Upstream #165
old farts, signals, carless, wanderfail, slomo.
Well. Nearly the end of May. Can you believe it? Sunshine’s beginning to warm our blood again. Summer calls. Can you hear it? Hope you’re enjoying it all. Right, let’s go.
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
Muhammad Ali (and, Adidas obvs)
culture // old farts
Gen Z’s might be cool etc, but Jesus we spend waaay too much time obsessing about them and too little, thinking about older people (with money and power). The average age of a new car buyer is 54, and many countries already have more people aged 65+, than 15-24. Plus we’re rapidly aging. As this IPSOS report suggests, we need to talk about generations. Youth obsession also means aging isn’t just a biological process, but a cultural one too. Our culture turns us into old farts. We need to stop. Older people are still attractive, see Martha Stewart, at 81 as the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover star, and can be still extraordinarily fit, see this 84 year old Spanish climber who was injured trying to scale world’s 14 highest peaks. So stop clumping “old people” together and start seeing the value, and opportunity, of age.
brands // signals
Brands are signals (wrote about that here). Signals that help us achieve deeper goals (like adventure, rebellion, order etc). And goals drive our brand choices (see Phil Barden's Decoded). David Marxx’s book Status and Culture goes one further, suggesting the pursuit of status shapes culture, aesthetics and our lives. He believes there are 4 classes: old money, new money, the professional class and those without capital, and that our cultural behaviour is driven by our position. Old money, he argues, prefers quiet, generational patina, vs louder signals from new money. Which is driving quiet luxury or stealth wealth (see Succession). We don’t always discuss status (class is delicate), but it’s generally more important than you think.
technology // carless
Mobility is changing. Slowly, but surely. Micromobility is now the 3rd most popular transport globally and growing according to the McKinsey future of mobility report. Which means, less cars. The Dutch city of Utrecht agrees, and is developing a new neighborhood that will house more than 10,000 residents with 0 privately owned cars. While already only 12% of trips in Tokyo are made via car. Norway too, is rolling back EV incentives to encourage less cars and more walking and biking. And automation might also play a role, as self-driving pods are explored in San Jose for downtown-to airport route. The car centric world we grew up in, is changing. Slowly, but surely.
creativity // wanderfail
Creativity is tough. Full of friction, and failure. Good creative people, don't fight that. They lean in, let it defeat them and learn to fail well. Psychologists and neuroscientists studied the perfect success-to-failure ratio and found that perfect success is boring and uninspiring, and abject failure is exhausting and demoralising. 16% failure rate is, in fact, the magic number. Failing more than 1 in every 5 or 6 attempts, is too often; but any less isn’t failing enough. Might also help to discover the art of wandering and embracing a journey where the destination doesn’t matter. To drift, to roam, to colour outside the lines a bit. Solvitur ambulando and all that.
five random (ish) things:
Dune Part 2 😱 😁.
Remember, just be nice 😍.
Offices remain half empty 🏢 😳.
Ikea raves in new stores 🕺🏻.
How to write simple ✍️.
watching // slomo
What happens when you change everything in your life and do what you want to do? Do what makes you happy. Is that crazy? On Pacific beach, in San Diego, someone’s done just that. Here is his short, but beautiful story. Enjoy.