by eels and how fucking brilliantly weird they are!
  
  This video/podcast draws you into the weird world of eels and not only talks about the bizarre mystery of these creatures but how they have baffled the greatest thinkers in human history. (I also loved learning that "eel rent" used to be a thing in medieval times.) [YouTube; Auralis]

7 1/2 LESSONS ABOUT THE BRAIN

• I'm not great at reading books. I mean, I can read. But it is rare that a book holds my attention for long enough that I finish it. (Or even get past the first chapter.)
  
  But recently a series of events including accidentally showing up a month early for a meeting and my phone running out of power meant that I consumed this brilliant little book by Lisa Feldman Barrett in a day.
  
  If you are interested in exploring how much of what we believe about the brain is terribly inaccurate then this is the book for you.
  
  As the brilliant weirdo Emo Phillips once said “I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realised who was telling me this.” [GoodReads]

ELLIOT SMITH ON A CHEESE BREAKFAST TV SHOW

• I've a real fascination about what happens when the weird and wonderful meets the mainstream. I've spoken in the past on my podcast about moments where brilliant outsider musicians (such as The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and Shooby Taylor) have been invited onto a TV show only to be mocked and humiliated because they are different.
  
  What I love about this video is that not only does Elliott Smith hold onto his painfully awkward brilliance, he seems to stun those in the studio into silence. (As one of the comments on the video says "even the puppet stopped fucking around." [YouTube; Shooting Star]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Backgammon (I started a project playing backgammon with strangers, so I love the game less than I do it being a less socially-awkward way to meet people)

• City :: London (Born here, live here and never bored)

• Book :: I've thought wayyyy too long about this. So am going to simply say..."No idea!"

• Podcast :: Philosophise This - Steven West

• Song :: Always changing, but at the moment - “I Have Considered The Lillies” by Connie Converse

:: STEVE’S FAVOURITE ANCIENT FOLKLORE TALE ::

I recently found a discarded table top by the river Thames and turned it into a painting about my favourite ancient folklore tale “The days of the brindled cow” that warns us about false springs.

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Steve Xoh, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back next week!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, LUIS MIRANDA ::

LOCATION: Los Angeles

Hi all, I’m Luis, a strategist with a strong accent and even stronger ideas.
Originally from Spain, I’ve lived and worked in Madrid, London, Singapore, and now LA.

Truth is, I’m a techno DJ who ended up living a double life after becoming obsessed with studying people and culture at my first agency, J. Walter Thompson. Since then, I’ve been moving people in two places: in the market and on the dance floor.

Along the way, I’ve worked with talented people at Critical Mass, R/GA, AKQA, Deutsch, Trailer Park, Razorfish, and Publicis, among others, plus some time client-side.

I come from the underground music scene, and I love helping brands find their own underground edge and turn it into business advantage.

Fittingly, I first met Faris years ago at an underground production house party in NYC while visiting the city. I had been following his blog, so somehow I recognized him in the middle of the late-night chaos. :)

:: WE ASKED LUIS FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON MESSY MIDDLES ::

We love a before-and-after, but the truth is, most of life—and most of the work—is lived in the middle. The messy, uncertain, not-there-yet space. That’s where real strategy lives. That’s where brand positioning gets challenged, where creative ideas evolve, and where leadership gets tested. For marketers, entrepreneurs, and anyone building something, the middle can feel chaotic. But it’s also where the magic brews. This theme explores how we navigate the liminal spaces—when you’re no longer where you were, but not yet where you’re going—and how to find clarity, confidence, and momentum in the ambiguity.

What’s your strategy when the strategy isn’t working?

First, don’t protect the strategy. Protect the outcome.
A strategy is not a sacred document. It’s an informed bet. And when the bet stops paying off, the job is not to defend the thinking. It’s to figure out what reality is trying to tell you.

So I go back to the evidence. What is the data saying? Where is behavior breaking? What are people doing that we didn’t expect?

And I try to triangulate signals. Data alone rarely tells the full story. I look at reviews, comments, Reddit threads, social listening, creator reactions, anything that gives a more honest read on how people are actually experiencing the brand out in the wild.

Honestly, it’s not that different from DJing.

You can walk into a set convinced certain tracks are going to work. But if the crowd is telling you something else and you keep forcing your original plan, you lose them, you need to read the room in real time.

Then I question the assumptions. Was the problem wrong? Was the tension too weak? Were we asking people to care about something they simply don’t care about?

And when I’m doing that, I try to remove my own bias from the equation. I’ll ask people from account, creatives, or another strategist to challenge the thinking. Sometimes you get too close to the work and start protecting the logic instead of interrogating it.

And nowadays, yeah, I’ll also check what AI surfaces. Not because it gives me the answer, but because it can expose patterns or contradictions I may have missed.
AI can accelerate analysis. But I never outsource judgment.

Then I go back to the basics. Because when strategy isn’t working, the answer is rarely more complexity.

Usually, it’s more honesty.

What’s something great that came from getting totally lost?

Honestly, probably becoming who I am.

Some of the biggest shifts in my life came from periods where I had no clear map, no certainty, no real idea if I was making the right decision. Moving countries. Starting over socially and professionally. Balancing two identities between strategy and music. There were moments where it genuinely felt like everyone else had things figured out better than I did.

But getting lost forces you to pay attention. You stop running on autopilot. You question the script. You discover parts of yourself that comfort and routine would have never revealed. You become more adaptable, more curious, less attached to certainty.

Even creatively, some of the best things happen when you are completely lost. Especially making music. There are moments in the studio where nothing is clicking, the original idea is dead, and you have no idea where the track is going anymore.

But weirdly, that’s when you take more risks.
You stop protecting the original plan because there’s no plan left to protect. You push things further, follow accidents instead of avoiding them, and suddenly a mistake becomes interesting.

Some of the best ideas arrive after the map stops working. That said, I think you need the right amount of lost. Completely drifting is different from exploring.
For me, the important thing is not always having a fixed destination. It’s having a direction. A trajectory. Something internal pulling you forward, even if the outcome is still unclear.

I think getting lost is underrated. Not permanently lost, just lost enough to disrupt the version of yourself that was becoming too predictable.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE INTROVERTED ATTORNEY

• Brutally honest and sharp observations about culture, power, status, and work dynamics, disguised as jokes through the lens of an introverted attorney... a hilarious and insightful dose of humor. [Instagram; The Introverted Attorney]

POPULAR MUSIC IS GETTING SADDER AND ANGSTIER

• Music has always mirrored the emotional temperature of society, and this analysis of pop lyrics shows how collective uncertainty is reshaping culture and emotional consumption itself.
  
  You can feel it across genres. Electronic music, for example, has become faster, darker, and more aggressive since the pandemic, mirrored in the rise of “hard techno” among younger generations.
  
  Though whether that should even be considered “techno” is probably a debate for another post. [Archive.Today]

THE LIBERATION OF MAGIC

• As you’ll see, I’m a big believer in revisiting fundamentals, especially when they’re written with the clarity, sharpness, and intellectual honesty Martin Weigel brings to strategy.
  
  An inspiring favorite piece that liberates the transformative power of imagination from marketing mythology, while keeping the wisdom and ego of the industry in check. [Martin Weigel]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Cross Clues, it's super fun and forces you to find unexpected connections between things.

• City :: Madrid!! Yes, it's my hometown, so I’m biased… but Madrid es mucho Madrid: the food, the people, the culture, a melting pot that celebrates life with passion. It’s like NYC slowed down just enough to enjoy it.

• Book :: Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. My first book crush, the one that made me binge books before Tolkien.

• Podcast :: Can U Put Me On Guestlist? An insider glimpse into the lives of people shaping the electronic music scene.

• Song :: Creep by Radiohead

:: TECHNO DJ ::

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Luis Miranda, who you can find on LinkedIn, Spotify & SoundCloud.

Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

It’s been an absolutely stunning spring here in Tennessee!

I’m still surprised by flowers that appear randomly in our backyard, colorful additions whose presence have been gifted by those who came before us.

The flowers in our garden beds are equally surprising, considering their bulbs wintered in a forgotten Lowe’s bag in the garage, rather than in the ground as intended. And still, despite our lack of care (say what you want about us, but we’re not micro managers!), these blooms still made it.

They served as harbingers of hummingbirds, who arrived only shortly afterward and now buzz around the porch every day. Some people are dog people. I am, it turns out, a bird person, something confirmed by my gasps, oohs and aahhhs each time I spot a bird in our backyard. (Also confirmed by just how much I loved Listers, a documentary I rave more about below.)

We’re only home for two more weeks before we hit the road for the summer so I’m soaking up crafts on the screened in porch ;)

:: THE LINKS ::

THE END OF ELSEWHERE

• This thoughtful long read struck many chords. We lived nomadically all over the world for over a decade and, well, the world is different now. Travel has become harder and more expensive, sure, but the idea of elsewhere, traced back all the way to Rousseau, as a balm to the stresses of modernity and source of self exploration and definition no longer functions that way. There are no paths less trodden left to explore. Fascinating throughout, it charts the evolution of outsider thinking as a rejection of the inherent simulacra of grubby industrial commerce, through the Romantics, Primitivists, the Beats, Hippies, Backpackers, and Nomads until today, where kids grow up with access to everywhere…

  “My students have grown up watching the planet finish modernizing in real time. The villages at the end of the dusty roads have WiFi. The shamans are thirst-trapping and dancing on TikTok. The remote islands have been geotagged, photographed, filtered, monetized, and posted. Their relationship to elsewhere has been screen-mediated for so long that travel itself has begun to function differently.
  

  Set-jetting, or the trend of visiting locations because you’ve already seen them on Netflix or TikTok, is now a documented and growing trend across the generation.” [Fugitive Margins Substack] [HT Colin Nagy]

SETTING UP YOUR OWN CREATIVE BRAINTRUST

• Our friend Neil Perkin has written about how he has set up an AI Braintrust using Claude, something that has become a regular part of his work. AI researcher Andrej Karpathy developed an LLM council, where different LLM tools debate answers to the same question (essentially peer reviewing each others responses) and then a ‘Chairman’ goes through their responses to give you a verdict of your own.
  
  The problem, Perkin says, is that, “The risk with the Chairman’s role in this context is that summarisation tends to produce the average of the views in front of it, which is often the least useful output, because the value of a multi-perspective process is precisely in the tensions or views that don’t reconcile.” Perkin set up his Braintrust to ‘preserve genuine intellectual variance’ and ‘force productive friction rather than to produce a consensus.’ He outlines his precise process via Substack, and don’t you always enjoy snooping on other people’s processes?! ;) [Substack]

YOUR BATHROOM CABINET AS A FLEX

• Highsnobiety's latest Status Economy report is all about beauty, and their thesis is that beauty has quietly taken over the cultural role that streetwear used to hold. A decade ago, a limited-run Supreme hoodie was the pinnacle signal of taste and in-the-know status. Today? A bathroom shelf stacked with the right products outranks it: 73% of “Cultural Pioneers” say their bathroom cabinet tells a story about who they are. And 63% say they've bonded with someone over a beauty product or reference, like a secret handshake.
  

  The broader shift the report tracks is from self-expression to self-transformation: beauty has left the bathroom and expanded into your gym, your doctor's office, even your smoothie. Whether that's liberating or a little dystopian probably depends on how you feel about, um, salmon sperm facials…. which are apparently a thing?! [Highsnobiety]

:: LISTERS: A GLIMPSE INTO THE WORLD OF EXTREME BIRDWATCHING (& WHY I WANT YOU TO WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY) ::

It all started when my friend Scott asked if he could bring his friend Morgan to my 40th birthday party in Tennessee. Morgan and I are connected, but through Scott. Whenever we see each other, we have great chats, but she lives on the west coast, so our normal interactions are limited to a mutual following on Instagram. And because of that, Morgan knows just how much I’m into the birds of my backyard.

She said “I assume you’ve seen this, but I’m watching Listers and I’m obsessed with these birders.” I replied, in all caps “I HAVE NOT SEEN THAT!!” And then immediately texted my neighbor and fellow bird babe, Jennifer. “I’ve watched it twice, and I’ve told you to watch it,” she said. Oops.

I was nursing a light hangover last Sunday and suggested watching it as an afternoon activity.

Here’s the premise: One brother gets high, finds an old bird guide, stumbles on the world of extreme birdwatching, and decides the two of them should attempt a “Big Year.” That’s when you try to spot as many bird species as possible in a single calendar year, in the lower 48 states. The two brothers travel the contiguous US in a beat-up minivan, living on canned tuna and pasta, interviewing the obsessives who've made listing their whole personality. The documentary starts out almost mocking these extreme birders, but then the brothers become them. They lampoon the eBird cops, dig into the in-fighting of local record submissions, and still somehow make you genuinely care about birds. It’s a pleasure to journey with them, and I truly cannot recommend this documentary more highly. Yes, even if you are not into bird watching!

