Our existence, at its most basic level, is the time-delayed, distorted interpretation by a paranoid imperfect brain of grossly underpowered sensory stimulus.

These interpretations are filtered through risk-averse, judgmental, scared thoughts until they reach what we, with some hubris, call ‘consciousness’ or ‘me’.

You know… the thing that makes us way more worthwhile than that dog over there, which spends their day frolicking around, playing with tennis balls and sitting on shady porches watching the world go by.

My life as of late has become buried in the amorphous swirl of impending change.  As we know, our minds do not like change. We also do not like things to remain the same.  We screw ourselves both ways. Balance is important.

Here’s what I know.

My dad is sick.

He has Parkinson’s.

He’s dedicated his entire life to making visual art, and now his hands shake so much he can’t draw without super intense concentration.

If I wasn’t an atheist, I might file that under the irony category.

Here’s what else I know.

Kate, my love, my rock, my partner-in-this-shared-delusion was accepted to Georgia Tech’s Digital Media graduate studies program.  She and I will be relocating to Atlanta at the end of July.

I’ve only ever lived in New York City my entire life, and now we pack to leave it.

To be fair, I’ve been over the city for awhile.  I’m over the noise, the speed, the indifference, the twisted pride people feel about surviving here, the grind, the lack of eye contact, the muchness of it all.

I’m excited to be going on an adventure with someone I love.

I’m excited to see what Deeper Context ends up being, now that I will be in a new environment.

I’m excited to figure out which habits I can let go of, and to find more freedom in (and from) this shared illusion we generously call reality.

It all contributes to the swirly feeling, though.

But of course, that’s not real either.

Share your illusion with me in the comments?

Featured image credit: Lady Liberty in Fog by srslyguys, on Flickr

The Origin Story

As many of you know, I spent most of 2011 searching for work, after my time at Waggener Edstrom came to an end.  After a lot of soul-searching (and even more job board searching), I realized that the perfect job for me was not out there, so in September I decided to create the job I wanted.

As my professional passion has been feeding people’s curiosity through well-told and passionate anecdotes, I decided to make that the core focus.  It just so happened that I’d conceived of and registered the perfect name and url for the project several years ago: DeeperContext.com.

The most challenging part of getting Deeper Context up and running since my decision to start has been clarifying my vision in terms that actually describe what I find so rewarding about talking to people about the things they love, and explaining why I think its so valuable for potential clients to embrace this kind of conversation in their marketing efforts. I realize that I’ve blogged a lot about these issues right here, so I wont rehash them (you can click on the sidebar to read any of the posts I’m talking about), and I’m working toward having Deeper Context embody as many of them as possible.

Defining Terms: What is Deeper Context

To quote myself:

We produce mini-documentaries that reveal and explore the human themes within your brand.  These stories excite existing fans — and attract new ones.

DEEPER CONTEXT develops and produces non-fiction audio and video series for the web and portable devices.  Our focus is on the personal experiences of carefully selected interview subjects who are passionate about the world your brand inhabits. They are delivered in a personal, intimate and conversational tone, that resonate emotionally with people in a way that a list of features and benefits cannot.

The website includes a mission statement, some conversation about the value of my work to potential clients, and a portfolio of some of the work I’ve done in this vein (mostly as an employee of Sony Music, though I hope to have that remedied as the weeks and months go by), which I do hope you check out. I would greatly appreciate any feedback, advice or suggestions you may have to offer me as I begin this journey.

My Hope For Your Involvement

I have two things to ask of you, dear reader, dear friend.

1. If my undertaking seems like it might be of value to your or your organization, or if what I’m working on trip some synapses in your head that lead to you having suggestions or recommendations for me, please do let me know.  I’m looking for a few “seed” projects to build up the portfolio and get some good practice in interacting with clients who I consider friends.  I’m also looking for people to partner with, and am quite open to value exchanges.
2. From time to time, I will be stuck lost and confused about what to do next (okay, let’s be honest, it’s going to be a regular occurrence).  Starting a business is a tough process for which there is no foolproof method, as I’ve learned already.  If you’re in a similar position, don’t keep it to yourself.  Talk to me, blog about it, Skype with a friend, SHARE what you’re learning.  I will do my best to do the same.

