Five things on Friday #400
Clarity. Relationships. Creativity.
Things of note for the week ending Friday, July 25th 2025.
#400
INTRO
Hello friends.
There's a thing.
An old thing.
A whisper.
Of a time when the Five things on Friday newsletter/weblog used to do one-year-on and one-year-off.
That time, the old time, was an attempt to regulate creativity.
Because, to me at least, creativity is a need. A juice. One that needs to be met - to be squeezed.
The words, they build up you see. Sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not. I'd like to say oftentimes it’s either way but I don’t know if that’s true.
All I can tell you is that when the words are there, they need to be written. When they're not, then they're not. And when they're not - well - that basically means the creative need is behind met elsewhere.
In short: it means, ultimately and creatively, I am happy.
Perhaps paradoxically, when you DO hear from me it also mean that my creative needs are being met but in a different way. In a thinking way, perhaps. Not a making way. I think that's what I'm trying to say:
Creatively, recently, I've been making.
Not thinking (well, obviously some thinking) but.. making.
Creatively EXPRESSING. Thinking of things that were not real yesterday that might be real tomorrow through no other reason than sheer bloodymindedness of thought.
I don't know if that is what creativity IS but that is what creativity is to me.
That was a long walk for a ham sandwich.
Point is: sorry I've been away, I've been making stuff. Tell you about it all between now and at some point in 2027 when it all lands.
The good news is, the words are building up again and like a cafetière that has brewed for a few minutes, they need pressing.
So we should press on.
What else can I tell you?
This happened. Which was nice. Contracting is nicer/a touch more secure than freelancing. It’s been fun so far! And if I’m completely honest, probably the main contributor as to why you’ve not heard from me much (it’s been a bit busy).
How are you? I hope you are surviving in the heat. Hit reply. Give me your updates. It’s been a while and I want to know what you’re up to.
You do that and I’ll crack on with the things.
Plan? Plan.
—
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. 28 YEARS OF DEPRESSION… GONE IN A BLINK
I don't know why this article spoke to me but it did.
Sometimes, in life, you stare at clouds for hours and all it takes is one person to say 'Hey, that cloud kind of looks like a gorilla' - and lo, the collection of water of moisture collated in the air that has been looking at you for that time is indeed, in fact, suddenly a gorilla.
“It was a moment that was both extraordinary and ordinary” – like stirring from a dream. “It was just, ‘Oh, I’ve woken up …’ And it didn’t matter that I’d spent 28 years in a state of depression. It was gone. Everything was different. Immediately, I thought: ‘I’m not an irritable, angry person. That is not my true nature. That is just how I was. I’ve forgiven everything that anyone has ever done to me or will ever do.’”
To Paul Foot, those clouds were quite dark for some time. And it took, what, a collection of thoughts - opinions/therapy/pain - just aligned.
Nothing matters. Everything matters.
It's amazing when the clarity comes.
It gets better.
THING 2. ADVENTURES IN RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
I wrote this section several months ago now but for some reason, this week, I felt compelled to publish it.
This is, without doubt, some of the best relationship advice I've ever been given - it even turned up in a best man’s speech once.
Whenever times are tough there are things to do. Hold hands, look at each other in the eye, and say/admit/ask the following:
1. We’ve not been here before.
2. I miss things.
3. Ask questions (how do you feel, what can I do to make this better, what do we do next)
If you only take one thing from this week's newsletter - maybe take the above?
Love is an action. Admitting things are hard, knowing that times before may have been easier, and figuring out what to do next, together… well, it’s a start isn’t it?
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… VIDEO GAMES
A section that is trying not to be about Death Stranding 2. Look, look, we won't even start with it...
SO I GOT A SWITCH 2.
Of course it is a Mario Kart World machine BUT what a Mario Kart machine it is; the family haven't played this much together since Animal Crossing first came out in 2020.
We immediately need more tracks and characters. Also: unlocking Fishbone can do one.
…
That said, Donkey Kong Bananza is out now and it's reviewing INCREDIBLY well… but I have too many games!
Update:
Well, that lasted long.
— James Whatley (@whatleydude.com) 2025-07-18T16:56:38.037Z
‘Ooh Banana!’
Be that as it may, the lift the Switch 2 has given to literally every other game I had on the OG switch (one I bought waaaaaay back in DATE), is gleaming. Playing Super Mario Wonder in 4K / 60fps is enough to make a man weep.
