Strands of Genius: Mental Health Literacy, Why We Need Artists, Why So Joyless?

Strands of Genius is a newsletter from the co-founders of Genius Steals, Faris & Rosie Yakob.

They are award-winning strategists, facilitators, creative directors, writers and public speakers who get excited about working with smart people on interesting challenges. You should probably go ahead and hit reply so we can collaborate on something together :)

Gosh, it’s crazy to think that we only have a few weeks left in the UK. This summer has absolutely FLOWN by. Last summer, it felt like our time here was moving like molasses, and we ended up shortening our trip to come back to the states earlier.

This summer, while the heat waves almost sent us packing (or, erm, disrobing), we’ve felt like we’ve had not nearly enough time here. Not enough time to see friends, and certainly not enough time to do any of the tourist things. Have we seen Henry Moore at Kew Gardens? Nope. Anish Kapoor at the Haywood Gallery? Also nope. Have we stopped by the Tate Modern just because we love it and we always go? Not this year.

We even booked tickets to go see The Odyssey in Manchester - but ahem, my husband booked tickets for us to go see The Odyssey in A DIFFERENT CITY THAN WHERE WE ARE! Let me tell you how we got here.

1/ My parents didn’t really let us watch TV growing up. We got to watch ~1 hour a week. (Apparently as soon as I went to college, this changed for the younger sisters, but I arrived at university having never seen a single episode of The Simpsons, and it wasn’t until after dating Faris that I saw an episode of Friends for the first time.) Because of this, I am not a big screens person. (My Kindle doesn’t count.)

2/ I drink a lot of water. I’m not trying to make you feel bad about yourself, but you should probably be drinking more water. Me? I’m drinking 64 ounces before the afternoon and another 32 ounces between 7-10p. I have to pee all the time.

3/ I am a people pleaser and I do not want to stand up in the middle of a movie and interrupt someone’s viewing experience to pee.

4/ I’m one of those people where I’ve never seen a movie that was more interesting than an evening talking to my friends. Idk, I guess I just have really great/interesting friends? (Plus 1: all my friends. Minus 1: Hollywood.)

5/ I like to talk during movies. I know, most people don’t - but I have a slight form of prosopagnosia where faces confuse me, so I need to ask Faris 17 times who a character is, especially if they change clothes/hair color/professions in the movie. (Also, see point 4 - my friends are more interesting, so why wouldn’t I talk through the movie?)

6/ I DO NOT LIKE SCREENS WITHOUT SUBTITLES. I feel like that had to be capitalized just so you could understand how much I dislike movies without subtitles. I will remove subtitles for stand up comedy, but otherwise: they stay.

7/ None of the snacks are good at movie theaters. How the heck can I enjoy any candy when it costs $9?! My brain can’t erase that. And also, I can make better snacks. Like wayyyyyyy better snacks.

And while honestly I believe there are at least 10 reasons I don’t like going to the movies, I have to circle back around to point 4 again: Most movies just don’t do it for me. I walk out and think ‘man, I really wasted time I could have been spent doing: (fill in the blank: birding, pottery, walking, cooking, taking a bath, listening to Noah Kahan, or perhaps just listening to Noah Kahan while doing all of those things above.)

To me, the movies are mostly… boring. Better consumed with a second screen. Or while doing watercolors. (I know, I’m a weirdo.)

Anyway, Faris and I have been together for 17 years now. So he knows that I’m not one that loves the movies. He knows this because I have said, more than once “I don’t like going to the movies. I will go with you if you really want me to go, but I don’t want to go. Please don’t ask me to go with you unless you really really really want me there and feel like it needs to be a shared experience.”

I usually go to a movie theatre once a year, if that. And I already have been to the theatre this year. (I say it was to see Backrooms but it was really just to get air conditioning when it was 104F in France.)

Recently I started hearing things about The Odyssey. Until it was in theaters, I had no idea this was a movie that was coming out, or any of the actors in it. I’m not sure if I missed the big publicity push or if my brain just went ‘movie’ and then filtered it out of my brain. But my sister went and said over Marco Polo that even though it was 3 hours, she wanted it to keep going. Two of my best girlfriends insisted that THIS was a movie to see on BIG screens. The bigger the better. And so, I told my dear and very lovely husband, that I was prepared to go to the cinema with him. Twice in one summer.