What’s Next For My Writing

For those of you who are RSS subscribers (and I know there are a few), you may be interested in the fact that I’ve launched a redesign of jeremymeyers.com, putting more posts front-and-center in a magazine-style format.  This stems from the fact that I am not the worlds most prolific blogger (choosing to post only when I feel I have something worthwhile to say), and the reverse-chronological layout I had previously did not really provide access to all the useful posts from the archives.  I’ve re-categorized 10 years worth of posts to consolidate the main topics down from 23 to 7, and I hope that it proves useful.

I plan to continue blogging here at jeremymeyers.com, and will also be posting more tactical stuff about digital storytelling dos and don’ts over at the Deeper Context blog (which is a little barren at the moment, but I have big plans for it!)

The Thank You’s

The road ahead is exciting and scary, but a few people have helped me along through this process that I would be remiss in not mentioning by name.

• Amanda Lee Anderson, who designed the Deeper Context logo, and has been supportive of me and the new project throughout.
• Megan Elizabeth Morris, whose boundless enthusiasm, infectious energy and pragmatic advice kept me pushing forward when I was ready to start looking for digital strategy jobs.
• Mynde Mayfield, who has given me invaluable feedback and helped me inject more heart into my writing.
• All the friends, former coworkers and other folks who I’ve pestered to look at my site and give me feedback or help me with some design work, code or grammatical snafu, including but (definitely) not limited to Jason Moriber, David Patton, Melissa Pierce, Chris Melvin, Peter Ciccotto, Judy Tobar and Kristie Macris.
• …and of course my awesome girlfriend Kate Farina, my eternal champion, without whom I would most certainly not have the courage to follow this dream. I love you a really disgustingly large amount, momo.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to, and what I will be up to for the foreseeable future.

Wish me luck!

Of course, a few problems arise whenever one is making lists, and I’d like to list some of those here:

• Inevitably, as others release their lists, I will find myself panicked around December 15th when there are an additional 40-50 albums that I’ve never heard of that others say were their favorites that I have to listen to before finalizing my list.
• No matter what I do, I will realize 5 minutes after I hit “send” that I forgot an album I loved in favor of one I really liked but haven’t gone back and listened to that much.
• In February I will hear an album I completely missed out on but would have been on my list.

I keep all my lists here on the site (yes, RSS readers, you will have to actually click through), and I’ve helpfully created Spotify playlists for all the albums that are available for each year (because I love you!).

So without further ado, here’s the final Top 10 of 2011 list. (you can see the unedited version in the sidebar)

You can also Listen on Spotify.

In no particular order:

A.A. Bondy – Believers (Fat Possum) – Late contender, but totally glad I didn’t miss this one.  Moody indie/garagey rock and balladry from the former Verbena singer.
Marcin Wasilewski Trio – Faithful (ECM) – Delightful melancholic european jazz.
Frivolous – Meteorology (Cadenza) – Clever and playful tropical jazzy IDM-y house music
Dustin O’Halloran – Lumiere (FatCat) – Mournful, lovely, cinematic piano + string ensemble (featuring the ACME Ensemble, who guested on the latest Grizzly Bear and Owen Pallett records) from the composer of Marie Antoinette
Peter Bradley Adams – Between Us (Mishara) – My favorite guy-with-guitar album of the year.
Ezekiel Honig – Folding In On Itself (Type) – Organic, found sounds, intimate, rhythmic, pulsing, wood-y (not wooden). My favorite from the uniformly excellent Type label (sorry, Nils Frahm)
Noah and the Whale – Last Night on Earth (Mercury) – My favorite ecstatic pop/indie/rock album of the year (think random strings and brass). Wears its Tom Petty influence on its sleeve.
Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky) – Just epic. The “biggest” record here.
Ellie Goulding – Lights (Polydor) – My favorite pure dance-pop album of the year.  Great synths (sorry chillwave).
Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow (ANTI-) – The sexiest she’s ever been. The sexiest Stephen Fry has ever been. There’s a song about seducing and bedding a snowman.  Yeah.
Runners-up:
Mountains – Air Museum (Thrill Jockey) – The best electronic droney post-rock album of the year.
Ari Hest – Sunset over Hope Street – His best since “Someone to Tell”, but i didn’t end up going back to it much
Dela – Translation Lost (Drink Water Music) – My favorite hip-hop album of the year
Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down (Sugar Hill) – Who thought that a bluegrass album could make the list? Not I, but the songwriting is super strong.
Does It Offend You, Yeah – Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You (Cooking Vinyl) – Great stoopid party album. (Sorry, Justice)
Starfucker – Reptilians (Polyvinyl) – Another 80s-synth influenced pop album. Very fun but didn’t have the replay value to keep it on the list)
Arnaud Rebotini – Someone Gave Me Religion (Blackstrobe Records) – 1/2 of Black Strobe delivers one of the most interesting IDM-y house records of the year. Worth it for the 13 minute shiny

