People in tech love to see their work as embodying the 'hacker ethos': a desire to break systems down in order to change them. But this pride can often be conveyed rather clumsily. | | | | Lisa Ling takes on a topic most of us avoid: online pornography and how it is shaping a generation’s perception on sex and intimacy. Tonight, 10 p.m. ET.
(CNN) | | | | |  | “People in tech love to see their work as embodying the 'hacker ethos': a desire to break systems down in order to change them. But this pride can often be conveyed rather clumsily.”
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| | rantnrave:// I’m very brand loyal. And with the emergence of the digital world, I’m even more brand loyal. I was speaking at the POLLSTAR conference two years back and I heard EDDY CUE - SVP, Internet Software & Services at APPLE discuss (paraphrasing) that the mission of the iPhone and app store was to transition much of the transactions, tasks, and information that we do and need each day into the palm of your hand. They have. They led the charge. (An illustrative example of what Eddy was talking about.) In fact, I use so many app services as part of my daily life that sometimes I behave as if I own them. A company could look at that as a bad thing but again, I’m brand loyal. If I love your product so much that I feel let down, I'm going to voice it. If you don’t hear me (not obey me), then I'm going to quit you. Like I did POSTMATES. Or I go to a public forum. Because, at its best, social media has become the great equalizer in customer service. Our leverage against those that take us for granted. I go nuts on airlines, cable companies, and telcos the most. Why? Because inherent in their customer service DNA was a big FU to consumers. Every transaction is a brand touchpoint. UNITED AIRLINES charges me change fees that are often the same price as the ticket. SOUTHWEST and JETBLUE don’t. And I love them for it. SPECTRUM cable goes out, and they don’t text me or leave a robocall voicemail. I have to call. And when I ask if I’m going to receive a credit for downtime, they say, that is not automatic policy but I can call back when service is restored and plead my case. A stupid-as-f**k way to deal with it. Now, I get my way often because of my contacts or public profile. That’s not fair. I complain for all of us. But it also got me thinking about the importance of brand. Brand is anything that is a touchpoint for your product. The brands I love have an ethos. They stand for something. They have a voice. They're not just utilities to me. One of my favorite people on this planet is UNION SQUARE VENTURES’ ANDY WEISSMAN. His POV, advice and pop-culture savant-ish-ness are priceless to me. At breakfast in “our” booth, the topic of conversation was the idea of a “lovebrand” or “lovemark.” A concept and book introduced to me by BLAKE KRIKORIAN when I was at SLINGBOX. KEVIN ROBERTS, the author who coined the term, explains "What builds loyalty that goes beyond reason? What makes a truly great love stand out?” WIKIPEDIA lays it out. “Mystery: Great stories: past, present and future; taps into dreams, myths and icons; and inspiration. Sensuality: Sound, sight, smell, touch, and taste. Intimacy: Commitment, empathy, and passion.” When I understand that about your brand. I feel. And when I feel it goes beyond reason. And when your brand messes up. I have patience, because of what I understand about it. I’m a media and tech hybrid. Media companies have almost always understood the importance of brand. Tech companies and platforms in particular, not so much. Most of them want to play the middle. They don’t lean into a brand, a voice, a POV that stands for something. They think that’s a risk. I don’t. It’s a blind spot. Brand and voice will be a necessary part of the next evolution as media and tech morph into one. The hybrids are going to win the next race. Getting noticed is harder than ever before. Brands as navigators still matter. Whether a platform, a product or service or an individual voice or expert. Send me a newsletter with links and no voice., maybe I’ll get to it. One with a strong voice? I'll stare at my inbox until it comes. ROGER EBERT was my film navigator when I was growing up. MATT BALL, BEN THOMPSON, BEN EVANS, and PETER KAFKA in media and tech. S.E. CUPP for understanding the decent GOP. THE INFATUATION, LAWRENCE LONGO, and JAMIE PATRICOF for food. BENJAMIN WITTES and LAWFARE for the intersection of law and institutions. MARINA POPOVA for raw curiosity. And on and on and on. And the ones I love, I’ll pay for. Does your brand have an ethos? Do you want to be loved for the right reasons? We live in a world of copycats. If your product and service isn’t ten times better than the copier, you’re in trouble. But if you’re a “lovemark,” you probably already know that... Happy Birthday to MATTY KARAS (this Sunday edition is dedicated to him, say HBD to MusicREDEF's resident genius), JOSH ELMAN, OMID ASHTARI, LLOYD BRAUN, CASSIE AVIROM, ALISON GELB PINCUS. Belated to DANNY RIMER, DAN ROSE, BEN LERER, ZACH KLEIN, JOE FERNANDEZ, MARSHALL ABBOTT, CHLOE SLADDEN, CHARLES HIRSCHHORN, WARREN LIEBERFARB, CASEY COFFMAN, RAN HARNEVO, STEVE EHRLICH, CHARLOTTE FREUND, ROBERT KRAVITZ, DAVID LAWENDA, SUZY RYOO, LUCAS SHAW, BRAD HUNSTABLE, YUSUF MEHDI, RAJIL KAPOOR, ANDREA RABNEY, and CATHERINE MECKLER. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator |
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 | CNBC |
