Ahmad Hijazi's Website & Blog
This post is about the power of the ‘token representative’. The image of the refugee of today, is replacing that of the mobster of yesterday. It is always easier (and more emotionally satisfying) to use ‘approximate thinking’ and remember a simplified story. Interestingly, this is flowing from cultural products like Film to other areas, including business and entrepreneurship…
So, how can Thor, Odin, and the rest have been results of pillaging, rape, and raids? This post has some comments on Vikings (the series), culture, creativity, audiences, and cultural resources…
Well… the above sentence is highly reductionist, but there is some truth to it. While watching this captivating (mostly) series (Vikings), I frequently thought about culture and its components. I also thought about mobilizing the past (with some creativity and slight of hand) to support statements in contemporary public life.
Here are some of these thoughts, along with a few quotes from the show I really liked (hated).
Ursula LeGuin’s stories show how creativity can be used to explore culture and societies by constructing new universes, and offer great thought experiments. “The Left Hand of Darkness” is an adventure that does so on a very intriguing world with peculiar dwellers!
Below are some thoughts, comments, and quotes from the book.
The documentary : “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn” is entertaining (if you don’t get angry easily), and contains an amazing exploration of the behavior of markets, consumers, and leaders. There are many hilarious moments too!
This documentary illustrates the dangers of excess, “hopium”, and building great castles on foundations of ‘fluff’. The top WeWork lessons explored in this article include excess, fuzziness, consumer (and investor) behavior, and spectacles.
Country Brands can be a useful socio-economic resource. They are hard to ‘control’, but certain aspects of them can be understood and used to support markets and innovation.
In general, short stories focus on a self-contained event or mood. They can be quite powerful (although some really aren’t worth the time). (Very) short stories are a further challenge for writers. Here are three excellent examples from the film “Manto”.
Readings, comments, links, and Quotes from the month of December.
Topics include personal growth, social media, brands, consumer behavior, and Innovation.