Five things on Friday #247

Things of note for the week ending Friday, January 26th, 2018.

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TO THE THINGS!

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1. SPOT MINI

The latest iteration of the robot dog from Boston Dynamic is MENTAL AND WHEN YOUR KIDS ARE YOUR AGE THEY’LL HAVE ALL ONE*

LOOK AT IT!

You can hit the image and it’ll open the 25 second YouTube video that goes shows just how darn realistic this thing is.

Boston Dynamics Spot Mini.

Coming to a vision of the future near you.

*And by ‘have one’ I mean, ‘will probably live in a neighbourhood where these things patrol the streets at night and act as a weird kind of security nightmare for would-be crims/dystopian governments wanting to keep its citizens in check. Maybe. 

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2. GEE DEE PEE AAAAARGH! 

If you keep reading about how huge GDPR (aka the General Data Protection Regulation) will be (and how it will massively impact your day-to-day business) and yet still have ZERO CLUE what the HELL it is and WHAT IN THE HEAVENS you should ACTUALLY BE DOING ABOUT IT.

Then please, worry no more.

Econsultancy has been looking at the whole thing from a marketer’s* perspective and has compiled a handy list of its blog posts to date on the topic as well as a bunch of training courses for you to go and have a look at.

It isn’t scary and, if you’re in marketing (hell, even if you’re not) you should read it. It WILL impact your business.

Off you pop.

*Note: ‘Marketers’ not ‘Marketeers’. We market stuff, we’re not running around with swords and muskets like some crass over-branded version of ourselves. Blergh. 

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3. HOW TO TAKE A PICTURE OF A STEALTH BOMBER OVER THE ROSE BOWL

The photo is not a fake.

And here’s how it was shot

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4. THE FALL OF TRAVIS

I’ve written about the absolute state that is Travis Kalanick (and Uber) several times before in this newsletter. It doesn’t matter if you’re super familiar with everything that happened or in actual fact have never paid any attention to any of it, this Bloomberg Business piece is a must-read.

Damming. Horrifying. Ridiculous. Peak BS.

#DeleteUber.

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5. GARY VAYNERCHUK IS TRYING TO KILL YOU

 [taken from Gary V’s book ‘Now is the time to crush it’] 

Jon Westenberg writes.

‘I can’t even express to you how unhealthy [the above] is likely to be.

If you work a full time job, and you get home from it and spend time with your family, and then work until 2 or 3 AM and then get up and do it again, you are going to have a nervous breakdown.

You are going to suffer. You are going to be exhausted. It’s going to severely impact the people around you in negative ways. It’s just not sustainable to live that kind of lifestyle, and the damage you will do to your relationships and your mental and emotional — let alone physical — health could last a lifetime.’

Westenberg is right.

And he speaks from experience too.

Sorry, Gary, I’m with Jon.

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PRE-BONUS ESSENTIAL READING: 

Only the essentials. 

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THE BONUS SECTION OF BONUS-SHAPED BONUSES: 

Bon. Us. Good together - 

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THIS IS THE END. 

There’s a running joke among some of the folk I’ve worked longest with: ‘The many lives of James Whatley’ – they say. The work I’ve done, the odd semi-successful careers I’ve had. The places I’ve found myself in, and the people I’ve met – it’s all just chance, really.

Yes, a wink and a smile goes a long way but – in the end – it’s how you hold yourself when the going gets tough.

Be the grass. Not the stone. Flow with the weather. Don’t close up and go brittle. You could break. Sway.

This stuff takes practice.

This week’s advice for the weekend is to consider others. While I would never, ever counsel measuring yourself with someone else’s yardstick, you should always be mindful of the unseen battles that others are struggling with.

Literally, no one has roses all the time.

No one.

Be kind.

To yourself and each other.

Whatley out, x. 

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Author: James Whatley

Chief Strategy Officer in adland. I got ❤️ for writing, gaming, and figuring stuff out. I'm @whatleydude pretty much everywhere that matters. Nice to meet you x