Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
One of the most satisfying parts of curating this letter is being reminded of how many people worldwide have been and are so committed to learning, sharing and growing. Here's a few ideas that I plucked from the firehose this week.
Happy Friday.
How We Work
"Work is love made visible."
Kahlil Gibran Getty Images
This week my friend and colleague Tiffany Espinosa posted this lovely poem by Kahlil Gibran on her Facebook page, Teal Executives. Thank you, Tiffany, for the inspiration.
"And what is it to work with love?
"It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
"It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
"It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
"It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
"And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching….
"Work is love made visible.
"And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work."
From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923).
Poem: Kahlil Gibran On Work
How We Live
Albert Einstein was an immigrant, and so was Sergey Brin.
"Economists have long known that innovation is a key driver—perhaps the most important driver—of economic growth.
"What’s less popularly known is just how much immigrants are driving this innovation. As we learn more about the quirks of our modern knowledge economy, a fascinating data set is emerging on the impact of immigrants on innovation, from scientific breakthroughs to new inventions to business creation.
“'I’m always trying to understand what affects innovation,' Shai Bernstein, an economist at Stanford University, told me over the phone. He has previously studied the effects of public equity markets and the role of venture capital on innovation. 'And then, clearly, immigration became a very big topic over the last few years.'
"Then, in August 2018, a letter that 59 chief executives of the Business Roundtable sent to the Trump administration caught Bernstein’s attention. It warned that current immigration policies inflicted “substantial harm on U.S. competitiveness,” discouraging talented and skilled workers from coming to the United States.
"That got Bernstein asking questions. 'We became really interested in trying to understand how to quantify innovation,' he said. 'Before we even talk about policy, we don’t even really know the underlying number … what’s the contribution of immigrants to innovation? What’s the number?'” - Stephanie Tam
Spoiler: It's a lot.
Article: How Immigrants Drive Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Learning, Communication
New research charts the surprisingly widespread response in multiple brain areas when the eyes of two individuals meet and social gaze interaction happens.
“'There are strong robust signals in the brain that are signatures of an interactive social gaze,' says Steve Chang, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Yale University, a member of the Wu-Tsai Institute and the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, and the senior author of the study."
"They found that specific sets of socially tuned neurons fired across multiple brain regions at different times during mutual eye contact. For instance, one set of neurons fired when one individual initiated mutual eye contact, but not when that individual followed the other’s gaze. Another set of neurons were active when the monkeys were in the process of deciding whether to complete mutual eye contact initiated by the other. And interestingly, when fixing a gaze onto another individual some neurons marked the distance relative to another’s eyes, but when receiving a gaze yet another set of neurons signaled how close the other individual was.
"The brain regions in which neuronal activation took place provided hints into how the brain assesses the meaning of the gaze. Surprisingly, part of the network activated during social gaze interaction included the prefrontal cortex, the seat of higher-order learning and decision-making, as well as the amygdala, the center for emotion and valuation."
“Multiple regions within the prefrontal cortex, in addition to the amygdala, are recruited to compute selective aspects of interactive social gaze, suggesting the importance of a more contemplative role during social gaze interaction..."The fact that interactive social gaze neurons are found widely in the brain also speaks to the ethological importance of social gaze interaction,' Chang says." - Bill Hathaway-Yale
Article: When Eyes Meet, Brains Get to Work
Branding, Content Marketing
Making your brand promise to potential team members
You've heard me say this about a bazillion times: The most important members of your audience are your own people. If your own team understands who you serve, how you help them and why you do it, they can be the best advocates for your brand.
Now, during a time in which LinkedIn reports that almost half of all employees are considering changing roles in 2022, this critical marketing effort takes on a whole new importance.
"With this in mind, LinkedIn has published a new guide on employer branding, which includes a range of notes on how to maximize your employer appeal online.
"The 8-page guide includes notes on what types of content can help to boost appeal to potential candidates at different stages of the journey."
"There’s also an example roadmap of a prospect’s interest pathway, which further underlines the need for different types of content and contributors in the process.
"The last section of the short guide looks at how brands are seeing success with employer branding on LinkedIn, which provides more tangible guidance based on these notes." - Andrew Hutchinson
Article: LinkedIn Publishes New Pocket Guide to Effective Employer Branding
Advertising, Gender Roles
Most women believe that advertisers still portray women in stereotypical roles.
"Creating a more accurate depiction of mothers starts with advertisers understanding and educating themselves on the realities of family caregiving.
