“Helen Woodward, an influential copywriter in the 1920’s, famously warned her co-workers that “if you are advertising any product, never see the factory in which it is made…Don’t watch the people at work…because, you see, when you know the truth about anything, the real inner truth – it is very hard to write the surface fluff which sell its.” No Logo Naomi Klein

In my copy I wrote “FUCK THAT.” Doing the opposite of what Helen is trying to get at is pretty much the guiding principle for how I make my decisions and run my operations online. I only work on stuff that I like.

It’s not idealism either. When you work on subjects you’ve had a long term interest in you make connections faster, relate to the community better and work harder. In short – you’re able to actually do your job.

As we’ve see over and over again – with Fanlib and BlueCollar most recently – you cannot fake it. You can get lucky for a little while but eventually it all comes crashing down. It’s a suicide rap.

When Tom (and that other guy) started Myspace, one of the first things they did was set Tila Tequila up with an account because she’d be having problems with Friendster. The rest, we know, is history. But how did they know to do that? Because they spent enough time there to know the ins and outs of the social scene and they saw how important marquee users were. They turned personal into business, not the other way around.

There’s this delusion that marketing is about strategy or connectors or whatever. But before any of that its about knowledge of the terrain. Maybe it’s possible for you, but for me, I can’t drag myself to learn about shit I don’t care about. In other words, you can only leverage new media in areas that aren’t new at all – the ones you know backwards and forwards because they’re not business to you, they’re your life.

So new media isn’t about flickr or twitter or mixx or anything of those things. It’s about you. That might mean baseball or gossip or creepy goth people. It could and should be anything.

In terms of practical advice, what they basically means is this: Spend your time learning as much as you possibly can about what you like. The business and the social and the technological opportunities will come from that base. In fact, it’s the only place they ever have and ever will come from.

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn (writers live interesting lives)

Hating Women: America’s Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex by Shmuley Boteach (this book was so offensive and stupid I can’t even link to it)

The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World (Aspects of Greek and Roman life) by H. H. Scullard (awesome. I am desperately trying to find a copy of this cheaply. I had one lined up but it fell through. I can’t believe I should have to pay $100 for a book about elephants just because the publisher is stupid. if anyone can find one, we’ll work something out)

The Cluetrain Manifesto by Christopher Locke, others. (bought it to have a copy and flipped through. regardless of the hype, the authors are genuinely bad writers)

Buying In: The Secret Dialog Between What We Buy and Who We Are by Rob Walker (dismissed a lot of marketing/web 2.0 bullshit)

The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism by J Michael Bailey (this book is really good and honest. attacks the foundations of modern social sciences. there was a great article about in the New York Times about it. )

Where Wild Things Are the Perks of Power (NYT) (I’ve read Belozerskaya’s book which is pretty good. Still I don’t think there has been a book that really captures the fascination and joy the subject inherently has. It’s something I have been trying to wrap my head around lately. Ideas?)

Why Communities Run on Love/Passion/Personality and Not Organization or Math

This is really cool and creepy

I don’t know enough about football to comment on the Brett Farve situation but let’s pretend for a minute that it’s as clear cut as it looks to an uninformed observer. It’s a good example of something a lot of people don’t want to admit – that not everything that feels right is healthy and just because you want it, doesn’t mean you should have it.

If you ever walk through Runyon Canyon, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Girls, bone thin, walking up a mountain in sweatshirts and pants when it’s a 100 degrees outside. They let Muhammad Ali box himself retarded. Nobody really questions a family destroying itself for no god damned good reason. Somebody’s whose personal life is in ruins doesn’t bother to stop and think about whether they should stop evangelizing the choices that got her there. We all have our own way of doing it.

Cognitive dissonance, the narrative fallacy , confirmation bias, rationalization, the resistance, defense mechanisms, evolutionary strategies, repression – a good chunk of what we want, what we’re pulled to, what ‘feels right’ is motivated by things other than us. So it takes a lot of hard work and hard questions to examine your life through a critical and detached lens. To break the cycle of impulse and indulgence. To become someone who’s in control of themselves, the direction that they go and the choices that they make.

“Our decisions should be made on the basis of what’s most healthy, not what will satisfy me the quickest. Live with integrity and a clear sense of right and wrong. Consider consequences. Listen to the inner voice of your instinct as carefully as a doctor checks your heartbeat.” Dr. Drew Pinsky Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again