šļø LongForm
Want to reduce the noice and just focus on things with a little more meat - the this category is for you. Like so much on this site we have a ‘WIP’ as i take some out - and put some in - but safe for at least starting in 2026.
Friends Don't Let Friends Write Content
I have had versions of this article on a number of different blogs and publications for years. The time has come to formalize it, since content, its ownership and how we think about it, is central to the principles of People First.
A recent question from someone in one of my many groups ...
"Why is it so difficult to find a freelance writing gig?
My reply ...
Because the people who pay for writing have no clue of the value, which is why they call it ācontentā which we know has no value and is homogenous āfillerā that can be swapped out at a moments notice.
My Content Rule ...
'Don't Call It Content'
.... book, novel, short story, article, white paper, promotional piece, advert, painting, sculpture, song, opera, photograph, image, graphic art, poster, fine art ā¦ anything ā¦ anything but ācontentā.
If you want a general catchall phrase, how about material? It's the words that creative used to use - it meant something. Stood for something. It had value.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Why?
Because as long as āwe the creatorsā fall into the trap of using low cost, homogenous, non-descript words like 'content' to describe our work, our soul, our passion, our beliefs then our work will continue to be viewed as āfree - to - cheap - to - low - costā, as āhomogenized, non differentiated, interchangeable fodderā. Moreover, we then only have ourselves to blame and the resultant payment for your art, your thinking, your ideas, will continue to race to the bottom.
It is not in the interests of any creator to allow that, so why allow their interests to define how we think?
Content is a horrible, generic, cheap, 'anything will do' kind of word. Which is why 'content' has no value. It is also important to know that it is in the best interests of the buyers of our sweat, labour, thought and time to keep their price down. But our costs are not kept down. So our net earnings suffer. And they are suffering badly.
And it has to start with you - the creator, because it isnāt in the interests of buyers to change their behaviour and vocabulary - 'they' want great work at no cost.
From a while back now - but well worth repeating ....
Ā
It's the amateurs who make it tough for the professionals
š¬ Harlan Ellison
I wonder if that is how this kind of thinking comes about? As I wrote when I first saw this ...
For all those of us attempting to get paid for value by people who wouldnāt get value if it smacked them between the eyes.
š¬ John Philpin
Content is a horrible, generic, cheap, āanything will doā kind of word. Which is why ācontentā has no value.
āI draw and paint on paper using pen, ink, and watercolor. I then scan and publish my work on this web site. People then visit and read this graphic novel, or if you prefer, webcomic. Occasionally, I write a blog post like this one. There is art and there is commentary, but there is no content and there are certainly no consumers.ā
š¬ Don Macdonald - August 24th, 2011
All Creators Should
STOP using THEIR words to describe OUR work. OUR soul. OUR passion. OUR beliefs.
A N D
STARTĀ usingĀ OURĀ words to describeĀ OURĀ work.Ā OURĀ soul.Ā OURĀ passion.Ā OURĀ beliefs.
On Blocking Ads
To be strictly accurate - we should be talking about Blocking Trackers
... I came across this article (note if you are using an 'ad blocker' ... then guess what - they tell you that you have an 'ad blocker' on .... actually I don't use an 'ad blocker' - I use a 'tracking blocker'.
That aside, I thought I would extract some pertinent quotes from the piece and add my comments. The piece appeared in Adage and was written by Jason Jercinovic - and so all the quotes below I attribute to him.
Havas is a pretty good agency that has produced some great campaigns for Air New Zealand, Global Mental Health and Canal+ - so I kind of feel that they (should at least) know what they are doing. I'll go further. They do - but it is clear that they remain bought into the narrative of 'poor us - we have to do this [efn_note]Use Ad Trackers[/efn_note] for it to work'. They don't.
So - let's get too it ...
and no one can blame the advertising industry for rapidly adopting them.
I can!