Owen, the brother who filmed and edited it, had never edited a movie before. He taught himself to edit entirely using YouTube tutorials. It's been compared to Hunter S. Thompson and Andrew Callaghan. Netflix, HBO, and Amazon all wanted it. They said no and put it on YouTube for free. BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID.

Faris sat down to watch "a little bit" and never made it downstairs to play video games. That’s the whole review, really. And I’m already trying to find other folks who haven’t watched it, so I can watch it again with them. Also, I need a pair of binoculars. Like, really though. I’ve got a cedar waxwing in my backyard and it’s TAUNTING me. I hear it, but I can’t find it. Send help.

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

ALL OF THE BIRDS OF OUR BACKYARD, screened in porch weather, Noah Kahan’s new album, Art 120, We Make Festival, a full day of crafts, Highbar Training, AMIN, Ronan, & YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @rosieyakob enjoys instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, MARTIN WEIGEL ::

LOCATION: Sicily

I've been doing strategy for almost forty years, living and working in London, New York, São Paulo, and Amsterdam - fourteen of those as Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Still haven't been tempted to retrain as a hairdresser. Now in year two as an indie strategist with emdub. The canvas is bigger than most of us imagine. I also have a book coming out. I've been stalking Faris for longer than he'd be comfortable knowing.

I almost fell into the trap. Having been invited to curate this edition, I had started searching for articles and links not really reading them at all, but more standing in the future, watching myself seem smart for sharing them.

A link about Byzantine economics here, a piece on mycorrhizal networks there, something obscure and Scandinavian or maybe Korean that nobody else has heard of. That would do it. I'd signal how wide my mind roams, look how few walls it has.

Never mind that the authors did years of research, thinking, writing, probably arguing with their editors and doubting themselves at 2am and I spent just four minutes skimming on the phone. I'd surf on my proximity to them and be able signal a similar level of insight.

Never mind that I'd not be sharing to expand others' understanding of the world. I'd be reading to curate a version of myself that other people will find impressive, interesting, occasionally a little intimidating.

I almost fell into the trap. Until I caught a whiff of self-disgust.

So here instead are three things that I hadn't planned on sharing. Three things that I didn't have to go looking for. Three things that were on my bedside table.

I reflect that it's good to read things you don't plan on sharing. Things that you won't read with one eye to the future and how it will make you look in the eyes of others. Things too slow, too dense, too personal, too unresolved to make you look good. Things that make you less certain than when you started. Things that you can't summarise in a sentence because you're still inside them. Things that can't be packaged into something giftable or snackable.

:: WE ASKED MARTIN FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON PRODUCTIVITY (OR THE ILLUSION THEREOF) ::

Somewhere along the way, being busy became a badge of honor. But hustle culture is fraying, and people are rethinking whether productivity is really the holy grail—or just another trap. Is your to-do list making you better… or just making you tired? For marketers and makers, efficiency is often framed as progress. But maybe the work that matters most isn’t the fastest. Maybe the best ideas can’t be time-boxed. This theme explores the systems we build around output—and whether they serve or strangle the creative process.

What’s your favorite life hack—or are they just modern snake oil?

Life hack culture wants you to believe:
That life is a mathematical problem that can be solved.
That you – your body, your mind – are a machine that can/must be optimised
That the right morning routine is the difference between a life that matters and one that doesn't.
That self-improvement is the same as self-knowledge
That the discomfort of having too much to do is a solvable problem rather than an irreducible feature of a finite existence.
That if you just get the system right, you'll finally feel on top of it.
That all meaningful variables are within your control
That busyness is the same as progress.
That rest is recovery for more productivity.
What it doesn't want you to believe - because there's no product to sell you if you do - is that the question worth asking is not how to get more done, but whether the things you're trying to get done deserve doing at all.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE BUDDHA IN DAILY LIFE

• It's slowly doing something to the way I move through a day, though I can't yet put into words what that is. What I can say is that it's made me realise that most of what passes for wisdom and self-help advice - the tsunami of it, the relentlessly well-written tsunami of it, on Substack and everywhere else - is really just anxiety in disguise. This is the other thing. [Amazon; The Buddha In Daily Life by Richard Causton]

STORIES THAT DON’T EXPLAIN THEMSELVES

• Harrison is a writer who has spent fifty years being too strange for mainstream success and too good to be ignored. His stories don't explain themselves. They don't offer the reader the usual handholds - a sympathetic protagonist, a legible world, a lesson. They just sit there, slightly wrong, and make you feel that you've been looking at ordinary life from the wrong angle this whole time. I've been reading one story a night. I haven't recommended it to anyone. I'm not sure I'm supposed to. [Amazon; Settling the World: Selected Stories by M. John Harrison]

A BOOK TOO GOOD TO PUT DOWN

• Eight hundred and fifty-eight pages about a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the 1870s. No oven-ready hacks or lessons for modern living - just two men at the tail end of their era, a lot of horses, even more cattle, some bad decisions, and a lot of dying. I've been inside it for three weeks, and I don't want to come out.[Amazon; Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Life

• City :: Buenos Aires

• Book :: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

• Podcast :: In Our Time

• Song :: Léo Ferré, 'C'est extra'

:: LOVING LIFE ::

"Just figure out how to love life, how to trust it, how to stand in awe of it, how to enjoy it. Stay alert and be aware - life has a way of drawing you in, of insisting upon your involvement."

-Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files #343

:: GETTING BY OR GETTING AHEAD: REPORT ::

Around two-thirds of Americans say they are either keeping up or getting ahead financially. Only a minority feel they are making real progress. What once was the promised reward of hard work has become the hope of a long shot win.

This report shows what sits beneath the surface. Even those who are keeping up are often cutting back, using savings, and relying on credit to get by.

At the same time, getting ahead feels out of reach for many.

The majority of Americans don’t believe that saving alone is enough and say they will need investment returns or even a “big break” to move forward. [Yougov]

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Martin Weigel, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

Hello gorgeous.

We’re ticking along, thanks ever so, how are you? I’m running out of ways to allude casually to how weird everything is nowadays. But the world is mostly beyond our control so it is rarely helpful to worry about it. Not that knowing that has ever stopped me…

Anyway - let’s focus on something fun>

Faris is doing a webinar on May 11th at 1pm ET for the nice people at Highbar Training on how to Treat Your Clients Like Consumers.

The idea is that we agency folk spend our professional lives trying to understand and influence the purchase decisions of humans and that this skill set is uniquely applicable to our commercial need to sell in ideas and serve clients.

*Sponsored by AMIN Worldwide (aminworldwide.com) the indie agency network - so if your agency is a member it’s free to register!

Is the agency an AMIN member?

If yes, click here to register: AMIN Registration

Agencies are in the business of understanding people — what they need, what they fear, and what moves them to act.

Yet most agencies treat their most important “consumer” — their clients — as something entirely different from a human being making a decision.

Clients are people. They are making enormous, stressful purchases on behalf of their organizations, often with their reputations on the line. They have jobs to be done, anxieties to calm, bosses to impress, and innovative ideas to champion internally.

They respond to the same forces that move any consumer: trust, social proof, loss aversion, and the need to feel understood before they feel sold to. You already have the skills. The shift is applying them inward — to the most important consumer your agency will ever try to reach.

In this session, Faris Yakob applies the tools of advertising strategy — consumer insight, behavioral economics, and creative thinking — to the client relationship itself.

It will be as fun and useful as I can make it - I look forward to seeing you there!

:: THE LINKS ::

AI HOMOGENEITY IN CORPORATE SPEAK

• Corporate America is converging on a single voice - written by AI. The now seemingly popular because AI always uses it construction "It's not just X, it's Y." appeared in large number of all corporate publications in the last year. Brands are converging in their brand voice, the opposite of what brands should be. When every company sounds like Claude the opportunity, as it has always been, lies in doing something different. [State of Brand]

BUNDLE OR GET BUNDLED

• According to former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale There are only two ways to make money, “One is to bundle; the other is to unbundle.” We’ve seen the rise of subscriptions intersect with bundles - [Rundles - recurring bundles] and everyone has begun to feel encumbered by having too many subscriptions to too many things. As with cable, consolidation or bundling inevitably comes next.

  

  Media War & Peace

  BUNDLE OR GET BUNDLED

  Happy Thursday Peaceniks! Let’s get ready to bundle…

  Read more

  2 months ago · 38 likes · 1 comment · Evan Shapiro

  This all reminds me of Infinite Jest where USA is divided into two loyalty schemes that cover everything and they are at war with each other. [Evan Shapiro]

FLINT THE DIVERGENCE ENGINE

• Our friends and partners at Springboards have been testing all the dominant LLMs used today [claude, chat, gemini, llama, etc] and discovered an alarming truth - they are incredibly predictable!
  
  Not only do they tend to repeat themselves endlessly with the same prompts but all the models converge into the same semantic space. Watch the demo!
  

  They are, literally, averaging engines. So Springboards built Flint specifically to diverge. This is absolutely crucial for creative work. The first half of creative work is divergent exploration and definition - the second half is convergent decisions and delivery. Like the Double Diamond model from the Design Council.

  

  When tested against divergence the results are obvious - frontier models are collapsing towards the mean but Flint can both be smart and creative.

  

  So if your looking for creative idea starters from AI, try the new free version of Springboards. [Springboards]

:: APRIL ::

I have a weird feeling about April.

TS Elliot wrote it was

“the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.”

These are the opening lines of the perhaps the most important and almost certainly the most famous modernist poem - “The Wasteland”.

As a deeply pretentious teen I was obsessed with this poem - every line, every word, needs decoding to understand it. In this instance, e.g., it’s a direct subversion of the opening lines to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which suggests the opposite - that April is when the rains come and the flowers bloom.

[“Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote / The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, / And bathed every veyne in swich licóur / Of which vertú engendred is the flour;”]

For Elliot’s narrator in the poem [which we shouldn’t confuse with Elliot himself] the promise of rebirth and renewal that Easter and Spring suggests are themselves painfully hollow and thus cruel.

Are you springing forward? Do you feel renewed? Excited or exhausted?

Also, it’s the month before both our birthdays and this year is a big one for Rosie - her 40th! We are celebrating all year!

We will be in London come end of May and also in Europe over the summer - get in touch if you are about and we can play together.

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

Madi & Paulie & Santi’s baby shower photos, Legion, Animal Control, Cape Town, Lauren, Monarch Legacy of Monsters, Dungeon Crawler Carl, history podcasts, 1% Club, synchronicity, colonoscopies and polyps, the color pink, the letter U & YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? Faris occasionally hangs out on Linkedin while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, HELEN BRAIN ::

LOCATION: London, UK

Hi all, I'm Helen, and I care about community building, and sharing ideas on how we create a better future. I've worked in comms for 20 years and I’m now a comms strategist (who loves a nice framework) based in the UK.

Beyond my professional life, I’m a reader and recommender of many books, and a mum with two daughters who make me laugh everyday.

:: WE ASKED HELEN FOR HER HOT TAKES ON LONELY TOGETHER ::

We’re more connected than ever—and lonelier than ever, too. That contradiction is showing up in the data, in the culture, and in the way people engage with brands. Consumers aren’t just looking for products; they’re looking for belonging, meaning, and maybe someone to talk to. For marketers and creatives, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. In an age of infinite scrolling, maybe the bravest thing a brand can offer is actual intimacy.

How do we build messages, communities, and experiences that don’t just talk at people but truly connect with them?

Connection is a verb.

Real connection isn’t about talking. It’s about action. Brands that solve real life problems can earn belief, trust, and awards.

This is especially pertinent in a world where government debt means cracks in society are growing ever wider, as what's left behind is the opportunity for brands to be genuinely useful (and therefore meaningful) by solving genuine problems.

This isn't just a nice idea. Connecting with audiences by fixing problems is a route to make great work - just look at the number of Cannes Lions winners over the last couple of years who have solved real problems.

‘Daisy’ , the AI grandma from O2, became a scammer's worst nightmare and prevented thousands of scammer hours from being spent on real people. Axa Insurance included domestic violence as a risk within its home insurance policies and solved a genuine problem for women at risk, delivering a 9% increase in new contracts.

As fake news and digital platforms destroy our trust in what we’re told, people increasingly need to see something working in the real world to believe it.

Building connection means acknowledging that we need to ‘see it, to believe it.’

There are various ways that brands can connect to customers and show that they have listened, and invested in what those customers care about:

By developing products or services in response to lived needs
By showing up locally, when it matters
By investing in real‑world communities
By tackling societal problems, aligned to business reality

Brands like M&S and Nike showed they were listening when they created adaptive clothing ranges. And when after Hurricane Katrina, Walmart got food and water into the region before the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency did, and turned stores and car parks into community hubs, they earned huge amounts of goodwill. Or we can look to the Bored of Dating Apps platform who have grown in response to changing needs from UK singles by committing to real life, hosted community events.

