🍣 Abnormality is a distinctive asset

Use it or lose it.

Hey friends,

It’s fair to say the world of creative work, whether that’s creative agencies, design-led companies, production houses or whatever, can be quite weird. And while weirdness can be used to mask shitty behaviour (‘oh he is eccentric/a visionary/just taking the piss/gets shit done, leave him be’), i want to reflect on how this sense of the non familiar might be a pre-requisite for interesting stuff to happen in the first place.

Of course, people much smarter than me, like Dr. Gabor Maté, would more correctly call what i’m talking about ‘abnormal behaviour’. On which, he has this to say:

“Abnormal behaviour is a normal response to abnormal circumstances.”

Which got me thinking, ok you need some abnormal behaviour to produce abnormal results (which by definition stand out from the norm), but how do our abnormal circumstances encourage abnormal behaviour in the first place?

Here are 7 areas that feel remotely interesting to me.

I. Unconventional thinking