Culture from Good Thinking

By Chris Danton

CREATING ADDICTION
Last week, I swallowed my disgust for “the terminal”, fired up Claude Code, and have been merrily building and creating all week. This week alone, I built a peptide tracker for Kirsten, with a B2B portal for Jenny Evans. I built a GOOD THINKING job board (all jobs are placeholders until it officially launches next week). I made a search tool for GOOD THINKING because Substack’s search function is worthless. My list goes on. I’m completely addicted to making things. I wake up every day wondering what to make today. Nothing has taken me more than 3 hours. I told my husband, “It’s like I’ve been working in a woodshop all my life. I’m a great woodworker. I’ve made a lot of furniture. I’m really competent. But my limitation is time. This week, I learned that there’s a factory in the back office that I can tell what to do. That factory works for me. For $200/year. I don’t care what I make. I’m having so much fun. I can make anything.” And that’s why OpenAI acquired OpenClaw. OpenClaw took off, for better or for worse, because people became addicted to seeing what they could create. Some built assistants. Many just played. OpenAI’s ad this year said ‘everyone can build.’ (They are doing it on Claude Code, but that’s not the point.) We’re entering a creation wave like nothing we’ve seen. With unprecedented velocity. The question now: how do you make something that matters? If you don’t usually read Wednesday’s letter, this is your cue not to miss it. Might be my most important this year.

TO MEDIA OR NOT TO MEDIA
“Saying ‘every brand is a media brand’ is easy. Funding a newsroom is not.” But Nikita Walia says that’s the trajectory that many brands are taking. “The core shift is this: marketing has moved from campaigns to coverage. Advertising assumes controlled exposure and paid amplification. Publishing assumes constant output and organic competition. In publishing, the primary constraint is not media budget. It is production capacity and editorial judgment…. A mature newsroom is defined as much by what it refuses to cover as what it amplifies. Brands that confuse presence with relevance will eventually exhaust both their teams and their audiences.” The solution? “Build modular ideas, not monolithic campaigns.” With rock-solid judgment. Just read the letter. It’s good.

TRUE PHYGITAL IS HERE
Spotify is partnering with Bookshop.org to sell real books. ‘Page Match’ will let users scan a page from a physical book or e-reader to sync their exact spot in the audiobook. Many of us toggle, listening at night or on drives, reading on the weekend, etc. In the world that’s coming, the line between your digital and physical worlds will be erased. This is one simple (and useful) example. Start building. And expect more.

RETURNING ROOTS
J. Cole is driving around the US selling CDs out of his old Honda Civic. Byron Stewart called it “one of the most effective direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns I’ve seen in a long time.” A lot of people will latch on to the IRL-ness. But it’s bigger than ‘we want humans.’ Cole is leading with his story. You’re rooting for him. Not because you might meet him. Because he’s doing something with meaning. Take notes.

NOT HUMORING HUMOR
Brands are in their unhinged era, even Rimowa is trying it. And society is either with them or trying to burn them at the stake. Reformation made a campaign (directed by one of my faves, Talia Collis) and collection with famed divorce attorney Laura Wasser. Depending on the comment, it was either “ICONIC” or celebrating “failed marriages [that] destroy families and societies.” Frida was in hot water this week after they became the subject of a Change.org petition because they used sexual innuendo in their marketing of a baby product. To be fair, some of the threesome bits were a bit much. But dear god, the morality police are everywhere these days. I’ll say this: There are brands who’ve built loyal followings of like-minded fans that are having fun, trying things, maybe missing the mark 10% (like when J.Crew used AI to fake vintage pics), but at least doing something. And there are brands like Target that are running in fear of offending anyone and lying dead in the water because of it. I’d rather hire an excellent crisis PR (hello, Jeanne Meyer) than be in the latter camp. (Though, please put me in touch with Target, I have thoughts.)