So if you're a brand and you want to build connection with your audience, where should you start?

Look for the things in your audience's lives that they struggle with, and explore how you could help.
Ask on the ground staff what marketing can do to help solve issues they see day in and out.
Get to know the organisations who are already solving problems for communities close to your brand.

Be humble, and listen.

Then commit to investing in action that will be felt on the ground, and over time, because connection lives in what we do.

:: THE LINKS ::

HOW TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE FUTURE

• The book of the same title from Rob Hopkins reminded me of the power of imagination in taking people with you on the journey toward a better future.

  
  I often find myself feeling helpless in the face of what’s going on in the world, but this book is filled with real life examples of people making things better, and doing so in a way that is led by imagination and changing how people feel.

  
  I found it to be the injection of optimism that I needed, and is also why I recommend it to everyone I meet, from friends, to sustainability folk, to strategy colleagues.
  

  Imagination is powerful and we need to remember that if we want to create comms that work. [Rob Hopkins]

PAYING FOR INEFFICIENCY

• Why Gen Z & Millennials Pay for Inefficiency: Is it because of “Weltschmerz — the pain of witnessing the world fall short of the beauty, depth, and dignity it once promised?”
  
  I’ve had many moments of feeling disconnected over the last few years, and this article gives words to some of what was going on.
  

  I’ve been spending less time on digital platforms and more time doing things in real life instead and really noticed the difference, so I appreciated Rob’s article highlighting that I’m not alone.
  

  For anyone else feeling like they’ve traded connection for convenience, Rob outlines in this piece how tangible real world activities can help silence our overwhelmed brains. [LinkedIn; Rob Harrison]

THE BANK OF MUM AND DAD

• The bank of mum and dad funds more than houses. Almost half (44%) of parents traveling with adult children pay for the entire trip, with only 14% of adult children paying for most or all of their trip, lowering to as little as 7% in the U.K., 8% in the UAE, and 9% in the U.S.

  
  This one just made me smile. Despite the negativity of the news, the fact that some things don’t change - our love for our kids - gives me hope and reminds all of us of what’s really important.
  

  (It also begs the question (again!) of why we ignore people over the age of 50 in advertising...) [Hilton]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Cards Against Humanity - Family Edition. Cracks my kids up every time we play.

• City :: Valencia - it's got everything you need for a city break, a beautiful old town, amazing food, modern architecture, a lagoon, and the beach.

• Book :: Babel by R. F. Kuang - I was totally transported into another world with this one.

• Podcast :: Accidental Gods by Manda Scott explores how we build a future for the next generation, that we can be proud of.

• Song :: Kids by MGMT, Soulwax remix - takes me back to a very specific, and amazing summer, every time I hear it.

:: RADICAL HONESTY ::

I took this photo at the Robbie Williams 'Radical Honesty' exhibiton at Moco London.

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Helen Brain, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, DAN KOHLER ::

LOCATION: NYC

For years I’d been reading and watching Faris and Rosie blow people’s minds with new advertising and marketing perspectives. I finally met them in person when I was leading international marketing at Subway and hired them to run a global creative brief workshop.
Needless to say, it was awesome.

I’m Dan, and moments like that capture the kind of thinking that has always inspired how I approach marketing.

Since then, I cofounded an agency called XTRABOLD AI with creative industry leader Ross Patrick to help brands move with speed and confidence in an AI-powered world. From brand strategy to storytelling to campaign systems, our work blends strategy, imagination, and craft with the power of modern AI tools.

We also built THE MACHINE™, an AI-powered system that helps organizations turn AI transformation from theory into practice. Think of it as a unified Strategy, Engineering, and Adoption platform that connects research, strategy, copy, design, and video storytelling in one workflow. It automates the busywork with human-in-the-loop AI so creative teams can focus on what matters most: judgment, concepting, and curation.

I was also one of the first professors at the Academy of Art University to bring generative AI into graduate-level advertising courses, preparing MFA students for where our industry is heading.

To me, AI isn’t the outcome. It’s a powerful sidekick. Used well, it sharpens strategy and unlocks better storytelling. Great work still requires human judgment, taste, and direction.
That’s where I focus: helping teams turn AI into inspired outcomes and real ROI.

Even with all the AI tools in the world, the real puzzle is still human behavior. Here are three quick reads about the hidden psychology shaping how we judge ourselves and everyone around us. I found the underlying simplicity of these fascinating and hope you do too!

:: WE ASKED DAN FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON CREATIVE BURNOUT::

Creativity is supposed to be our superpower. But in a culture of constant output, collapsing timelines, and content-as-king (or at least court jester), even the most imaginative minds can run dry. Burnout doesn’t always look like a breakdown, it often looks like work that’s technically fine but missing its soul. For marketers and makers, the pressure to deliver something fresh every damn time is real. But if creativity is a renewable resource, we need to treat it like one. That means knowing when to push through, and when to step back. This theme explores the edge between creative flow and creative fatigue, and how we protect our spark in an industry that often tries to snuff it out.

How do you automate the boring stuff without killing the magic?

After a few decades in advertising I can tell you the magic was never in the busywork.

The magic is in the moment when someone sees something others missed. Something "latently obvious". A strange connection. A human truth. A line that makes people stop scrolling. None of that has anything to do with resizing banners or formatting decks.

For most of my career those tasks were simply the price of admission. You did the tedious work to get to the interesting part. (And sometimes it worked the other way around... you found the interesting idea first, then had to slog through all the versioning and production that came afterward.)

AI is the best tool I've seen that can genuinely remove some of that friction. Agents can handle the repetitive steps that used to slow creative teams down and free up more time for the part of the job that actually matters. The thinking. The taste. The storytelling. The craft. The things that, at the end of the day, clients really care about and pay for.

If anything, the technology reminds me that the real magic has always been human. The tools may change, but the work still comes down to curiosity, judgment, and the courage to follow an idea that feels interesting before it feels safe.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE 3 QUESTION GAME

• A deceptively simple exercise that surfaces the beliefs we operate from without realizing it. What makes it interesting is how quickly it exposes patterns you might assume are intentional but are really just defaults you’ve been running for years. It's the kind of prompt that makes you pause and rethink how much of your behavior is chosen versus inherited. [EchoFrame]

NEVER GET ANGRY AGAIN

• The article draws from psychologist, David Lieberman’s work, argues that anger usually comes from the meaning we attach to events rather than the events themselves. This reframes anger as a function of personal interpretation rather than an objective reaction to events. The useful shift is recognizing how often we assign intent to other people’s actions and then react to the story we created rather than what actually happened. That small shift alone can change how you lead, collaborate, and handle pressure in real time. [Upworthy]

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

• A sharp reminder of how fast perception locks in. In practice, that means the first few seconds carry disproportionate weight, whether you are meeting someone, presenting an idea, or putting a brand into the world. Once that impression forms, everything that follows tends to either reinforce it or struggle to undo it. [Upworthy]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Monopoly Deal Card Game

• City :: Los Angeles. When I moved to NYC from LA, I left a little bit of my soul there, wandering the boardwalk in Venice Beach…

• Book :: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel, No surprise that Tarantino can use words to craft not just extraordinary 2-hour scripts, but remarkable long-form narrative as well!

• Podcast :: I don’t listen to podcasts…if I’m going to go audio-only, I’ll listen to an album.

• Song :: Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie. When his voice switches its tenor/inflection for the "chorus", it freaks me out (far out) in a good way.

:: FUN WITH AI ::

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Dan Kholer, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

Oh hai there!

Rosie is on her way to South Africa so it’s mostly me (the faris) in today’s exciting episode.

I’ve been dog-sitting a gorgeous girl named Strudel and she’s keen for a walk. She never barks but makes her needs known. Communication comes in many forms.

More generally, look oh gosh 1/4 of the year gone already and no sorry none of this is April foolishness….or is it?

I am attempting a reset to my diet - being lazy in semi-rural Tennessee can be deleterious to your health. That which is most convenient is usually the least good for you. This applies broadly - see ‘social’ media et al.

We are scoping our plans for Europe this summer - currently have gigs in Amsterdam and France in June - so DO LET US KNOW if our proximity might be useful to you - we’d love to chat about the interesting problems you are currently facing to see if we can help.

As a reminder we love speaking engagements, workshops/training, facilitation/MCing, and strategic and creative consulting for wicked problems of brand, business and beyond for agencies, marketers, media companies and more.

Phew, that’s a mouthful - if you think we can help, in some way, do drop us a note.

In other news I’ve been moving my old blog to WP because typepad stopped existing - this is still hard! Annoyingly so! Why? Oh why. The google search won’t work and generally the WP interface remains incredibly annoying. This seems like an obvious AI use case, since I have to use AI to use the terrible UX.

Anyway it’s up but not very usable yet Stolen-Genius.com.

Looking at my old blog I was struck by how long I’ve been doing this - working in/around and writing about - advertising etc. More than twenty years. People struggle to write abstractions or generalizable principles often, to my mind, because they are trapped in specifics. And vice versa.

Roger Martin has some thoughts about that [see below HT Ed Cotton] but it rings true to me.

Client work informs my thinking, my thinking informs my client work - both are necessary (for me).

I’m the Faris, these are strands, take April foolishness lightly and enjoy your day.

PS - If you’d like to nominate yourself or someone else to be a guest curator this year, hit reply and let us know :)

:: THE LINKS ::

STRATEGY AND CONNOISSEURSHIP

• Roger Martin is the current DON of capital-S Strategy and he says:

  I spend about half my time practicing strategy with real clients and the other half writing about strategy, the latter of which requires me to conceptualize/generalize. I don’t know how I would do, let alone get better at, the latter without the former. And I would be dull and boring at the former without the latter.

  You need to do both to grow and as a habitual writer and consultant I am inclined to agree. Sadly, the LINKEDIN AI/algo deathspiral means that actual thinking in words is very hard to distinguish from SLOP atm due to the volume. [Medium]

JOHN WEBSTER INTERVIEW

• John Webster was one of the the most awarded and loved creative director of his or any generation. He was the creative force behind BMP’s success {trying to compete with CDP} and he was, it turns out, a delightfully self effacing and wise interlocuter. Interestingly, blackcurrant Cresta (see Tango below) had an extreme treatment (the bear was based on Jack Nicholson, I believe, saying “It’s frothy, man”) and success breeds imitation: "We had many clients coming to us and asking for a Cresta bear”. The beauty of this is seeing how random and specific good creative ideas are. “What’s unfashionable is always interesting. “If you want to express yourself write a novel, if you wanna do art, do art.” Advertising is different. “90% of what you see is crap and it was ever thus.” [Youtube]

• BONUS: The John Smiths Arkwright ad.

• BONUS: The Hoffmeister Bear. [“I always write the back story”]

• BONUS: The Penguins Jack Dee John Smiths
  

UK’S FAVORITE ADS

• I shall refrain from the obvious observation that the favorite ads in the current UK population are mostly two decades old. I shall instead reflect on how lucky/unlucky I was personally in my ‘career’ because ultimately everything is about me. I worked at Naked during a time when every creative agency in London wanted to play with us. In the first few years of my career I worked on three of the UK’s favorite ads of all time [we did comms on Cog, Balls, and Gorilla].
  I didn’t expect those years to be the cultural peak of our/my impact but: “Cadbury’s Gorilla Crowned Britain’s Favourite TV Advert of All Time”.
  1.Cadbury, ‘Gorilla’ (2007) — 26%

  2. Hamlet Cigars, ‘Photobooth’ (1986) — 19%

  3. Guinness, ‘Surfer’ (1999) — 16%

  4. Bodyform, ‘Never Just A Period’ (2024) — 14%

  5. Tango, ‘St George’ (1996) — 13%

  6. Nike, ‘Nothing Beats A Londoner’ (2018) — 13%

  7. Channel 4, ‘Idents 2023’ (2023) — 12%

  8. Sony Bravia, ‘Paint’ (2006) — 11%

  9. Levi’s, ‘Drugstore’ (1995) — 10%

  10. Honda, ‘Cog’ (2003) — 10%

• BONUS - I adore the Blackcurrent Tango St George Spot - here it is watch it it still speaks, maybe more than ever, about Little Englandness. And here is a messy behind the scenes.

• EXTRABONUS - the way we made ads then was different, and this interview with the actual gorilla speaks to it - they TAUGHT HIM TO PLAY THE DRUMS for the spot. “He didn’t but still got the part. “They got me a drum instructor. When I heard that the song (for the advert) was going to be In The Air Tonight, I was just like ‘this is amazing’. And then to go and get paid to learn how to play the drums to play this commercial, it was a dream job.”

