LENS: The Madness of March
THE EXPERIENCE A fortnightly newsletter of groovy things
"In a mad world, only the mad are sane."
- Akira Kurosawa
Issue 005 – The Madness of March
"All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces. Bright and early for the daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere..."
I know Tears for Fears only covered that song - but it's one of those covers that is better than the original (Fight me!). What a weird weird month. I don't know about you but I felt like I was on a treadmill this month. Just trying to get *anything* done was impossible. Then there were bank failures that were really communication failures. TikTok is about to get banned, or not, with politicians unable to communicate anything intelligible beyond "there's a spy balloon in my pants", and all in a month where the irrational fear of Marketing AI is turning us all into Blade Runners, running Voight-Kampff tests on our content strategy.
Then when Princeton actually made the Sweet Sixteen.... I was convinced...
It's a mad world.....mad world...
Sooooo....how did your first quarter turn out?
I feel like we're turning a bit of a corner as we come into Spring.... Things are starting to feel pretty good. Business seems brisk. Spring weather is... well.. in the air... And the hills are green in Southern California so...
Let's get to it....
Does Cinderella Need Orthotics?
It wasn't just Princeton coming up as a "Cinderella" experience in March. Watch out for Barnes and Noble! After 100 years, the book seller wants to go back to its indie roots. In a very interesting podcast, the CEO says that he wants to let each store run as an independent shop and create.... wait for it ..... a better experience.
But wait a minute, do we just need to slow down our whole roll here on innovation? According to Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and a whole bunch of academics, we really do. Last week The Future of Life Institute (which okay I'm not gonna lie sounds like one of those groups where a bunch of 1970s professors that smell of patchouli oil, sit around in hot tubs and discuss things like the Hoffman Quadrinity Process.
Just Me? Anyway.... Moving on.
The group wrote a letter asking that all AI development more advanced than GPT-4 be stopped for six months so we could pause to determine whether or not we were ready for it. This is a perfect example of designing a self-sabotaging content experience. As the wonderful Josh Bernofff points out the letter is poorly written - and in passive voice. I'd call it passive-aggressive voice. But, most importantly, the "ask" for the pause is the only thing not written in passive voice. So it seems as if it was inserted at the very last minute.
It's almost as if someone said "hey, we need something catchy to get media attention." And then somebody else said "ahh, let's ask for a pause. That will get headlines." Then they both climbed out of the hot tub and edited the letter.
However, the net result is that the pause is all anyone is talking about. No one is talking about the very important, complex and nuanced issues that the letter brings up. What if instead of telling us the experience we might have - they had created the experience we should have. What if they invited all (2,957 as I write this), people to an event - to discuss these ethics issues. Might it have been more meaningful? Paris in April sounds lovely. They could even have hot tubs.
The arms race for AI is going to be the story of 2023 in the content, marketing and technology world. But the delay to slow down our efforts to innovate extends even beyond this. And that brings us to....
Orthotics For Our Other Shoe-Ism
We noticed something as March progressed. It wasn't just us that felt a bit like we were on that hamster wheel. There was a lot of "non-movement" in March. And we've been calling it "Other Shoe-Ism".
Have you noticed how much indecision there was in March? Big projects moved more slowly. Innovative initiatives were second and third guessed. There was so much navel gazing in business. I mean even Lebanon couldn't decide if they were going on Daylight Savings. The UK couldn't decide to raise the age of pensions. Even Aaron Rodgers couldn't decide if he wants to play for the Jets. Okay, that one we can understand.
Now, normally, we'd strike all this indecision up to uncertainty. Maybe it's the economy, or interest rates, or the current political facts, or even a suspicion that there is an entire class of financiers who have a stake in making sure the banking system is unstable. But while all these things may be true, our take is that it's actually, ironically, a false sense of certainty that's to blame As we've been talking with leaders in business, there's this sense that they are absolutely SURE that something else bad is going to happen. They just don't know what. They're just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It's this kind of hangover from the pandemic. Some of the leaders we talk to say the feeling is that they were caught flat-footed (I promise I'm really not trying to belabor this metaphor) by the last two years (Covid, Supply Chain, Work from Home) and they are just waiting for that next thing.
But here's a spoiler alert: It's not coming. I mean of course something is coming. But whatever you think it is: it is. In other words - and to borrow the phrase from the famous quote - whether you think there's something bad coming, or something good coming, you're right. Therefore, we shouldn't be afraid of moving forward!!
One helpful tip: I've stopped watching the news. The news has learned that the way to keep your attention is to catastrophize everything. Just last month I saw a TV news item that talked about all the rain that was falling in Southern California, and the angle of the story was "but what if it never stops?". Cue scenes from disaster movies that they used like stock footage. I mean, I just had to sing....
It's a Mad World....
New Shoes For The Cobbler's Kids
It's April - so it's time to get outside, and let's create some amazing experiences that move our clients forward, and make us happy to make miraculous leaps forward.
Here are some of the experiences our Experience Advisor Community are delivering over the next couple of weeks.
Here's What's Going On With Experience Advisors
Experience Advisor Jonathan Corley has a new video out on Generative Marketing Strategies. It's a very interesting watch.
Spice up and learn a thing or two with Experience Advisor Ian Truscott's Rockstar CMO podcast. It's a fun listen, and time it right, you can share a cocktail with Ian and Robert Rose.
Last week Robert did a bit of a panel discussion at the AI for Writers Summit - which was a fantastic event. There's an on-demand version available for $99.00. We get nothing from this - it's just worth it if you're into that kinda thing.
Want to know what is really going on in the world of B2B marketing? ... Well we're finally going to get our you know what together and do this live Navigation Session event on April 21st in the Experience Advisor's Community. IYKYK - and if you don't..
Not a member yet? Come join our EA Discord Community, we promise to surprise and delight you.