Category: Stories

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Approximate Thinking Art Books Creativity Fuzzy Thinking Incompleteness Stories

Zif’s Destiny : Building a miracle and Extreme Incompleteness

Or: ‘ A (seemingly) non-terminable task*

“The materials we have aren’t exactly made for the task either. All the rocks are so irregular, and this seems to be the cause of many mistakes and delays. The workers try to fit them as much as they can, but it doesn’t always work.”

Zif’s Destiny. (Fuzzy on the Dark Side)

This post is an excerpt from ‘Zif’s Destiny’ – an allegorical story that runs throughout ‘Fuzzy on the Dark Side‘, contemplating the dark effects of approximate thinking on a group of heroes, similar to famous historical and mythological figures…

Building a megastructure : Fuzzy on the Dark Side - Approximate Thinking & How the mists of creativity and progress can become a prison of illusion
Zif’s Destiny : The Mountain Tower
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Approximate Thinking Art Creativity Cultural and Creative Industries Culture Films Fuzzy Thinking Science Stories Systems Technology Work

Mundane Evil & Creativity : “I was just doing my Job..”

More often than not, evil is not one great shocking act. Mundane evil is the most prevalent form.. and what we come to see as great evil sometimes [usually in retrospect], starts with small tasks, and accumulates simple additions as it goes.

Ironically, I think this summarizes “Oppenheimer” – the events, and the 2023 film.

Oppenheimer Mundane Evil
Oppenheimer: A story of Mundane Evil

“The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.”

C.S. Lewis

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Approximate Thinking Approximation Art Books Consumer Behavior Creativity Cultural and Creative Industries Cultural Products Cultural Resources Innovation Marketing Stories Systems Trends

“Love the Refugees” : Why the Token Representative in Business and Culture works – a Market and Consumer Behavior Perspective

Token

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…

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Art Consumer Behavior Creativity Cultural Products Cultural Resources Culture Leadership Stories TV Series

Vikings: Culture, Creativity, Meanings, and reframing the past…

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).

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Approximate Thinking Books Creativity Culture Knowledge Stories

Creativity, Stories, Culture : Ursula LeGuin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness”

Stories, Culture, Creativity : The Left Hand of Darkness

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.

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Approximate Thinking Approximation Brands Consumer Behavior Cultural Products Incompleteness Innovation Knowledge Leadership Marketing Measurement Passion Stories Work

WeWork Lessons : Excess & Market Behavior under extreme hope and fuzziness

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.

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Approximation Brands Consumer Behavior Cultural and Creative Industries Cultural Products Cultural Resources Culture Innovation Leadership Marketing Measurement Stories Systems

Country Brands [Or Place Brands]: An underutilized Cultural Resource

Country Brands

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.

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Art Creativity Cultural Products Culture Stories

Three (very) Short Stories by Manto

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”.

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Art Books Brands Consumer Behavior Creativity Education Innovation Knowledge Marketing Science Stories

December Bits & Tweets

Readings, comments, links, and Quotes from the month of December.

Topics include personal growth, social media, brands, consumer behavior, and Innovation.

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