  [LBB / DRUM]

:: WHAT AI WOULD HAVE MADE ::

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

time with family and friends, Strudel and her parents, Curse of Oak Island, DC’s Identity Crisis, Not sure about Another Battle Every Day tbh, also is Sinners just From Dusk Til Dawn tho? does anyone read this bit? I have come to ignore any really long emails_, Improv, dogs, spring sun, & YOU! yes you, specifically, we love you.

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, ANTHONY WOLCH::

LOCATION: Canada

Who would like to help me change the world?

I have spent the better part of the past 25 years working & living around the world. Between Jamaica, Helsinki, Paris, London, Philadelphia, Toronto NYC & LA, the one consistent thread through my travels has been art. From a fine artist, to an art director, to a writer to a creative director & film director, I always feel the need to create.

January 2025, I launched See The Good (www.seethegoodnow.com) a global campaign to slow down the exponential rise in hate with the generous support of Michael Douglas, who has been a UN Peace Ambassador for over 25 years. Since the launch, we have reached over 30 Million people, worked with some very cool celebrities (Mayim Bialik) human rights activists (Daryl Davis), artists (Mat Voyce) & musicians (Geddy Lee) - all doing our part to leave the world a bit better than we found it.

I am also currently working on a new art collection called PhotoPop25 - an exploration and reinterpretation of the culture that surrounds us all - Improvisational analogue collages, crafted from hand-cut archival materials, on heavyweight gouache paper - Bringing to life the rebellious spirit of pop iconoclasts.

In a world consumed by digital perfection, I celebrate imperfection, nostalgia, and the tactile essence of analogue artistry - reminding us that some things are meant to be felt, not just seen.

:: WE ASKED ANTHONY FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON THE ATTENTION ECONOMY ::

Everyone is trying to be louder. But louder doesn’t mean better—and attention doesn’t mean impact. In today’s economy, attention is currency, but most of us are spending it like we’ve got unlimited credit. Marketers know this dilemma intimately: how to capture attention without cheapening it. As creators and consumers, we’re all asking the same question—what’s worth watching, reading, listening to, and sharing? This theme dives into the tension between visibility and value, and the challenge of earning attention in a world where everything is shouting.

What’s the most attention-grabby thing you’ve ever done—and how did it work?

In 2016, I helped Toronto’s North of Brooklyn Pizzeria launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign called “Vote With Pizza,” allowing Canadians to symbolically vote in the U.S. presidential election by choosing between two specialty pizzas representing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Customers cast their ballots by purchasing slices, with each pizza reflecting exaggerated stereotypes of the candidates—Trump’s was orange and brash, while Clinton’s was plenty of smoked chicken & conventional . The campaign tapped into widespread Canadian fascination with, and anxiety about, the U.S. election, turning political engagement into a participatory, shareable experience. It quickly went viral across social media and earned international press coverage, positioning North of Brooklyn as a culturally savvy brand and demonstrating how a simple in-store activation could transform a local business into part of a global political conversation.

And most importantly - we actually got Canada a vote in the US election.

:: THE LINKS ::

UMMM…YOUR AI IS SHOWING

• It’s glaringly apparent when content floats through our field of vision that has had limited if any human insight. Let’s remember, ‘Insights = Excite’.

  
  Now I am certainly not one to shy away from the mesmerizing kaleidoscopic images & sounds that we have at our fingertips, for us to mold & shape - but we need to remember, that this human molding, shaping, carving, inflating, trimming, scoring & birthing is what has defined storytelling from time immemorial. If you completely remove that element, will it resonate? Or rather be another exploding star across the universe - Don’t blink, you might miss it.

  
  Rick Rubin once stated: “Developing a world-class aesthetic taste generally requires a decade of deliberate practice and immersive “wave surfing” through culture.” Let’s go with that.
  
  With our world being over stuffed with digital noise, and of course, some examples of absolute genius not to be ignored, how we navigate this algorithmic toolbox requires a greater sense of ‘taste’ than ever before. [The Atlantic]

THIS IS YOUR BODY ON THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

• Call me old, call me old fashioned, call me old school - But there is really nothing that can replace magical moments in historic creation - a lithe hand tentatively touching strings and committing to making art, possessed sticks thump-thumping on animal skins and pounding hearts, improvisational poetry suddenly becoming unforgettable beauty, the combination of spirits in a room becoming one, for a flickering moment in time.
  
  Somewhere between the cremation of cassette tapes & the age of uber-programmed EDM, we ostensibly lost our wild adventure of music (not entirely of course) - Where did the proliferation of art go?
  
  Let's spend some time with Lou, Mo, Sterling & John. Take VU twice daily for a healthy constitution. [Sound Studies Blog]

CELEBRATING ANALOGUE IN A DIGITAL WORLD

• In1986 while travelling through remote villages in Turkey, I noticed a dramatic contrast in how young people were dressed as compared to young folks in more familiar parts of the UK and North America. The only thing that was consistent on that Turkish adventure, was that it seemed to be that wherever I went, Bob Marley was always playing.
  

  Fast forward to 2026 - travel most of planet earth, fashion looks mostly the same, music sounds mostly the same, art looks the same - again, for the most part. I am not sure this homogeneity is working - the proliferation of digital media is not helping our world of art. There’s something to be said for patterns and fabrics, sounds and styles, scents & flavours, and experiences that are not easily replicated and instantly mass produced to be drop shipped across the world overnight.
  
  Unlike the sledgehammer-wielding Luddites of the Industrial Revolution or graphic designers who scoffed at desktop publishing in the 1980s, today’s battles aren’t so much with systems but with the self. [Adobe Design]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Scrabble

• City :: Negril

• Book :: SHANTARAM

• Podcast :: Jokerman

• Song :: What Goes On by The Velvet Underground

:: NEW EXHIBITION COMING SOON ::

Coming soon…

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Anthony Wolch, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend in Nashville and Atlanta this past weekend, soaking up time with our friends Erin & Eric and their almost one year old baby, Eli, while also celebrating our friend Madison’s pregnancy — complete with a onesie decorating station, a bouncy house, a custom cocktail, and loads of time with friends.

After the shower, Rosie traveled to Atlanta for the Giving Kitchen’s annual event, Team Hidi, where 90+ vendors provided food and cocktails, and funds were raised to support food service workers. Our friends Morgan and Colin introduced us to the Giving Kitchen maybe 5 years ago or so and we’ve loved supporting them ever since.

Spring is weird in Tennessee - we have yo-yo weather or a number of confusing micro-seasons. By way of example… It was 75-77F this weekend, but the SNOW IS COMING DOWN today! But then again, it will be 80F this weekend.

One way of describing this locally that I just found out about is that we have 6 little winters after the Spring equinox, before it gets warmer for good.

First one is Dogwood Winter because it happens after the dogwood trees bloom.

Then we have:

Locust Winter – Some connect this little winter to when leaves start to appear on locust trees in April, and others to when the trees bloom in May.

Redbud Winter – Early April, when the redbud trees bloom.

Blackberry Winter – Early to mid-May, when blackberries are in full bloom. In the Tennessee mountains, this often coincides with the last frost of spring, which can kill new plantings on the farm.

Whippoorwill Winter – Mid- to late May, when the whippoorwills can first be heard in the twilight of evenings and before dawn. Sometimes, this is reversed with Cotton Britches Winter.

Cotton Britches Winter – Late May or early June, when the linsey-woolsey (linen and wool) pants worn in cold weather were put away and farmers changed to the light cotton pants of summer. [Knox News]

None of which is likely to make Rosie, who doesn’t enjoy the cold at all, pleased but as we all know with weather, you never really know, y’know. Esp not nowadays…ahem.

I don’t care what the weather man says…

:: THE LINKS ::

LESS FORCEFUL WAYS OF EXPRESSING DISAGREEMENT

• Rosie, here! When I came to the South, I was made aware of just how ‘strong’ my personality was. It was something I had been somewhat aware of in other contexts, but in the south the feedback loop was more immediate. In some instances, my ‘strong’ personality was interpreted as ‘aggressive’ which felt confusing. Southern conversational style is basically disagreement diplomacy, and when I read this piece on how to disagree, I realized just how Southerners have already internalized some of these indirect expressions. It’s not the the goal is to avoid disagreement (although sometimes it feels that way because it actually is the goal), but more often it’s to protect the relationship. Disagreement arrives with sentences like “Help me understand…” or “Walk me through how you got there…” rather than a more direct “I don’t think that’s right.” Directness can feel like a slammed door, but this more conversational style tends to open doors rather than closing them. I’m still getting used to it, but I think I like it? :) [Admired Leadership]

MEDIA: MODALITY, MOMENTUM, & MOMENTS

• Faris’ column is the second in a series of essays under what he is still insisting on calling M-Theory. [M-Theory in physics unifies all consistent versions of SuperString Theory or, more colloquially, is a ‘theory of everything’]. This piece considers modern media through the lens of modality in the first instance and then how that way of thinking can be used to build momentum to bigger moments. "The moment isn’t necessarily good – a brand can also become the main character for doing something terrible – but it can be when your carefully crafted brand idea breaks confinement, becoming ‘famous’.
  
  The moment is ‘sensitive to time’, ‘can’t be faked’ and ‘always earned’. To clarify, the author explains, “MARKETING IS NOT THE MOMENT, IT IS ATTEMPTING TO LAY NARRATIVE TOWARDS A POTENTIAL MOMENT. Many do not understand this.” [WARC]

  

  [BTW the new WARC site requires a free CannesLion login to access my opinion column now but it is still outside the paywall. Any probs getting to it let me know? Ta.]

TV MEETS FRUIT MACHINE

• Is an excellent description of TikTok and the other platforms formerly known as social media, which is having a great deal of impact on….everything? But behind this fracturing of the commons the author makes some very compelling points about something that I have been thinking a lot about for a few years - why does it feel like we are in the griftiest, scammiest era and why does that seem to attract people to scammy grifters and/or grifting themselves?
  

  “Farage exploits a diffuse sentiment that dishonesty is now the basic principle on which not only politics but also markets function.
  
  Why have basic goods suddenly shot up in price? How can the young men from that other community afford to drive such nice cars? Why does the government claim to have no money, when it is sending billions to Ukraine and putting foreigners up in hotels?
  
  The simple, transparent equilibrium of the market has been replaced with the opaque disequilibrium of value extraction – or what might otherwise be called a scam.
  

  This is, at least in part, what happens in a capitalist society when profits remain high but productivity and wage growth stagnate. Things no longer add up. For many, work no longer pays well enough to secure a family existence. Someone somewhere is clearly getting richer, but it isn’t clear how or why.
  
  You can find a steady stream of practical advice on TikTok about how to scam the system yourself…” [London Review of Books]

:: CORRUPTION ::

Of course, another reason that scams come seem prevalent in societies

- leading to an obvious breakdown of civics as each person, despairing of normal routes to progress, feel forced to find ways to scam the system themselves

is because of rampant corruption that is both obvious and unchallenged. The fish rots from the head when there is a complete lack of accountability.

Let’s turn it over to Machiavelli:

Nevertheless, since it is well to reason things out, I will not pass this matter by, but will assume, in the first place, the case of a very corrupt city, and then take the case of one in which corruption has reached a still greater height; but where corruption is universal, no laws or institutions will ever have force to restrain it.

Because as good customs stand in need of good laws for their support, so laws, that they may be respected, stand in need of good customs.

Moreover, the laws and institutions established in a republic at its beginning, when men were good, are no longer suitable when they have become bad; but while the laws of a city are altered to suit its circumstances, its institutions rarely or never change; whence it results that the introduction of new laws is of no avail, because the institutions, remaining unchanged, corrupt them. …

It was no longer those of greatest worth, but those who had most influence, who sought the magistracies; while all who were without influence, however deserving, refrained through fear.

This untoward result was not reached all at once, but like other similar results, by gradual steps. [Titus Livius]

So, eventually, everyone who can get in on the grift does and everyone else suffers…

To quote the United Nations:

Corruption has a disproportionate impact on the poor and most vulnerable, increasing the cost of, and reducing access to, health, education, justice, water, electricity and other basic services, thereby exacerbating inequality.

It can distort public spending decisions and weaken the quality of public investments resulting in substandard infrastructure and the bypassing of regulatory systems for quality, environmental control and safety.

Corruption can undermine human capital outcomes in all its dimensions. In the education system, teacher absenteeism, kickbacks for school meal contracts, nepotism and false degrees can weaken the efficacy of learning-related spending.

State capture can lead to a diversion of budgetary resources away from health and education because the rents or benefits incurred elsewhere are larger.