Disappointments:
M83 – Like a “Kim and Jessie” covers record that just won’t end.

So, as I’m clearing out my RSS feeds, I stumble upon a three-year-old post on Podcasting News that really nails how I feel about it, and have for some time.

The headline is “Advertisers Shouldn’t Compete For Your Attention; They Should Sponsor Your Attention.”

This is exactly right.  For too long, advertising (and marketing) have grown and grown into beasts of ego (really? awards shows for commercials? please.), vying for more and more active attention, and sucking up some of our greatest creative talents to create manipulative capitalist claptrap with budgets that would never be afforded them, had their output also not been intended to sell cars or crackers or credit checks.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been into old-time radio from the 30s and 40s.  Comedians like George Burns, Jack Benny, Fred Allen and others helped shaped my view of humor (including puns…sorry everyone), how one could tell a story that sparked the imagination without any visuals whatsoever (which has become a core focus of what I’m working on now, but more on that later), and the effective role of sponsorship in the creative process.

Old-time radio was structured around the sponsor.  Texaco Star Theater and The Colgate Program were mainstays of popular radio programming.   They were set up so that the sponsor would get an advertisement beginning of the show framing it so that they were “bringing you the entertainment” rather than having a bunch of commercials in between segments from the bunch of different sponsors vying for your attention. In this way, there is a much stronger, more up-front association between brand and content, in a way that defines the relationship to be more about ‘we are making it possible for these people to be creative and bring you stories that you love’.

Shouldn’t that be the model, rather than a bunch of broke creative people going out on their own with no resources, or a bunch of creative people taking a lot of “creative” notes from non creative people with the money? Shouldn’t financial folks spend their money to position themselves to be ‘powered by Intel’ rather than spending their own money on 30 second spots that are increasingly fast-forwarded through (here’s a good rule of thumb: when theres a multi-billion dollar industry dedicated to working around ever having to experience what you’re doing, it’s time to rethink.  I’m looking at you, banner ads.)

I think that we’re starting to see some of this come back in things like Kevin Pollak’s web show, and some of the sponsors of larger podcasts who seem to “get it”, and I hope this patronage model continues.

Over the last 3 years or so, we’ve talked about giving to others, being better communicators first, being curious about (and with) those around us, handling our fear, dealing with loneliness, de-emphasizing our egos, adjusting when conflict arises, focusing on context more than events, being compassionate, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, giving ourselves a framework for creativity, sharing and connecting through our stories, not dwelling in the negative, and even about some reflections.

Image via Wikipedia

These topics are ones that a lot of us (myself certainly included) struggle with regularly. What has been interesting is that the same things that we struggle with as people are also things that companies struggle with, and that we can use the same tools that we use to address challenges in our interpersonal lives to begin to shift how companies operate, inside and out.  This is what I’ve tried to point out more often than not here.

The fractal, scalable nature of what keeps us connecting (and keeps us from it, as well) is truly remarkable, when one is attuned to it.

Trying as best I can to avoid us vs. them thinking in my own head through connecting with people has really led me to begin to see the patterns (the “Matrix Code”, to geek out for a moment) behind many of the interactions that happen.   Being able to channel what I’m learning into this blog and have it resonate with even one person is so rewarding.

What I’m thinking about now is: What’s next?   There are thousands of blogs covering communications, from the perspective of tactics, strategy, psychology, life coaching and productivity, Buddhism and even parenting, each sharing variations on a theme of connection.

I’m certainly not the only one who talks about these subjects, nor the best or most regular blogger, but I’m proud of what’s happened here on my little corner of the interwebs, I’m ever grateful for those of you who choose to spend a few moments reading and responding (although selfishly I wish more of you would chime in and join the conversation happening in the comments).

As I begin the next chapter in the evolution of me (with some stuff that I will be announcing soon), I wonder how I can be most useful to you?

My intentions for this blog moving forward are to try to document my refocus on what matters to me (talking with passionate people about what matters to them, and collecting those stories into a cohesive overall story), and the process of making that into my full-time vocation.

What say you?

Between growing up as a music fan, and spending a decade in the music industry, I somehow managed to get my hands on about 1800 CDs of all different genres that I find good enough to keep (I am NOT a hoarder, I swear!).  These are all housed in a large cabinet consisting of a bunch of drawers, hence the name. Clever, ain’t I?

I’ve always really enjoyed turning people on to music that they haven’t heard of and end up loving, and this is one of the ways I’d like to scale that up in my day-to-day life.  I’ve created six episodes so far, and I hope that you find them entertaining and useful.

I’ve made a concerted effort to showcase music across the spectrum, from jazz to electronica to pop to hip-hop and even more obscure, because that’s where my tastes lie, and I think that experiencing the unfamiliar in a comfortable setting can lead to new interest and growth.  Some of the music featured includes artists like Suzanne Vega, Orbital, The Residents, Dream Theater, The Three Sounds.  Random. Intentionally so.

As with any creative work, all feedback is so very valuable, especially from those who take the time to read my blog and are a part of my life even in some tiny way.  I would love to hear what you think of my initial foray back into the podcasting world.

There is much more to come, and I’m excited about where my plans are heading, and I look forward to sharing them with all of you!

You can subscribe (Free, of course) to Sounds From My Drawers via iTunes, Zune or RSS, or listen on DeeperContext.com (more about d/c coming soon)

I thank him profusely for the opportunity, and hope that you find it valuable!

I’m going to need to simplify, to get other things out of the way to make room.

There is fear of committing to this life. A sense of scale that is as intimidating as it is false.

There is no forever commitment, there is only right now.

It’s been made clear that the pursuit of a mommy job to take care of me and keep me safe is not the next step.

So instead, I open, a little. I take on projects. I begin. I propose. I go for coffee. I reconnect with those similarly afloat, looking around, wondering what’s next.

This is next. It scares and excites me. It makes me want to turn around and look for mommy. There is no mommy. There is only this. We make our own mommy.

And so, I open. I peek my head outside and look around. I see others, blinking in the blinding sunlight, unsure where to look, they too waiting for their eyes to adjust.

And so, I open. And connections appear, slowly. Some give a friendly wave. Some stare from their mommy arms, envious, confused, reluctant to touch. Some come over and say hello and how are you and what do you love and let’s share, the landscape is so much less daunting when we venture out together for a time.

And so, I open, mommy’s embrace ever hovering, like a fuzzy carrot on a gnarled stick. But we make our own mommy, that one isn’t my real mommy, doesn’t really love me, doesn’t love what I can do.

And so, I open, a little.

And step forward.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale. Deep.

I know we’ve flirted off and on throughout the years, and when I left my last gig, we got more serious. But there’s something you need to know. We’ve been together for almost a year now, and I have to tell you that I don’t think its going to work out.

You’ve made big promises, made me feel like if only I’d stick with you that everything I want would come to pass, that I could get out of NYC, be able to afford all the toys I could ever want, and live a fulfilled life.  I know that many others have been convinced to stick with you, that you can make it all better, but I think it’s time for me to bow out.

In a way, I’ve always known that your promises are not for me. I’ve gone down that road for a long time, with different partners off and on, and I’ve always felt financially secure when I’m with them, but never really felt alive. Ultimately the desk, computer and phone you’re dangling like a carrot is not what I’m looking for anymore.  You’re all about the promise of security at the cost of autonomy and stifling of creativity, and that’s just not what I need right now.

You may not know this about me, job hunt, but my parents are artists who forged their own paths without needing you much, and I need to figure out where my own path is. I need to focus on myself, try a bunch of things on my own, experiment.  Sure, some things won’t work out, but this is the right decision for me, I feel sure of it.

We’ve had our good times, and I’ve learned a lot from you, so please don’t think that I didn’t value our time together.  I’m a little nervous about sharing this with you, job hunt, but that’s part of how I know that it’s the right decision for me, and for you too.  You’ve had a rough few years, and you’re certainly not at your best right now.   Maybe taking some time for yourself will help you too!

In the meantime, I’m going to start working on some projects, many of which I will post about here, should you decide you want to check in on me.  I’m going to spend some time looking for people who are more like me, people I can inspire and be inspired by, and I’m gonna connect with them to the best of my ability to try to create something special.

Please don’t be sad, maybe we can be together again someday, but, you know…don’t wait up for me.

Sincerely,

Jeremy.

[and also inspired by Amber N's Things I Wish People Knew About Me]

Vulnerability is a scary thing.  We spend a lot of time avoiding that feeling, but as Brene says, it turns out that vulnerability is a key component in connection, doing meaningful work, having fun, pretty much all that matters in the world.

This year has been a struggle for me to remain vulnerable.  Being unemployed since January in this current economic climate is a scary thing.  I decided early on to look for something that is a good fit for my skills and interests and that I can get excited about, rather than taking a job that I’d be good at but would not feed my passion and curiosity for exploring the stories behind why people love what they love.  This is great in theory, but in practice has been a constant struggle to not feel like I’m being totally selfish and silly (despite this being the right thing to do according to not just me), which leads to me putting up walls.

Image by JJSchad via Flickr

In any case, I can feel myself putting up new walls, and I think it’s reflected in my interactions online, and probably in person too.  So, this post is my attempt to ‘strip off’, if you will, and thrust myself outside of whatever self-imposed comfort zone I may have put myself in.

That said, here’s my Things I Wish People Knew About Me:

I had a very tumultuous adolescence. By the time I was 11, my parents (who had been together over 20 years) were in the process of fighting constantly and ultimately my mother moved out when I was 14 or 15.  I lived with my father until I was 25.  This became a situation that required many walls be put up to keep my emotions in check, and these walls still exist today, though I’m working on letting them go.

I never went to college, and I only regret it sometimes. People are often surprised by this, but after my traumatic teen years (including dropping out of Bronx Science, before landing at Urban Academy, which I’ve posted about before), I was in no rush to continue the educational process.  So I got a job instead.  Although I’m not convinced that college as it exists today is still a worthwhile investment, I do think that the social aspects of it could have been valuable for me.  This comes up in job interviews.

I have a really hard time giving myself credit for what others think I do well, therefore I’m often dismissive and have a hard time “selling my accomplishments”. Part of the challenge of growing up an only child and being ‘a smart kid’ is that the expectation that we will always do brilliant things leads to a self-censorship of anything we might not be good at.  This New York Magazine article explains it more eloquently than I can, but the gist of it is that somehow the goalposts for me being excited about the quality of my work is always just a bit further down the road.  I’m much more likely to brush off and discount compliments and praise than to own it. See also: this list looking sort of like a documen of insecurities.

I’m a nerd for many things, so many paths seem interesting to me. I love baking (I hope to own a tea house with fresh baked goodies when I retire), music is a central passion (I play five instruments, and DJed for over a decade in local goth clubs), I’ve even become a bit of a tea nerd lately (did you know there’s a social network called Steepster for tea fans?).  I’m always curious, always interested in learning more and it’s really easy for me to find something new to delve into (yeah, I’ve wasted more than a few evenings on Wikipedia).  My broad curiosity, while a great asset when tasked with exploring a topic, sometimes feels like it gets in the way of me being able to choose a focus.  I sometimes envy those with a singular passion who can build a goal within it and drive toward it.