“'Our responsibilities are harder and more complicated than ever as families have increasing demands, and the emotional and financial stress can be overwhelming,'” said Staci Alexander, VP of thought leadership at AARP, who is caring for a child with special needs and an aging parent. 'Our stories should be accurately represented in the media, marketing and advertising industries.'
"...Blessing Adesiyan, the founder and CEO of Mother Honestly, agreed, adding, 'There are so many aspects to us. We are CEOs, C-level executives, business leaders and we just happen to be mothers.'
"...It’s also important to hire and promote diverse talent in advertising—it amplifies diverse, often-underrepresented voices and creates work that reflects the world as it is and as it could be."
"...Ultimately, advertisers must stop portraying 'mom roles' and 'dad roles' as separate.
“'There’s one role: parent. And the sooner advertising reflects that, the better we’ll all be...'.” - Stephanie Taylor
Article: How Advertisers Can Change Outdated Motherhood Narratives
Information Design
Michael Bierut calls the Doomsday Clock ‘the most powerful piece of information design of the 20th century.’ It was designed 75 years ago this month.
"With the recent publication of The Doomsday Clock at 75 by Robert K. Elder and J.C. Gabel (Hat and Beard Press), at last I am formally introduced to a history of a symbol that for some reason is arguably less well-known than other popular cautionary signs.
“'The Doomsday Clock is many things all at once: It’s a metaphor, it’s a logo, it’s a brand, and it’s one of the most recognizable symbols of the past 100 years,' write Elder and Gabel in the introduction to their fascinating origin story.
"The ominous clock was designed in June 1947 by Chicago landscape artist Martyl Suzanne Schweig Langsdorf, who went by the mononym Martyl, for the cover of the nonprofit Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “'The Clock sits at the crossroads of science and art,' they add, 'and therefore communicates an immediacy that few other forms can. As designer Michael Bierut says, the Clock is ‘the most powerful piece of information design of the 20th century.’ The Doomsday Clock has permeated not only the media landscape, but also culture itself.” - Steven Heller
Article: The Daily Heller: Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick …
Writing
“Pain is knowledge rushing in to fill a void with great speed.” — Jerry Seinfeld
Kevin Wolf—AP
I've long been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld's series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I love watching masters talk about their craft, and Seinfeld, driving some very cool cars to some very cool coffee shops, takes full advantage of his ability to attract and encourage master talent.
Recently he was interviewed on The Tim Ferriss Show, and writer Tom Belskie noticed that he was "handing out writing gem after writing gem." Lucky for us Belskie took the time to summarize the advice.
"Comedians are, first and foremost, writers. How else do you think they come up with jokes and structure their act?
"Writing a joke is not all that different than writing a blog post or a story.
"Timing. Brevity. Narrative. Foreshadowing. Punchlines. It’s all there." - Tom Belskie
Article: 5 Writing Lessons from Jerry Seinfeld
One-liners
Article: A Balm for Psyches Scarred by War: MDMA-Assisted Treatment for PTSD
Article: 'The Baltimore Banner' and NPR station WYPR team up to serve city
Article: Bussing disadvantaged students to top-notch public schools has led to higher grades, lower drop-out rates and a call for more integration.
Playlist
Video: Alisa Amador, 2022 Tiny Desk Contest Winner: Tiny Desk Concert
This week, after more than 800 days away, the Tiny Desk concert series returned to the DC office that is home to the real, physical, tiny desk. The honored guest was Alisa Amador, the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Award.
Alisa grew up in Maine, Puerto Rico, Boston and Argentina, and her sweetly swinging songs represent that breadth. Alisa's winning song, Milonga accidental, played here with a wonderful string quartet, is the first contest winner with Spanish lyrics. For the rest of her set she is joined by a band who give her very groovy material a soft drums, bass and guitar kick, with backing vocals for some Beatlesque fun.
Welcome back Tiny Desk. Tiny Desk at Home was an ok alternative, but nothing beats the conviviality and chemistry that this particular office encourages.
Image of the Week
The Arc, an educational building at Green School in Bali, with an undulating bamboo roof
"The Green School in Bali is known for its finely tuned programme that follows children from early years through to secondary education, infused with a focus on creativity, the arts and ecological responsibility. Founded by John and Cynthia Hardy in 2006 and built around the principles of sustainable architecture, the school is a unique take on education; and now, it can also boast a brand new structure in its midst. The Arc, designed by local design and architecture studio Ibuku, headed by Elora Hardy, has recently been completed, offering a fresh visual shorthand for education architecture and the school’s green identity through its pioneering, green bamboo roof." - Ellie Stathaki
Article: Ibuku’s The Arc at Green School in Bali Raises the Bamboo Roof
What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
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