Back the Brits, Tech on Trial and Making an Effort Again
The weekly look at three signals to reframe for optimism in dark times, plus curious ‘how might we…’ ideas for what we can do, moving forward.
Backing the Brits
More Joy! Nothing but good news for British Fashion over the past week as it was announced that Christopher Kane will be the new Creative Director at Mulberry AND the British Fashion Council’s four year strategy was released: “If Paris is luxury and Milan is heritage, then London is the innovation and culture that fuels it all.” Personally I see inclusion as a clear point of differentiation for London but the BFC’s new focus on transforming to an incubator-led org, decentralising from London and commitments to DE&I and creative-led soft power for the UK are especially exciting to see.
Moving forward: How might we apply that same transformation in our own worlds? Less performance, more practical support for the people actually doing the work?
Big Tech on Trial > on Trend
A few threads to this one: this time last year during testimony at Meta’s antitrust trial, Zuckerberg stated that Social Media was over. Last week, Meta and YouTube were found liable for deliberately designing addictive products (just another trial for Meta). And elsewhere, Meta signed a 10-year lease on Fifth Avenue, seeking to position itself as a culturally-relevant brand centred around community and creativity. 👀 All the while people are calling their Meta x Ray-Bans Pervert Glasses.
Moving forward: How might we design, build and and buy into future tech that is incentivised for trust not exploitative? What can we learn from the metaverse flop that can be applied to exploitative products elsewhere?
EffortFULL
If last week we were discussing knowledge as a status symbol, this week it’s even better i.e. making it available for everyone. The EU announced a “new era for Open Research Europe” to promote innovative, no-fee open access publishing in scientific research. Do we understand everything on there? Nope! Do we want to try? Hell yes. Because on the other side of the coin, Katie McPheeposted a really interesting piece on AI automating ourselves to mediocrity. This stat stood out: 64% of people put in less effort knowing AI exists (KPMG).
Moving forward: Free knowledge is becoming available to everyone at the same moment we desire to be seen as “disgustingly educated” but are incentivising ourselves to think less. How might we make sure we're actually using it?
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