Russell Davies

Flying Saucers Are Real

This arrived today and I've already devoured it. Magnificent. I've loved Jack Womack since I stumbled across Random Acts of Senseless Violence in Powell's. 

It's beautifully written. Look at this passage about HT Wilkins '...his fear of understatement' is so wonderfully put.

And here's the cover - gorgeous.

Job news

All change again.

I've been at Doteveryone over the summer, helping out, getting things a bit more focused. I'm going to be there until the end of the year but Rachel is going to replace me as CEO from November.

And then, from January, I'm going go and be Chief Strategic Officer at BETC. (And I'm going to continue helping out Doteveryone as an advisor.)

It's exciting. Back to adland. I wonder if it's changed. I will let you know....

Three piece

For some reason I read about these things within an hour of each other:

Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘ (known as Ziryab) invented the three course meal (among many other things)

and

King Charles II invented the three-piece suit.

I've spent the rest of the day trying to notice a third inventor of a three thing.

Year to year

A year ago I finished this. I didn't think I'd ever feel like doing it again, but now I think I could be tempted...

Aufentic

Authenticity seems to be a theme around here.

This captures something that feels true:

"Authenticity articulates something that never was as something supposed to be always already lost, in order to promise you are on the cusp of reclaiming it, as if naming it was the first step toward embodying it again, and doing away with your need for the word. Like “golden ages” generally, authenticity can only be identified retrospectively: In the past I was “genuinely myself” but now all I have are elusive memories of that fleeting experience, or brands and products that seduce me by pinpointing that feeling of loss and making it seem recuperable."

Simple Sabotage

Oliver Burkeman makes an excellent point about the Simple Sabotage manual that pops up on the internet every now and then. Purposeful stupidity is, basically, about complete obedience to the rules. If following the rules causes disaster, there's probably something wrong with the rules, or even the idea of having them.

"We’ve all fumed about customer service reps who refuse to be flexible. But usually the real problem is that they’re working in organisational structures that permit zero autonomy. Too often, managers assume the key to improvement must be clearer procedures and standards, more exactingly enforced. But when your management philosophy encourages the kind of behaviour that US intelligence services once sincerely believed might cause the collapse of nations, perhaps it’s time to reconsider."

DNA

I saw an interview with the CEO of Wells Fargo on the telly - because of their recent perverse incentive difficulties.

He used the phrase: 'the DNA of leadership is trust'.

I think that might be the moment where the metaphor of 'DNA' finally lost all utility and meaning in Business English. It simply means 'centralish, important thing' in the same way 'evolution' means 'vague changiness'.

September 2016

September 2016 from russelldavies on Vimeo.

Vigilance Decrement

“If you’re sitting there watching the system and it’s doing great, it’s very tiring.” In fact, it’s extremely difficult for humans to accurately monitor a repetitive process for long periods of time. This so-called “vigilance decrement” was first identified and measured in 1948 by psychologist Robert Mackworth, who asked British radar operators to spend two hours watching for errors in the sweep of a rigged analog clock. Mackworth found that the radar operators’ accuracy plummeted after 30 minutes; more recent versions of the experiment have documented similar vigilance decrements after just 15 minutes.”

This is somehow related to this - about how an audience might pay attention.

Breakfast

I would love to be able to draw like this. And then I would draw this. Sir Osbert Lancaster.