Curiosity is my favorite character trait in another person. You take your senses of humor and your big or small anatomical attributes.  Curiosity is where it’s at.  A curious mind is the baseline for all creativity, adventurousness and smarts.  I love curious people, and I hope to be able to pursue my professional goal of feeding that curiosity for as many curious minds as possible.

So there you have it, five things I wish people knew about me.  It felt good to be vulnerable if just for a moment.

Thanks for listening.

Related articles

• To be vulnerable is to be free. (lifeissublime.wordpress.com)
• Curiosity, and why we need more of it in our lives (psychopoeia.com)
• Connection and vulnerability (thaitieuthu.wordpress.com)

“[...] your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” -Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

It seems to me that all these websites we use to share stuff with our friends (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus) and define our preferences to the world (the aforementioned, about.me, last.fm, spotify, netflix, and on and on) are mainly using our information to make themselves more valuable to advertisers.

“‎Facebook’s role is to turn us all into self-selected micro-targeting opportunities under the guise of making personal preference visible.” -me (last time I’ll quote myself, I promise)

We are the commodity.  Our egos are stroked as much as it takes to put a ton of work into building profiles of what we like, who we like, what our preferences are.  The feedback loop is created to reward us with Klout, followers, whatever it takes for us to continue.  We spend hours and hours tweaking our ‘public’ appearance to match what how we perceive ourselves, but what we’re doing is more of an ego stroke and a shuffling of data so that corporations can better target their mediocre advertising copy at us.  The whole system is set up as a method to delude ourselves that we are merely defining ourselves to the public, when in fact we are proactively segregating ourselves into target markets in a profound act of dehumanization.

Image via Wikipedia

We now believe that curation of other peoples creative acts is in itself as valuable as being creative ourselves.  We tout our Tumblrs, our Twitter feeds, our Google+ accounts as ‘follow-worthy’, and consider a link to other peoples lists of the “10 best things you’ll see on the internet today” to be a creative act.

To be clear, I’m not attributing any particular malevolence of intent to people in the marketing world.  Many if not most are doing their jobs to the best of their ability.  The identification, the encouraging others to self-segregate, this is their part of the machine.  They don’t spend the time thinking about whether they ‘should’, because their job is to figure out how they ‘could’

I’m reminded of a scene from an underrated sci-fi horror movie called Cube, where a number of people are trapped in what they believe to be a never-ending series of rooms connected to each other, some of which are booby-trapped with machines that kill them in grisly fashion. If you’ll permit me…

WORTH: Not this part, the exterior. I don’t know anything about the numbers or anything else in here. I was contracted to draw plans for a hollow shell. A cube.

QUENTIN:Who hired you?

WORTH: I didn’t ask. I never even left my office. I talked on the phone to some other guys like me. Specialists working on small details. Nobody knew what it was. Nobody cared. [...]  It’s maybe hard for you to understand, but there’s no conspiracy. Nobody is in charge. It’s a headless blunder operating under the illusion of a masterplan. Can you grasp that? Big brother is not watching you.

QUENTIN: What kind of fucking explanation is that?

WORTH: It’s the best you´re gonna get. I looked and the only explanation I can come to is that there is nobody up there.

QUENTIN: Somebody had to say yes to this thing.

WORTH: What thing? Only we know what it is. [...] I mean somebody might have known sometime, before they got fired or voted out or sold it. But if this place ever had a purpose, then it got miscommunicated or lost in the shuffle. This is an accident, a forgotten propetual, public, works project. Do you think anybody wants to ask questions? All they want is a clear conscience and a fat paycheck. I mean, I lead on my desk for months. This was a great job!

In this era where it seems that we’re giving up all of our power to corporations, who are made up of individual limbs without a head or a heart, entrusting them to create jobs when it’s actually against their short-term success metric ($) to hire people (where do you think “we need to do more with less” comes from?), must we go so willingly into the world of raising our hands as a consumer, and lower the bar of creation so that a “RT” counts as art?

I guess what I’m saying is several things.  Let’s not lose sight of ourselves as individuals, and be careful about how much time we spend making it easier for us to be advertised at, and turned into ‘consumers’ rather than people with a unique worldview.

