Creators: Kill Your Darlings.

I mean, if you really look at it, we have four iPods. We have two main iPhones. We have two iPads, and we have a few Macs. That’s it. And we argue and debate like crazy about what we’re going to do, because we know that we can only do a few things great. That means not doing a bunch of things that would be really good and really fun.

- "Tim Cook's Freshman Year: The Apple CEO Speaks", BusinessWeek.

In a move regarded as unusual by the media, the French research group refused to provide copies of the journal paper to reporters in advance of its publication, unless they signed non-disclosure agreements. The NDAs would have prevented the journalists from approaching third-party researchers for comment.

- "Group Promoting Rat Study of Engineered Corn Forced Coverage Rush", The New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin.

I'm not a fan of GMOs, but I don't believe in pursuing lesser evils for a greater good, either. This kind of behaviour harms the credibility of journalists as well as scientists for a public whose interests are already so fractured that they're quick to find reasons to write things off as bullshit.

The Man & the Myth

A century ago, entrepreneurs sought to pass themselves off as parasites: they adopted the style and manner of the titled, rentier class. Today the parasites claim to be entrepreneurs.

- "Mitt Romney and the myth of self-created millionaires", The Guardian, George Monbiot.

I love this article for pointing to the mythologies that flourish in a culture, and how those same mythologies -- however steeped in truth, or not -- are used fervently to defend a society whose values have completely 180'ed.

The stories we tell ourselves don't just help us get through the day; they justify our political positions as well as our worldviews. It's one of the reasons why the latter can be so hard to change.

I also want to clarify by saying I do believe in self-created millionnaires, although I don't think they consider themselves self-creations: for every Mitt, there are too few Warren Buffetts, Bill Gates and Richard Bransons. But these people don't preach the same story Mitt's espoused in his candidacy; we ought to ask ourselves why.

Creative Panels: Masturbation Disguised as Discussion

Colleen the Socialist, ironically, is not a fan of social media, because she thinks it's still "nascent" and doesn't really have its shit together yet.

"I'm sure the first thing that came out of the Gutenberg press wasn't that great," she said.

"The Bible?" asked the startled moderator.

"No, I'm sure there was a lot of crap before then..."

"No, I think the Bible was the first thing."

- "Creative Destruction: How Advertising Is Swallowing the Creative Class", Hamilton Nolan. 

I love this article. It draws blood, but kind of gently, like a blood drive nurse who's bored with your come-ons and takes a little too much a little too fast.

The ending's great too. Grilled cheese sandwiches aren't the only great sustained legacy of market creativity; it also bequeathed us tacos as we know them, White Strips, and the teenager -- whose merits we can all argue to our sulky inevitable deaths.

Via.

Reassurance

Sometimes we need some -- from Einstein, good designers and friends like So Particular who know when to pass along a good JPEG.

Two Really Good Quotes I Heard at ad:tech

Not remembered to scale.

Social media only further reveals who you really are.

-Alisa Leonard-Hansen

And in response to me, addled by some separate thing, asking whether she has always taken criticism well, Susan Bratton replied thus:

When I started public speaking, I'd get back comment cards that said truly awful things -- that I'm fake, or "who do you think you are?" -- and then I realized there might be something there. I realized I wasn't authenting enough.

What she said stuck out because critique like that can seem really personal -- like the whole world hates you, not because you're doing something wrong (and thus fixable), but because you're damn unlikeable.

Instead of drawing a warm bath and putting on the last-night-on-earth music, Susan saw this as a chance to glimpse a part of herself you can't always see on your own.

It might have been a gift, and she used it.

Justifying an 'Unjustifiable' Profession

Left-wing economists, ever eager to snatch the scourge from the hand of God, hold that advertising tempts people to squander money on things they don't need. Who are these élitists to decide what you need? Do you need a dishwasher? Do you need a deodorant? Do you need a trip to Rome?

I feel no qualms of conscience about persuading you that you do.

What the Calvinistic dons don't seem to know is that buying things can be one of life's more innocent pleasures, whether you need them or not.

- David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising.