On waiting
It’s not an activity.
It’s not an activity.
Waiting tables at a restaurant is an activity of course. And a tedious one at that. Waiting at a table in a restaurant is not though. Or at least in many cases it shouldn’t be.
After I was done with school I spent one year abroad. The organisation I went with was amazing and they took great care of us. Among other things, we had workshops and seminars preparing us for what to expect.
Most of my memories regarding these events are quite vague and I can’t really recall what we did.
I remember some roleplaying.
I remember some team building.
I remember some lessons on history.
But there is one piece of advice that I remember as clear as day.
“Never wait.” My memory on this is so clear because it is a piece of advice that I use quite frequently. And it is a piece of advice that I am very grateful for to this day. It applies far beyond my experience of staying abroad.
As a sentence consisting of only two words, the same advice could also be very poor. It lends itself to various interpretations – some of them not very useful to daily life.
A lot of things are worth waiting for. Some things are even worth a very long wait. But waiting in itself is not a fulfilling activity.
For the longest time when I had one appointment – let’s say at 2pm – that would take up my entire day. It didn’t even matter if the appointment itself lasted for only 5 minutes.
The entire day leading up to that moment I would be busy waiting. That, obviously, led to me having much less time. Or rather, it led to me having a lot of time that I couldn’t use. Time that was spent somewhere in between. I did not even allow myself to be bored in these moments. I was busy waiting.
The reason I was given the advice to begin with was that at my destination people are notoriously late. And if people are late, everything else is too. A lot of stuff that is supposed to happen doesn’t. It rarely happens the way it was planned.
Doesn’t matter – I’ve got something to do.
That is the result of her advice.
Her recommendation was to always carry at least a book with us. Which I still do most days. It feels anachronistic. It also feels like there is no alternative.
These days I have plenty of things to do. Even without a book. The bigger value to me now is that waiting doesn’t steal my capacity for taking care of something else.
Still, there are loads of situations where I have to wait. And sometimes I almost slip back into the habit of accepting waiting as my main activity for that moment in time.
Then I remember her advice. Never wait. And I am grateful.
There is a downside: Sometimes I get so drawn into whatever it is that I chose to do, that I am the one who is late.
Looking at it from that perspective, maybe the reason for everybody being late is that nobody ever waits.
And there is something to be said for time spent in between too. I do think it is valuable. But it is better if that time comes about as something taken. Not as a result of being busy waiting.
It is perfectly fine to just be sitting somewhere.
All I know is, that particular piece of advice worked well for me. And I wouldn’t want to miss it.
–
That day, she also gifted each of us one kernel of corn. For the life of me I can not remember why. And admittedly, it does seem weird now.
I held on to it for a long time though. It must’ve been valuable to me.
A symbol for something, I am sure.
On simplicity
It’s hard.
It’s hard.
DJ Shadow has a song titled “Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96” – It’s 43 seconds long and mostly consists of a loop taken from the song Snap by Cleo McNett (Sidenote – that is one amazing name!).
25 Seconds in, a voice appears “It’s the money” with a beautiful echo putting some extra emphasis on the last word. Unfortunately, I do not know where the voice sample is taken from.
I have always liked that song.
True to his style it is a beautiful instrumental and I admire his skill. Identifying that one phrase from Snap. Playing it in a loop. Withstanding the temptation to add a bunch of stuff 🤌
So simple. So hard to do.
The top comment on the song reads:
Its so simple but so poetic at the same time. He devoted a whole song just to say money is ruining hip hop. So simple but so genius and also completely true
Simple. Genius. Completely true.
I one hundred percent agree with the first part there. I somewhat agree with the second. But the third one?
I don’t know.
I do agree, that this song is a beautiful poem though.
And a brilliant example of simplicity at work.
On boredom
Valuable for individuals, risky for brands.
Valuable for individuals, risky for brands.
About 5 or 6 years ago a coworker told me that I am the world’s most boring person. She has probably forgotten about it by now – I would be surprised if she hadn’t. But I still think about it from time to time.
First of all, I was offended. Secondly, I took pride in it.
Being the world’s most something is a pretty impressive achievement in my books. And being the world’s most boring person definitely is a very interesting property.
It’s just like talking about the smallest uninteresting number in some ways.
Although – there is a notable difference between uninteresting and boring.
I don’t want to bore you with that tangent though.
This memory comes to me every now and then. Mostly in social settings. I have gotten used to it and I greet it like an old acquaintance. A quick nod of acknowledgement and we are on our separate ways.
But you know what? I know the statement to be true. Some of the time.
And I have come to accept that it is not a bad thing at all. Altogether that observation is rather uninteresting.
Being reminded of this recently again, I also realised I have some thoughts on boredom. Thoughts regarding my private life as well as my work.
Whenever I said that I was bored as a kid my Mom replied “Langeweile ist der Schlaf der Seele” (“Boredom is the sleep of the soul") – she attributed that quote to Walter Benjamin. I can not find a source for that – so going forward I will attribute it to my Mom.
The wording is a bit weird coming from my Mom though – she doesn’t usually talk about the soul as such. Boredom is the sleep of the mind would sound a lot less interesting – I like it the way it is.
“Boredom is the sleep of the soul”
Obviously that sentence stuck with me. I wouldn’t be writing about it if it hadn’t
I think of it and about it often. I carry it with me every day.
We need sleep. It is one of those things that protect us from our ever ongoing demise. 8 hours of sleep after a long day resets the timer and allows us to go on for another day. Sometimes less will do – but the value of high quality sleep, and enough of it, is only going up in our society. And I’m here for it.
Gone are the times of not-enough-sleep as a status symbol. And that’s not just my age speaking.
If my Mom is correct, boredom is just as essential for a well rested mind as sleep is. Looking into it - there has been quite a bit of research on this topic. Not surprisingly, it also got quite a bit of additional attention during the pandemic.
The german word for boredom – Langeweile – captures the feeling perfectly. Literally long-while – it describes the state in which time does not seem to be moving forward.
It is one of the weirder things. How many times did I wish I could stop time? Yet, never did I enjoy the long while boredom provides.
A small sliver of eternity.
“When, to the Moment then, I say:
‘Ah, stay a while! You are so lovely!’
Then you can grasp me: then you may,
Then, to my ruin, I’ll go gladly!”
“Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen:
Verweile doch! du bist so schön!
Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen,
Dann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!”
I do not enjoy boredom. I enjoy the short while more. And to be honest – I do not seek it out. Ever. Yet I can’t escape.
And just as with sleep, I feel like I might need to change that.
Boredom does not find me because there is a lack of entertaining options – there is always so much to do and see and experience. When it finds me it makes sure that everything accessible to me just magically becomes boring. Forcing me into a struggle to create.
I doubt boredom itself will ever be a proper status symbol. But surprisingly it actually is tied to the socio-economic status of a person.
In short: persistent boredom is more prevalent among people with less means.
Intuitively that makes sense to me – they have less space to act on that drive to explore.
So why do I think boredom holds a great value to any individual?
Boredom sparks creativity. And I love creativity.
Brands aren’t quite people
If brand X was a person, how would they behave?
That is a common question when it comes to branded communications. It helps to equip the brand with a consistent yet natural character.
Brands aren’t people though. They can’t feel boredom.
Their relationship to boredom is different. And as with many topics related to advertising there’s a perfect Ogilvy quote about it.
There really isn’t much to add to that quote. In my eyes it’s pretty perfect.
Do not bore your customers. Do not bore your potential customers. If you managed to cultivate an audience – do not bore them.
Everybody agrees to this on the surface level, I think. As always with brevity the statement is incomplete though. And what I can add are my thoughts on the consequences if we agree that his statement is true.
For some reason the general conclusion drawn from this is that we need to be entertaining in order to avoid being boring. But providing amusement is not the only way to be interesting.
You don’t need to be entertaining, but be interesting.
This is one of the few cases where there is a shortcut - short but tough. Be honest.
Just as there are structural reasons for boredom in people, there are structural reasons for boring brands.
The people in charge of communications aren’t really in charge and they do not have enough space to act.
Being boring provides safety in the short term. Long term, it will f*ck up your brand.
Dear brands, never go for the boring way. Give your people some space.
Being boring is the bigger risk.
On creativity
I love it.
I love it.
∞
My daily life revolves around creativity. Partly due to my job. Partly due to my inclinations and interests that led me to this job to begin with. Mostly due to happy little accidents.
I have as many thoughts on creativity as I have on the rest of my day-to-day life.
In creative work, experience can be as much a hindrance as it can be valuable.
To be creative means to create something new. Relying on proven patterns or recreating the path to success does not lead to good work. If anything, it makes a stale outcome more likely.
I think a fair rule of thumb is this: If your creative work ceases to be a struggle you are not on the right track. Get off the path.
Without being inside of my head this might read negative. It is positive to me. It’s a kind of struggle that feels right. And I do believe this specific word is the right choice for what I am trying to say.
define: strugglemake forceful or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction.
This is the definition google offers. I like it. Creative work wants to be free. And it needs constraints to fight for that freedom in order to create. These constraints can take a variety of forms. From the most fundamental laws of nature to social architecture and everything in between.
What is special about the kind of creativity that I get to employ daily is that it is always in the form of a service to someone. Which brings along it’s own set of constraints.
Time
Budget
The Client’s Taste
Loads Of Opinions
Corporate Strategy
Legal
Prior Work
Goals & KPIs
Etc.
Dear clients: Do not rob me of my constraints. I need the struggle. If you tell me to “just be creative” or to “tackle this project freely” and to “go smoke a spliff – or whatever you agency people do to get going” without stating a problem, a goal, something to solve for. You will not get the best output. Best case you get something I like. Worst case you will get something I think you will like.
Your biggest gift to me is a problem. A problem that I can struggle with to find (creative) solutions. Some problems are too big to tackle. Others are too small. Let us try.
This is why in agencies the brief has such fundamental importance.
Still, this starting position is somewhat common and it isn’t really as bad as I made it sound. If you let me, I can create constraints. This is a major part of my job as a strategist. As a matter of fact it is the only value of the various methods we deploy in agencies. They provide clarity and friction. Never forget: they are a means to an end not an end in itself.
If you can only provide me with one piece of information before I dive into my work – answer this question for me:
What statement about the world do you want to be true when the work is done, that isn’t true today?
–
What really gets me though is one particular piece of feedback.
“This is too creative.”
Happens quite often. But what does it even mean? Underlying this statement is a deep misunderstanding of creativity.
Thanks to open peeps for the modular character design!
Creativity is the act of creating something novel and useful.
Creativity, in it’s nature, is effective and inefficient.
Creativity is not magic. It’s an activity. It’s work.
Still, the magic happens when all the pieces align and the work results in the creation of something novel and useful.
So what does “This is too creative.” mean?
From my experience it means “I do not like the work but I can’t tell you why”. Which is problematic because it doesn’t lead us anywhere but in a spiral. Whenever this feedback appears I know the constraints were either not correct, not explicit enough or not there to begin with.
In work terms: It’s time for a rebrief.
“Explicit is better than implicit.”
As strategists 93 % of our work is to find the implicit, turn it into something explicit and make it actionable. This is hard. It is hard to do and even harder to teach. Most annoyingly there is no other way but doing it. Writing helps. So do some methods – which I will write about in more detail in articles to come.
One of my deepest convictions is this: There is no such thing as “too creative”.
Creativity is a practice as much as it is a skill set. I might miss the mark. Actually, I will definitely miss the mark from time to time.
“Failure is always an option.”
And when I do miss the mark I want you to tell me. Feedback is invaluable.
Just don’t tell me it’s too creative – if anything it isn’t creative enough!
Look at the work. Judge it. Let me know. Be explicit.
We are in this together 🫰
On writing
The thing I wish I could do.
The thing I wish I could do.
I talk a lot. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I hate it. A lot of the time it’s painful. It’s painful because it forces me to think somewhat straightforward for a while. It’s painful because I have to reveal my thoughts. It’s painful because no matter what I do I can never get the words to be an accurate representation of what I want to express.
