This Sunday, the New York Times published two seemingly unrelated articles: One on the creator economy, discussing the mental struggles and burn-out social media influencers experience (Young Creators Are Burning Out and Breaking Down). The other an opinion piece on the new world of fashion, which is emerging out of the COVID-19 induced lockdowns, as one which doesn’t provide general trends anymore (There Are No Fashion Rules Anymore). Both play on an important and accelerating part of life and society — the extreme transience and short-livedness of everything.
Which brings up rather fundamental questions about how you think and go about building your business and your career. In a world where Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” become reduced to 15 seconds — what do you do? What will you choose: The eternal chase of another 15 seconds of fame (as many of the TikTok stars featured in the NYT article), or do you create your own style, be yourself and live with the fact that you might only ever get to Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 fans (like the fashionistas in the other NYT article)?
The world is changing around us, and it is doing so faster than ever. As we quipped at Singularity University: Today is likely the slowest day for the rest of your life… Which makes the following question paramount: Who do you want to be and what do you want to do?
As we like to say at the end of one of our sessions at be radical: The Future is Unwritten. That’s the beauty of the future. It is also an obligation — an obligation to choose.