Hello mate.
It has been a week.
(And no, not because of ‘the politics’ here in the UK (there’ll be none of that here, thanks).
Standing on stage a little over eight days ago, talking to an engaged audience about how many often mistake gaming platforms for ‘The Metaverse’, I didn’t have much of a clue that one single slide would pull on its boots and go stomping around LinkedIn, Instagram, Discord, and more… According to one account (FROM CANADA), I had upset ‘metaverse gurus and crypto bros everywhere’. Lol.
And judging by some of the LinkedIn commentary, you can believe it. Shame. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
In the meantime, you can always tell when FTOF goes on a little break - because it means life is good, and busy, and the creativity and love I normally pour into this is being spent elsewhere. It’s Saturday as I write this to you and the girls are away for the weekend. It’s been in the diary for a while so I collected up some links this week and thought ‘Hmm, I think there might be a newsletter this week’ - and well, here we are. How nice.
So. That’s the preamble out the way. Onwards… TO THE THINGS!
1. LET’S GET THE METAVERSE TALK OUT OF THE WAY SHALL WE?
Here’s what happened.
Wednesday, June 29th, I did a talk at the #BIMABeyond conference.
One of my… er… punchier slides (3/63) got snapped (below) and went a bit nuts on LinkedIn.
Cue: tons of comments, shares, replies, and angry metaverse believers. Since the above LinkedIn post went live, I’ve been called a flat earther, a metaverse atheist, and… best of all ‘anti-human’. It’s mad. Like, just because you’ve made an app for Facebook’s Meta Quest VR, doesn’t mean you’re in the metaverse, my dude.
ALSO. Can you imagine how much worse this would’ve been if I was either a woman or a person of colour or both? Ugh.
The good news is:
90% of the commentary - publicly and privately - has been really quite lovely and positive. Lots of ‘THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS!’
Thanks to huge amount of inquiries from people asking to see the slides, Diva found some time for me to not only share the slides (with written out speaker notes) but also record a version of the exact same talk that you can see as well.
The slides and the video are available on the Diva website.
Given the interest so far (and if you’ve not seen it yet), I would really love to know what you think. Thanks, gang x
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Other Metaverse links of note:
‘Metaverses’ that aren’t games have next to no users, pass it on.
Michael Lewis on the metaverse ‘Shallow and phoney’ (cheers to Paddy for that nugget).
Sam Gilbert, a leading researcher on Web3, has published a new metaverse-focused piece. ‘The political economy of the metaverse’ - Worth a read.
In the BIMA talk mentioned above, I go into a fair bit of detail as to why the recent McKinsey Metaverse report is balderdash (it’s honestly a joke). I’m looking forward to doing the same with this twaddle from Momentum Worldwide …but funnily enough, they haven’t shared the methodology (I’ve asked).
2. CULTURE MOVES FAST BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GO SLOW?
Sara Barqawi writes:
“As an industry, we’ve fixated on ‘tapping into culture’ or creating comms ‘at the speed of culture’, which is great in theory. In practice, we’re only actually tapping into what’s trending on TikTok or Twitter that day. This is limited to reacting to cultural events that work at the speed of our news cycle; it relies on influencers, platforms, or current affairs. It also means you’re just as quickly forgotten.
This partnership does the opposite. By going after long-standing cultural institutions which have existed and contributed to the vibrancy of city life for decades, Adidas will create legitimate long-term relevance and desire. By chasing the more robust side of culture — slow culture (culture that really matters) the brand may be rewarded by staying remembered for longer.”
I had never heard of Ravi’s before. And Sara’s brilliant piece on both the history of this local cultural touchstone and why it’s so perfectly chosen for this partnership is a great read.
3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING
First off, what am I playing?
My current fave is Neon White (available on Switch and PC). It’s a super nuts speedrunning game and I love it.
The levels take between 10-90s depending on how fast you are, the action is frenetic and it’s the first game that’s made me want to get a Nintendo Pro controller..
It’s really hard to capture how fun this game is but here’s the trailer and a decent review. Genuinely can’t recommend this enough.
Also playing: Destiny 2 (standard) and finally working my way through Horizon Forbidden West (with occasional dips into Fall Guys - now free to play on all platforms! - and Forza Horizon 5 (can’t wait for the Hot Wheels update).
Next, I’m looking forward to God of War: Ragnarök in November.
Oh - and STRAY! which looks great (you play a cat for crying out loud).
What are you playing?
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Other games news of note:
After the SEC, it’s now the CMA’s turn to investigate the Microsoft/Activision takeover.
I will yell this from the rooftop until my throat hurts: gaming is not just boys.
This is hella useful: six ways to turn Twitch clips into YouTube Shorts, TikToks, and Reels. It works too. Here’s mine.
Side note: I’m working on a ton of games stuff at the moment AND I CAN’T TELL YOU ABOUT ANY OF IT BUT MY GOD I HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD.
4. LISTENING: FRENCH TOUCH
My go-to ‘GTD’ playlist is Whatleydude playlist for Getting Things Done (you’re welcome) but recently I’ve taken to sticking French Touch in my ears and it’s having a similar effect.
But with more chair dancing.
Recommended.
Fun fact: the Wikipedia entry for Daft Punk uses one of my photos on the main page. Hurrah for creative commons.
5. THE WAR ON GIRLS
My god, this is some writing. I mean proper writing. The kind of writing that forces tears from your eyes and lights a fire in your belly and then you scream and scream and scream. This is some writing.
My friend Amy Kean can write.
And with this ‘The war on girls: why can society take young women seriously?’ she’s done it again.
I implore you to read it.
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
Communication charts on how to negotiate with people around the world. I’ve done a bit of work and reading on this before and I can’t tell you how useful this stuff is. And utterly fascinating.
Writing a book? It seems everyone is. Well, you might find this useful.
'Oh, that's good. people will need to go in to hand their notice in'
TikTok drives culture. No denying it. So it makes sense that it’s The Town Square now.
‘I should be able to mute America’ (evergreen).
Speaking of which, cowering in a luxury bunker is a lousy retirement plan.
Amy Lennox doing Cabaret. Goodness me this is good.
Crossrail is here. Crossrail is amazing (I’ve been on it - TCR to Farringdon is a game-changer). And yes, here’s where to sit when you’re on it. God I love this level of nerdery.
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
Well, that was lovely, wasn’t it?
It’s been a hot minute since the last FTOF and I can’t promise when the next one will be but what I can tell you is that I’ve still got a bunch of links in the bank and when the time comes for round FTOF #322, you’ll be the first to know. Until then, thank you, as ever, for reading, for subscribing, for screenshotting, and for sharing. You’re proper lovely.
Hope you’re having a gorgeous summer.
Whatley out x
Love it when ‘Five things…’ lands. Thanks James, the links to the articles are heart wrenchingly poignant. Now to start that book…and buy Stray.
Until next time,
H