The use of government-funded programs to extend benefits to relatively wealthy population groups or the siphoning of funds from poverty alleviation programs, including generalized subsidies by well-connected individuals, diminishes the impact of social programs on income distribution and poverty. [UNODC]

But, as Sinclair Lewis wrote, it can ‘t happen here…………………………………uh

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

Madi & Paulie & Santi’s baby shower, onesie decorating stations, musically talented friends, sushi from not Chattanooga (Nashville and Atlanta, THANK YOU!), Erin & Eric & Eli, flower arranging with friends, hot tub hangs, healing time with friends, Xiao Bao, bbno$ at The Roxy, Team Hidi @ Truist Park, being a passenger princess & YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, LISA PRINCE ::

LOCATION: Portland, Oregon

I'm Lisa Prince, former Global Brand Strategist turned Founder of School of Ideas. I came up the ranks of British planning on the agency side, before finding my home at Wieden+Kennedy for over ten years (London, Shanghai, Portland).

Ten years ago I founded School of Ideas to share the timeless tools of brand strategy and creative problem solving with both Clients & Agencies. My real title should be Idea Therapist, as we essentially unlock the barriers standing in the way of great ideas. It is my dream job.

I have lived in five different countries, which means that my accent is stuck somewhere over the mid-Atlantic. But I have made Portland, Oregon my home. My house is full of lazy cats on velvet chairs, judgemental dogs in cozy beds, stacks of books, drawers of scribbles, and half drunk cups of tea. All I want to do is write, think thoughts and speak on stage in fabulous outfits.

:: WE ASKED LISA FOR HER HOT TAKES ON CREATIVE BURNOUT ::

Creativity is supposed to be our superpower. But in a culture of constant output, collapsing timelines, and content-as-king (or at least court jester), even the most imaginative minds can run dry. Burnout doesn’t always look like a breakdown—it often looks like work that’s technically fine but missing its soul. For marketers and makers, the pressure to deliver something fresh every damn time is real. But if creativity is a renewable resource, we need to treat it like one. That means knowing when to push through—and when to step back. This theme explores the edge between creative flow and creative fatigue, and how we protect our spark in an industry that often tries to snuff it out.

What do we get wrong about ‘balance’ in creative work?”

I did the agency thing for many years at Wieden+Kennedy. The burnout is real. I remember telling another mum in the playground that my work load had lightened significantly because I only had to travel to NYC every other week! I live in Portland, Oregon ;) When we talk about burnout, we talk about the speed of work, the constant output and our always-on culture, yet there’s another factor contributing to our burnout which never gets our attention, a shocking blindspot that no-one in the industry is talking about: our Idea Malnutrition.

For the last ten years I have been exposed to a different side of the industry. I have essentially been an Idea Therapist. (Bare with me, this is not a Linkedin Bio, but the context is helpful.) Ten years ago I founded a company called School of Ideas with my best friend and business partner Hanna Nesper Newell. The idea was simple, to teach people how to have better ideas in better ways by sharing the timeless tools behind creative strategy and creative problem solving. During that time we uncovered the mother of all blind spots contributing to our burnout, and we discovered it by asking two simple questions at the beginning of every session. The first question? “Please raise your hand if you are expected to have an idea at work.” Everyone raises their hand. The second question? “Please raise your hand if you have been taught how to have an idea?” In a room of sixty, just two people will raise their hands. We’re asking people to have ideas everyday. Yet we never teach people how. And the final kicker? Most people, even at the highest level of creative leadership, struggle to define what an idea actually is. For an ideas industry, we actually have very poor idea intelligence. We’re burning out because we’re not treating having ideas as a skill that you can learn. Which means everyone is generating ideas the hard way: starting from scratch every time, learning from mistakes vs. smart mental shortcuts, relying on podcasts and ad hoc mentorship, all while harboring deep insecurity about whether they’re doing it right. Ideas are way more method than magic, and if we share the method, we can have way more magic - without the personal cost.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE IDEA CODE: UNLOCK GREAT IDEAS IN SIX SIMPLE STEPS

• What if there was a book that solved for our Idea Malnutrition? That highlighted what an idea is, and how you can have one? That was less mystic advice and more indispensable handbook full of practical tools and tips. Welcome to The Idea Code. I had three profound experiences that led to this book. The first? Being the first person in my family to go to college. I deeply believe knowledge is power and feeling equipped with great thinking tools allows you to step into any room, and any situation, with confidence. This book puts an end to winging it and gives you that sturdy, watertight confidence that comes from knowing your shit. The second experience was my planning training in the UK. Coming up as a strategist in the UK, I was essentially apprenticed for five years before I could work on a piece of business by myself. The message was clear: this is a craft and you have a ton of shit to learn. Which was true. The timeless tools I learned during that period changed the trajectory of my career. And they're all in here for you. The third experience was being an Ideas Translator at W+K for over 10 years. That wasn’t my actual job title, but it should have been. Translate the idea for the business folks, the marketing folks, and the creative team who aren’t actually sure how their own brilliant idea is working. All these experiences left me with an enormous desire to decode and demystify how ideas work, and how we can teach people to have one. For the last ten years brands such as Netflix, Nike, adidas, Toyota, Door Dash, Lexus, Riot Games, The New York Times and Snap have used The Idea Code to elevate how they think about brand strategy. This knowledge has only been shared behind closed doors at HQ, in multi-day workshops, with excellent catering and swipe card access. Until now. School of Ideas is ten this year and we’re doing a limited release of 150 books to celebrate. (*US shipping only for now. Coz tariffs. Sigh.) If you never get near this book for whatever reason, here’s our gift to you: the definition of an Idea! [School of Ideas]

A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION: THE POWER OF INQUIRY TO SPARK BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS

• How can you have great ideas, when you don’t have any time? Ideally we’d all have at least a week to craft the problem and find a new and valuable way to solve it. But for too many of us, we just have a day, or even an hour. So what’s the superpower that gets you to great idea-led thinking with speed? Asking great questions. If you’re asking smarter questions, you can change the trajectory of a project - in seconds. This is why Warren Berger’s book is so powerful. He reminds us of all the powerful ways a question can be used.
  
  What’s the problem we’re solving for? (Just the best question ever.)
  Ask WHY? 5 times! (To get to the root problem you’re actually solving for.)
  What’s a basic assumption we can challenge? (To overcome rote thinking.)
  How can we combine two things that don’t usually go together? (To bring immediate tension and interest to an idea.)
  And a personal favorite, using a question to break a stalemate: If we can’t agree on the answer, can we at least agree on the question?
  
  Rather like having ideas, asking great questions is also a skill that we never teach! Until this book…and of course The Idea Code ;) [Powell’s Books]

SLOW PRODUCTIVITY: THE LOST ART OF ACCOMPLISHMENT WITHOUT BURNOUT

• I have a huge intellectual crush on Cal Newport. He’s the champion of deep work, digital minimalism and how to pursue meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload. Cal’s work always gets me focused on the effort that actually moves the needle. For me, it’s not being responsive on slack or email or the thousands of other places I could be responsive, but setting aside time to THINK DEEPLY. In my experience people can stomach someone being unavailable for a couple of hours, if when they show up, they show up with a clear path forward or some rich new insights for the team to digest. But you can’t show up with those goodies unless you have had time to think, rest and digest. This book is full of practical tools and inspirational examples for sustainable effort in our modern jobs. One of my favorite tools: have a mantra you say at the end of your work day to signal to your brain that the work is done, wrapped, closed, switched off for the day - so that you can properly rest. Mine? It’s super cheesy but we’re friends - right? Every day as I turn off my desk lamp, I say “Great things happened here today. See you tomorrow.” [Powells Book’s]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Catan: One brick for two stone?

• City :: Edinburgh. That castle...

• Book :: Wuthering Heights. Jacob Elordi, it's me, it's Cathy, I've come home now

• Podcast :: Jim Harold's Campfire. Real ghost stories & fake campfire sounds, what's not to love.

• Song :: Anything by Dolly Parton

:: THE IDEA CODE ::

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Lisa Prince, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

In 1997 a movie called Wag The Dog made the claim that spectacle governs substance, and that politics is not about events but about framing, pseudo-events and capturing attention. In it, the sitting president is embroiled in an underage sex scandal, which threatens his re-election, and so a war is spun up to distract voters.

Wag the Dog stars Robert De Niro as a Washington spin doctor, Dustin Hoffman as a movie producer, a young Kirsten Dunst, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, and the always incredible William H Macy, who delivers the line “When the fit hits the shan, somebody’s going to have to stay after school” as only he could in the trailer below. David Mamet co-wrote the adapted screenplay.

I remember it as being good (it lives somewhere with The Distinguished Gentleman in my head).

So, yeah, check that out if you want a movie to watch.

Anyway. Beware the Ides of March, according to Shakespeare (that’s the mid point of March).

[That said, historically March 1 was the beginning of the year as it is the beginning of Spring. One of them, anyway. Apparently, “meteorological spring began March 1, but astronomical spring starts March 20, 2026.]

Nothing’s simple and most things are made up. But you, you are real! You get to live your life here in this timeline. And even though sometimes it feels kinda shitty, there are still things worth celebrating.

History shows us that spectacle can bend reality, but it only works if we’re paying attention. So maybe the move isn’t to panic but instead to build… Skills, community, crafts. Something useful for our hearts and minds and body. If spectacle governs substance, then make your substance something worthy. You decide what that looks like!

:: THE LINKS ::

SMALL TALK

• The less friction in commerce, the more screens, the more work from and stay at home, the more robots and self checkouts - the less we all spend a couple of seconds talking to humans here and there. “The disappearance of these kinds of interactions from day-to-day life – in pubs, restaurants, shops, queues, on public transport – is striking….Forget “public speaking”. What a lot of people don’t like at all any more is “speaking to anyone in public”. This is potentially not great for humanity and the whole loneliness isolation problem. “Small talk may not profoundly alter your life. But its absence will profoundly alter human life as we know it. We live in a world of intense and often unnecessary division. Small talk is a tiny, free and very possibly priceless reminder of our shared humanity.” [Guardian]

LAZY BRAINS

• We live in a world of constant stimulus and companies have commercial incentives, be they food, alcohol, or content, to maximize the possible and predicted dopamine load from every interaction. For some people, especially ADHD type brains, making a decision about the hedonic value of certain activities is more taxing than the perceived reward. “Studies in people who develop apathy have shown that many of them just don’t find it sufficiently rewarding to take action. The cost of making the effort doesn’t seem worth the potential benefit….deciding whether something is worth the effort seems to tax apathetic people more, meaning they sidestep the decision altogether. When faced with a choice to actually do something, they’re biased towards simply saying “no”. Also worth considering how this impacts for example trying to convince a consumer to try a new brand…. [Guardian Neuroscience]

BOOMCESSION

• I appreciate I have been on about this here and in articles for some years now but I stand by it. The current US ‘economy’ is structurally unstable and will have to unwind at some point, somehow. My initial belief was caused by the obvious and growing gap between ‘the economy’ as measured in standard overall terms, and how bad things are right now for most people. Consumer sentiment and GDP growth no longer correlate and that is unusual: “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at consulting firm KPMG. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. And that’s a long time to never see anything like this.”

  
  “If you look at monopolization as a systemic feature of the American economy and price discrimination as a systemic feature of the American economy, then it’s not that hard to jump from there,” Stoller said. “The people who are happy are getting different prices than the people who are sad.”

  Averages and aggregates are useful but fraught especially when there is massive inequality in the distribution. [CNBC]

:: THANKS CANNES LIONS ::

For the plaudits! Creative legends and marketing mavericks? We giggled when someone sent us this link, and we’re guessing AI probably wrote the headline, but… We’ll take it ;-) <3

We’re planning our UK/European summer, and currently Cannes is a maybe in our mix. Let us know if you or your clients are working on something where we could be of assistance :)

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

The Orville (it is still weird that it’s just Star Trek TNG with some gags but I’m getting into it), Beneath the Trees Where No One Sees, Improv, Mario Tennis, The Stanley Parable, Rosie coming home, Neil coming to visit, the Pinball Museum, sunny weekends, and YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, JOHN LONG ::

LOCATION: NYC, New York

Greetings, Strands readers. I'm John Long, a New York-based executive creative director, and I'm honored to be a guest here for the second time. Currently at Digitas, I've held creative leadership roles at Ogilvy, Huge and Code & Theory, and the run in-house agencies at The Economist and LG North America. And I've just published a book, "Zombie Brands: How brands lost their humanity—and how they can regain their appeal in the age of AI."

:: WE ASKED JOHN FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON PRODUCTIVITY (OR THE ILLUSION OF THEREOF) ::

Somewhere along the way, being busy became a badge of honor. But hustle culture is fraying, and people are rethinking whether productivity is really the holy grail—or just another trap. Is your to-do list making you better… or just making you tired? For marketers and makers, efficiency is often framed as progress. But maybe the work that matters most isn’t the fastest. Maybe the best ideas can’t be time-boxed. This theme explores the systems we build around output—and whether they serve or strangle the creative process.

