Should we reinvent the wheel? You bet!
It’s a cliché to say that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. But what’s the real history behind the wheel itself?
Roma Agrawal is an award-winning engineer, author and broadcaster best known for working on the design of The Shard, Western Europe's tallest tower. In her latest book Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way) she mentions a historical fact that blew my mind. It took a thousand years after the invention of the wheel for somebody to use it for a moving vehicle. Huh? The wheel was invented and it wasn’t used for war chariots or the Flintstones car?
Because, you know… that’s what we think a wheel is for: transportation. But no! The first wheels were potter’s wheels. They were used to make bowls, cups and sports trophies. (Okay I made that last one up, but who knows, maybe Lavapool FC defeated Caveman United to win the first ever championship.)
Not only that, but the wheel had to be literally reinvented several times over the course of human history for it to become as useful as it is today.
Agrawal’s story teaches us a critically important lesson: reinvention can be more valuable than invention. Every professional writer knows this, because revisions are just as important as the first draft. In our era of ever-accelerating tech innovation, maybe we should spend more time looking at ways to improve and new uses for existing technology.
It’s often said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Perhaps the road to heaven is made by reinventions…
Chat with AI-braham Lincoln!
Meta is reportedly addressing declining engagement on Facebook by launching a series of AI chatbots based on historical figures and well-known character types. The surprising example given by an anonymous insider source is Abraham Lincoln. Would love to know what the real-life Great Emancipator would think about many US states’ attempts to erase slavery from school curriculums, but I’m not convinced that a chatbot will be quite so revealing.
Apparently one source who spoke to the Financial Times, which originally broke the story, said “Zuckerberg is spending all his energy and time ideating about this.” How can this possibly be true when we all know he’s prepping for a cage fight with Elon Musk?
Canada Goose Down with the Circular Economy
Iconic Canadian apparel brand Canada Goose is launching the Generations range, allowing customers to resell items they own for up to 60% of the current retail price. For example, a women's PBI Expedition parka retailing for US$1,825 in July would make someone between $1,047 and $733 when traded in, depending on its condition. Following criticism about animal cruelty, Canada Goose has already stopped using fur on its coats, and this latest foray into the circular economy is aligned with a broad international movement towards eco-conscious fashion that includes upgrading discarded clothing, such as French startup Sapar. All this at a time when popular fast-fashion retailers such as China’s Shein are facing a backlash regarding troubling manufacturing conditions and their environmental impact. In today’s world, it’s often difficult to square sustainability with capitalist economics, but at least Canada Goose is honking for change.
Shiny Orbs or Black Mirrors?
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, has launched a system to facilitate identifying you and me as human. I already know I’m human, so why the need for an encrypted blockchain key (known as a “hash”) to prove it? One example would be to access our universal basic income, which Altman is sure we will all be receiving once AI takes most of our jobs. How can you become an official human being? Simply have your iris scanned by one of Worldcoin’s chrome orb devices.
The company behind Worldcoin is San Francisco and Berlin-based Tools for Humanity. Reuters reports that the project has 2 million users from its beta period, and Worldcoin is scaling up "orbing" operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an enticement, those who sign up in certain countries will receive Worldcoin's cryptocurrency token WLD. But as the MIT Technology Review revealed over a year ago, Worldcoin’s biometric database was trained using data mainly from people in countries such as Indonesia, Sudan and Kenya who were enticed with offers of free cash and swag but no guarantee of data privacy. Some experts are calling this another case of data colonialism.
If you’re on board with what feels like a real-world episode of Black Mirror, you can apply to become an “orb operator”. There’s just one revealing hiccup: the page URL identifies the job as a “worldcoin operator”. Hmmm… what could possibly go wrong with this system?
Ash Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Six Cinquième
Q: To a certain degree, when creating a new brand, you’re trying to be clairvoyant. You need to know that the new identity will attract attention and engage people today, but also stay relevant for years to come. How do you successfully see into the future?
A: Yes when building a brand, I do like to think about where the company is going in the long term. Clairvoyance is an interesting way of putting it, but I wouldn’t necessarily say you need to have psychic abilities to build a successful brand.
My approach is to help clients think aspirationally about their company. Oftentimes clients are stuck in the day to day operations and goals for the next quarter or year. We help them take a step back to explore what their long term goals are, project ourselves decades into the future and help them think about what legacy and impact they want to leave behind in their community, industry or the world.
Once that long term vision is set, then we can come back to the present. What foundation — the message, values and actions — do we need to build our brand on to get there? What changes do we need to make as a company in our internal and external operations to ensure we can sustain the brand’s foundation on our way there? We don’t have to be clairvoyant, but we do need to know where we are going and use that as our point of reference to align with and fall back on as we grow over time.
The key to “seeing into the future” is embodying that long term vision today and staying consistent throughout the years. The only thing that will change and evolve is the way we go about maintaining that consistency. You might adopt new technologies and methods, introduce new initiatives, adapt your vocabulary or tweak your aesthetic as a brand to keep up. But as long as you don’t deviate too far from the core message and values that people connect with on an emotional level, your brand can become timeless.
An artist at heart, Ash Phillips is a creative director, brand strategist and entrepreneur working in the creative industry since 2016. In the last 7 years, she has established herself as a powerful business owner and inspiration for WOC. Her goal is to foster an environment that is welcoming for young creatives that look like her, while pushing the bar and executing high quality visuals backed by strategy and design thinking. Leading by example, she strives to shape a more diverse, healthy and inclusive future for the creative industry in Montreal and as a whole.
Six Cinquième is an award-winning Montreal based strategic brand consultancy. With a focus in the arts & culture, tech and entertainment industries, Six Cinquième helps aspiring global brands define and express who they are, align on an authentic vision and supports them in scaling it. Their expertise and work has been recognized by Adweek, Digiday, Print Magazine, Creative Boom, Design Week and more.
When Going Green Was Toxic
Sometimes scientists know how dangerous their work is before they even begin (see: Oppenheimer). And sometimes it takes a while to figure out that a new discovery is killing a bunch of people. So when Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented a green pigment in 1775 that was more brilliant and durable than commonly used copper carbonate pigment, it was quickly adopted as a kind of Pantone Color of the Century.
The only problem? Scheele’s green was a chemical compound called copper arsenite. Unfortunately – as became apparent several decades later – arsenic is deadly poisonous.
But when it was first introduced, the color was so vivid that it caught the eye of high society. Soon, everyone wanted trendy green drapes, toys, clothing, candles and even candy. By 1830, one million rolls of wallpaper were made per year using Scheele’s green in Britain alone! As the deaths of children, pets and Victorian ladies in their green-papered living rooms turned out to be more than just a coincidence, the pigment was eventually banned.
Scheele’s green was literally an intoxicating color. And also a cautionary tale for the modern age, when plastics and chemicals that were marketed as improving our lives are now known to be poisoning people and ecosystems worldwide.
Historian Samuel W. Franklin was interviewed on NPR’s Throughline podcast last month about his latest book, The Cult of Creativity: A Surprisingly Recent History. I was indeed surprised to learn that “creativity” didn’t become a social value until after the second world war, when the United States needed to demonstrate its superiority over the drab, uncreative Soviet Union.
In the interview, Franklin discusses original thinking, AI, and how corporations have packaged creativity as a product. Plenty to chew on for advertising creatives and marketers everywhere.
If you’re interested in other articles I’ve written, check out my most recent piece in Generative AI: Bullshit is the Least of our Worries.
I’d love to know what you think about it, so leave a comment or email me at john@johnbdutton.com. And why not connect with me on LinkedIn if you haven’t already?