Five things on Friday #371
This week: Dan Levy, questionable skyscraper construction plans, Xbox studio closures, and.. well. More x
Things of note for the week ending Friday May 10th, 2024.
INTRO
What’s up, nerdz.
Welcome to the 371st edition of Five things on Friday.
As I write to you now it's 22:32 on Thursday May 9th. A week of trickiness is coming to a close.
Delivered my first piece of major work at the new main gig (went well), combined with the family away for a funeral in Scotland and supporting an enormous GOOD SHOUT leadership event in Leeds (also went well)… Friends, the weekend cannot come soon enough.
And the sun has come out to play too.
How lovely.
This week also marks the release of the results of 2024 Major Players Salary Survey.
Easily the best in the biz (nearly 4000 people surveyed), if you work in the creative industries and you're tired of being told 'you're in the bracket' or that 'we look at the industry average and benchmark accordingly' or you're just tired of having someone from your C-Suite appearing in Campaign mag banging on about how much we need to support young people, diversity, the working classes [delete where applicable] when you can barely cover rent then by all means use this survey as a stick to hit them with.
I’ve put the PDF on a GDrive link right here.
Use it to inspire. To make a business case. And if nothing changes, leave your job. Because the only person lying awake at night worrying about your career is you. Not your boss, not your line manager, not your CEO. You.
So who do you think is going to drive the change?
Manage and prep accordingly.
What else can I tell you?
The writing of FToF tends to be a phased affair. Throughout the week if I read, see, or hear something interesting, I send it to myself an email (subject: #5things) and toward the end of the week (sometimes on Thursday - like now, sometimes on a Sunday, like.. several times before now), I'll then open a .txt file next to my inbox and start searching through what I've got. Sorting. Keeping. Binning. Finding an order. Adding notes and making sure I've got enough THINGS for the the newsletter. Not enough Things? No newsletter.
Anyway. The point is, I've got some downtime in this car journey (the radio is loud, Nicky is concentrating on the road, and Amy is - well, I think she’s posting on Linkedin at this very moment) so the things have been found and the commentary has started.
We might even get an edition on time tomorrow (today). Shall we see how we go? Let's.
OH! I nearly forgot.
Thank you to the new paid subscribers that signed up last month. I think the 'anything over goes to charity' hit that did it. Good. Let's stick to that (details at the very end of this edition).
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. WE BOW A THE FEET OF DAN LEVY AT THE MET GALA
I don't care about what you think about it. Dan Levy killed it. And I think nailed the only ‘Oh my God, I would actually wear that’ outfit of the whole event.
LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT HIM.
The simplicity. The colours. I saw a reply that said ‘This is what happens to me when I hear the Teams new message notification’ and I lol’d.
‘A swerve to be simple’ indeed.
Related: Adam Mosseri taking Meta’s Ray-Ban’s on the green/red carpet was it’s own thing... (the moment, and the footage from the moment, are captured right here).
THING 2. TURNS OUT IT'S HARD TO BUILD A 105-MILE SKYSCRAPER
105 miles of desert-based madness is now aiming to be… 1.5 miles (by 20230). And while this thing is still being built, the ambition and overall size of the project is shrinking in direct inverse proportion to its budget.
Futurism writes:
So far, construction has been disjointed and haphazard. The Line's foundations were being built years before architects had finished designing the above-ground structure in order to show progress to the crown prince, according to the newspaper. When the architects decided on another site, the initial foundations were abandoned.
That kind of slipshod planning continues to haunt Neom. The first 10 miles of the skyscraper was initially set to be completed by 2030. It's now been cut down to a mere 1.5 miles, with ambitions of housing millions of residents in its first phase also dropping to less than 200,000.
Meanwhile, Neom is spending some $5 billion just to build the housing for its construction workers, with an additional 100,000 workers set to join their ranks. But not even these were designed with much foresight, it seems. A community that's home to Neom's engineers and administrative workers already needs to be demolished, according to the WSJ, after yet more revisions to the Line's design now means that the skyscraper will run right through its location.
Speaking of running right through locations, the exact permission the authorities have been given to make way for this ‘building’ is also currently under investigation.
The BBC is reporting that Saudi forces have been 'told to kill' to clear land for this eco-city of the future.
Lethal force. To make way for a pipe dream.
Is this where we are now?
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN... GAMES
Another week, another week MASSIVE GAMES COMPANIES shutting down CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED studios because… well, maybe you can figure it out.
Xbox announced this week that it would be shuttering a handful of studios at Bethesda, namely: Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios, Tango Gameworks (Hi-Fi Rush - HELLO), and Roundhouse Games - the latter of which is being subsumed into Zenimax. But still. What.
Xbox president Sarah Bond was asked about this on a stage with Bloomberg and… well, you can judge the response for yourself.
The other part of Arkane, Arkane Lyon, their boss had something to say about it too.
The games industry is so tired. Because of the job I used to have, I got to know the intricacies of some studios, publishers, and their budgets (as they met their earnings). And this stuff, it’s just so hard to swallow. I hope this is the end of it. We’re nearly halfway through 2024. Can we stop now? Please?
