[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY TWO

Vol 3, No. 1. Now Unlocked.

Hi all,

Forgive the missing dispatch Friday; I began on the standard links array and realized (courtesy of some reflection at Camp Cultivate last week) that I wanted to go in a new direction for these daily missives. In part it was inspired by [SIC] homies Blackbird Spyplane liking [SIC] 332, which cited BBSP’s Treat your doubts like collaborators post, which you should read if you haven’t done so.

The subhead of that post (Creativity lessons from a Constantly Successful Eternal Beginner who has Never Known Failure) is meant to be *very* tongue-in-cheek, but combined with all the conversations with folks of my generation (and a sprinkling of younger folks) at Camp, it had me reflecting on what characterized my approach to work and how it’s shown up in my career to this point.

In short, I managed to luck into a paradigm (first the music biz, then the incipient digital content biz, then VICE) that demonstrated that it is not only possible but productive to insist on working (almost) exclusively with people that you like.

Or people that I like, anyway. Now as a consultant/advisor/board member for hire, that’s a North Star for me in a way that probably limits my immediate upside a bit, but has proven to not only sustainable long term but gives me the foundation to recommend that same approach to everybody. As much as it feels like ‘the Dumb Community' [as I sometimes call (in a non-ableist way, obvs) those who inevitably slow / embroil / gum up the work works] is unavoidable, it really isn’t. A lot of what I do now is help people I work with avoid the dummies.

So - I’ve decided to kick off a new volume of the daily digest for paid sub with a new approach. To wit:

• I’m gonna vary the number of links. Might be 10 like before. Might be more (not many more). Or, likelier, might be fewer.

• I’m going to actually reflect on the links, as opposed to copy/pasting headlines from my sources.

• I’ll probably start incorporating other multimedia content, potentially including interviews, transcripts, random photos (not that they aren’t already random but…)

• I’ll send when it’s ready (though I’m still aiming for early-ish AM my time).

Plus other adjustments TBD. You’ll have to tune in to see. I think it’ll be fun, and less formulaic. And not to worry, it’ll definitely be shorter than this initial one going forward.

So - hope you enjoy. LMK via comments or DM any time. Thanks for being here, meanwhile.

Ben

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[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY TWO

Alice Coltrane Mural at the Hammer Museum.

Caitlin Dewey’s All hail the Hipster Grifter post brought back memories of the early(ish) days at VICE (I was there 2004-2020) - the scrappy, unencumbered moment post the launch of VBS.TV but before the 2011 investment from WPP that signaled the beginning of institualizing of the business. I wasn’t involved with hiring Kari but she ended up assisting me part time and so had a bunch of my PII (credit card numbers etc), which was kinda wild. To be clear, she never grifted me (and was, as suggested, always quite charming).

The VICE story formula as I used to explain it was about finding a thread or an angle that would let the audience win happy hour - by providing the most interesting, transferable, valuable anecdote for after work drinks with peers. These days it’d be winning the Group Chat or something, but it’s the right idea generally I think.

To that end, this Are you high agency? narrative is interesting. Apparently a high-agency approach to the world is "constantly looking for what is possible, in a kind of MacGyverish sort of a way." It's a trait mostly assigned to people who start their own companies, seize opportunities that others miss, and never take "no" for an answer. High-agency people are rich, successful, or on their way to being both. They're action-oriented and find opportunities where others see roadblocks. The implication is also that they’re Aspbergian bulls in a china shop, which is sometime true too.

My take is a little different. High agency for me means making deliberate choices to make work more productive by making it more enjoyable. That means a) working with smart people, b) working with friends (or people you can be truly friendly with) and c) getting paid to do things that are fun.

Corollary to that (and my ‘Dumb Community’ remark above) - the Times is typically bloodless and annoying with this Worn Out by an Extrovert? You Can Go ‘Gray’ story about how you can not engage an overbearing colleague — that is, be boring — and eventually the attention-seeker may give up and go away. True, but not having to engage them at all is better. That’s not to say you have to buddy up with everyone (corollary, the FT’s ”Should you be riends with your landlord?) but it’s possible to at least appreciate everyone, I think.

It didn't take long to arrive at my conclusions (I think I understood them when I decided to pursue the music biz in college) but it does take a long time to land there comfortable. Age wins, after all. Hence The case for ‘late bloomers’.

And: Investor Betting on People In Their 50s and 60s.

It also brings to mind the benefit of unconventional workspace, as in this story about how Jenny Nordberg creates office furniture from "library" of unwanted parts. As Piers wrote me in sending it “Makes me miss working somewhere.”

Corollary to that: How Hotels Became Fashion’s Most In-Demand Partner. Hospitality and design of environment is more and more key - and In a fresh wave of collaborations, fashion and beauty brands are creating merch for top hotels that goes far beyond gift shop merchandise. This will inevitably trend toward hoteliers designing for brands too, I think.

More on all this as we go forward (I promise [SIC] Day won’t become a future of work blog), but meantime a final corollary to the indie VICE days: This 10 new and interesting media launches story from Journalism UK. Small scale operations are popping up everywhere and it’s not necessarily these that’ll be the next VICE, but I’m bullish that something like it is not far off. Hope I’ll get a chance to advise it.

B

Photo: Thalia Mavros

[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY TWO