On Aging
Iām very much a Darwinian. This means I must ask myself questions like āHow come all surviving cultures until modern time have been based on religion?ā and I draw the conclusion that religion has somehow helped people and civilizations to survive.
In the same way I ask āhow come all sexually reproducing forms of life age (unlike e.g. amoebas, or yeast)?ā and its the same conclusion - in different words now: āif there has ever been a sexually reproducing species that did not age, they have not survived to tell the storyā. Have there existed such failed species, then? Iām suggesting that its likely, because (unless Iām misinformed) aging is a āfeatureā.
Around the age of 45 the human body āswitches onā aging, or rather, it switches off the function that keeps us young. Much of the research today is (unless Iām misinformed) about how to keep the stay-young-function ON.Ā
To be provocative - the ambition to stop aging can be seen as disrespectful of the wisdom of Darwinian nature and it has a slant toward man-made creationism.
Itās not going to end well, in each case.Ā
David Nordfors
It struck me as so very right - little to argue with, so recording for posterity!
RelBasil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me: Dorian is what I would like to be.
Oscar Wilde
Related Links
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - the book is on this list.
Why hasnāt evolution dealt with the inefficiency of ageing?
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
A New Look At Data
Celebrating my 4 part series on data, it is designed to be;
āNon-technical, hopefully fun, definitely not definitive and absolutely a work in progress.ā
John Philpin
Because if you donāt understand what it is and how it is being used against you, then you are in for a shock ā¦
It's 5 0'Clock
[caption id=“attachment_5443” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]
Nobody told The Vogues to retire.[/caption]
Up every morning just to keep a job,
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob,
Sounds of the city pounding in my brain,
While another day goes down the drain (Yeah, yeah, yeah).
but it’s a five o’clock world when the whistle blows,
No-one owns a piece of my time,
And there’s a five o’clock me inside my clothes,
Thinking that the world looks fine, yeah,
š§ Platform Failure
Sadly, this wasnāt what I thought this was going to be about.
A Study of More Than 250 Platforms Reveals Why Most Fail
"Platforms have become one of the most important business models of the 21st century. Five of the six most valuable firms in the world are built around these types of platforms. However, a study of 252 platform companies showed that 209 of them failed. The most common mistakes into four categories:
(1) mispricing on one side of the market,
(2) failure to develop trust with users and partners,
(3) prematurely dismissing the competition, and
(4) entering too late.
Researchers have extensively studied pricing decisions, yet managers still get them wrong. A platform often requires underwriting one side of the market to encourage the other side to participate. But knowing which side should get charged and which side should get subsidized may be the single most important strategic decision for any platform."
Kyle Westaway
Interesting what each of us takes away when we read articles. The quote above is from Kyle Westaway - and indeed nothing wrong with his takeaway. But there is more - and even the HBR article doesnāt really get down to it.
Work-Life Balance
Trading my time for the pay I get (up!)
The Vogues
Living on money that I ain't made yet (up!)
Gotta keep goin' gotta make my way (up!)Ā
But I live for the end of the day (up!)
Written in 1965 - and nothing has changed. This newsletter introduced you to the 4P model of People First ... Pay, Purpose, Play and Passion.
With a more open, enlightened recruiting process there is so much more that people could do in any company if they were given the chance. The answer is to stop job filling and start fulfilling.
š Advertising Shits in Your Head
Strategies for Resistance. A visual documentary of subvertising, an essay against the ad-man.
Excuse the language - but that is the name of the book. The link takes you to their kick-starter.
Funny. Been thinking of doing a kick starter for my book, but I am too busy writing to spend another chunk of time thinking about what the campaign would look like.
Needless to say I have done my pledge - it is such a People First topic that I couldn't resist and as an extra message, the campaign deadline is my birthday. The ether was in alignment!
