Welcome to our second episode of Brands & Outliers, where our team does a wide sweep of culture and presents every recent finding they think is worth noting.

Culture is going more deep and more human. As the time-space compression of AI becomes more clear, people are grasping for some very specific islands of stability.

One of those islands is the strong tie communities that used to only exist in the fringes, but are now clearly starting to concern platforms like Instagram and TikTok. 

Meanwhile, brands are catering to the fragmenting of human experience, consistent with our projection of High Fidelity Society slowly taking over the world, market by market. New innovations and infrastructures, from TrovaTrip to Asian American malls, aren't built upon the standard, but rather the exception.

Against this backdrop, the relentless pursuit of optimization is reaching a fever pitch in our gendered spaces, including the rise of T Parties (short for testosterone parties), male plastic surgery and the quasi-moral discourse around Ozempic. 

And while these forces ensure that we continue to sort ourselves into niche tribes, there is one bastion of social class mixing that stands strong. It is not the church, not the school or the community park, but rather the humble chain restaurant.  

With that in mind, please come and enjoy this delicious buffet of insights. Timestamps of highlights below. 

00:13 AI and the Human Experience

• 00:17 A solid theory on how the time-space compression of AI is going to have certain psychological effects on people, and the islands of stability we’ll cling to.

• 03:35 We’re at the peak of the AI hype cycle, but it’s worth remembering that while technology is fast, people are slow.

• 10:16 Positive uses of AI that can literally change how we know and remember ourselves. 

15:04 The Era of Strong Ties

• 15:38 We're posting less on public feeds and sharing more in DMs. 

• 16:43 Even weak tie networks like TikTok have begun building for depth rather than breadth.

• 22:35 Brands like TrovaTrip reveal something interesting: one of the best indicators of compatibility between people in real life is if they follow the same influencer.

• 25:25 A bright spot in the wasteland that is America's malls: Asian malls are thriving, likely because they are strong centers for community and connection, not just consumption.

26:13 Changing Experiences of Gender and Gender Roles

• 26:42 “T Parties” (short for testosterone parties), Ozempic and the uptick in male plastic surgery remind us that we used to be able to just live, but now we have to maximize. 

• 30:06 Women are being priced out of motherhood, and it may pose a problem for aging populations in Europe.

• 31:53 With the girlboss era being over and nothing to replace it, there’s a gaping hole in the working woman’s narrative.

37:23 Equity and Inclusion, Privacy, Attention and Other Insights

• 40:52 Big brands are getting into recommerce, working with companies like thredUP and Archive to capture sales in the ever-growing secondhand market. 

• 44:00 Surveillance chic and “If I go missing” folders are here.

• 52:46 Olive Garden is a sanctuary of class mixing.

• 55:57 The semiotics of Halloween. 

Positive Affirmations

Here's what we've been consuming.

Strategy is the very human act of imagination (Contagious): "The inconvenient truth for those who believe that strategy’s primary working method and tool is research is that there is no data about the future. By its very nature all data is from the past. [...] The only way we can get our hands on and engage with the future is to imagine it. So before it is anything else, strategy is the very human act of imagination. ‘Seeing’ what does not yet exist. Seeing things as they could be. As we would want them to be."

Least Bad (No Mercy / No Malice): "By nearly every measure, America is doing just fine. Better than fine. [...] We have many unique advantages, including unrivaled innovation, the best universities, the best military, strong rule of law, a willingness to embrace risk, and a culture of doing the right thing (I believe this). [...] And still, when I look at the U.S. economy and America’s position as a global power, I repeatedly land on a singular conclusion: The glass is half-full."

How a Vast Demographic Shift Will Reshape the World (New York Times): "By 2050, people age 65 and older will make up nearly 40 percent of the population in some parts of East Asia and Europe. That’s almost twice the share of older adults in Florida, America’s retirement capital. Extraordinary numbers of retirees will be dependent on a shrinking number of working-age people to support them. In all of recorded history, no country has ever been as old as these nations are expected to get."

Insiders #154: Betty Crocker's Egg is a Myth. Embrace Unknowing. (Future Commerce): "This story reveals the seemingly irrational consumer mind and is a case study of the importance of in-person qualitative research. Only by looking beyond market data could we learn about 'premium friction' or that the opposite of a good idea (e.g., more work, not less) may also be a good idea. For this reason, marketers, strategists and innovators alike love sharing it."

The Transformation of Work (The Future Does Not Fit In The Containers Of The Past): "The where, who, what and why of work have transformed more in the past four years than in any decade or more before. Talent is asking their managers what do you do? Management is asking their talent to work harder, show-up and grow-up. [...] Across all companies of every size and in every category, the single biggest question is 'How do we remain relevant in transformative times?'""

Beneath The Surface

Quick hits of insight in socially acceptable places.

• How to find product-market fit
   

• Hype cycle dissenters
   

• The cultural iceberg
   

• Thailand spent $15M to make you fall in love with Thai food
   

• 82 Types of decision making

Changing Perspectives

Creative inspirations for the other side of your brain.

• The use of silence in films
   

• Speak in any language
   

• Infinite color palette
   

• Perfect balance
   

• Waking up at 37 again

I posted an informal poll on LinkedIn recently asking people what domain most informs their work as strategists and/ or futurists. 

Looking at the results (and my own vote for History & Culture) made me realize that despite being an information hound, I'm still missing some perspectives. 

I tend to think that nothing good or new has been written about strategy in a long time, that innovation and tech is just a matter of reading the headlines, and creative and design are downstream from my own work.

They're biases and they're wrong, but it's good to see them in this chart and start making some changes.

Of course, all four of these domains are tightly interconnected. To understand creative and design is to understand innovation and technology, which is to understand strategy and branding, which is is to see the forces of culture playing out.

The greatest insights have come when people looked for the magic that happened between spaces. We all know the Einstein quote about paradigms and solving problems, but here is another version that makes my point:

"Usually the first problems you solve with the new paradigm are the ones that were unsolvable with the old paradigm."
- Joel A. Barker

If we're looking to understand strategy and the future, it means accepting the fact that the answers we want require a shift in perspective, and that shift only comes from zooming out.

It's a good reminder that it's not the single domain you choose that matters so much as the number of domains you open yourself up to.

Yours,

Jasmine Bina
Founder & CEO
Concept Bureau, Inc.