Still, talking is nowhere near as painful as writing. When I talk, there is the occasional moment where I feel smart. Where I feel like, now I got it figured out. “Finally, I got through to the poodle's core.” And I do believe talking things through does help my thinking. Just as walking does.
Ask me about that epiphany tomorrow. I won’t be able to recall.
The thing is, the words disappear as soon as they have been uttered. There is no permanence – except for any lingering effects. The spoken words are as fleeting as my thoughts.
Talk is cheap. Paper is patient. Writing is hard.
I know why it is hard for me.
Writing is so very permanent. Set in stone. Black on white. Written down. The ink is dry on that one. Do not worry I am taking notes!
“
It’s written here: ‘In the Beginning was the Word!’”
Geschrieben steht: „Im Anfang war das Wort!”
–
Geschrieben steht: „Im Anfang war das Wort!” –
Hier stock ich schon! Wer hilft mir weiter fort?
–
Hier stock ich schon! Wer hilft mir weiter fort? –
Ich kann das Wort so hoch unmöglich schätzen,
–
Ich kann das Wort so hoch unmöglich schätzen, –
Ich muß es anders übersetzen,
–
Ich muß es anders übersetzen, –
Wenn ich vom Geiste recht erleuchtet bin.
–
Wenn ich vom Geiste recht erleuchtet bin. –
Faust in His Study
Every single written word has such a weight to it – how am I supposed to write with ease?
Yet, I have always dreamed of writing. And I have always dabbled. Taking notes in every situation. Carrying notebooks and pens with me wherever I go. Always in secret. Always a dream. Always a thing I wish I could do. A thing I never properly did.
And I know why I want to write. To me writing is the purest form of thought. I know this statement does not hold true unconditionally – it doesn’t need to.
The commitment to the written word – a thought frozen in time – is beautiful. Scary, yet beautiful.
Towards the end of 2022 that dream awoke again. It presented itself not in a forceful manner – but rather carefully. Between the years I spent some time writing but the flame died quickly after just a couple of pages.
Instead – after too much abstinence – I picked up reading again. I love reading. Of course I do. I admire those who write. I want to be one of them.
–
On 26.04.2023 I attended a poetry slam – as part of the audience. I hadn’t been in over a decade. Witnessing these people manipulate language in beautiful ways moved me. And I realised – maybe it doesn’t matter that I don’t have anything to say.
–
On 02.05.2023 – after roughly 3 months of continuous January in Berlin – I wasn’t in the best mood. Spring hadn’t quite shown itself. And those who live in Berlin know – winter is dreadful over here. Thanks to my newly found reading habit I turned to my bookshelf for comfort. I picked up Faust. The rhythm of the first three scenes is incredibly soothing.
But it didn’t quite work for me that day.
Looking for something more raw I picked up Nietzsche's diaries – which I had never read before.
I was greeted by the entry pictured to the right (or above on mobile) written on 26.12.1856.
For those who don’t read german these are the opening lines:
Naumburg, the 26. 12. 1856
Finally, I have decided to write a diary in which everything that moves the heart, whether joyfully or sadly, is committed to memory, so that years later I can still remember the life and activities of this time and especially mine. May this resolution not be shaken, although significant obstacles stand in the way. But now I want to begin:
What follows is a rather detailed account of his life leading up to that day. It is really interesting and brings an additional perspective to his later work that I was not aware of – I’d recommend reading it for anyone interested in Nietzsche's work.
I was also generally very impressed by that level of reflection.
And then I realised: At the time of writing the guy was f*cking 12.
12 years old.
That’s just ridiculous.
–
One week later – on 09.05.2023 – I created a document with the wonderful title “Who Am I?”. I wanted that level of reflection for myself. I typed away for roughly an hour. Then I stopped. I haven’t opened that document since. I’d encourage anyone to try it though. Memories are funny. And actively remembering brings about things long forgotten.
–
Some time later – I did not note the exact date for this one – I discovered a text by Bukowski titled “so you want to be a writer?”.
When I say “discovered” I mean it was brought to me by Lex Fridman who introduced his reading of the poem with the words: “Bukowski of course, I find myself disagreeing with him a lot lately.”
