Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Olympic musings, two viral AI takes, and a wonderful documentary
1. As Tim and Ed fever reaches fever pitch across the nation, at my agency All Conditions Media we’ve been playing Commentary Bingo. What did we miss?
2. Related: I posted a few thoughts about snowboarding’s fraught relationship with the Olympics.
3. Related: Lesley McKenna is one of snowboarding’s best analysts, and it is brillisnt to see her work around the ‘risk aesthetic framework’, as she phrases it, continue to be widely shared.
This week she was on the Science of Sport podcast, and it’s very worth a listen.
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4. Related: it wouldn’t be the Olympics without a controversy around the judging on a particular snowboarding event: in this case, women’s slopestyle. The best take on this I read was by Stan at Slush Magazine, which I thought balanced the whole debate really well.
5. At the other end of the snowboarding spectrum: the great Nicolas Wolken, one of our generation’s most quietly influential riders, on the beauty and simplicity of turning.
6. The Farthest is a wonderful, awe-inspiring documentary about the twin Voyager space probes. If you’re in the UK, it’s on the iPlayer: seek it out.
7. Loved this collaboration between Finisterre and one of surfing’s most interesting thinkers. My 2023 conversation with Cliff remains a listener favourite:
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8. Maybe the most interesting interpretation I’ve yet read on the new Wuthering Heights adaptation. (Spoiler alert: I don’t think Heather liked it)
9 “If you've always wanted to write a book but couldn't find the time or struggled with the writing, you can work with AI to get it done”.
I’m probably overdoing the AI debate at the moment but I do find it fascinating to see how the debate continues to unfold, so here are two more links (apologies, they’re on LinkedIn) to mull over this week
The first: a viral essay by AI industry booster Matt Shumer which startlingly posits that 50% of white collar jobs will be gone in the next 1-5 years.
10. … and a necessary counterpoint from Ann Handley.
Which of these stories did you enjoy this week? Let me know ✌️
As you're on an AI tear at the moment, you might like this series of conversations from the Maybe - Reframing Impact (https://www.themaybe.org/reframing-impact). It's been timed to coincide with the AI Summit in India and is about as vital a set of perspectives on the topic as I've come across.
If you want some takes on the prevailing narratives that don't come from middle aged white men from the industry, you'll do well here.
Looking forward to catching up on some of these articles and films when I’m on flights home 🤙🏽