in vacant or in pensive mood

Am I the only one to notice that there seems to be a sudden rise of people posting about Imposter Syndrome, especially within the strategic planning community? Almost every third post in my feed in the last couple of days have people talking about the Imposter Syndrome.

What's the last thing you'd love to see before you permanently close your eyes? For Voyager 1, it was a series of photos but the most iconic and undoubtedly the most significant one was this photo below. That small dot is our planet and this photo has been since called the "Pale Blue Dot" and is one of the most searched and coveted photographs in our spacial history.  This was the dream shot of Carl Sagan who was an advisor for Nasa at that time. He had to pitch this idea several times since the Voyager left earth and he was always denied since the photo would have no real scientific value or relevance. Thankfully - this wasn't done for any scientific pursuit but for a more emotional one. The Earth images were taken at 04:48 GMT on Feb. 14, 1990, just 34 minutes before Voyager 1 powered off its cameras forever . What a beautiful and unforgettable Valentíne's day shot the Voyager 1 had provided for mankind. But the image officially was received by the Nasa team...

Since pandemic hit - we've seen many feel-good, positive, inspirational and motivating stories of people from all walks of life. We've seen front line workers, policemen, the general public and looked at the problem from different categories that we are used to buying into. Ever wondered how the pandemic has affected athletes? Not the ones who are getting to play now, like cricket, football, etc, but the high performance athletes who rely on events to showcase their weeks of training and compete with the greatest rivals to better themselves?  This one by Sporcks, a Spanish high-performance socks manufacturer - dedicated for triathlon, cycling and running did just that. All these high performance athletes depend on an end goal as a way to benchmark their efforts and use it as a carrot to motivate themselves to train, improve and get back to doing better than their earlier performance. But with the pandemic - all major sports events were cancelled and along with that - all their ...

 Dave Chappelle last month had released a video on Youtube titled "Unforgiven". This is the second one that I saw after his earlier one titled 8:46. There was one thing common in both.  It was a stand up routine but wasn't meant to be funny. There's a misconception that every stand up comedy show has to be extremely funny all along. But that is dead wrong. Stand up comedy should be funny - but should leave you with a thought you've never had before. It should be able to pull an "Inception" on you and plant a thought that makes you a different person. One that thinks a little differently than before. I watched both of these and laughed very little - but both were so immensely engaging.  Stand up comics are great narrators. Are amazing story tellers. And beautifully insightful. We watch them for their stories - not just for their jokes.  I like a more intellectual comic. Which is why I avoid most Indian comics who address the young millennials and yet rela...

Any form of performance art is tough. You need to get on stage every time and be the best you can be. As stand up comedians often say - you are only as good as your previous show. There's a percent of skill and a ton of practice involved in this art form. It's only those who grow every day that reach the greater and uncharted heights. Some are great performers, but aren't as knowledgeable of the art form. They are not as technically adept of their form. Their experience has exposed them to certain wisdom but they aren't learning and putting new things to practice. People don't just remember great talent - people also appreciate the knowledge one has and one's inhibition to distribute it to anyone willing to learn.  They operate from a plane of high confidence - about themselves, their know-how and their skill. They aren't insecure and that oozes in their attitude and behavior. They are great teachers - not because they want to teach - but they because they c...

Here's a few things you may have heard often if trying to post videos on Facebook Have the brand logo within the first 5 seconds Shoot with mobile in mind (vertical) Have clearly visible subtitles The video should be mute compatible (since videos play on mute by default For better effectiveness - keep the video to within 240 seconds (4 minutes)  These are the general guidelines for video uploads on Facebook There are far sharper guidelines based on your communication objective, which we don't need to get into. But this isn't a Facebook video masterclass. It's a post that made me laugh at the irony of these guidelines. In the past few years - I've been in many meetings with the client where they have had a representative from Facebook who almost preached on how ads should be "Made for Facebook". They cautioned us that long format ads will not work (90 seconds itself seemed long to them) They told us to shoot it keeping the Facebook specs in mind to ensure b...

Ad films are meant to be highly engaging. Created to make people lean in and and avoid that skip button or resist the temptation of thumb scrolling to the next video on Facebook or Instagram that most often - automatically play. Agencies hire creative talent that understand the power of human emotions and can create films that make ads memorable, and brands recognizable - and most importantly - are able to tell amazing stories in less than 90 seconds.  Storytelling is an art. We've consumed so many great stories that have an amazing cast, a beautiful and engaging script, a highly reputed director, music that play to the beats of our heart - matching tempo to the emotion conveyed, peaking at the right times, and so many other smaller yet significant intricate things that come together to make us feel something.  There are millions of such amazing campaigns where all of this can be easily demonstrated.  But how often have we seen a film that does all that with just typograp...