I was listening the a podcast walking my dog earlier this week. Every morning before I start work I need to walk my faithful furry friend (a Golden Retriever). If I don’t then he can be quite off putting, he is always vying for my attention. For example if I am on video calls or trying to focus on something, he will pick up his toys and bring them to me in quite an adamant way that he should be the centre of attention and I should stop what I am doing and that work is not important. Or another thing he will do is tap the door with his foot every few minutes explaining that he would like to go out.

Anyways back to the podcast, with all that is going on in the world right now I like to listen to international affairs, news and politics related podcasts from different ends of the political spectrum to make sure I am informed. One such podcast is The Rest Is Politics, which this week co-host Alistair Campbell said something which really resonated with me. He was talking an article ‘The Lost Art of Discernment’ by Peter Hyman.

Maybe my dog Dougie is right, maybe spending my time starting at a screen is not as interesting as going for a walk. I would also add the best ideas I have had have happened walking, they come from within and arrive when you don’t try and force it or prompt it for that matter.

The article essentially is coming from an education standpoint and how a key lesson and quality we need to instil in people is their ability to be discerning, to understand the context of what is vying for time and attention and why in an era of abundant content, AI and social media algorithms.

Maybe content and consumption should be treated a bit more like wine. Yes you can by cheap, wine and its available everywhere. Choosing what wine to buy, why to buy it and then being able to understand why you like it and the reason why can apply to content and media. If you drink all the wine, it’s not necessarily going to be good for you. You need to make conscious choices of what to you will drink, when and who with.

The same applies to rights holders and clients we work with. Just because you can create content, does not mean you should. I think we are moving into a new era where just releasing massive swathes of content just to increase visibly are over. It is about authenticity, quality and how you serve peoples interest, giving them value in the process.

Maybe this ties into why we are seeing a strong wave of interest in those under 21 in the retro, 90’s world of mp3 players and ‘dumb phones’. If you are 21 today you were born in 2005. For me this was my second year at University, yes at this time I did have a cool Samsung clam style phone with a camera, the only reason I bought it was because it was featured in the Matrix Reloaded. Although during my school days most of my peers, including myself had a trusty Nokia 3310.

I remember the year before going to see my colleague Gregg, he was on his computer and telling me all about this new website called facebook. I remember him loading it up and showing me facebook for the first time, yes there were other prior incarnations in the shape of myspace etc. However little did we know at the time how profound the impact would be over the next 20 years up to where we are today.

It represents a time where people actively chose to what to do, what music to go and listen to, what films to watch, what magazines to read. One where algorithms, data, cloud services and tech did not drive the agenda and what you did with your time, that was largely up to you and your imagination and friends.

I think actually critical thinking, taste, judgement, craft and discernment are going to be increasingly important over the next decade. Not just in terms of consumption and paying more attention to where, how and when you consume (And why you are doing it). The same also holds true for the creation of new formats, products, experiences and business ideas. The promise of AI is a bit like a genie coming out of the lamp, granting you anything you desire anyone can spin up anything at low cost. However the discernment on what you wish into existence is still down to you. So when I see ‘experts’ talking constantly about how AI will take away all jobs in 2 years and how there is no need to work, I am not so sure about that.

Certainly it is going to have significant consequences and impact. Although in the same respect if you gave everyone the same typewriter, not everyone is going to be Stephen King. If you give everyone access to the same kitchen and ingredients, not everyone is going to be Gordon Ramsay. Each individual’s discernment on how, what, when and how much of what they consumer and spend their time, will shape the different perspective, point of view and qualities they have. This also then feeds into what they will go on to create in the world.

Rick Rubin has an interesting perspective, you can see what he has to say on the video below. I very much am aligned with this thinking.

I am choosing not to use AI to generate any copy in this article or the wider Imagicana Newsletter. It represents my taste, judgement and unique perspective. When I am on LinkedIn, I am the same way. I see many in my feed that clearly are using AI to game the system, generate copy. Even respond in an automated way to comments. To me that is a shame as in not sitting and being discerning what you write, you are negating the craft of having your own point of view and craft in articulating it with a unique voice.

Now don’t get me wrong, AI is brilliant at doing the busy work. I am a power user and use it help spin up MVP’s, product prototypes, websites, validate business plans, insights and qualitative research. Its brilliant. However I do think people should continue to create from within and hone their craft as they do so.

I think the newer generations coming through are going to be much more aware, cynical and skeptical of how they spend they time and money. They know previous generations ‘have been the product’ spending hours on social scrolling for example and being monetised. I think IP, brand and rights holders need to create content, products, experiences and offerings that are genuine, considered and tasteful. Rather than hiring a social agency to play the numbers game, farming hundreds of pieces of content for peoples social media feeds because that just the way it is done. Why not actually go one step further and think about how you can create something that is worthy of their time, attention or money.

That is what we are here do to with www.imagicana.com