Blink:

Great word: Zeitgeist – the general, moral, and cultural climate that defines an era.

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1. Big Tech (“tech-industrial complex”)
2. Gen AI (Artificial Intelligence)
3. Turbulent Geo-politics (Russia & Ukraine, the Middle East, the Middle East, the etc., etc., etc.)
4. The Far-Right Surging
5. Climate Change
6. Extreme Natural Disasters
7. Electric Cars
8.  The Circular Economy & Sustainable Lifestyles
9. Self-Improvement Industry (Health & Wellness, Personal Development, Spirituality, Relationships, etc.)
10.  Community
11.  Social Media Influencers.
12.  Fast Foods (e.g., McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc.)
13.  Behemoth Retailers (e.g., Walmart, Amazon, Costco, etc.)
14.  Sports – arenas, team clothing (e.g., jerseys, hats, etc.), fantasy leagues, gambling, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, etc.
15.  Athleisure, jeans, sneakers, and flip flops
16. TMI
17.  Sound Bites (nanoseconds) – X, Texting/Emojis, YouTube), the Like Button
18.  Streaming & Binging
19.  “Over the Top” Show & Tell (Exotic Travel, Weddings)
20.  Millionaires to Billionaires

Welcome to Zeitgeist!

Blink:

Recently I was searching for an old post when I came upon two classic, forever relevant lists of commonly used clichés and corporate buzzwords. Great stuff!

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1. Authenticity.
2. Awesome.
3. Busy, Crazy.  I’m swamped.
4. Collaboration.
5. Disruptive innovation.
6. Ecosystems.
7. End of the day.
8. Fake news.
9. Start-ups.
10. Sustainability.
11. Transparency.
12. Work/life balance.

OMG!

Cliché (noun): A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. Do you have any clichés to add to the list?

Blink:

I do not partake in the annual ritual of making New Years resolutions. Why? I am an advocate of recurrent change; thus, people do not have to wait until a new year to implement changes. Instead, I utilize an analysis called corkscrewing to regularly reflect on my path ahead.

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Last week I finished processing my last three medical insurance claims for the year. I will not bore my readership with the details, but 2024 was a medical year, a year where I learned exceedingly about the value of resiliency. Consequently, I took time out to think about 2025 and my path. To get my juices flowing, I went into my wisdom archives and pulled out my two favorite path quotes which I would like to share today:

“Equilibrium, status quo is the precursor for death. Challenge change. Remember that living systems cannot be directed along a linear path. Unforeseen consequences are inevitable” – Fast Company Magazine

“If the path before you is clear, you are probably on someone else’s.” – Carl Jung

Bonne Année!

Blink:

Today worldwide, consumerism receives a gigantic dose of steroids! It is Black Friday 2024. There has been a plethora of influencer marketing content online lately detailing whether influence marketing movements are authentic and translate into real-world sales. Makes me wonder the impact influencers will have on today’s retail sales.                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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This past year I have shared my concern generative AI is the elephant in the room in regards to planet earth’s environment. It is used as a marketing tool to influence consumer purchasing behavior thus fueling the overall consumption of material-based products which might not be manufactured by numerous companies within the sustainable guidelines needed for a healthier planet earth. In addition, most of these products are delivered in environmentally unfriendly packaging. AI is one of the tools marketers utilize to crunch consumer data in real time to develop personalized content/messaging via social platforms. By the numbers: According to Retail Media Networks, 86% of U.S. marketers will dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2024 an industry estimated by Influencer Marketing Hub to reach $24 billion by year-end. The rationale being consumers have grown wary of conventional corporate advertising (including email) and are increasingly relying on interactions from their social platform connections. They find influencers authentic and persuasive when it comes to making purchasing decisions increasing the consumption of goods and services purchased in the market

In closing, my POV is smart marketers are finding more tools to drive consumption of products. Their latest focus being social media influencers. They understand and are creating a new industry, influence marketing, leveraging all the relevant consumerism buttons via social influencers. More importantly, the flood of consumer goods and material possessions purchased today on Black Friday 2024 will further contribute to the fragile health of our planet.

Opinions Welcomed!

Blink:

I binged on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated documentary series the Chef’s Table over the weekend. Some of the segments about world acclaimed chefs provided me with insight which will help guide me on my forthcoming business journey as I reposition myself as a food futurist.

