Woven Gold: Friday December 9th, 2022
Woven Gold: Friday December 9th, 2022
The Power of Presence & GM Updates!
The Power of Presence
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving break. My family and I celebrated my dad’s 59th birthday (technically 60th on the the Gregorian calendar) in Aspen before the billionaires flew in on their private jets and the botoxed fembots in Moncler vests took over the town. We stayed at the W Hotel in Aspen. It was a swanky time. The rooms make you feel like you’re in an Austin Powers movie. If you have a chance to go, hit up the hot springs in Glenwood.
I recently switched from snowboarding to skiing since it’s easier on my back. I picked it up in a day and thought I was a physical genius until I saw those adorable super toddlers in their puffy jackets go down the black diamond paths I was too scared to on. Yes, they’re tiny, but I think they’re so good at skiing because they’re mind, body, and sprit are fully in sync. Fully present. It’s a powerful thing.
When Kobe was asked about Steph Curry he talked about his calmness. His presence. It’s different from being technically superior or simply in the zone. One can wear out, the latter is difficult to summon on command. That sage like mode is a super power.
Kobe: “There’s a serious calmness to him. He’s not up he’s not down. He’s not contemplating what just happened before, or worrying about what’s going to come next. He’s just there. And when a player has the skills, and has trained himself to have the skills to dribble, shoot, left, right, etcetera, and then you mix that with this calmness and poise, then you have a serious serious problem on your hands.”
Guards like Steph eventually defined an era and changed the game of basketball after Kobe’s reign.
GM: Good Monsters Inc.
It’s been a few weeks since I sent out a newsletter. I’m trying to finish a few projects before the self-imposed end of the year deadline is up. I’m also going to Korea/Japan on the 22nd of December to spend some time with family, but I’ll be back by the first week of January.
Few things that I’m working on:
Reality Marble Labs: A new website that can host my long-form essays, presentations, livestreams, and courses. This substack will remain a communication channel between you and me. Emails and newsletters are a tactic for communication, not really the best place for in-depth content.
Reality Marble Magazine: Is a digital magazine that will cover one singular trend pervading our culture. It will based on the themes that I cover in my writing, but designed to improve your understanding of deeper trends, and well, reality. This will be my way of bootstrapping the business of my writing. I’m eager to get into print, and turn this into a full on publishing house, but I’m going to start small with these information products that provide value to you first. I may or may not implement a membership mechanism like metalabel.xyz did with their latest magazine, After the Creator Economy, but I think that’s way down the line.
GM Memos: These are memos that I write to my past/present/future clients every 2 weeks or so on the state of the game of their respective industries. They’re like Howard Mark’s memos. I’m going to be releasing them to the public. It will be in the style of GM, a physics white paper, and a modern comic book. The first one is about the advertising industry. It’s called: The Agency Problem, Marketing’s Lack of Design, and Why Big Advertising Fails at Marketing. George Lois who recently passed away, RIP famously said “I hope WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic and Dentsu go out of business”. I’m going to explore why, and call out what’s real and hype in marketing today. This is going to be released on GM’s website and by the end of the month/start of the new year.
Updates
GM Library: I’m going to be starting a book club, and creating visual content around some of my favorite books that have helped me define my infinite game. I’m also going to be gifting my favorite books to my readers every week or so once I get everything set up. Subscribe below. In the age of AI, we’re all going to have to develop our inner game and outer game. We all have to become Good Monsters.
GM Podcast Episode 2:
Episode 2 of the GM podcast is finally out. Richard is an award-winning architect. He designed the grand master plan for USC, and worked with the city of Los Angeles to design the downtown corridor. He has a lot of wisdom and was kind enough to sit down with me. One of the central themes that I’m trying to explore with my writing and my work is city design. Who are the players, what are the economic factors, and what does it take to design flourishing communities in our culture today. The world has never been so malleable.
Next week, I’ll be publishing the podcast I shot with Florian and LeeAnn for the release of their book Human(s) Work: The Office of Good Intentions.
Have a beautiful weekend,
Brian Gold, Los Angeles