My thanks to John Wunderlich for the heads up.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
Let's End Ageism
Ashton Applewhite - Let's End Ageism - A Ted Talk
| Released | August 23, 2017 |
|---|
Lot's more to say on this, and will. Some of the points I touched on in Tuesday's Newsletter.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
Ditch The Binary
āLook at gender.Ā We used to think of it as a binary, male or female,Ā and now we understand it's a spectrum.Ā It is high time to ditch the old-young binary, too.ā
Ashton Applewhite
Says it all really. Ageism is alive and well. In fact the same day, Paul Krugman wrote a piece on the job market that I totally disagreed with - so of course I had to write something.
You can read the whole of Issue Number 7 here.
Krugman Should Comment On The Complete Picture
Paul Krugman writing in the NYT today.
There was a message in the latest jobs report that is consistent with what these reports have been telling us for at least the past year or two. Namely, the workers are alright.
Paul Krugman
Well who am I to disagree with Paul Krugman?
John Philpin - that's who. And I completely disagree.
As always, its what's not being said that matters. The elephant [efn_note]elephants?[/efn_note] in the room cannot be ignored, and I am disappointed that someone like Krugman should waste his time on this kind of 'opinion'. Yes, we have 'great' employment figures. But thatās because as usual, we measure and comment on the wrong things. 'Everybody' having a job is not the point (if a large chunk of the workforce is excluded from the count of 'everybody'). It is everybody (not just 25 to 54-year-olds) having one job, that is paid fairly, so doesnāt need to work a second job to make ends meet. That is what we should be looking at.
Wrong. Very Wrong.
Startups are now offering people āpassive incomeā for their personal data. These companies claim to empower consumers to profit from personal data. But actually, they entrench an attention economy where cash-strapped consumers trade personal privacy for quick cash ā much like the plasma-for-cash biz. Data exchanges broker the sale of personal data between the people who generate it and the large companies hungry for it. One,
The HustleStreamr , connects real-time personal data with companies via subscription. Another, UBDI (Universal Basic Data Income), buys personal data and sells āinsightsā to companies. At first glance, itās tempting ā¦ If my toaster and my watch are already collecting data, I might as well get paid for it, right?
My Take
Wrong. And they know it. Read more here. No most discussion needed, but if you want to - I'm ready.
Human Agency
"No one ever conceived of a more sophisticated and dynamic philosophical history than Hegel. His system is built around three fundamental ideas."
Sam Haselby
In summary ...
First, the key to human agency is self-consciousness. For people to be doing anything in any real human sense is to know what we are doing as we do it.
Secondly, self-consciousness is always a matter of locating ourselves in a kind of social space of āIā and āweā.
Third, there are ways in which things can go better or worse and we can make it possible to become new, different and better versions of ourselves. But what we can make of ourselves depends on where we are in history.
... but what we can make of ourselves depends on where we are in history.
Hegelās search for the universal patterns of history revealed a paradox: freedom is coming into being, but is never guaranteed
Read the whole thing at
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)
Cleaning House
More of a record to self than something to overly concern you, but nonetheless potentially useful. As People First continues to further establish itself, we are 'upping the ante' on our online presence.
First, we are moving the site away from the
There has been a Google Groups in place for years, but it fell into disuse, so it is being killed and replaced with a new group on Groups.io Emails have gone out to the old membership to test the appetite before I spend too much time building it all up. I can say that I have good experience of it, since a 'sister' organization - Me2B - is using Groups.io very effectively.
We have agreed to our first Sponsorship, more details about it in the not too distant future.
Tomorrow being Tuesday, will see our seventh newsletter hitting the streets (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor), really wanting to grow that readership.
The Instagram and Twitter accounts are in full flow and a presence on a few third-party publishers is beginning to happen, with plans for more. Any of the links below will allow you to engage with People First in your way and on your terms.
Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fire
āI am moving more of my long-form writing to Medium, and placing it behind the paywall there. I have a considerable following there, and I find Mediumās social affordances the best anywhere. I still like certain aspects of Tumblr, but my time there is coming to an end, I think, at least for long form.ā
Stowe Boyd
.. who IMHO is moving from one problem to another.