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Key lessons:

• All new concepts start with a blank page.
• Tweak/experiment with every new concept for as long as it takes until your heart believes it is 110% right.
• Rules are restrictive. There are no boundaries. Consider reverse engineering old norms.
• Fully understand the ecosystem of your business and the interaction/connectivity of each element.
• Further validation of wisdom I previously posted from architect Frank Gehry,

– Artists serve people and live in a commercial world, but they need to discover how they can step outside the norm, take risks, and slice their sliver/niche.
– When artists/creative people step outside the norm they must accept criticism, wear it like an article of clothing for a while, then toss it and move on.

• No risk, no fun!

Opinions welcomed!

Blink:                       

Instagram is saturated with self-help guidance – social intelligence, life lessons from renown philosophers including the ancient Greek stoics, daily step by step high performance improvement objectives, etc. I advocate everybody needs to find a medley of self-help guidance that work best. I also suggest a pinch of doing nothing.

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One prominent component of self-help guidance all the online advisors tout is time utilization. They remind us we are always running out of time every day in our life which we cannot get back. Most recommend we hit the ground running and need to own the morning to establish the standard of our high-performance day. Intense! However, I have learned over the years when it is time to take a break from my high-performance drive, I need to take time to slow down, reflect and put everything in perspective. Do Nothing!

To all the readers of this post striving to become a high performer, in the words of American author Gertrude Stein: “It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”

Opinions Welcomed!

Blink:

In October I experienced a surreal moment thanks to an old fashion circular wall clock with a second’s hand, the type we used to stare at in grade school during childhood waiting for the bell.

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” (Sam Levenson – American Humorist)

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Let me set the stage: It was 1pm, I was in the Cannes hospital taking a pre-operative, disinfectant shower to prepare for a minimally invasive procedure to repair my urinary system when there was a knock at the bathroom door. It was a hospital attendant ready to roll me through the bowels of the hospital to take me to the operating theater in the basement. He was early and wheeled me on a gurney to the waiting area (a.k.a. on deck circle) placing me flat on my back facing/under an old fashion circular wall clock with a second’s hand at 1:10 pm. As I started watching the second’s hand, the anesthesiologist’s nurse missed her first three attempts to pop a vein for the intravenous drip. Not a good sign! At 1:35 pm I knew I was in for a long wait.

As I watched the second’s hand I focused on two things:

• Stoicism – The Greek philosophy & life lessons (resiliency) I have posted about which helped me cope with the Summer of 2014. I thought about stoicism week which was starting Monday the 21^st. When it came to time management Stoics believed: “It’s not that we don’t have enough time. But that we waste most of it. Life is ticking by and we can’t get back each moment that passes.” (Seneca)

• My sense of humor – I began to realize in this age of digital time, it must be difficult to be an old fashion circular wall clock (with a second’s hand) sales person. How do they manage their time?

Finally, the bell rang at 2:54 pm, I went into the operating theater and I was back in my room in time for dinner. Now I am back in my apartment resting. Good news! So far everything has been normal.

Blink:

Last week environmentalists’ content/posts regarding Hurricane Helene flooded LinkedIn. Makes sense given the magnitude of Helene’s catastrophic planetary disruption. However, thanks to following my Tribe as part of my daily routine, I read an article about another dire situation, the current global fashion industry.  

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In previous posts I have referenced the fashion industry (one of the largest manufacturing industries on the planet which is highly unregulated), as a prime example of wasteful consumer purchasing/consumption behavior. The article I read last week was about Australia’s contribution to the industry’s toxic wasteful modus operandum. It disclosed the findings of the first nationwide study conducted by Australia’s RMIT University concerning consumer behavior about their clothing. Research nugget: Australia imports a little over 1.4 billion units annually, 32 per cent of unwanted clothes end up going straight to garbage bins. Approximately, that equates to a little more than 200,000 tons of clothing going to landfill each year.
                                   

Back to Hurricane Helene. The devastation caused by Helene throughout communities across the Southeastern United States is another reminder the effects of our planet’s changing climate and the numerous disasters we are experiencing. Last week the digital environmentalists posted all the different actions, baby steps we can take in our daily lives that would make a difference reducing our overall carbon footprint and minimizing the strain on our planet. The baby steps receiving the most posts: eat less meat and dairy products, do not waste food, recycle properly, drive less, reduce our consumption of material goods, etc., etc., etc. All great suggestions! However, I advocate we do not have to wait for the next calamitous destructive event to take these individual daily actions. We need to instigate in our communities a collective mindset – Ubuntu, a concept I wrote about last year. Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning “humanity to others” the belief in a universal bond of sharing which connects all humanity; we all belong to a greater whole and when we are weaken, others are also weaken.