What’s your favorite productivity myth to debunk?

I love this question. The myth is that "productivity tools" like Slack and Teams make us more productive. They do exactly the opposite! These things are a nuisance. They're distracting, constantly interrupt you, and most companies don't provide any governance or guidelines around their use. It's terrible. We wonder why so much work feels shallow and like low-hanging fruit and blame remote work or timelines, and no one questions these buggers. If I were King, I would make everyone delete these things today.

:: THE LINKS ::

HOW BRANDS LOST THEIR HUMANITY

• "Zombie Brands" is in two parts. The first details how the broad shift away from fame and persuasion to targeting and pestering, along with the smartphone-centric digital ecosystem, gradually stripped away what makes brands appealing—how they started looking the same, sounding the same, and acting the same. In addition, I discuss the intrinsic properties of digital ad units that make them not so great at brand building.
  
  The second half gets into what can be done about all this, and how creatives and marketers can reinvigorate brands' personalities—the way they look, speak, and act in a way that builds emotional connections. It also features a series of interviews with industry experts including P.J. Pereira (co-founder of Pereira O'Dell) on the creative possibilities of AI and Cameron Day (creative director and author) on how to create a compelling brand voice.
  
  I think we're at a tipping point. People at agencies aren't having much fun these days. Legacy agencies are being shuttered. Consolidation is eliminating jobs. And no one got into advertising to make banner ads and decks. As for clients, they aren't seeing the growth they had come to expect in decades past. And I doubt they get up in the morning excited to make another Facebook ad. Then there's the general public—our audience—who keeps telling pollsters that they hate ads, find digital ads creepy, and consistently pay a premium to avoid ads all together.
  
  I think something has to change. If "Zombie Brands" convinces even a few more people to agree with that basic premise, it'll have done its job. [ZOMBIE BRANDS]

THE CREATIVE DIVIDEND

• Speaking of new books, I highly recommend this excellent read from System1 and Effie. It hits a lot of the themes I cover in the book from a strategic and data-driven perspective and I used one of the charts in "Zombie Brands" that showed how short-termism (short-term objectives) overtook emotion and brand building ads during the pandemic, and the trend has only worsened. As I point out in the book, this will not end well. Nike and Adidas both learned the hard way that when you don't invest in the brand, you choke off growth. You turn into a Zombie Brand. [SYSTEM1]

THE MURDER OF THE WASHINGTON POST

• I can think of no better example of brand destruction than what's currently happening at The Washington Post, one of the pillars of American journalism. I was proud to call The Post my client when I was at Ogilvy, and produced the paper's first Super Bowl spot. The actions of the owner and current management make a mockery of the slogan under the paper's masthead, "Democracy dies in darkness." Jeff Bezos, like most tech titans of his generation, simply do not understand the power of brand, and never will. If I could sum up The Post's brand up until the 2024 election it would be "steadfastly and doggedly holding power to account." Once Bezos decided doing so would threaten his other businesses, he fundamentally damaged the brand, and subscribers left by the hundreds of thousands--and they won't be back. It will take years to restore The Post's reputation, but only after Bezos sells it. [The Atlantic]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Chess (still)

• City :: I said Rome last time, which still holds.

• Book :: Sticking with Robert Caro: his LBJ books are fantastic

• Podcast :: The Bulwark

• Song :: Don't Stop Believin’ by Journey.

:: THE COVER ::

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by John Long, who you can find, at least for a while longer, on Twitter @janthonylong and LinkedIn. He says that his Insta is pretty boring, so don't bother. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

Alright fam, how’s tricks? Happy Nirvana Day and Lunar New Year!

The dominant K-shaped narrative continues to unfold broadly.

The ‘economy’ contains a significant split of consumption behavior that means macro indicators belie the actual state of things. People with jobs are staying in those jobs - very wisely! People who have found themselves freelance for the first time in a while or ever are struggling to work out what the market might buy from them at this moment.

So many super senior strategy folk have recently appeared in the burgeoning market for what we at GS call creative consultancy. LinkedIn continues to show signs of a bloodbath, the AI firewall recruiting has become is forcing innovation - like the employee paying the recruiter…

BUT this week from my POV at least the current drama is, of course, about a new wave of AI stuff. Heh. It must be very difficult for analysts trying to comment on a nascent technology or industry when it changes from left-field so often. Insert here about foundational models being commodities, lack of MOATS, something about white collar employment and bottom of the s-curve.

The first big one was the whole OpenClaw and Moltbook thing.

TL;dr basically what if AI agents actually worked they way people pretend they do, plugged directly into all your own data and enabled with a credit card to do things. Hilarity and pearl clutching follow. Then a user of said system made a social network for said agents and they started planning to take over the world or something.

Humans habituate.

It’s why we are still here - survival of the most adaptable to changing circumstance. So the first time you see a new AI trick it seems cool and then immediately becomes the new level by which everything else will be judged. So when you first generate a video with a prompt you are like whoa I AM WIZARD and imagine yourself at the Oscars or at the very least the Webby’s or something. Then it becomes meh and you begin to see all the challenges and how hard it is to make something cohesive or distinctive.

You’ve seen actual TV ads, like that Coke Christmas one, that clearly used the state of the art best partners available and yet you still see weird transitions, changes, hallucinations etc. That was Christmas.

Last week Bytedance - the Chinese company that made TikTok but only own 20% of it in the USA now but it still worth $480bn in private markets - rolled out a new video model called Seedance 2.0 - and created a delightful fillip of fear in Hollywood with this video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting.

‘Hollywood’ did not like this at all although I thought Heather (much valued former Twitter friend) made sage points in the piece about being swept up by the fireworks available is a distraction:

"Heather Anne Campbell, an executive producer and a writer on the animated series “Rick and Morty,” said her social media accounts last week had been inundated with Seedance-generated clips of anime, sci-fi and unlikely superhero battles. But she is not yet worried, she said, about losing her job to the technology.

“Everybody is, I think, swept up by the circus that came to town and is showing off,” she said “I haven’t seen anything good yet. Nothing that has taken my breath away, nothing that is poignant, nothing that is provocative even. It’s all just garbage.”

When I was working on Sony a lifetime ago I asked to borrow a Handycam. The client said why no one else has and I was like well it just occurs to me maybe it would help make ads for it if I’d used one. Crazy days.

Anyway, I realized quickly that the Handycam has 20x zoom and that it is hilarious to zoom in and out. This often meant home videos looked terrible because the ‘director’ was too enamored by what they could do to do anything good. Or I was anyway. And yes we used that ‘insight’ to craft something advertising like.

Software tools move the average user towards the abilities of the expert user, which, yes, democratizes access and expression in certain ways.

Is using Adobe Illustrator that same thing as drawing? It doesn’t seem to be, although without an artist and an idea they are both simply tools.

Is a digital drawing an illustration?

Anyway, that was already days ago and since then we got this

[Article about it here]

And so some of the most difficult and expensive shots or whatever can be created at home but the very assumed ‘ease’ of this, to my mind, changes something.

We talk about costly signaling and such in advertising, but in art there is often an underlying skill quotient that we admire. That’s why people dismissively say I / my kid could have made that about certain ‘naive’ looking forms of modern art.

Point being, I think, is that pretty soon having super wild AI powered effects isn’t going to be very impressive, even in film. Yes, taste and stories and all that are much less wildly distributed than these tools will be but to my mind it’s a moment more analogous to the emergence of social media.

Previously we the people couldn’t make media and share it widely but suddenly we could. It changed the nature of the relationship between the people formerly known as the audience and the commercial media producers. We are still living through the economic impact of this, now accelerated by AI.

But what happens when anyone can make a super polished alien invasion scene with a sentence? How does that change the relationship we have craft? What is craft now?

I don’t think these questions are easy but I do believe that which is scarce is more valuable. So, apropos of that, here are some Chinese Kung-Fu robots, which I assume are not AI.

What was that Bezos once said about brand or reputation is made by doing hard things well?

Well, what happens when certain hard things become easy? The value shifts towards what is still hard.

*Also see - software developers.

:: THE LINKS ::

THE REVERSE CENTAUR’S GUIDE TO AI

• The gap between promises of techno-utopians and enterprise software salesmen and the reality of all corporate software you have ever used should be kept in mind at all time. Did Slack ‘reinvent work’ or make it more annoying? Cory is always brilliant on the current future we live in and this is a banger: “The AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job.” [Pluralistic]

THE ORIGINS OF MARIO

• Mario was named after their landlord. “Nintendo’s budding mascot had a couple of important life milestones between Donkey Kong in 1981 and Super Mario Bros. in 1985: first, another change of name, from Mr. Video to Jumpman to Mario; and second, a change of profession, from carpenter to plumber. The name was inspired by Nintendo of America’s warehouse landlord, Mario Segale. NOA’s president, Minoru Arakawa, claimed that Segale once turned up in person to loudly demand late rent. The story spread back to Japan, where Shigeru Miyamoto decided that Mario was a fine name for his little Italian character.” [LitHub]

HERE NO BE MONSTERS

• There is a Marxist philosopher who was imprisoned by Fascists in Italy that people believe they are quoting at the moment to describe the general confusion we are encountering between paradigms or S-curves. The line “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters” is a attributed to former Italian Communist party leader Antonio Gramsci. It is very evocative and seems like it says a lot about not knowing which helps when we feel like we don’t what going on. BUT - like all quotes on the internet it isn’t quite right. “In the notebooks that Gramsci filled with his thoughts on political theory, philosophy and linguistics after being imprisoned by the Italian fascist government in November 1926, there is no mention of monsters. In the original Italian, he wrote: “In questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi più svariati : “In this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” [Guardian]

:: THANKS TO YOU ::

It’s all fun and games with AI but thank y’all so much. We appreciate you.

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

AI, humans, The Curse of Oak Island, The Stanley Parable, brussels sprouts, sun & YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, ERIC BACOLAS ::

LOCATION: Miami Beach, FL/Guadalajara, Mexico

Hey All — Eric here. I’ve spent the last 25+ years scaling growth-stage companies in media, marketing, tech, healthcare, and education. That’s how I met Rosie -- we’re both 360i alums 🙌🏼. These days I’m a Results-Based Executive Coach focused on newly hired and promoted executives and leaders, as well as those navigating organizational change.

Beyond coaching, I’m the inventor of The Better Planter (born from equal parts practicality and design obsession), proud dog dad to Kika (my rescue pup off the streets Puerto Vallarta), husband to an architectural designer (we’re gearing up for a home reno in Guadalajara), and amateur chef (cooking my way through Mexico via Rick Martinez’s book “Mi Cocina”).

Basically, I’m either helping leaders unlock their potential, learning how to make mole, or using ChatGPT to train my pup. Reach out if any of this resonates with you or if you have any tips to share.

:: WE ASKED ERIC FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON PRODUCTIVITY ::

Somewhere along the way, being busy became a badge of honor. But hustle culture is fraying, and people are rethinking whether productivity is really the holy grail—or just another trap. Is your to-do list making you better… or just making you tired? For marketers and makers, efficiency is often framed as progress. But maybe the work that matters most isn’t the fastest. Maybe the best ideas can’t be time-boxed. This theme explores the systems we build around output—and whether they serve or strangle the creative process.

When is working slower actually working smarter?

Neuroscience has a counterintuitive truth for us: rushing doesn’t make us smarter, it limits our thinking. David Rock, in his Neuroleadership research and book “Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long,” points out that when our brains are overloaded, our prefrontal cortex (the part we need for problem-solving and creativity) basically short-circuits. That’s why those “I’ll power through it” nights and weekends often produce mediocre thinking. The brain actually does its best work when it has space to breathe.

Great leaders know this… and employ it for themselves and their teams.

They build in pauses: things like shorter meetings, reflection time after a big project, or even a quick break during intense thinking (a walk around the block/office, time for something mindless, or simply a pause to look at nature). Anything that takes your mind off the problem at hand. Rock shows that these slow-downs unlock adaptability, insight, and better decisions. Which is why some of our best thinking comes after a good night’s rest or while showering.

So if your smartest thinking shows up when you slow down, how can you architect your days to get your best thinking? Here’s what I do:

• Whenever possible, I schedule a break for at least 15 minutes after big meetings where I grab some tea, play a game of chess online, or just chit-chat about anything BUT that meeting. This helps the info sink in and lets my brain process subconsciously. Oftentimes this helps me draw greater insights from the meeting or allows me to come up with more creative solutions than were previously discussed.

• For big decisions, I’ll challenge myself to “sleep on it,” even when I’m nervously under deadline. Instead of forcing myself to stay up more hours, I get to bed and wake up early. More times than not, I’m rewarded with better solutions than from the night before.