Faris suggested an IMAX screen, and I jumped on board and said that sounded fun. The next thing I hear? We have tickets to go see The Odyssey, on an IMAX screen, on Tuesday.

… IN MANCHESTER!

I thought to myself “didn’t we fly there for work from the UK?” but then Googled it real quick to double check before sounding stupid and…

Y’all! What!!!

I have made a mistake and now Faris is finding out, by proof-reading this newsletter, that I will not be going to Manchester with him. (JK, he already knows.)

So…. anyone want two tickets to The Odyssey tonight in Manchester?

MENTAL HEALTH SURVEY FROM OUR FRIEND REMY

• Remy is a graduate social work student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, currently running a research study on mental health literacy and help-seeking behavior: how people notice mental health symptoms, assess their seriousness, and decide whether professional support is warranted. The study is mixed-methods; there’s a short survey (about 5 minutes, no incentive, 18+) followed by an optional one-on-one interview for anyone willing to go a bit deeper.
  

  Findings from this study could help inform better mental health education, outreach, and support strategies. If you are willing to contribute a few minutes toward the survey, please do so through the link!

  Survey: https://utk.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0VeIQ6JEhGSqnQi

  • If you have the chance to participate in an interview, reach out, and I will send over the details. Remy Fetko, remy-fetko@utc.edu

WHY WE STILL NEED HUMAN ARTISTS

• Martin Weigel wrote a very lovely piece inspired by a recent trip to the Hayward gallery and seeing works by Anish Kapoor. (I’m annoyed at myself because Faris and I have said so many times that we should go check out this exhibit, but then also have not made it happen.) Anyway, Weigel did go to the exhibit.
  

  And he said, “My hours with Kapoor made me think that we need human artists not for what they make but for what they keep alive in the rest of us.” I loved that line, and in fact I loved the whole essay. It’s worth a read if for no other reason than to be inspired by the pictures of the art in between the words ;)
  

  He finishes with this: “Mary Oliver once left instructions for living a life — pay attention, be astonished, tell about it. The artists are simply the ones who never stopped doing it.” [Martin Weigel]

  

Anish Kapoor’s Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto

THE AGE OF DECADENCE WITHOUT PLEASURE

• This longread is a wide ranging romp through modern festishes of optimization and the relationship between culture, pleasure and art.
  “For anyone with an Internet connection and a little discretionary income, the contemporary moment offers a superabundance of seductive distractions. Why then the pervasive mood of emptiness?

  Why are so many at once overstimulated and bored?

  Welcome to the era of decadence without pleasure.” [London Review of Books]

Our friend Steve Bryant shared this PDF document that features a bunch of different types of story structures in his delightful newsletter, which is, in fact, called Delightful. In terms of story structures, it feels like we’re all familiar with a three act structure. Or the hero’s journey. But with this document, there are six different story “bearings” : Inform, Inspire, Educate, Entertain, Solve Problems, and Challenge. And depending on what bearing you’ve selected, the story structure is different. Not just how you tell the story, but the shape of it.

Because if you’re trying to move someone to action, using the same narrative architecture you’d use to make them feel inspired, you’re self-sabotaging. Inspire uses a three act ‘mission critical script’ (emotional arc where you’re painting a world) whereas solving problems flips the story structure on its head with something called Minto’s pyramid (answer first, then prove why you’re right.) Different outcomes and objectives require different scaffolding.

Every portfolio is a bet: strangers can only absorb a sample of you. Did just AI call that bet?

TAKE THE SURVEY

This week, we’re writing to you from London. We’re especially thankful for:

cocktails on the south bank, Kricket Shoreditch, Stanley Arts, the work in progress Daniel Kitson show, brunch with Matt & Lauren & Sam & Kat, lunch with Cordelia & YOU!

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Forward this email to them! We appreciate you spreading the word.

Share

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing [“Ex nihilo nihil fit”]. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)