Category: rants
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seeing is deceiving
A couple of years ago in the run up to the 2016 US election, I happened to stumble upon Newt Gingrich being interviewed on some US cable news program. He was stumping for Trump and the interviewer was quizzing him about one of the innumerable falsehoods the Candidate was peddling on the campaign trail. “It…
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don’t ‘think different’. just think
My properly English mum would have disapproved of Steve Jobs’ famous slogan purely and simply for its grammatical incorrectness, for the same reason she tut-tutted whenever she saw a highway sign that said ‘GO SLOW’. The correct form was go slowly. Think differently. It requires the adverb, don’t you see? I do, Mum, I do;…
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should i go or should i stay
A couple of years ago I was attending reception during a client’s sales convention and a few of their customers dropped by to socialise. One of them was a bit late, he explained, because he’d just come from escorting his pre-teen daughter to an Ariana Grande concert. Yeah, you probably already know where this is…
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conduct unbecoming
There is a lot of chatter in the domestic media right now about a certain cabinet minister who appears to have exaggerated his role in a certain military operation in Afghanistan. Yes, he was there and yes, he played an important role, but his characterisation of himself as ‘the architect’ – that is, the top…
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address to the american marketing association
Feb 2, 2017 Philadelphia PA Friends, We live in exciting times. For we are on the cusp of a new and golden age for our industry. I make this pronouncement will full acknowledgement that ours is a trade overly fond of hyperbole and spectacle, ever too keen to announce a glittering new chapter in the…
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an argument in favor of artificial intelligence
What a week. I’m writing this on Canada Day – July 1 – 2016. One week ago, the world awoke to discover that the British people had voted conclusively to leave the EU. The decision triggered convulsions of all kinds – social, economic, political – in Britain and abroad, and will continue to do so…
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#tellthemnow – my version
A recent survey of boomer-age people asked what they most regretted as they approached old age. A significant majority cited ‘unresolved issues with parents, who were now deceased’. I totally get that. As, it seems, do many of my peers. As we collectively shuffle along this mortal coil, many of my cohort are hustling to…
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is this the real life?
Some years ago, an anthropologist was doing field work with a tribe in Africa which lived exclusively in the deep jungle. He lived among them for some time, and became a trusted friend. At one point during the sojourn, the anthropologist needed to make a journey to visit another tribe which lived not far away,…
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just watch this
Image © Warner Bros / Stanley Kubrick In Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange, the ultra-violence-loving young hero Alex is ‘cured’ of his anti-social tendencies by way of an experimental medical intervention. The procedure, vividly depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation, involved plying Alex with powerful nausea-inducing drugs while compelling him to watch films depicting…
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we were wizards, once
George Lucas, one of the true pioneers of the digital filmmaking era, presciently named his visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic. Perhaps, in his visionary way, he foresaw a future in which the miraculous became mundane, when the work of effects had lost its magic and become just another job to be done. Because…