Think Ubuntu as you peruse your wardrobe today to figure out what you want to wear to work while listening to news in the background about Hurricane Milton. #PlanetFirst, Ubuntu 24/7/365!

Opinions Welcomed!

Blink:                       

Via several social platforms plus a newsletter, I have been studying the ancient Greek philosophy Stoicism which is making a resurgence (Stoicism 2.0). I wondered what Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius who ruled the world 1050 AD, one of the leaders of Stoicism, would think of all the online Stoic clutter/noise.

Read On:

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius’s personal journal, private thoughts, documenting/applying Stoic philosophy to his life has evolved into a world renown self-improvement classic. When reading his philosophy, I always wonder if Marcus writing for himself, to himself, to review the principles of Stoicism envisioned his journaling would reach/impact such a wide audience, plus more importantly be monetized by several authors. Championing the current revival and spreading the Stoic philosophy is an American author/philosopher, marketing entrepreneur and media strategist. Candidly I have muddled thoughts about this individual. The marketing entrepreneur side of me respects how he has broadly communicated the renaissance of Stoicism, but conversely, I am turned off by his non-stop “c’est moi” social media broadcasting (a.k.a. in your face sales pitch). Consequently, to avoid the potential of an online trolling situation by naming this individual, I will dub him the “digital stoic huckster” for the remainder of this post.

One definition of a huckster is a person who sells small items door-to-door or from a stall or small store. Candidly I admit I am being critical of the Stoicism revivalist I mentioned above. Detailed below are some examples of why I believe he has evolved from an advocate of the ancient philosophy to a modern day “digital stoic huckster.”     

• World Tour – The 2024 Stoic Life tour is coming to Europe (my hood) soon. In addition to buying tickets to a Stoic Life event, as a newsletter subscriber I am eligible to purchase a special VIP backstage pass for a first-hand Q&A session with the “digital stoic huckster.”

• Stoicism Crash Course – As a closing call to action in one of my daily newsletters I was offered the “digital stoic huckster’s” 101 Stoicism course to learn actionable lessons in just 14 days: how best to cultivate inner peace, prioritize what truly matters, develop rock-solid self-discipline, overcome obstacles with a positive mindset, as well as embrace change and uncertainty. I know I sometimes can be slow, fixed in my ways, but at age 71, it is taking me a lifetime to learn how best to manage my daily life. I cannot even Imagine having my life all figure out in 14 days!

• Journaling – All of the Stoic philosophers kept journals of their daily endeavors, as in conduct self-examination to best process their thoughts. As I read the guide to journaling newsletter there was a link to a $75 special offer, 25% off their regular price if I bought both the Stoic Life Journal with a Leather cover (ethically sourced, genuine full-grain leather, hand-crafted in Minneapolis, MN). FYI: I journal, but over the years I have used black & white marbled cover composition notebooks, the same type I used in grade school. Now I am digital.

What do you think emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of the leaders of Stoicism who ruled the world 1050 AD (pre-internet), would think of all the online 2024 monetized Stoic clutter/noise?

Opinions Welcomed!

Blink:                       

“I will have a bacon, lettuce, and tomato on toasted whole wheat with sneakers please.” FYI: Hellmann’s the World’s No.1 mayonnaise as part of their ongoing food waste awareness movement in partnership with the Italian ID Eight fashion label is launching a limited-edition sneaker made from food waste. Innovative!

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Trend? Innovative eco-sportswear.

Another innovative sportswear launch I recently read about is the Scottish sustainable clothing brand from Community Clothing. Their Organic Athletic label sports clothing (compostable shorts, sweatshirts, T-shirts and running vests) are made from plant-based technology (i.e., certified organic cotton, etc.) in lieu of the typical non-biodegradable, oil-based synthetic plastic materials (e.g. polyester, elastane, etc.). Note: Plastics and synthetic fibers have been used in sportswear for decades for their stretchability and breathability plus thermal protection, and quick-drying/waterproofing capabilities.

Kudos to Community Clothing! An innovative solution to prevent the spread of microplastics into Mother Earth’s ecosystems, thus eventually our food chain. Tomorrow is now!