“I tweaked a few things”

The easiest way to get a contribution, advice or feedback is to present something that’s 90% done.

If you ask too early in the process, if you’re hoping for conceptual insights, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Human nature pushes the inexperienced feedback giver to wait until you’re almost done and then to offer feedback on little things.

Tactics, not strategy. Colors, not shapes.

Which means that you either need to teach your team to be strategic professionals, able to give big advice early…

Or create enough room in your (private) internal schedule for redoing the work after someone has ‘tweaked a few things.’

-- Seth Godin

Brigadoon Daily Rundown = April 24, 2020

Michael Asulin: The corona crisis will simply exacerbate the geo-strategic competition between Beijing and Washington https://hvr.co/2KrNUx9

"Beijing’s propaganda campaign, while designed to divert any criticism of the regime, has poisoned relations with Washington, not to mention other countries."

Mitt Romney: America is awakening to China. This is a clarion call to seize the moment. https://wapo.st/2VXxd20

Experiential retail is figuring out new footing in virtual world: Brands known for in-store experiences are attempting to translate them online, but some fear a post-pandemic shift in consumer behavior. https://on.wsj.com/3btaSzT

This open-source program deepfakes you during zoom meetings, in real-time: Avatarify runs on Skype and Zoom and face-swaps your own face with a celebrity in live video calls. https://bit.ly/3byCDr4

From 60 to zero: The Economist reports, the world’s car giants need to move fast and break things. They have dawdled for too long.

"When carmakers sold 95m cars and commercial vehicles in 2017 the 100m mark seemed just around the corner."

Credit Suisse expects GM and Ford to burn through $10bn and $14bn of cash, respectively, in the first half of 2020.

Analysts at Jefferies estimate that the eight biggest carmakers in Europe and America could, in all, burn over $50bn of cash in the second quarter. At that rate, they may run out of money by the end of the year.

COVID-19 may slow electrification—but will not derail it.

More consolidation looks certain, though perhaps not through full mergers, which have a mixed record in carmaking.

Carmakers of the future may yet look back nostalgically to 2017 as their industry’s peak.

The lost worlds of Soviet space graphics (slideshow): A new book captures the pioneering, propaganda-infused visions of mid-20th-century Soviet space exploration. https://bit.ly/2S1SoyJ

Lauren deLisa Coleman: Zoom is bringing out the worst in every would-be professor, keynote, and schoolmaster. Here's how to not bore your Zoom attendees to death. https://bit.ly/3cGf3ZB

Loren Feldman: On the future of movies and entertainment https://bit.ly/3eLEYRu

#DroppingKnowledge

Why do we even listen to new music? Our brains reward us for seeking out what we already know. So why should we reach to listen to something we don’t? https://bit.ly/3bHujoE

Rory Sutherland: The illusion of certainty https://bit.ly/2XY8oWi

"The newspapers are full of stories about how small groups of engineers from Formula 1 teams have been able to design, prototype, and manufacture essential health equipment incredibly quickly.

"So why aren’t organizations allowed to perform such super-human feats of brilliance the rest of the time? Or to put it another way, why is it that companies and governments always call on McKinsey when they could call on McLaren?"

Brigadoon Daily Rundown = April 23, 2020

Operation Purple Maze: What happens when US efforts to protect its agricultural prowess and China’s quest to eliminate its food insecurity meet head-on in the cornfields of Iowa? https://bit.ly/2VqrjaK

With fishing fleets tied up, marine life has a chance to recover: Bloomberg reports, the coronavirus lockdowns have disrupted commercial fishing globally, in an echo of the lulls seen during wartime. https://bloom.bg/3auil0z

Applications of blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrencies: When most people think of blockchain, the first thing that comes to mind is very likely to be "Bitcoin". However, many applications of blockchain technology exist beyond cryptocurrencies. https://bit.ly/2RXhWxg

Secrets of lockdown lifestyle laid bare in electricity data: Life in lockdown means getting up late, staying up till midnight, and slacking off in the afternoons. That’s what power market data show in Europe in the places where restrictions on activity have led to a widespread shift in the daily routines of hundreds of millions of people. It’s a similar story wherever lockdowns bite. In New York, electricity use has fallen as much as 18% from normal times at 8 a.m. Tokyo and three nearby prefectures had a 5% drop in power use during weekdays after Japan declared a state of emergency on April 7, according to Tesla Asia Pacific, an energy forecaster. https://bloom.bg/2SfFKN1

A closed border can’t stop this elderly couple: ‘Love is the best thing in the world’: The coronavirus crisis has separated families and severed supply chains. But a pair of lovers, 89 and 85, have found a romantic way to keep (almost) in touch. https://nyti.ms/2XX009K

"We are bathing in mystery and confusion on many subjects, and I think that will always be our destiny. The universe will always be much richer than our ability to understand it." – Carl Sagan

Brigadoon Daily Rundown = April 22, 2020

Coronavirus: curse of the ‘Bat Woman’ — what went on in Wuhan lab? As America puts the screws on Beijing, there is closer scrutiny of claims that the coronavirus leaked from a research center. https://bit.ly/2KoQiEZ

Coronavirus lockdown in Sweden: a new take on safe shopping — no assistants: In a hamlet a few miles from the medieval Swedish town of Uppsala, the local shop, Lifvs, sits among fir forests and open fields. Inside are neat shelves stacked with avocados, oat milk, chicken breasts and pickled herring. There is no shopkeeper. Instead, locals in this bucolic hideaway download a mobile app that opens the shop door and allows them to scan products, paying for them online. The shop is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Initially designed to provide a retail option for people living in remote areas, the 14 Lifvs shops across Sweden have, as the coronavirus spreads through the country, become a lifeline for older people who want to stock up while staying socially distant. https://bit.ly/3cAfjJk

Carl Benedikt Frey: COVID-19 will only increase automation anxiety: Consumers may prefer automated services to face-to-face interactions for some time to come.

Consumer Brands Association: To those making the products that make a difference, thank you (video) https://bit.ly/2yvoNXF

Shawn Donnan: America needs real-time economic data to get through this crisis: The country has put its faith in statistics. But the numbers are failing it this time. https://bloom.bg/3bsAmh5

Neuro-Insight’s CEO on how marketers should step up during the coronavirus pandemic https://bit.ly/2zkztZP

“In terms of what (marketers) need to be doing, I think their biggest responsibility is to understand how people are feeling right now and actually give them that and not try to serve them their brand,” Yadav tells The Drum.