So You Want to Study Culture?

Career advice I wish I learned much sooner

Every week I receive an email, asking:

“What advice do you have for emerging strategists or researchers interested in culture? Or what do you believe now that you wish you heard much earlier in your career?”

Every week my answer is a little different, but I finally gathered, edited and organized all those answers together. This.

Take what works. Leave what doesn’t...

Here are +10 years, +2.5k words, five themes, and tactical instructions for how to think about thinking. I’ll continue to update this as a living doc.

01. Consume. With. Caution.
It’s (Mostly) All Subjective, Relative or BS.

Don't perceive any idea, insight or POV as "law” or absolute truth. Every thought leader hot take, documentary, book, podcast or essay (including this very one) is embedded with bias, a missing angle, or factual flaw.

Some of these oversights are trivial and accidental — and other times, blatant, substantial misinformation driven by a lack of integrity or malicious agenda.

Do not be naive to think that an author, documentarian, or reporter has got it all figured out. They don’t. We’re all figuring it out. Ironically, the most trustworthy voices today aren’t trying to eliminate bias (impossible) or strike the perfect balance, but rather are conscious and vocal of their approach.

Therefore, the inevitability of bias must inform how you show up to your research.

This isn’t paranoid skepticism, but diligent criticism.

Don’t become devoid of trust, but acknowledge the abundance of subjectivity in the media (and data) you will face.

Early in my career I’d read an op-ed or report as absolute fact. Pure, pure fact. Alas, it is not fact. It’s just one side of a diamond-shaped story.

Meanwhile today, there is a proliferation of “sides” to a story in our current media environment. It is your job to account for as many as possible, without letting favoritism sway your POV.

All work is created with unique lived experiences, which informs a creator’s output, which then informs your thinking, which then ultimately informs your professional output.

And so the cycle repeats. This is how we get hype, misinformation and shit work devoid of any meaning.

The more distance you place between yourself and whatever you’re analyzing, the better.

So, how do we consume mindfully in practice?