• When I know I have a big decision to make (or work I hate doing), I plan for it during times when I’m well-nourished, hydrated, and when my brain is naturally sharpest. For me, that’s mornings after breakfast, tea, and a shower. Neuroscience tells us that your brain uses a lot of energy when thinking. So like a car, I choose to do the hardest stuff when my tank is full and I’m all tuned up.

What’s one thing you’ll try?

:: THE LINKS ::

IMPOSTER SYNDROME. EVERYONEHAS IT AT SOME POINT (EVEN CEO’S, 71%) WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT

• Even accomplished leaders experience self-doubt. According to a Korn Ferry study, 71% of U.S. CEOs report feeling imposter syndrome, yet 85% express confidence in their ability to perform their roles effectively. Both can be true simultaneously. As an HR Exec and Exec Coach, I work with leaders on this all the time. (And I experience it myself.) Here are a few things I’ve found helpful when you find yourself in that moment:
  
  1. Reflect on past challenges you overcame. This reflection can provide the confidence boost you need—or even learnings you can use again—in difficult times. Distance is a great teacher.
  
  2. Reframe failure as growth. John C. Maxwell, in Failing Forward, says, “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.” When disappointment hits, create space to reflect. Take a walk, detach, and then ask, “What insights can I gain from this?” This helps shift failure from a roadblock to a learning opportunity.
  
  3. Pair the voice in your head with a partner. Every situation has multiple perspectives. When the “devil” voice says, “You’re in over your head,” dial up the “angel” who reminds you, “This is only one of several projects, and most have gone well” or “All leaders face some setback and those don’t define them.” Focusing on positive self-talk helps you remain calm and gives you the clarity to focus on what’s next, “What’s one step I can take to move forward?” vs staying frozen in the moment. [CNBC]

CAN THE SYSTEM USED FOR JAPANESE STREET ADDRESSES TEACH US SOMETHING ABOUT CIVILITY IN US POLITICS?

• In Derek Sivers’ “Weird, or just different?” TED Talk from 2009, we learn that Japanese streets often don’t have names at all. Instead, blocks are numbered. And individual buildings are numbered in the order they were built, not sequentially. To any American, that can feel “weird” or even “wrong.” But to someone raised in Japan, it makes complete sense — it’s just a different way of organizing the world.
  
  So as many of us try to make sense of the intense division in the US, this got me thinking: When faced with a fundamental difference of opinion, could I (or any of us) take a step back and ask ourselves if the opposite can also be true?
  
  For instance: More government can be both bad AND good for freedom. So before we jump on someone else’s viewpoint as “wrong,” or get them to our side, we could shift to “tell me why this makes sense to you?”
  
  While that won’t ever erase disagreement, it can reframe discussions from combative to curiosity.
  
  I’m going to try it... will you do the same? [TED]

SMART STRATEGY AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: WHAT COYOTES AND DUCKS CAN TEACH US

• There’s a great film that illustrates this point, The Biggest Little Farm. And attached is a link to a thoughtful article on it from Buttered Veg.
  
  All in all, this got me thinking about unintended consequences in life and business. And how we don’t often consider the possible downsides of smart strategies or good intentions. There always is something.
  
  Watch the film. It’s engaging and eye-opening. But for those who need the TLDR, here goes:
  
  Two city folk buy a farm 40 miles outside of Los Angeles that’s been depleted by growth chemicals and pesticides. With an advisor, they commit to restoring it naturally: no chemicals, no shortcuts. At first, progress comes quickly. But every “fix” sparks something unintended: ducks are brought in to eat snails that were wreaking havoc on their fruit trees. But the ducks started overgrazing and attracted coyotes, who then started killing their chickens… You get the picture. Each smart “fix” causes an endless chain of cause and effect.
  
  To me, it’s a great example of how in life — and business — even the most clever solutions carry hidden costs. There’s probably no avoiding these hidden costs. (If you know of a surefire way, DM please.) But you can take the time in all of your planning to anticipate them. This may have you adjust your solutions… or at least prepare you to be flexible when that inevitable ‘coyote’ shows up.
  
  If you can, watch the film. It’s engaging, eye-opening, and full of lessons that apply far beyond farming. [Buttered Veg]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Codigo Secreto (or Codename) -- So much fun and could be played bilingually

• City :: New York City — So many great cities, it’s difficult to choose. But if I have to, this is it.

• Book :: Devil In The White City, by Erik Larson (Historical fiction -- architecture + one of America’s first serial killers)

• Podcast :: Hidden Brain (Explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior)

• Song :: Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out

:: FIGURE IT OUT BY MAKING MISTAKES ::

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Eric Bacolas, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

Hiiiiiiiiii! Rosie here :) Last week we ended up not hosting a mountain house weekend with friends for fear of getting trapped up the mountain. That’s a relative and regional term, y’all ;) It’s Tennessee, we’ve got plateaus and they’re gorgeous, but if you’re used to the Alps or having Mt. Rainier in your backyard, these are baby mountains. Still, there are some steep roads and they’re not the first to get plowed. And last time we were there when it snowed, 6 of us got stuck for 3 or 4 extra nights. The water pipes burst, and it was quiiiiiiite an adventure. But not necessarily one you want to re-live.

In the end, where we are in TN got passed over, but Nashville got nailed pretty hardcore. It was 45 over here and rainy, but by the time the cold came through everything had dried out. The precipitation didn’t overlap with the freezing and below freezing temps that lasted all throughout the week. (Brrrr!!!)

But Nashville was a different story.

Not only did they get several inches of snow, they also got a wintery mix which meant trees were coated in ice. That combined with heavy winds and an above ground power system meant that many lines were down. Trees fell in roads, on houses, on cars.

My mom lost power on Sunday, when it dropped down to 7F (that’s -13C, European people.) And she only regained power on Thursday. That’s not weather you want to wait out in a house without electricity!

Thankfully, both she and my sister and my dad were able to relocate downtown to a hotel and an Airbnb so they could stay warm. And still, while I’m writing this (Fri Jan 30), there are 70,000 people in Nashville without power, and streets are still littered with trees.

It’s absolutely wild.

I started this new year with some Spring energy, but I have to remind myself that we’re still in January. Or rather, the weather is reminding me we’re still very much in winter. When it’s 22F (that’s -5C, Europeans) it puts me right back into hibernation mode. Time to cozy up with a book on the couch. (I’m finally reading Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy - finishing up the last book and it’s been a delightful ride which I highly recommend, especially to any fantasy lovers.)

We hope you’re staying warm wherever you are!

HEY, FARIS HERE!

Speaking of cozy - this month I have enjoyed several cozy media experiences:

1. The game Stray - you play a cat in the future with robots. You can take naps. One of my favorite plays in ages.

2. The Curse of Oak Island - I found this show via a random FAST ‘channel’ on our Samsung TV [Samsung really, really wants to be an interface layer for all content, and has a suite of its own ‘channels]. It is very relaxing and dramatic in a reality show sense. Rosie calls it B4B - Bravo for Boys. Basically there are two brothers who have been obsessed with treasure hunting on Oak Island since they were kids. One of them made serious money. So they bought most of the island and look for treasure. It’s so cosy.

3. Slow Horses [AppleTV] is canonical cosy TV - British mystery shows often are. For some reason.

4. In general, I think 90 minute movies are cozy and sadly they seem to be dying out. Whatever happened to creativity flourishes in constraints and movies are too long nowadays and all that sort of thing. If movies are going to be three hours then I would like to insist on an interval. They still have the in INDIA and they are awesome.

5. Our friend Steve Chapman has a delightful podcast, and his voice is as soothing as a sleep story, but the content is too interesting to fall asleep to. Like Steve, Rosie and I have gone down the eel rabbit hole many a times. We know so much, but we. still. don’t. know. where. eels. come. from. Gosh, that’s wild, right?! (Also, isn’t it wild how we all say things are ‘wild’ now? Everything is wild!)

:: THE LINKS ::

THE CASE THAT AI IS THINKING

• I really enjoyed this New Yorker article because it put words to something I’ve been feeling but couldn’t quite put into words. We keep being told that A.I. is either a joke (hello, Clippy) or also possibly an existential threat, but it’s just in the weird middle area, where I guess we all seem to live. I loved this idea that A.I. “demystifies thinking” — not creativity or consciousness, but the quiet, mostly unconscious pattern. And then insert William Gibson quote about the future being unevenly distributed because for some people, A.I. is still a novelty that writes cringe emails. (I don’t get road rage, but man all the AI spam is just obnoxious.) For others, it’s already changing what a day’s work looks like. That gap—not the hype—is what leads people to bounce between skepticism and hype. [The New Yorker via Archive.is]

AI IS AVERAGE

• Creativity is a thing, a specific way of combining inputs into novel, useful solutions, and AI can do this. However, due to the very nature of AI being trained on everything, everywhere, it tends towards average. Ask one to guess a random number between 1 and 10. I bet you it says 7. More structured research suggests the same. “A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat the average human on certain creativity tests. But there’s a clear ceiling. The most creative humans — especially the top 10% — still leave AI well behind, particularly on richer creative work like poetry and storytelling.” [Science News]

  • BONUS: Check out the experiment our friends at Springboards ran at the bottom.

IS COGNITIVE DISSONANCE REAL?

• Cognitive dissonance is a whopper of the psychology / behavioral economics world. Basically, when you do something that violates your own beliefs or values, the idea goes, you tend to adjust what you believe or think to match what you did to avoid the pain of dissonance. But, as with so much experimental behavioral economics, it has proven hard to replicate. That said it does seem to explain a sensation we have probably all experienced. So. Make up your own mind. “Festinger was developing the now ubiquitous theory of cognitive dissonance. He argued that, when people encounter contradictions, they experience so much discomfort that they feel an urgent need to reduce it. In response, a person can update his views—or he can misinterpret, and even reject, whatever information has challenged his beliefs.” [New Yorker Archive Link]

:: ARE ALL LLMs STARTING TO SOUND THE SAME? ::

A growing body of research says so.

From Springboards:

This experiment isn’t about “look what AI can make.”

It’s about how easily creativity erodes when taste, judgment, and craft are traded for speed and ease. It doesn’t happen all at once. It creeps in through small compromises - safer choices, familiar references, repeatable templates, until everything starts to feel the same.

We started with a simple question: What happens when everyone feeds the same prompts into an LLM and ends upwith the same ideas?

Teaming up with an AI production crew, we began playing around with ways to show the risks. A few days later, they sent something back that made it crystal clear just how easily AI can blur creative lines. That’s when things got interesting.

Working with a real ad spot, the resemblance was… close. Closer than we expected. So we paused and dug deeper into themes like imitation, IP, and how fast things can feel off, even with the best intentions.

This experiment pulls it all together. A visual commentary on the risks and realities of using AI in creative work.

‍Our latest experiment is definitely our most contentious, but we also believe it’s our most important.

It started inside our own creative process. We were playing in Springboards and explored nearly 20 different ways to talk about our brand. But we kept circling the same problem: LLMs tend to give everyone the same answer. Different prompts in, similar outputs out

So we wondered, “what if we dramatised the problem instead of explaining it?”

The idea was simple: pick an ad and play with the ending to show what really happens when everyone is sent to the same place. Our original thought was to see how quickly we could conceptualise this approach but we were a little shocked at just how perfect it turned out.

DERP. Check it out here!

If we can ever introduce you to the folks at Springboards or help set up a demo, please don’t hesitate to let us know! We’d love to help you out and hook you up. We’re big believers in the crew and company, and happy to sing their praises far and wide.

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

family and friends in Nashville who are all safe and warm, our hot tub where we can stay safe and warm ;), slow cookers and chili cook offs, and a soup supper club too, where we had muffin tins and 6 different soups, funky candles, the game Stray, indoor plants, & YOU!

Here for you when you need us! Hit reply and let us know how we can help :)

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, REEMA MEHTA ::

LOCATION: Jersey City, NJ, USA

Hello! I’m a strategist, currently working at The Mix Global in New York where we’re making insights famous. This is the fifth country that I’ve lived in—I like to say that I’ve got a cross-cultural library of experiences. I tap into that as I decode culture and consumer behavior to solve business challenges.

I’ve been following Rosie and Faris’s work for a while now and their nomadic approach to strategy and creativity feel deeply familiar.

Outside of decks, you’ll find me learning a new language (or two) or channeling my creative energy into craft projects.

:: WE ASKED REEMA FOR HER HOT TAKE ON TOURISM & DISCOVERY ::

Everyone’s chasing experiences—but more and more of them look the same. Same influencers, same mountain viewpoint, same latte art. Social media collapsed discovery into a checklist. But the best places—the ones that leave a mark—often aren’t geo-tagged. Reflecting on true discovery—of places, perspectives, or even people…

Is discovery even possible when everyone’s algorithm is the same?