Let’s be sure to create, not just consume or regurgitate.  Let’s draw, let’s write, let’s podcast, lets sing, let’s make friends.  Let’s let go of the attachment to a “success” metric, and express what’s inside.  Let’s be curious. Let’s hold ourselves to a human standard, not an AdSense-targetable influencer ranking.

This is going to be a fight.  There is a lot of momentum in the other direction.  Many will disagree, and make points about all the friends they’ve made because of these services (I agree they are useful as a means to an end, but that does not necessarily balance out the dehumanization of the means), and that’s all well and good.  Many people will have ulterior motives, though not necessarily nefarious ones.  We must keep our humanity in focus and not sell ourselves out for a Spotify invite.

Am I crazy here?

Here’s my challenge to you.  If you take a good hard look at your online activity and notice that maybe your day-to-day fits into this pattern of raising your hand as a target for advertising to corporate America, when what you’ve been told is “make this a favorite and you’ll get free DVDs and other perks,” stop what you’re doing and figure out a way to put something new into the world that isn’t a tweet, a “like” or a tumblr repost.  Then post it here for us all to see.

I look forward to it.

Thanks for reading.

Further Reading:

• Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops (wired.com)
• How Online Companies Get You to Share More and Spend More (wired.com)
• All of gapingvoid.com

Cover of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto

I’ve been reading Jaron Lanier’s brilliant “You Are Not a Gadget“, in which a large section is devoted to pointing out the many dangers of Web 2.0, mainly the fact that we are engineering, coding, and socializing ourselves to be generic ‘worker ants’ in service to an imagined ‘cloud of information’, rather than using new technologies for true individual, weird, unique expression of our humanity.

You ever read a book that scratches an itch you didn’t know you had?   I’ve long had beef with the “Social Media Community”s appropriation (and necessary corruption) of communication to achieve business goals (no matter how much ‘business wants to be more human!’ crowing happens), but I don’t feel like I’ve ever been able to articulate my fear, squickiness and discomfort with the industry that has cropped up, and the discussion that is happening around ‘what should business do with the internet’.

Jaron has managed to hit on many of the points I have in my head but have not committed to text.  Facebook, Twitter, et al remove all of our individual expression and we cheerfully attempt to self-define through a pre-selected collection of ‘what do you like’ drop downs  and ‘about me’ text boxes.  We happily accept that the entity with all the control, power, and agency are in fact advertisers, the very ‘big business’ we all claim to demand have less influence over what goes on in our world, the same places we get outraged by when we find out they pay 0 taxes and screw workers.

Something that he doesn’t touch on (more because its outside the purview of the overall point he’s making) is that business as a construct has no particular adherence to integrity.  We anthropomorphize companies in our minds, via Twitter avatars, via our laws.  Internally, however, although they may be staffed by many ‘good people’ who only have the best intentions, business as a construct arcs toward profitability and specifically routes around integrity the closer it gets to profit as a motivating factor.

One need look no further than the recent (yes, this is one of the few times on the blog I will set something in time) case where Facebook hired Burson-Marsteller to smear Google on blogs.  I do not wish to go into the reasons behind Facebook choosing to make this happen, as they’re getting enough flack.  I want to look at Burson’s contemptuous, condescending, business-style response. (brilliantly parodied by the mystery folks behind Heishman-Flillard)

They could have said “we should have turned down this task when we were asked to do it. It’s good for business but bad karma, and we are better than that.  We are reviewing the process that lead to us thinking this would be okay.”

Instead they wrote the following:

“The client requested that its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media.“

It is a total abdication of any responsibility for their actions, a justification of a slimy practice that many PR folks have condemned, and makes no attempt to claim that their work, decision-making process and vetting have any integrity whatsoever.  This from a company that is the poster child for a lack of integrity.  (seriously, Rachel Maddow did an expose about them that concluded with “When evil needs PR work done, Evil has Burson-Marstellar on speed dial”.  You can watch more examples via this Maddow clip.)

This is why I cannot get excited about business on social channels.  Business presence on social channels is by nature a corrupting influence, because business has no integrity.  People may, but the nature of business is to override personal integrity with capitalist interest under the guise of self-sustainment as it grows too large for human compassion to remain the core value.

