Well, maybe not nothing. But the value of taking time to contemplate, stare out the window, let ideas conjure, rest, and return to the thought again with a fresh perspective is frankly, undervalued. With every minute accounted for, billable hours become a tyranny of the mind; a vice grip on …
I love seeing people thrive. Inversely, I lament when they fail for reasons beyond their control. When good, talented, employees leave too soon it begs the question: why? Why did they leave and what events ushered them out? Attrition of talented team members is arguably one of the biggest losses …
Have you ever had a moment of sheer dread professionally? For me it’s that moment when you’re faced with the possibility that you have no idea how you’re going to deliver what’s been sold. More than that, you’re pretty sure that it’s some kind of divine, celestial punishment for some …
“What do you even do…?”, she asked incredulously. What a way to start a day! When asked by a colleague, albeit a member of a different team, what I do, I fumbled an answer in complete chagrin. I thought it was completely and utterly obvious based on the types of …
Do you like sleep? I really, really do. But sometimes in agency life sleep is a commodity that is in short supply. The workday bleeds into “off hours” and there is little time to “switch off”. In the agency world working on clients in off hours is often normal and …
When I started this blog I wanted to find a way to parse anthropological understanding with agency life. I wanted to share insights into the way that agency life inspires and challenges anthropological thinking. That mission isn’t dead. But, what is it like to work in an agency? I think …
What is the other? I’m of the mind that the concept and practice of treating clients, in this case, as an other is exceptionally problematic. The idea of the other and processes of othering, called alterity, is a rich topic in anthropology. We’ve detailed time and again the many examples of …
Margaret Mead was a U.S. anthropologist and public intellectual did her foundational fieldwork in Samoa in the 1920s. A student of Franz Boas, Mead published Coming of Age in Samoa which challenged the western idea that puberty is a tumultuous and trying time.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, anthropologists tend to be a funny bunch, even if sometimes we’re the only ones laughing at our jokes.
In the odd few minutes I can eek out now and again as a practising anthropologist, I like to head over to some great anthropology blogs.