| Jason Hirschhorn, CEO of REDEF, on why he believes Netflix will stand out in the world of streaming despite the company's recent struggles. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| One of MusicREDEF's MATTY KARAS's favorite stories ever... How American music legends made millions off the work of a Zulu tribesman who died a pauper. (Originally published in May 2000.) | | |
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 | NPR |
| In 2016, the U.S. launched a classified military cyberattack against ISIS to bring down its media operation. NPR interviewed nearly a dozen people who lived it. | | |
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 | The On Being Project |
| She has called Brain Pickings, her invention and labor of love, a “human-powered discovery engine for interestingness.” What Maria Popova really delivers, to hundreds of thousands of people each day, is wisdom of the old-fashioned sort, presented in new-fashioned digital ways. She cross-pollinates — between philosophy and design, physics and poetry, the intellectual and the experiential. We explore her gleanings on what it means to lead a good life — intellectually, creatively, and... | | |
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 | REDEF |
| Where did the saxophone come from? How are pianos made? Who was building drum machines in the 1930s? Origin stories, essays and appreciations of our favorite noisemaking toys. | | |
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 | Boston Review |
| Is it naïve to see whistleblowing as a form of civil disobedience? | | |
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 | CAFE |
| This week’s guest on Stay Tuned is Samantha Power. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Obama and joins Preet for a wide-ranging conversation about her memoir, The Education of an Idealist, and the mission as well as criticisms of the United Nations. | | |
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 | Atlanta Magazine |
| We asked Jermaine Dupri, along with Michael Barney and his DJs and his dancers-oh, and of course Big Boi-what made Magic City so, well, magical. | | |
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| REDEF |
| What's exciting about OTT video isn't the way it's delivered, but how it will change content itself. | | |
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 | Fast Company |
| The inside story of how the CEO went from the top of the world to out of his company. | | |
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 | New Republic |
| Tech was meant to help us transcend our most intractable problems. What went wrong? | | |
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 | Bloomberg Opinion |
| The employer-based system locks workers into their jobs and deters them from striking out to start businesses. | | |
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 | 1843 Magazine |
| The Aspen Institute has trained hundreds of the world’s business and political leaders. Linda Kinstler asks whether debating Plato over gourmet dinners can provide an antidote to populism | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| September 27 at 8:26 PM President Trump told two senior Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow's interference in the 2016 U.S. | | |
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 | CNN |
| CNN's John Avlon breaks down the implications of the Ukraine scandal surrounding President Trump. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| Cities across California have been searching for solutions to homelessness, with most adding shelters and housing. But Bakersfield is considering a more radical approach: They want to put homeless people in jail for misdemeanor drug offenses and, potentially, for trespassing. | | |
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 | GQ |
| Dick Wolf, Mariska Hargitay, and the ADAs themselves on 21 seasons of criminal justice. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| An editor at Arizona State University’s student newspaper beat everyone else to the news that Kurt Volker had stepped down. | | |
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 | Jezebel |
| What's lost isn't always lost. Sometimes a researcher sifts through a dark corner of a storage unit and uncovers a forgotten artifact. It's been happening a lot in Philadelphia, of all places, this month. Earlier this month Cambridge University fellow Jason Scott-Warren posted on his blog that the Free Library of Philadelphia's annotated copy of the First Folio was once John Milton's. | | |
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| CNN |
| When a group of moderate House freshmen Democrats moved from hard no to hell yes on starting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, they changed the dynamic for House Democrats, and indeed -- the course of history. | | |
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 | Sludge |
| Despite a company policy banning hate speech, the social media giant has taken in nearly $1.6 million from hate groups since mid-2018. | | |
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 | The Outline |
| Facing rising San Francisco rent prices, the world’s largest collection of punk records and ‘Maximum Rocknroll,’ the anti-establishment music magazine that safeguards it, must find a new home. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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