Issue 18: A bulletin for big ideas and better business.

Dive in

Looking for a creative boost? This issue is just the thing. Amsterdam Art Week descends on the Dutch capital. A summit looks at why cities should be for the children. And our weekly illustration explores the dangers of group-think. Plus: we discover a secret society of sceptics gathering in Lyon. But first: why you ought to say ‘yes’, to the word ‘no’.

OPINION/ CREATIVITY 

A thousand times ‘no’

💬 Sir John Hegarty

It takes a long time to get good at something. This statement is so obvious it’s barely worth writing down. But it’s the basis of a theory that people have crowed on about for almost twenty years. In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers explored the notion that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. With respect to the author’s brilliance, this particular idea is glib.

It would be extraordinary for someone to spend twenty hours per week practicing something for a whole decade and not excel. For those in the business of creativity, there’s a better milestone than the number of hours you’ve spent. The metric to rule all others is the how many times you’ve heard the word ‘no’.

Take the thumbs-down and remember that it’s a vital part of your journey

Success as a creative entrepreneur depends upon a capacity to receive this word several times per day – and continue with no deficit of optimism. I found this tough. When I started out in advertising, I recoiled from this single syllable determiner. If a client rejected one of my proposals, it would plague me for days. But after hearing it enough, I developed a robustness (or ‘nobustness’) and reasoned that good ideas aren’t a finite resource. We’d just have to think of something fresher.

Success isn’t about how rarely you’re rebuffed, but how buoyantly you deal with rejection. I’ve learned that there are three courses of action available to someone who has just heard ‘no’.

1. Try to change their mind
2. Let the refusal ruin your week
3. Listen and improve your idea

There is only one useful option in the above. Take the thumbs-down, and remember that it’s a vital part of your journey as a creative. A practitioner with 10,000 hours is a master. But get through half as many no’s – and you’ll be a virtuoso.

THE AGENDA

1.
Big players in business aviation touch down in Geneva for this year’s European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE). The focus is (rightfully) on sustainability. Can this sector decarbonise in a meaningful way? A flight plan for greener and more creative forms of travel is needed.
28th – 30th May  

2.
Many cities organise art fairs in the hope of luring new visitors, but what about places that already have enough? Amsterdam Art Week is spread across 70 locations and is likely to draw thousands of aficionados. That considered, droves of art lovers might cultivate a more urbane atmosphere, than – say – British stag parties.
29th May – 2nd June

3.
Does a creative effort only matter if it lasts? The artists grabbing their buckets and spades on Taiwan’s Fulong beach don’t believe so. The elaborate sand sculptures of Fulong International Sand Festival are inevitably swept away by the tides – but the joy they evoke in the hearts of onlookers won’t be.
31st May

Investigating the state of the city-state.
Contributor: Peter Adams Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

SINGAPORE / CITIES

Master planners

The mass migration to urban areas is a trend that’s still strongly underway. For creativity, that’s a good thing – close-knit conurbations allow great minds to cluster. But the surge in city-slickers throws up questions when it comes to how we ought to build for them. This week Singapore (a city-state that’s seen rapid development) will host the World City Summit under the tagline ‘rejuvenate, reinvent, reimagine’. High on the agenda should be the subject of modernising built up areas while preserving their sense of place too – this is a debate that architects with a fetish for glass and metal ought to pay attention to. Meanwhile in Europe yet more city enthusiasts are meeting in Bratislava for an event that looks squarely ahead. The Start With Children Summit is all about building cities that are fit for the next generation. It’s up to urbanists to make sure the kids are alright.

Contributor: Clo’e Floirat

CREATIVE HACK

Group-think can lead to predictable ideas (and breath-taking lapses in judgement). Assemble a diverse team with different disciplines to keep things fresh.

LONDON / LAW

Regulators close in on greenwashing

Businesses of all stripes have been criticised for exaggerating their environmental or sustainable credentials. Boasting of green initiatives while secretly conspiring to continue with harmful ones is a base action for a company to make. But greenwashing is about to become more perilous. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s anti-greenwashing rules go into effect on 31 May to sanction banks and services making inflated claims. Elsewhere, Switzerland is planning to discuss state regulation on the issue, and the EU is working on banning unsubstantiated assertions on products being climate positive. Such measures are to be applauded. When it comes to brand communications, a level playing field is a vital scenario for creativity to thrive. Ideas only have power when they spring from truth.

LYON / THOUGHT

Sceptics assemble! 

Scepticism is a necessary component of civilisation. Phyrro of Elis, an Ancient Greek philosopher, is considered to be the OG of the unconvinced. If he were alive today, there’s only one place he’d be found this week. Today’s most staunch questioners are meeting in Lyon for the European Skeptics Congress. In an era of disinformation, flexible truths and conspiracy theories, the convention will cast a critical eye over knotty subjects. Under the microscope will be contested issues ranging from AI to wellness culture (and that archetypal argument about plausibility: UFOs). As the world changes rapidly, it’s heartening to know that a corner of agnostics is ready to look past the hype. Just so long as that healthy scepticism doesn’t turn to cynicism, we’re all in favour.

Create an environment where you’re free to express what you’re afraid to express.

/Rick Rubin