OK Fine, let's talk about Death Stranding 2.
Let’s get one thing clear: I’ve never been what you would call a huge fan of Hideo Kojima’s work. I played some Metal Gear Solids before but I was never enamoured by them. And while I appreciate his work as an artist, I’ve never really felt like I worshipped at the altar of Kojima.
The first Death Stranding kind of changed that for me. I don’t know what it was about that game that made me enraptured by it but it just worked for me. The combination of walking, traversing, ostensibly figuring out the puzzle from one destination to the next, connecting people, connecting to items other players had left - leaving the game world in a better way than you found it. There’s just so much of it that I loved.
(I’d show you proof of that love but it was all on the platform previously known as Twitter, RIP)
And so with Death Stranding 2, this was the easiest day one purchase I think ever.
And to truly show you what an absolutely incredible visual, audio, and storytelling spectacle it is, just watch the first five minutes of this: from opening cinematic to gameplay. I screamed: ‘SORRY WHAT. THIS IS THE GAME. LOL WHAT’ - because I couldn’t believe the graphics.
Anyway, I’m playing loads of it and I’m loving it.
GAMING NEWS BITS
Ever wondered just how the 2025 BAFTA award winning killer game, Balatro, made it in regard to its marketing? Well, here's a very good place to start.
‘I don’t worship at the altar of Kojima’ but I quite liked this GQ profile.
Some very smart and creative people I work with made this INCREDIBLE ad for the launch of the LEGO Nintendo Gameboy.
Here’s an Xbox-themed Meta Quest 3D that can’t play your Xbox games.
I didn’t make this but I really liked this Fortnite/Switch 2 ad from Epic.
Romeo is a Dead Man is the most insane game trailer I think I’ve ever seen. This is gory and mental and you have been warned.
This is from last month, so not exactly newsworthy, but I still liked these slides from Sony’s Game & Network Services Segment talking about success now and in the future… Good brain fodder for those of us in games.
Under pressure from payment processors (who themselves have been put under pressure by an organized collective action group), indie game platform itch.io has ‘deindexed’ all adult and nsfw content from its browser and search pages. This has gone down as well as you’d think. Expect a counter-action imminently.
Do YOU remember this insane marketing for Super Mario Sunshine?
..
There’s no ‘What is James playing?’ bit this week as I’ve already told you. AC: Shadows was put down for Death Stranding 2 and Donkey Kong Banaza is kicking around the edges to play when the kids are around - which is a lot right now. Let’s see where we are next time.
What are you playing?
THING 4. KIND OF GOOD AND DECENT / MASSIVE TECH NEWS THAT MOST PEOPLE IGNORED?
Octopus Energy and BYD have launched the UK’s very first ‘vehicle-to-grid’ bundle.
What that means is, for £300 a month, you get a BYD car, a ‘bi-directional’ charger, and a smart electrical tariff.
All this adds up to the following V2G equation:
Octopus charges the car when electricity is cheap.
But if the car remains plugged it, it can send electricity back to the grid when electricity is expensive.
Meaning the BYD EV basically becomes a mini-battery sat on the drive.
The car becomes a battery (see bidirectional charging).
I think this is literally the future (we just need a solution for the those of us who don’t have off-street parking).
Read more via Octopus and thanks to Mike Butcher for the tip.
THING 5. THIS IS NOT AN ESSAY
I don’t know how often I can say ‘Chat GPT is not to be trusted’ - but here we are, with another example.
Amanda Guinzburg writes:
Presented to you in the form of unedited screenshots, the following is a ‘conversation’ I had with Chat GPT upon asking whether it could help me choose several of my own essays to link in a query letter I intended to send to an agent.
And in her not-essay, there are indeed many, many screenshots.
Here’s one of them:
Stop using Gen AI.
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.
‘No, attention spans are not declining’James Hurman using data and science to prove that attention spans have not declined. But patience for boring content has.
65 thoughts from Seth Godin. For some reason Godin hangs out in the same part of my head as Gladwell. I get them confused from time to time. None of this has any bearing on the link above, I’m just sharing.
Soho House as Club Tropicana? Beaut.
Reasons why I will probably never sign up to an 'agenctic AI'
As a complete aside, sometimes I consider how sodding lucky and privileged it has been to grow up and work through the social media marketing revolution. Seeing this platforms up close, watching them change T&Cs around their users, lie to select committees, to governments, obfuscate the truth about the use of data... over and over and over tech companies have shown us they cannot be trusted.
