Real artists…

Real artists do all the painting themselves, not like Rembrandt

Real artists use brushes, not technology like Cartier-Bresson

Real writers write it out by hand, not like Jack Kerouac

Real musicians record it live, not like Steely Dan

Real singers sing without processing, not like Kanye West and Daft Punk

Real directors do the prep without AI, not like Martin Scorsese

It turns out that real artists have always used technology. What they have in common is intent, responsibility, and the ability to create a feeling in the audience.

“Here, I made this.”

      

How to teach marketing

Trick title. There are at least three kinds of “marketing” we ought to be teaching:

1. Marketing from the point of view of the consumer. This is something every student should be taught, beginning at a young age. How do marketers manipulate customers? What desires do they amplify? What is surveillance capitalism and how does our quest for convenience get in the way of our happiness? What do we need to understand about debt, status and affiliation to become mindful in a market-ized world?
   
2. Marketing as a job in an organization. Going to meetings, creating decks, understanding spreadsheets. Terms of art like lifetime value and market share. The difference between a brand and a logo. Non-profits and corporations spend billions on marketing, and working in that system requires insight and competence.
   
3. Marketing as a craft. Strategic marketing. Telling stories that spread. Building an asset. Marketing as a service on behalf of your customers. Owning the responsibility that goes with the leverage that marketers have.

Most organized marketing instruction is about the first or second, with some online courses teaching hustle and hype, which I don’t count as marketing. My best work is about the third kind, the one where it all began.

More here.

      

Transparency and trust

In simple situations with obvious metrics, transparency earns trust. Voting, for example, benefits from audit trails and inspectability.

But transparency can also undermine trust. Walking through the typical restaurant kitchen on the way to dinner probably won’t increase the typical diner’s trust in the experience. The restaurant isn’t hiding anything; it’s just that they know things we don’t about hygiene, production, and how to present a finished dish.

You can trust your employees or your freelancers to deliver a worthwhile result, but demanding transparency about how they spend all of their time isn’t going to make you trust them more… the effort they put into the work isn’t related to the value of the work you’re asking for.

Part of the problem is that we measure what’s easy, not what’s relevant. And part of the problem is that we have trouble explaining trust, while it’s easy to pursue ever more transparency.

Once we’re coherent about what we expect and the promises that are being made, we have a chance to engage with what actually matters.

      

Professionals know how to talk about it

We evolved words on top of our primordial ability to have feelings.

Words allow us to be specific, to understand a situation more completely and to teach.

Our hunches and feelings still matter, but professionals choose to be able to talk about their work.

Learn the words and then make the choice to use them.

      

Stop ruining it

Paul McGowan makes stereos. To paraphrase his insight: The musicality isn’t a feature you add to an amplifier. It’s what’s left when you stop ruining it.

To expand: Customer delight isn’t something we add to our projects. It’s what’s left if we don’t ruin it.

Curiosity isn’t simply what’s left after a complete education. It’s still there if the system doesn’t ruin it.

Or perhaps: Satisfaction in our work isn’t created by the boss. It’s what’s left if they don’t ruin it.

And one last one: Trust isn’t something a brand builds with an ad campaign. It’s what’s left if the marketers don’t ruin it.

      

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