What is James playing?
Not bloody much if I'm honest - it's been a busy week!
I'm still playing through ZAU (this is good).
I'm chipping away at LEGO Star Wars Rebel Missions in Lego Fortnite (although my Rebel Outpost is bugged atm - send help)
And of course, when there's time, I'm still playing Helldiver 2 (I could write about everything that’s happened with that game recently but honestly so many other people have done such a better job you can just google it).
Next on the spin up list: ANIMAL WELL. Reviewing well and available on PS Plus. Yay.
THING 4. LINKEDIN COPYCATS ARE A MOOD
You might be a unique thinker, you might be a massive content robber, but if you’re a LinkedIn user then you’ve certainly come across both.
This week, I saw this:
The brilliant and hilarious Annie-Mai Hodge not only calling out a copycat but CATCHING THEM RED-HANDED BY POSTING MADE UP UPDATES is God-tier Wagatha Christie skills.
RESPECT, AMH. Respect.
It reminded me of that time the terrifyingly awesome Baiba Matisone called out the probab-lematic Julian Cole for copying her content.
(as a quick aside, WHY WOULD YOU DARE copying one of the SMARTEST PEOPLE and then THINK people wouldn’t notice are you MAD?)
Hell, it reminded me of that time it happened to me.
The point is: Linkedin can genuinely be a great place to find smart people, chat new ideas, and be inspired by what is good and great in the world.
Linkedin can ALSO be a cesspool of mediocrity, where unoriginal energy thieves rob others of their ideas, their frameworks, and their thoughts - and serve them up as their own. Either in a word-for-word copy and paste OR as part of some 78-page slide-able content (maybe we should swap that ‘o’ for a ‘u’) in their mukbang-inspired, video-to-cam-whilst-walking-down-the-street, framework-obsessed, cheat sheet ‘here’s how they did this’ faux-attempt at being an ORIGINAL STRATEGIST.
God it’s so tiring.
OK. Breathe.
Look. I do think there's something here about having and finding your own voice (yes, Amy, I could do another plug for Good Shout here). Finding your own way into something; it’s important.
Not just listing the same boring old balls of scheisse about the same old things - it makes a difference. It’s why I write FToF. It’s why I never say yes to ghostwriting. It’s why LISTS suck.
It’s why YOU should get better at writing. And it’s also why you should call out copycats and content robbers whenever you see them.
Just say: ‘Oi! Robber! Stop it!’
That is all x
Related:
Martin Weigel on ‘There’s too much story’ is adjacent to this point.
Rob Campbell (again) being close to ‘Hey, why don’t you actually do some work?’ with rage. Enjoyable. Inspiring.
THING 5. YEAH, SO WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT VOYAGER
I’m guessing most of you know that Voyager 1 is literally the farthest man-made object ever from earth. Launched in 1977 it set sail for the edge of the universe… and never looked back (OK, so maybe once). And, well, as is its right as a SPACECRAFT AND COMPUTER SYSTEM BUILT IN 1977, it hit a bug.
And NASA fixed that bug. From 24.3 billion km (15.1 billion miles) away.
I get emotional just reading that.
So yeah, here’s how they did that.
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.
Everyone on Linkedin is wanging on about the Apple iPad ad and I can’t be bothered. BTW, LG did it 15 years ago.
Nintendo announced it was no longer going to support X (nee Twitter) as a sharing option from its consoles. FWIW, Xbox did this last summer, Sony followed later and now with Nintendo.. well, what is the point of X anymore?
For no reason whatsoever, The Register reshared its story of when Microsoft bought then basically shutdown Nokia (I was a passenger for a short time on that ride - funsies).
If you’re not watching X-Men 97 then 1) sort your damn life out and 2) see point 1.
Pubs reopening can only be a good thing (as a student of what ails men and their mental health the long-going closure of Britain’s pubs is a quiet chisel chipping away at places for men to gather - so this pleases me).
OK GO annotated one of their videos - and it’s amazing.
The latest edition of COMMON PEOPLE features photographs from a market I spent most weekends at. And it is a joy.
It's a McKinsey thing so forgive me (a broken clock is right twice a day) but this is interesting: ‘Why so many bad bosses still rise to the top’ (I want to spend more time with it).
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
I took the above photo in July 2009. We were at the end of our first Lucozade trip. On the border of Namibia and Angola - right on the river Kunene - we were invited to break bread with the Himba tribe.
The place we stayed - Serra Cafema - was a paradise. In the middle of nowhere. The green shoots of the river set it apart from the surrounding deserts like a mirage.
After greeting the tribespeople (in order of age), we were allowed to mill around, eat (goat, I think), and explain (badly) what we were doing (sandboarding).
I remember tripping on something and seeing these shoes at my feet. Treads from treads.
Something about taking what you have and making something not more with it, no. Something practical. This thing is broken, but I’m going to take the useful from the broken and apply to a need.
I’m going back to therapy next week (I’m OK, I just need to resolve some stuff) and this photograph somehow is helping.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
PS. It’s 2055 on Friday. I’m not proof-reading this. Sorry for typos x
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