Eight or so years ago, in a speech called 'Can we really trust technology?' I argued, from the advertising perspective, that the much maligned industry of advertising often gets A Bad Rep™️ for lying to consumers when the truth of the matter is, in the UK at least, we have strict rules and regulations - from the CAP code to the ASA to the CMA - that prevents us from doing just that. We regularly have to complete anti bribery laws, training. Etc.
And yet, AI companies? Where are their rules and regulations? The anti-bias training? The ongoing checks and balances to ensure their influence over the populace is monitored and validated for dangerous untruths.
These things simply don't exist. Hell, they don’t even adhere to existing laws (copyright, lol what).
The talk I mentioned was at the One Question conference in 2017. My closing argument was: 'Can we really trust technology? We already do. And that's probably a bad thing. So what are you going to do about it?'
Seeing it all play out is shocking. That's the problem with being a sometime-trend writer / doomsayer - being right rarely feels good.
OK, back to the show.
OK so MAYBE someone (Disney, Universal) is pushing on those copyright laws, a LITTLE.
Google is working on an AI email tool that can answer ‘in your style’ - thanks, my style is to ignore email for six weeks and then reply with ‘Hey, sorry - do you still need this?’
Do you use link shorteners.? Here's the Government Communications' Services own advice on why using these are a bad idea.
One of the best videos about BRAND/FONT DESIGN I have ever seen.
‘Meta's AI superintelligence sounds like the metaverse.‘ - Ars Technica
‘Is he autistic or is he just an asshole?’ Is a great piece from Laurie Penny. It reminded me a lot of this excellent piece from Amy Kean.
Did you want to watch the high quality LaserDisc originals of the 1987 cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? You did? Oh great. I gotchu.
'Your Smartwatch was developed by a furry' is not a sentence I ever thought I'd write but hey, truth is as truth does.
Jenny Chang's latest ‘IN THIS ECONOMY?’ is a doozy - and worth your time.
What would life be like if we weren't online? Well.
‘If you’re still working in advertising, chances are you’ve considered what’s next’ - sobering reading.
SXSW London happened. I still think Mark's take is the best take.
Alec Meer has started a new newsletter all about Transformers (and adjacent toylines) and I’ve read every edition so far. Child of the 80s? You might like it x
If you need or want to do something that will make you feel good, doesn’t harm anyone, and it is within your gift to make it happen - then good for you. Anyway, here's what happens when you go for a hair transplant in Turkey.
Finally for this section, I’ve just discovered a whole bucket of stuff in my Gmail of randomly filed bonus items that risks doubling the size of this week’s already punchy section.
Forgive me but I’m going to park it there and save them for the next edition. Don’t be mad, or disappointed - just be excited about what’s to come!
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
Thank you very much for reading this 400th edition of Five things on Friday. What a hoot!
I’ve had decent week. Thanks to a new partnership between Common People and Working Options, a not for profit set up to help young people find careers, this week I met with 15 young students looking to explore what might be possible.
I wrote a bit about it over on Linkedin and the main CTA is: if you think you can help these young people then please get in touch with Working Options.
…
What else can I tell you? OH YES.
It was the Mrs’ birthday last weekend. We stayed at Danesfield House in Marlow and it was a write off. I think I have recommended them in these pages before, I would like to strike that from the record and never recommend them again, thanks.
The GOOD NEWS IS, we rang another hotel, explain the sitch (meant to be a relaxing birthday break, but we’ve been booked in alongside two massive weddings - help), and they got us in right away. Amazing work.
Re Danesfield: in the past I’d level these complaints across various social media but instead they’re going to be here, probably on Google Maps and TripAdvisor, and almost certainly at this rate, small claims court for a full refund they currently refuse to give me. What fun!
Tl;dr:
DON’T go to Danesfield House.
DO go to our saviours at Whatley Manor instead (no relation).
..
OK, I think that’s me done.
Thanks for reading.
Honestly, I spent so long getting to this edition because I felt like maybe i should do something special for NUMBER FOUR HUNDRED but in the end I decided against it.
Sorry I literally do make up the rules x
Until next time,
Whatley out x
So hear me out
— I AM DAD (@iamdad.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T20:51:49.839Z
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