One thing I’m noticing that falls somewhere between fake and real—asking a lot of questions but no point of view. I’m hoping a return to real includes people who give us their origin stories and fresh points of view.
I like everything you said but this is my favorite part:
Second downer: doing something once isn’t enough. Real narratives take 6, 12, 18 months to build. They require sustained effort and consistency - and patience! There are no shortcuts, but it’s worth it.
People expect to build brands and change reputations in 5 minutes. Takes a clear objective, plan and patience.
Thank you Lulu, you have precisely put into words what so many of us marketing & media entrepreneurs have been watching. Like a slow motion car wreck but the impact is seen immediately with our value being stripped away and being reduced to clients asking how to write prompts, lol. This is exciting and encouraging for future of human art and craftsmanship to thrive once this consumer AI bubble bursts. But what comes next? I hope my future Optimus robot will appreciate sarcasm.
I’ve been watching you as a thought leader for a long time and really loved your insight in Bonnie’s MM. Oh my gosh Lisa, I’ve been grappling with this in my art practice and business. I love the thoughts that this piques, especially for creatives. Personally, it feels like we’ve cheapened ourselves in the pursuit of attention, while at the same time AI is creating a race to mediocrity. So we have to stand out and be singular, while also being less available to reclaim our power. It’s such an interesting tension!
Spot on. But there is a third downer that makes things tricky: When the real is manufactured with the purpose of creating „real narrative,“ „realness“ is undermined. Goethe, 1807: „One feels design and so is out of humour.“
“Putting in real effort to create beautiful durable things that exhibit taste and craftsmanship, with zero tolerance for slop. As Thomas Paine wrote during the American Revolution: “What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.””
Bingo. I wrote about this last (!) year: “[W]riting is an act of respect. You sweat the small stuff so your reader doesn’t drown in it. You spend the hours and the blood and the rewrites and the self-loathing and the tears so your reader can glide—effortlessly—over a surface that took you months to sand smooth. A good sentence is a sheet of ice slowly, secretly melted down from years of someone else’s hard labor. The reader skates; the writer bleeds.
And slop is what happens when nobody bleeds.
Slop breaks the sacred compact between writer and reader, artist and appreciator, beauty and beholder.
It says: you do the work. You decipher my half-thoughts. You wade through my sludge. It’s contempt disguised as content and connection. And it’s the inevitable byproduct of the Outreach Industrial Complex, whose chief export is pure, unadulterated spam.”
I can’t wait for real events where you meet real people to make a comeback. Goodbye online courses and webinars
I loved this and echo the sentiment. A return to presence, in real life moments and endurance. Let’s build real things. Happy new year everyone!
I just read Philip K Dick’s “How to build a universe that doesn’t fall apart two days later”… I feel man was waaaay ahead of the game 🤯🤯🤯
One thing I’m noticing that falls somewhere between fake and real—asking a lot of questions but no point of view. I’m hoping a return to real includes people who give us their origin stories and fresh points of view.
I like everything you said but this is my favorite part:
Second downer: doing something once isn’t enough. Real narratives take 6, 12, 18 months to build. They require sustained effort and consistency - and patience! There are no shortcuts, but it’s worth it.
People expect to build brands and change reputations in 5 minutes. Takes a clear objective, plan and patience.
Great article. Sent it to the whole team.
Love it! There is no short cut.
Thank you Lulu, you have precisely put into words what so many of us marketing & media entrepreneurs have been watching. Like a slow motion car wreck but the impact is seen immediately with our value being stripped away and being reduced to clients asking how to write prompts, lol. This is exciting and encouraging for future of human art and craftsmanship to thrive once this consumer AI bubble bursts. But what comes next? I hope my future Optimus robot will appreciate sarcasm.
I’ve been watching you as a thought leader for a long time and really loved your insight in Bonnie’s MM. Oh my gosh Lisa, I’ve been grappling with this in my art practice and business. I love the thoughts that this piques, especially for creatives. Personally, it feels like we’ve cheapened ourselves in the pursuit of attention, while at the same time AI is creating a race to mediocrity. So we have to stand out and be singular, while also being less available to reclaim our power. It’s such an interesting tension!
Oh shoot, I saw this restacked and thought someone else wrote it. My comments are still the same, these questions are so tough!
Spot on. But there is a third downer that makes things tricky: When the real is manufactured with the purpose of creating „real narrative,“ „realness“ is undermined. Goethe, 1807: „One feels design and so is out of humour.“
“Putting in real effort to create beautiful durable things that exhibit taste and craftsmanship, with zero tolerance for slop. As Thomas Paine wrote during the American Revolution: “What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.””
Bingo. I wrote about this last (!) year: “[W]riting is an act of respect. You sweat the small stuff so your reader doesn’t drown in it. You spend the hours and the blood and the rewrites and the self-loathing and the tears so your reader can glide—effortlessly—over a surface that took you months to sand smooth. A good sentence is a sheet of ice slowly, secretly melted down from years of someone else’s hard labor. The reader skates; the writer bleeds.
And slop is what happens when nobody bleeds.
Slop breaks the sacred compact between writer and reader, artist and appreciator, beauty and beholder.
It says: you do the work. You decipher my half-thoughts. You wade through my sludge. It’s contempt disguised as content and connection. And it’s the inevitable byproduct of the Outreach Industrial Complex, whose chief export is pure, unadulterated spam.”
More: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/slop-is-contempt