Upstream #227
jankspace baby 👶, embedded 💠, diverge 🖖, disneygpt 🤴, let me grow 🎧.
Well. Anyway. Christ alive. We made it. Intact. Just about. What a year. A good one. Professionally, and personally. Hope yours was awesome. No worries if not. Either way, a huge thanks for showing up here. It’s appreciated. Don’t care what they say about you. You’re appreciated here. In this little space. Have a nice peaceful break. See you next year for more of this. Who know’s what’s possible. Right. Let’s go.
“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly... Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them...throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you...trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly...on tiptoes and no luggage...completely unencumbered.”
Aldous Huxley
culture // jankspace baby 👶
Digital culture is insane. In most ways, no, almost every way now, it’s way too much. This year I really felt that. Sucked deeper into voids of nothingness. Deeper into the erosion of reality, and the slopocalpse. Deeper into the wasteland, as our brains gets repeatedly hacked. To fund asshole tech bros. This is the Jankspace (some of us) exist in now. An era of neural media. It’s AI, chatbots, wearables, brain to computer interfaces, and anything based around networks of neutrons. This is the media through which the world appears to us, and we appear to it. Sloppy. Neurotic. Algorithmic. Moritz Gaudlitz wrote a nice reflection on his year, some distance from the noise. Two points, though obvious, resonated. Everyone is on their phone all the time. Not being on it is becoming a luxury. And Distraction has become the default reflex. Paying attention is starting to feel avant-garde. It echoed my thoughts. He said “what changed for me isn’t the diagnosis. It’s how I deal with it now. I worry less about keeping up and more about staying aligned. Less about reacting in public, more about being clear in private before engaging more deliberately”. Maybe the new cool is not saying anything. Not needing to be seen. Choosing when you exist in public. Choosing who receives access. Understanding that your life becomes richer, when it is not always observed. Through a chink too wide etc. For me at least, 2026 is going to be about more intention. More agency. More analog. And more off-line. Remember, even Truman escapes in the end...
brands // embedded 💠
Zoe Scaman wrote an interesting post about The Palantir Model. How, despite their often objectionable client choice, they have a very smart model for brands and businesses. A software company on paper, she points out that they’re actually in the knowledge and intelligence space. They embed their people inside organisations. For months. Not like an agency inside, but like an intelligence building resource. “They sit inside the mess until they understand it better than the people who created it”. And in doing so, they uncover the real problems. The ones not on a brief. Because as Zoe says, most organisations don’t actually have a clear understanding of their own problems. As she says, “the difference between “tell me your problem” and “let me watch you work for six months” is the difference between stated and revealed preferences. And those, as any behavioural economist will tell you, are very different things”. And when they fix the problem, or build a solution, they turn it into a generalised product. And sell it to other people. Building intelligence, knoweldge, and products, with every engagement. Consequently, they’re doing quite well for themselves. A great framing for services brands. Good elevation and vision. Stretching not only what you do, but how you’re percieved and valued.
creativity // diverge 🖖
Ken Robinson was a legend. A great thinker and simplifier. In this clip he talks about divergent thinking. The ability to see many possible answers or solutions. To think analogically, not just logically. In standardised tests for this (like uses for a paper clip), ordinary people might come up with 11 or so ideas. For creative people, it can be over 200. They might ask, “what if it was 200 feet tall, or made of rubber?”. As Ken says, “in other words they don’t accept the question at face value”. They take nothing for granted. No assumptions. There was a study done on this of 1,500 people. Over a certain level, they’d be considered genius. The 1500 people though, were kids. And guess what? 98% scored at genius level. Mental. We continue to educate divergent thinking and creativity out of people. Plus, we grow up to assume we’re not creative, because we don’t draw or sculpt or write (the art bias). But creativity and divergent thinking, are useful everywhere. For everything. Creavity isn’t a noun or a department. It’s a verb. A way of being. And of seeing the world. And hell, we need a lot more of that.
technology // disneygpt 🤴
There’s a Chinese proverb that goes, when the winds of change blow, some people build walls, others windmills. The storm is raging, so it’s always interesting to spot the windmill builders. Disney’s deal with Open AI might be one of those. $1 billion investment. 200+ characters licensed to Sora’s AI video platform. Fans can generate short videos with Disney characters (doesn’t include talent likenesses or their voices). OpenAI does the execution. Disney owns the IP, controls usage, and earns revenue every time their creative assets are used. Animators are understandably upset. Ben Thompson of Stratechery writes how both companies are cultural totems — Disney for storytelling and IP, OpenAI for generative AI’s future. So it makes sense. Others see it as a way for Open AI to boost Sora, which has been flagging. Feels seismic somehow though. Plus it comes in the same month that the Oscars move from TV to Youtube (from 2029). All signals of a shift. A changing of the guard. More to come. Buckle up.
five random (ish) things:
Richard E Grant’s home at Xmas 🎅.
How cool is this 😲.
Heh. Bullsh*t removal 💩.
Can. Not. Wait. For this 🍿.
Extremely important info ℹ️.
watching // let me grow 🎧
“By the balls of my feet. Go somewhere. Read something. Go for a walk. Listen to something. Hiccup. Hiccup. Racing ahead. Laser in. Locked in. Everyone else can go fuck it. I can do anything. Say anything. Power. A whole day to spend. No limit. No restriction. No interruption.” Feels like good advice for Christmass joy. Enjoy 😍 and see you next year.