In This Cold Place
Moby and The Void Pacific Choir - 'In This Cold Place - With animation by Steve Cutts.
| Released | June 19, 2017 |
|---|
A second video that hits you to the bone.
Are You Lost In The World Like Me?
Moby and The Void Pacific Choir - 'Are You Lost In The World Like Me'? With animation by Steve Cutts.
| Released | October 18, 2016 |
|---|
Its a couple of years since this was released - but still relevant today - and definitely relevant to People First, so capturing it in the archives.
Challenge of Work
Our sixth newsletter explores the value of a person to a corporation.
In understanding how organizations search for ātalentā these days, candidates know that their first two or three hurdles will have nothing to do with people and everything to do with machines and as a result valuable time is spent in tuning their resume and cover letter with SEO like terms, so that they bubble to the top.
Do you find that as sad, bad and depressing as I do?
- Itās like outsourcing your customer support team to a call center, full of untrained people ā¦ oh wait!
- I mean itās like putting junior people into sales training on their inside sales team ā¦ oh wait!
- I mean itās like putting a temp on your front desk, so that anyone who comes into your offices is greeted by someone who knows nothing about your organization ā¦
Read the whole of the 6th issue here.
Vocabulary
... a building block of Language, one of the Tenets of People First. We are developing and sharing a new vocabulary that continues to evolve in the course ofĀ
We use this vocabulary to shift theĀ topics and change theĀ conversation about how we put People First in the work we do and the way we live.
| THEN | AND NOW |
|---|---|
| The Future of Work | The Present Of Work |
| Work Life Balance | Pay Purpose Play |
| Gig Economy | Portfolio Lifestyle |
| Customer Experience | Employee Experience |
| Talent Acquisition | Working with People |
| CRM | VRM |
| B2B | Me2B |
| Competition | Cooperation |
| Me | Us |
| Exclusive | Inclusive |
| Hierarchical | Networked |
| Tightly Managed | Loosely Coupled |
| Winner Takes All | Winner Contributes |
| Tomorrow | Today |
| Continual Change | Continuous Change |
| Corporations | People |
The Valueā Of People
There's someĀ fuckingĀ guy, scientist or something. Real sick bastard. Says he measured out the remains, the cremated remains of a dead man. Measured out the, uh, minerals left behind, you know? The iron phosphates, the ... whatever it is we're made up of. Says heĀ addedĀ it all up to the cost of $4.40.
$4.40. Burnt down man'sĀ worthĀ less than aĀ fuckingĀ Big Mac.
Michael Grey played by Liam Cunningham in The Numbers Station
I caught The Numbers Station over the weekend, and that is the opening dialogue. It resonated. I know nought of the truth - but it does seem about right.
After last week's newsletter, and the responses, I have thought about it more and more. How we as a society spend so much ... too much ... time reducing anything ... everything ... to a value based on the component parts.
We know that the click bait mongers of the internet write stuff like this - to save you the click through itās all about adding together the cost of the sum of the parts of an iPhone - and thus by extrapolation conclude that Apple is - as we might say in England ... '
No - this is not a defence of Apple - but to ask a question.
Isn't this exactly what businesses do every day week, month and year to people. You earn a salary or wage based on what they consider is your worth to them while they rent you for the 40, 50, 60 hours each week that you are in their service?
But it's worse. The value is not just for the sum of your component parts, but actually for the sum of your component parts that they think they need, and everything else is ignored. Your component parts are what they have defined are needed to do the job that they have defined needs to be done. Everything else is of zero value.
Thinking Allowed
This is a People First post that was originally on the People First domain. It has been moved here as part of my domain consolidation program. Itās a steady and slow WIP as I check each entry, so do please bear with me.- More about People First
- Other People First Posts
(not just from the āother domainā ā¦ all of them.)