Are there exceptions? I would argue that there are, but they are rare, generally quiet about it, and the ones that are talked about (Zappos, etc) are talked about mostly in the ‘…and they’re profitable!’ way.

The quietly virtuous ones are the kinds of companies I’ve been spending the last 6 months of unemployment trying to find and be a part of.  I work with integrity, to the best of my ability.

So, anyway… Read “You are not a Gadget”. (for the sake of the article, this is not an affiliate link).

And don’t be surprised that I’m not on fucking Empire Avenue.

But here I am on vacation in Sonoma, California, in a tiny town called Healdsburg.  There’s a place that sells homemade ice cream, and a book store that doesn’t rhyme with “glamazon” or end with “& noble”.

There’s mountains and ridiculous views of the bay and a highway called Route 1 that twists and turns its way into the sky, and at no point do you lose a quite ridiculous view of the ocean.

Image via Wikipedia

There are redwoods that were here before any of us were gleams in ancestors eyes, and places that will exist long after we’re gone.

This is not an ad for Sonoma (though it certainly could be).

It’s an ad for change.

I’ve been unemployed since January.  Little by little I’ve sunk into a rut.  Yes, I’ve been job hunting.  Yes, I’ve been tweeting, growing my network, even expanding my skills (I’m learning Final Cut Pro lately).  Yes, I’ve made the effort to get outside as often as possible (or as often as the harsh New York City winter and ever shrinking window of Spring will allow).

I haven’t felt anything resembling true vitality in awhile.  I’d hit that unfortunate place where the days seem simultaneously short and long, where they seem more about finding ways to spend them than living them.

But here, in the midst of this nature, and friendly, and different, I’m beginning to feel reborn.  I feel possibility creep in.  I’ve cocked my head just slightly, just for a week, and it turns out the world isn’t quite what I’d set up in my head (it rarely is, but I often need reminding).

I’ve often said (and admittedly probably stole from somewhere) that life is like a mobile, that you can’t make one change without affecting everything else.

Well, Kate and I decided to go on vacation, to the other side of the country where the sun is shining, where the trees are growing, where the people smile back.

Maybe we’ll stay.

Change is delicious.  I choose, for the moment, to bite into it like a crisp apple pear and let the juices run down my chin onto my shirt.

Fuck it. There will always be other shirts.

If the mood strikes (actually, if it doesn’t, especially if it doesn’t), you might want to give yours a little push, too.  If you dont, expect a kick in the ass from the people who love you.  I expect one from you, when I forget what I’ve learned. That’s part of what love is.

Let’s find out together where the mobile stops spinning.

So… What’s next?

I say it takes so little to make a emotionally resonant story… you only have to tell a really little bit and people will fill in the rest.

Witness:

http://twitter.com/davidblaine/status/18614926326

…linking to…

It really doesn’t take much.

Oh and you can find out more about the Pulitzer-prize winning image taken by Todd Heisler above via rockymountainnews.com, since I know you’re interested.

Although I know we all love the convenience of the ‘select a movie and press play’  that things like Netflix and Hulu provide, as a nerd curious person (and as someone who is working on getting a job capturing these kind of stories), I’m scared that the shift away from physical media will also signal a shift away from things like creator commentaries.

This kind of story-behind-the-thing experiences have been so meaningful to me, from both a consumption standpoint and as a content creator.  In fact, often times these stories just as enjoyable as the movie itself  (Would Lord of the Rings be nearly as impressive without the multi-hour-long documentaries about just how much work went into its creation?  And if you haven’t listened to the commentary track on This Is Spinal Tap, where the main actors tear apart the movie in character, you’ve missed out on what is essentially an improvised sequel)

I just think that hearing people talk about their experiences creating a thing (be it on DVDs, in panels, on podcasts like the ones I made for things like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, or even amongst friends and loved ones) are such a core part of the human experience, and to phase that out for the sake of convenience seems a sad state of affairs.

I really really hope it doesn’t happen.  I want the stories to stay important, not just the finished product.  Let’s not have ‘bonus features’ become synonymous with ‘unnecessary content’

Would you miss them if they went away?