the newsletter, every issue.
Nine hundred and forty-nine editions of yap, sat in one place. One long read every friday morning. Always free.
Nine hundred and forty-nine issues.
The predictive revolt: why we are learning to break our own feeds
Hyper-personalisation was meant to be the ultimate triumph of modern data science. But it is currently inducing a massive wave of psychological claustrophobia across the internet.
The illusion of the trophy: corporate vanity is losing its value
If you look past the champagne and audit the actual commercial balance sheets behind those award-winning campaigns, an incredibly embarrassing truth emerges: a shocking percentage of them generate f*ck all meaningful revenue.
Is the independent pipeline becoming the final safety net?
Creatives across the world are waking up to a liberating, sober reality: a standard full-time job description is no longer an asset. It is an operational ceiling. One that strips you of your cognitive sovereignty while capping your earning potential behind a rigid HR dashboard.
Creators are building walls around the open web (here’s why)
The foundational promise of the open web over the last two decades has been built on the concept of visibility. But over the last two years, that open social contract (among many other things) has been completely torn up by the aggressive expansion of the artificial intelligence industry. We have entered the era of intellectual property enclosure.
De-influencing? Or the ultimate sales funnel?
De-influencing has mutated into yet another high-converting Trojan Horse for modern product placement. The corporate machine has done exactly what it always does with human resistance. It's absorbed the scepticism, repackaged the anger, and turned anti-consumption into a sales funnel.
Are you that friend? Why turning the hangout into a content session isn't cute
The creator economy has conditioned us to believe that a moment is more valuable if it is documented, colour-corrected, and archived on the cloud. If you go to a beautiful dinner, listen to an incredible track, or have a vulnerable conversation with a friend, and don't capture a high-definition snippet for a photo dump, the machine whispers that the experience didn't actually happen.
Why I am staging an intervention on my own attention
We’ve taken the concept of improvement and hijacked it with the language of software engineering. If you aren't tracking your macros on an app, measuring your sleep quality with a smart ring, or following a strict, punishing regimen that makes you want to cry, scream and throw up simultaneously, authored by an (unqualified) online fitness guru, the market tells you that your effort is invalid.
Why the copywriting index is the new recession map
When the world outside feels volatile and unpredictable, we stop looking for digital fantasies. We don't want a brand to tell us a story about a better future. We want them to look us dead in the eye and give us the exact details of what our money is actually purchasing today.
geo for small nz brands: 7 moves you can make this week
AI search rewards clarity over budget, so a small Kiwi business can get cited ahead of a national chain. A seven-move checklist you can finish this week, no agency required, to get AI engines naming your brand.
What happens when the fictitious economy stops breathing?
We live inside the volatile endgame of what economists call the Fictitious Economy. To understand how we arrived at a point where the once-prosperous middle class is struggling to buy butter, you have to trace the multi-decade cannibalisation of our physical infrastructure.
Is the "man in finance" the new celebrity?
The finance bros and venture capitalists are no longer content to sit in the dark managing spreadsheets. They have stepped straight into the frame to become the stars of the show.
brand mentions: the off-page move that wins ai citations in 2026
Brand mentions are the off-page move that wins AI citations in 2026. Digital PR, directories, reviews, and being present where AI looks, plus why a small NZ business can win on genuine local relationships rather than budget.