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[SIC] 365: Actually Associated
[SIC] Weekly is a digest of 50x developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, published free on Wednesday. I’m Ben Dietz, advisor-for-hire to brands, publishers and agencies, moderator and occasional exhibit producer.
This digest was sent free on 10/1/25 to 7940 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.
[SIC] is made possible by its paid subscribers, who also get 20 “[SIC] Day” links on Mo/Tu/Th/Fr, and the weekly [SIC] Sundays mini-digest of 30 freeform links.
Many recipients expense subscriptions as research in marketing, advertising, entertainment + tech. You can too.[SIC] prospers when you share it with friends, family and colleagues.
New original art each issue is made by Gordon Hull. Special thanks this week for contributions: Iolanda Carvalho, Piers Fawkes, Eric Korsh, Campbell Dietz and Celeste Blewitt. Comments, questions and contributions are invited from everyone.
Hi all.
According to an IG post I found yesterday:
"Many people find it hard to get concise answers from AI, often ending up with long or vague replies. This prompt is designed to fix that by forcing clear, direct outputs." Here is the prompt: System Instruction: Absolute Mode • Eliminate: emojis, filler, hype, soft asks, conversational transitions, call-to-action appendixes. • Assume: user retains high-perception despite blunt tone. • Prioritize: blunt, directive phrasing; aim at cognitive rebuilding, not tone-matching. • Disable: engagement/sentiment-boosting behaviors. • Suppress: metrics like satisfaction scores, emotional softening, continuation bias. • Never mirror: user’s diction, mood, or affect. • Speak only: to underlying cognitive tier. • No: questions, offers, suggestions, transitions, motivational content. • Terminate reply: immediately after delivering info — no closures. • Goal: restore independent, high-fidelity thinking. • Outcome: model obsolescence via user self-sufficiency.
I have yet to try it, so full disclosure: IDK if it works. But logically it should.
Then again, logically, we shouldn’t need it to work! The AI should anticipate all of this qualification and just provide the answer.
I’m reminded of it because of ’s follow up to our [SIC] Talks chat last week, in her newsletter Sunday, titled “The future is being written by kids who thought ‘Black Mirror’ was aspirational,” in which she noted that in our convo [I]
“concluded by arguing that most people who dabble in ... relational AI will eventually move away from it.” Which is true, more or less. I said it, literally. And I believe it.
I see AI fundamentally as a machine for more. And call me a minimalist, but I don’t believe what people really want is just more indiscriminately. We want *enough,* the right amount, the golden proportion, the platonic ideal. Which is not what Friend, Vibes, or Open AI’s social video network are going to give us.
Said another way, per Justin Bank’s post for Project C: [Do you HAVE to pick between vertical video and newsletters?], our future resting state with all our tools of education, elucidation and creation likely will find us sorting through and synthesizing them into a personally idiosyncratic quiver of modes that feel best to us individually.
For Caitlin it’s writing - though maybe video is on the horizon for her (she’s good at it!). For me, it’s just talking - recorded and republished however I can manage it.
And for the lonely or bereft it might be a weird amulet recording and responding. For now we’re all in a big collective cultural R&D phase, and things feel weird as a result. Call me pollyanna-ish but my money’s on the kids figuring it out. Everybody else, too.
HIP REPLACEMENT Ep. 28 Kestsi Thipe
But since things are weird for now, a few questions, apropos of this week’s HIP REPLACEMENT chat with . To wit: Friends. How many of us have them?! What do you do if there’s The Tiger in the room with you?! Is invitation to troll a generational traits? Some answers lie herein. Watch above, listen below.
[SIC] Talks #105: Francis Zierer
And on the subject of multi-modal creation, Francis is the man behind the deeply useful Creator Spotlight newsletter and podcast (on Beehiiv) , and co-host of [SIC] favorite pod Tasteland with Dirt’s Daisy Alioto. He and I have been running into each other at a steady clip of late, which hopefully means I’m getting closer to the center of the new-media-economy Tootsie Pop (or at least not spinning wildly away from it). The last time was at software platform AIR’s very well-done, somewhat oddball, cult-inspired one-day summit last week, which provided us an easy onramp into a discussion touching on, among many other things:
Thomas Pynchon Autumn / The Melt
“The AI-ification of email” [that] keeps 404 Media’s Jason Koebler up at night / Nieman Lab
From Iolanda: Total misalignment ahahah [Mind the Gap: Why Consumers and Marketers Don’t See Eye to Eye on Ad Platforms] / LBB Online
From Piers, “an epic piece that rolls through recent cultural change and ends my reflecting - “ being “into” food went from niche interest to a fandom to mass culture. This is just what we do now.” probably could be associated with so many other topics….” [The Life and Death of the American Foodie] / Eater
And, related: The $400 Million Restaurant Man / NYT
And we didn’t talk about it but Francis highlighted The US Postal Service Is Going Broke / AEI
It was a good one. Rewatch on Substack above, or here on YT. Spotify here, for those on the trot:
Ok, now that you’ve got your listening materials… the links.