If you’ve spent any time on TikTok or Instagram, you’ve probably come across an influencer sharing a so-called “hidden gem” like the best croissant in town, a tucked-away café, or a quirky travel experience. Each time I see one of those posts, I wonder how hidden the place will be by the time I get to it, now that it’s already been broadcast to millions.

There’s a certain trust built into a recommendation — the belief that if someone else has tried it and loved it, it must be worth it. But I’ve realized that it doesn’t offer the same feeling of surprise and delight that comes with true discovery. Discovery feels harder now, but I don’t think it’s impossible.

These days, I treat TikTok-inspired must-dos as starting points and let myself wander and explore from there. And even though the algorithm shows many of us similar posts, our personal preferences still shape where we go and what we choose to experience.

Maybe that’s where discovery still lives — not in the places themselves, but in how we choose to move through them.

:: THE LINKS ::

A DIGITAL LOOKBOOK OF MICROTRENDS

• Cottagecore, tomato girl, brat summer…the list goes on. Just when you’ve wrapped your head around one microtrend, there’s often a new one already going viral. And each microtrend arrives with its own name and devoted fandom. The Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (CARI) has built a great online catalog of these visual trends. It serves as an incredible source of inspiration and is also fun to explore. [Cari]

MAKING CONSUMER INSIGHTS COUNT BEYOND THE BRIEF

• Consumer insights are pivotal to the work we do as marketing, design, and branding practitioners. Even though agencies recognize the importance of these insights, they often gather them without proper research or strategic intention. Here are some guidelines to help ensure that consumer voices are genuinely heard and leveraged while shaping good design and branding work. [Printmag]

DECODING GEN ALPHA’S CONSUMER POWER

• In many ways, the new kid on the block ‘Gen Alpha’ has already begun to influence household consumption. This report by Casey Lewis, a cultural analyst, is a great introduction to how Gen Alpha thinks, buys and influences—because let’s be honest, most of us are still catching up. [Day One Agency]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Spot it! (aka Dobble), for a quick fun time

• City :: Bruges, straight out of a fairy tale

• Book :: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (not just for its book cover)

• Podcast :: Culture Study hosted by Anne Helen Petersen for deep dives into contemporary culture

:: 100 DAYS OF EXPLORING LOVE ::

100 days of exploring love in one culture each day in an effort to decode love. Link to project

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Reema Mehta, who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: THE UPDATE ::

Happy new-ish year! Happy MLK Day! (Did you know that Stevie Wonder wrote his iconic “Happy Birthday” song to advocate for a public holiday celebrating and remembering MLK’s work?!)

Faris, here!

Gosh.

I don’t know about you but I’ve struggled to snap back to reality. This is not uncommon since the post holiday dip is real enough that a travel brand coined ‘Blue Monday’ for week three of the year (to sell travel).

(Kurt Vonnegut coined the term a lot earlier - Faris (me) acquired one of these piece by the author in 2008 or so when he moved to NYC).

It’s hard to go from completely off to completely on - at least it is for me. I’m comfortable in either state, but moving from one to the other can take hours, weeks, or client deadlines. (Ask Rosie about how long it takes me to get into a hot tub…)

I’m not religious, but I am a pattern recognition engine wrapped in meat that seeks meaning and I have noticed the Baader Meinhof effect seems oddly meaningful, especially when consuming media. Every random ‘tv’ show we semi-randomly choose to watch contains something directly about the day we just had we haven’t fully digested yet. When I started thinking about being stuck it triggered all the connections when I saw them. I have to recommend my old mate Hugh;s wonderful newsletter OK BRAIN! It’s so thoughtful, charming, helpful and well researched it frees me up to be silly with y’all instead.

PS - It’s that time of the year where we’re taking your recommendations! If you’d like to nominate yourself or someone else to be a guest curator this year, hit reply and let us know :)

:: THE LINKS ::

FEELING TRAPPED? YOU’RE NOT ALONE

• “The feeling of being trapped in the now was paralyzing us. I mentioned this to my therapist, Dr Steve Himmelstein, a clinical psychologist based in New York City who has been practicing for nearly 50 years. He assured me I was not alone. Most of his clients, he said, have “lost the future”.
  

  People are feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated, bombarded with bad news each day – global economic and political instability, the rising cost of living, job insecurity, severe weather events. This not only heightens anxiety but also makes it more difficult to keep going.”
  
  While it feels unprecedented, it isn’t. History has shown that societies in polycrises often abandon the long term dreams and instead refocus on survival, community, and short term meaning. We have to be flexible, and give ourselves self-compassion. This isn’t failure, it’s adaptation. Big futures will re-emerge, but only after we stabilize smaller ones. [Guardian]

ON CONSUMERISM

• From an older video with David Foster Wallace “It seems significant that we don’t want things to be quiet at all anymore”. “The faster things go the more we feed that part of ourselves, which starves the other part of ourselves that dwells in quiet.. being what you call grown up isn’t a lot of fun…the streak of moralism in American life that reinforces adult behaviors conflicts with the endless youthful individual consumer [not citizen] we have created…the candidates that win can afford the most television advertising…which in some ways makes them corrupt.” Just watch it. [YouTube]

SITUATIONAL AGENCY

• How dem new year’s resolutions resolving? If, perchance, not perfectly, don’t worry it’s not your fault - it’s the environment you’re in. “What is willpower?” asks Toad.
  

  “Willpower is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do,” says Frog. Research shows that achievement has surprisingly little to do with forcing yourself to choose wisely in the heat of the moment. Successful people rarely rely on inner fortitude to resist temptations. Instead, many exercise situational agency, arranging their lives to minimize the need for willpower in the first place.” [NYTimes Gift Link for you]

:: STEAL THIS: RECESS CREATIVE PLAYBOOK ::

Jody Orsborn Medina is an Experiential Creative Director who has worked on projects for Shopify, Canva, Vice, Live Nation, Nvidia, Intel, Google and more. As a freelancer, she missed having a time in the day to connect with other creatives and share inspiration, which led to her creating Recess.

In this report, she asked 48 creatives across 20 countries how they’re working right now. The big takeaway? AI is great in the middle of the process, but terrible when it comes to taste. It can speed things up, pressure test ideas, and help you finesse work flows, but taste and judgement need the human touch.

The Recess report has a great round up of resources, databases, tools, even book recommendations.

This week, we’re writing to you from Chattanooga. We’re especially thankful for:

fishnets & flannels (happy birthday, Javid!), snowy forecasts, smash chicken burgers, StickerMule & YOU!

If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. You can hit reply to this email if you’ve got anything to say, and we’ll endeavor to get back to you promptly!

rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @farisyakob.com is on Bluesky sometimes while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, MATT SADLER ::

LOCATION: London, UK

Hi there, fellow thieves - I’m Matt.

After 20+ years as a strategist at Mother, Karmarama, Fallon and more (whilst co-founding Britain’s first charity craft beer brand on the side) I’ve recently launched a freelance and consultancy practice, specialising in brand and creative strategy, and entertainment format development, called Catching Light.

Catching Light is dedicated to ideas that illuminate - brightening the world, lightening the load and shining fresh light on the familiar. So it’s a joy to add a little sparkle to your inbox ✨

I first met Faris nearly two decades ago, when I took the IPA Excellence Diploma the year after him – and came out of it with the President’s Prize, which he’d won the year before. So I guess you could say I’ve always tried to live up to his example. Including sharing a stage with him and Rosie in London a few years ago, to talk about our shared passion for great work that works - and juggling! 🤹‍♂️

:: WE ASKED MATT FOR HIS HOT TAKES ON FLUID BRANDS ::

For decades, we praised brand consistency: defined guidelines, static logos, tightly controlled voice. But today’s landscape demands something looser—more fluid, more responsive, more alive. The best brands shapeshift across platforms, tone-shift by audience, and evolve in real time. Still, there’s a tension. For marketers and strategists, the challenge is coherence without calcification—and figuring out whether today’s brand guidelines are actually just suggestions.

Can brands be flexible and coherent?

Definitely. And that point about making brands more alive is key to it all. Because brands are made both for and by people. So they’re as alive as the teams and individuals who create them. And if we can be flexible and coherent, then so will they.

Think of your year. You’ll have to show up in many different places and talk to many different people – but, whilst aspects of your personality may dial up or down to suit different scenarios, you’ll always still be you. And you’ll approach them all with your unique personality, perspective and experience. Though sometimes a new, more challenging event or environment might bring out a valuable new side to yourself.

The same can be true of our brands. When I led the global creative strategy for Stella Artois at Mother, we were all set to launch a new creative platform when COVID-19 hit. With bars closing and sales plummeting, budgets were pulled and our campaign put on ice. But instead of waiting for the pandemic to pass, we flexed into it – in a way that was coherent with our brand.

Our brand was all about bringing people together in style, to savour the European good life. But ugly social distancing signage was creating an atmosphere of fear that stoked anxiety about returning to bars. So, we commissioned Shepard Fairey’s Studio No1 to develop Together Apart Street Art - a piece of street art like no other, enabling sophisticated socially distanced drinking. Launching in London, on the day pubs reopened after first lockdown, before rolling out to six more markets worldwide - hitting national headlines in every market and generating over 1.2bn earned media impressions. So that turned into a nicely coherent flex.

How do you stay recognizable without becoming rigid? Memorable without being repetitive?

Before going independent, I spent my last couple of years at Mother leading UK mobility strategy for Uber, driving breakthrough creative and commercial impact across a wide variety of projects - and achieving exactly that. Our secret was to lean into and leverage distinctive Uber assets for each campaign, to build branded memories, but vary what assets we used and how we used them – so each felt special and exciting, but all came from the same place. Like a band smashing out a series of hit singles, one after another.

Uber Reserve combined familiar cars with the freshness of origami tickets. Trains, Now on Uber mixed distinctive brand behaviours with the surprising new world of trains. Gatwick leveraged Uber’s iconic journey line to take travellers on emotional journeys. Uber North clashed the “your driver is X minutes away” notifications with Northern insights and slang. Lost & Found in an Uber Exec combined the familiar feeling of losing something in an Uber with the freshness of being able to find lost celeb items in an Uber Exec.

And the approach was phenomenally successful, winning gold Cannes Lions, gold and silver Effies and every flavour of other creative, commercial and strategic award. So, I’m excited to be taking that ethos and experience forwards - and helping more brands top the charts.

:: THE LINKS ::

SCRAPPY STARTS CAN BECOME SOARING SUCCESSES

• As someone who’s always up for doing great things with great people - and firmly believes that one person’s crazy dream is often just a bit of hard work and a dash of luck away from putting a dent in reality - I love this story of the lo-fi origins of Baileys, which now sells around 80 million bottles worldwide, but which was first mixed up in 45 minutes in someone’s kitchen, named after a random restaurant and tested on the fly in a local pub.
  
  I was lucky enough to connect with David on LinkedIn this year and took great pride when he complimented the design and branding of Catching Light - my own bit of NPD. [Irish Times]

WE CAN CREATE THE WORLD WE WANT

• This convo between the legendary Sir Jony Ive and CEO Patrick Collison is well worth a watch. I love Jony’s ethos of putting your care, love and values into your work, dedication to pushing humanity forwards - and thoughts about the spiritual side of innovation. Patrick also seems like a great guy. And he’s in such a strong place to shape and help design the world we all live in too. So chats like this feel like they’ll be useful fuel for him as the interviewer - as well as us as the broader audience.

  Chats are for winners. More chats please. [YouTube; Stripe]

REMEMBER TO ENJOY THE DANCE

• This 4 minute clip was shared with me a few years ago by some creative directors I was working with, who said they watched it every few months to stay grounded. It stuck with me and led me to discover so many more of Alan’s teachings and speeches (and it helps that he has such a lovely voice). It’s a reminder not to get too lost dreaming about your destination, but to enjoy the dance every step of the way.
  
  In a funny way Alan was one of the influences on my new era. Catching Light isn’t an Agency with a big A, but it is agency with a small a. Because the world doesn’t need more noise - it needs more light. [YouTube; After Skool]

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

• Game :: Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, on iPhone. A game about climbing, falling and learning as you go. My first climb took 25 hours. My quickest is 16 minutes.

• City :: LDN. Cos I’m married to a Londoner. And our kids are Londoners too, innit.

• Book :: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Weird, wonderful and absolutely nothing to do with nerds.

• Podcast :: The Rest Is Entertainment. Amazing fuel for my adventures in entertainment format development.

• Song :: I Don’t Know What It Is by Rufus Wainwright. Might just make it onto my funeral playlist, alongside Send Me On My Way, by Rusted Root.

:: CATCHING LIGHT ::

:: ‘TIL NEXT TIME ::

This edition was guest curated by Matt Sadler who you can find on LinkedIn. Your regularly scheduled hosts, Rosie & Faris Yakob, will be back soon!

Strands of Genius is currently read by more than 15,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)