Personal branding is one of those phrases that gets thrown about a lot, and people have differing ideas of what it means. Throughout my career, I’ve had many people approach me to “brand” them, when all they really wanted was a social media page, and a few thousand “followers”. A few of these people also occupy the domains of media, business, and philanthropy, so personal branding for them meant Profit$. I would usually decline these opportunities because a) they’re boring, and b) a pre-requisite of personal branding is that the brandee must have a personality that is brandable. Otherwise, it ..read more

Ideolot (pronounced EYE-dee-o-lot) is a word I’d like to introduce to describe folks who peddle simplistic ideas while being simultaneously a bit dim themselves. It’s a combination of the words ideologue and idiot. It’s got a nice ring to it and rolls off the tongue. Ideolots are amusing, entertaining, and very polarizing. I suspect that the invention of the internet has led to a mass proliferation of ideolots worldwide. There is a veritable pandemic of ideolots, especially after the pandemic. You see them every day – from YouTube videos titled “15 Things I Wish I Knew when I was 20” to Twitte ..read more

Mediocrity has turned modern culture into a sniveling apologetic cadaver that lacks daring. Everywhere you look, mediocrity is strangling our culture. Its bland, pasty tentacles are wrapped around all disciplines and art forms. It squeezes out anything daring or brilliant until all left is an uninspired, focus-grouped pablum made to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Movies and TV are an endless barrage of underwhelming superhero/true-story snoozefests. How many dull, bloated CGI fests can audiences be expected to tolerate? The big platforms ensure that we have a steady supply of soulles ..read more

To think well is to rethink constantly. Consistently rethinking our realities is the easiest way to arrive at truth. We have an unhealthy tendency to cling to constructs, dogmas, and wisdom as if they are permanent, immutable truths. Our language itself is constructed to reassert our illusions. We artificially silo knowledge into different domains – science, religion, philosophy, ethics, and arts – and treat the current paradigms within those domains as gospel. But the reality is that all our intellectual, spiritual, and creative frameworks are provisional and incomplete at best. The universe ..read more

Brand storytelling is a powerful marketing and communication strategy that involves crafting and sharing narratives that resonate with a brand’s target audience. It goes beyond mere product promotion and focuses on creating emotional connections by weaving compelling stories around a brand’s values, mission, and identity. At its core, brand storytelling taps into the innate human love for stories. From ancient myths and legends to modern-day novels and movies, stories have been a fundamental part of human culture and communication. They have the power to captivate, inspire, and influence emoti ..read more

Spirituality and atheism are great coping mechanisms in a world that seems paradoxical, convoluted, and hopelessly complex. They are great answers for those who do not prefer the beauty of the unexamined life. I have a scientist friend who follows a popular guru. The said guru had been popping up in my YouTube feed for quite some time, but always some vague truism (“we have to strive to move towards greater vibrations of energy”) he spouts turns me away from clicking the video. On a gloomy Sunday, I asked my friend about this guru person. “He is a master”, my friend said. “Of what?” “Everythin ..read more

The limits of language will necessarily be the limits of one’s thoughts. One can’t articulate what one can’t think. It is indeed a fascinating paradox. As undeniably useful as language is for articulating and conveying thoughts, ideas, and conceptions of reality, what if language’s very structures and constraints also impose limitations on the depth of what we can conceptualize? Do words limit how we think? After all, our languages are inherently linear systems – sequences of symbolic sounds and letters assembled in predetermined fashions to create semantic meaning. This logical, structuralize ..read more

Rap fails to innovate, and it seems to be permanently stuck in an endless loop of empty energy that means nothing, and a bravado that is a mere caricature of its capabilities. Few musical genres in modern history have disrupted popular culture and imprinted themselves into the social fabric quite like hip-hop and rap. What started as a stripped-down, rebellious folk art in the Bronx has morphed into a multi-billion-dollar cultural empire spanning the globe. Yet, for all its undeniable commercial dominance and evolving production styles over the past four decades, rap fails. Its fuller artistic ..read more

At art’s highest levels, creativity feels miraculous. Almost supernatural. Some works of art reach a high pitch with the majesty, mystery, complexity, and beauty of a natural phenomenon. A novel could talk about how once upon a time, a man woke up from troubling dreams to realize, with shock, that he had become an insect of some kind, and make you feel for the insect. A painting could explore multiple perspectives – almost an interdimensional peek – redefining the way we see reality itself. It is perplexing that cinema, which can also be considered as a syncretic culmination of all arts invari ..read more

Modern brand archetypes must tap into the timeless quality of myths to tempt, seduce, and arrest attention. A brand must not be a mere peddler of products – it must be an interconnected strand of meaning that adds layers to the richness of the consumer’s life. An archetype is a cipher. To provoke a purchase, a brand must use an archetype that can create an instant meaning in the mind of its audience. More than creating a story, like all good narratives, a modern brand archetype must poke and prod, and let an idea take root. Most brands underestimate the intelligence of the consumer. Today’s bu ..read more