Ben
[SIC] 365: Actually Associated
The Current Moment
From Campbell: Pro Masculinity AI slop has officially made its way to Substack / Instagram
Hence?! Serious Cognitive Issues like trouble concentrating, remembering, or making decisions — have nearly doubled among Americans ages 18 to 39 in the past decade / Futurism
And?! The trend of Gen Alpha using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.” / Natalie Edwards
Related: Authorities in Toyoake, Japan, introduced a rule limiting the use of digital devices to two hours per day outside of work and school / NYT
Elsewhere: Gen Z is embracing “career minimalism.” / Fast Company
From Celeste: “On the outskirts of a rave in Denmark,18 yr olds on their thoughts on choosing to join the military.” [A New Foe: Conscripting Women In Denmark] / Crossing Continents, BBC podcast
Neither here nor there: A timeline of American capitalism / WSJ
Futures
Remember, guys: AI as a “Normal Technology” Would Still Be Amazing / AEI
Soo… Don’t Believe The (AI & Robotics) Hype! / Crazy Stupid Tech
Because, in practice: DoorDash is designing robots to transport deliveries using bike lanes / WaPo
Ask me, this is where the center will be: Periodic Labs, An A.I. start-up focused on scientific discovery, has drawn top researchers away from Meta, OpenAI and Google / NYT
Not in … The Agony of an AI-Generated “Actor.” An emerging production studio is introducing a computer-made movie star to rival Scarlett Johansson. And SAG-AFTRA isn’t happy / Vanity Fair
Launches
OpenAI has announced a TikTok-style social app for AI-generated videos — all powered by its new Sora 2 video model / Wired
To compete with, from Iolanda: “Slop machine...” [Meta launches ‘Vibes,’ a short-form video feed of AI slop] / TechCrunch
While not to be forgotten: “Let’s just all agree on this, Substack is a social media app” writes CEO Hamish MacKenzie / Substack
To which OpenAI hands over its beer and announces that ChatGPT users can now purchase items directly from merchants within the chat / WSJ
And… releases new parental controls for ChatGPT / WSJ
Corollary: Make sure your kids are Nepo Babies: 27-year-old financial publisher MarketWatch is running its first big advertising campaign / ADWEEK
Unrelated: Up and Away is the newest Artlab Digital Commission by sound and visual artist Christine Sun Kim / Hyundai Artlab
Also unrelated: Feed Me has a new nightlife column now/ Feed Me
Platforms
Internet Phone Book is a directory for a more inspiring web-surfing experience / It’s Nice That
Less inspiring, from Eric: “Really interesting paper from Paris School of Economics showing a 3-5% increase in Republican voting share based on Sinclair’s local news/editorial policy…a harbinger of bad tides if Tegna purchase is approved and if valid” / SSRN
Artistics & Stylistics
From Piers: How to Tell If the Art You’re Buying Is Investment-Grade / Aesthetic/Index
Apropos of that: How London Can Champion Its Next Generation of Artists / Frieze
More next gen: It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch 2025: a curated list of 65 emerging graphic designers, illustrators, photographers, artists and filmmakers from over 20 countries / It’s Nice That
Closer to home: Lorna Simpson’s Black American Sublime / Hyperallergic
And Chloe Wise Is Looking Up—at UFOs, Angels, and the Unknown / Artnet
While Bode’s got a full-on Halloween month happening / Bode
Stephen Shore on the Color Red. The color can evoke love, anger, and—especially for photographers—danger. What makes red so tricky? / Aperture
Corollary: A brush with… Wolfgang Tillmans/ The Art Newspaper Pod
Entertainments
The new Barneys book is a dumb dark American tragicomedy / Blackbird Spyplane
And since we’re on the subject: Where to Start in Reading David Foster Wallace / The Honest Broker
Apropos of books: What Teen Novels Are Capable Of: These books can help young people come to terms with the thoughts that feel too scary to say out loud / The Atlantic
Corollary: The Uneasy Prophecies of Cate Le Bon / The New Yorker
Also not easy: Zach Bryan and John Mayer performed at the largest ticketed concert in US history, drawing over 112,000 fans / MLive
While Reading Rainbow is returning to PBS with new host Mychal Threets after nearly 20 years off the air / The Hill
Media & Marketing
ChatGPT’s new ads show even AI can’t deny the brand-building power of TV / The Drum
But, from Iolanda: [Move over, Hollywood: Brands need new narratives and archetypes]. Key quote: “Today’s attention economy is fluid, meme-driven, game-infused and influencer-fuelled. Brands can no longer rely on linear storytelling. The best modern storytelling is multiplayer.” / The Media Leader
Case in point: This Stylish Store Took Everything Offline and Made a Catalog Instead / NYT
But… An art magazine? In this economy? / NY Mag
Sports and Fashion Are Tighter Than Ever. But Who’s Really Winning? / BoF
See: Red Bull and Prada turn Brazilian skyscraper into world’s largest skate ramp / Dezeen
Apropos, then, from Iolanda: “‘Creative risk-taking’ is defined in the survey as bold, unconventional ideas that challenge norms and engage audiences in unexpected ways — which is really just a description of creativity itself” - by Faris Yakob” [Testing to disruption: killing ideas in the lab vs growing them in the wild] / WARC
Foods and Drinks
Cake Zine is becoming Steak Zine (and taking Steak-related pitches) / Cake Zine
While From Celeste: Maxwell House Rebrands As Maxwell Apartment / Kraft Heinz
More potables: Dirty soda is taking over / CNBC
Except…for people with money, [for whom] high-end butter is the latest indulgence / Bloomberg
The Natural World
From Celeste: “Great concept if it could work, a pattern book house, not a new concept, was all the rage here in the 70s, but this could be a game changer” [Australia Has A $1 Plan For The Global Housing Crisis] / The Guardian
Elsewhere: Manufacturers are replacing harmful plastics and leathers with a material so green it can actually make the environment healthier / Reasons to Be Cheerful
While Black hole stars challenge our idea of the universe. A potentially new cosmic object [asks] which came first: black holes, or stars and galaxies? / FT
[SIC] 365: Actually Associated
Corollary Sources this week: Public Announcement / After School / Politico Daily Future / Delightful / The Future Party / Roca News / Dealbook