For all of us – trying to be writers – Bukowski has a clear cut answer: Don’t do it.
Throughout the poem he reiterates that statement a total of 13 times. Every single time in connection to a reason not to write. And every single one of those reasons is good. It is infuriating.
“the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.”
And after all of that he leaves us with this:
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.there is no other way.
and there never was.
Fuck you Bukowski, I won′t do what you tell me.
Shortly after on 13.06.2023 – out of spite - I bought the domain floris.wtf and created a little home for my writing. This blog.
I want to write about my thoughts on things. Because writing is the purest form of thinking. And I like to think.
May this resolution not be shaken, although significant obstacles stand in the way. But now I want to begin:
On murxism
It's not a typo.
It's not a typo.
I made it up. I probably wasn’t the first one to come up with it. It's a pun. I am pretty sure it's funny in German.
It came about as a little thought experiment. What if Marx had been a digital native? And what if he had written about digital economies?
I was planning this whole thing.
Create social profiles for Karl Murx
Release his work bit by bit
Create a website for the decentralist party
Come up with more as I go along
Then I realised: It’s a ton of work and I do not want to invest that kind of time.
I got as far as writing the preamble for his manifesto though - and I figured that needs to go somewhere.
Where do ideas go when they die?
On my blog. Apparently.
Enjoy
Manifesto of a decentralised society
Preamble
A spectre is haunting the globe – the spectre of decentralization. Embraced by some, fought by others, misunderstood by most.
The history of digitalization hitherto ist a history of centralized and increasingly fossilized power structures. While “disruption” has been the trend driving the story behind this development in recent years – promising to disrupt incumbents and monoliths – this only ever served to further the accumulation of control in the hands of a few technocrats.
I N F O R M A T I O N is the fundamental, underlying asset to all of this. This is common knowledge to the point that there is widespread talk of us living in the information age. A newly discovered ressource – or rather, newly discovered processes of exploiting its value – with implications so profound that it is the namesake of our times.
But who O W N S information? In order to answer that question – that, admittedly, is the substance our spectre is made of – we have to consider the following questions first:
How is information created, harvested and what – in its essence – is it?
“[…] information is the knowledge that a sender conveys to a receiver via an information channel. The information can take the form of signals or code. In many cases, the information channel is a medium. In the receiver, the information leads to an increase in knowledge.”
Information leads to an increase in knowledge when received. It is – in fact – the R A W R E S O U R C E that, when properly processed, becomes knowledge.
The expression “Knowledge is power” has become another commonplace in our times. It has become a commonplace to the extent that it pains me to write it in a serious manner in a document such as this. That does not however decrease the truth it holds. On the contrary it is one thing that we can agree upon collectively.
Commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon and first ever published in this exact phrasing – or its counterpart in Latin – by Thomas Hobbes this phrase is now more potent than it ever has been before.
Information[processed] = Knowledge = Power
In brief: Information is power in formation.
She who controls the information, controls the formation of knowledge and therefore the distribution of power.
That is indeed the starting point of our investigation. And furthermore it explains why the narrative of disruption has done nothing but further the centralisation of power. Only a select few technocrats are equipped to harvest, store and process information on a societal and global scale. This – fellow friends – is the manifesto of a decentralized society.
–
So yeah, that’s the preamble to the “Manifesto of a decentralised society”.
If Karl Murx would’ve been alive a little while longer he might’ve finished his main work. A book simply titled “Information”.
It would’ve gone a little bit like this:
Information: A Critique of platform economy
Preamble
Part 1: The flow of Information
Chapter 1.1: On the matter of harvesting
Chapter 1.2: On the matter of storing
Chapter 1.3: On the matter of processing
Chapter 1.4: On the matter of ownership
1.4.1 Social Contracts & Pointers
Chapter 1.5: On the matter of access
Chapter 1.6: On the matter of control
Chapter 1.7: On the matter of manipulation
Part 2: The resulting knowledge
Part 3: The genes of society – memes
Part 4: A call to build
And that is all Karl Murx ever wrote.