PinnedBeing Michael Jordan…when you’re notOne of the gestures that defines Michael Jordan is the shrug he gave in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals. It’s still the first half, but Jordan has hit an unprecedented six 3-point shots. Running back up the court, he looks at the bench and holds his hands palms…ESPN3 min readESPN3 min read
PinnedThe Creator Economy: China to the rescue?The Creator Economy has been “on approach” since the 1990s. From the beginning, there was plenty of optimism. Surely, a broad, distributed, inclusive economy would be an irresistible consequence of the digital era. The problem is that it’s not an economy until money changes hands. It’s not an economy until…Creator Economy4 min readCreator Economy4 min read
Pinnedbrought together but kept apartI felt like I was being chased up the beach by a tidal wave. Run for your life, anthropologist, run for your life! I was looking at a new ad for Lexus. Here it is. So much going on. See especially the opening chords which are, unless I’m mistaken…Advertising5 min readAdvertising5 min read
PinnedTV GOT BETTER (how we got from bingeing to feasting)Grant McCracken [This essay was originally published May 2015 in Wired. It was a collaboration that brought together this essay, an interview with Mitch Hurwitz, an embedded reader poll constructed by Wired, and some spectacular visuals also from Wired. All of these sponsored by Netflix. The collaboration was well received…TV Series11 min readTV Series11 min read
PinnedCulture and Design Thinking: Welcome to the Orphanage Grant McCracken (grant27@gmail.com)Note to the reader: This essay was written in the spring of 2019. It produced an incendiary response in some readers and I had doubts about it in any case. So I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it. A couple of weeks ago I was doing a…Design Thinking31 min readDesign Thinking31 min read
Sep 16, 2022where culture comes from IITo generalize, the natural sciences inquire into things in the world; the human sciences may, under certain conditions, make things in the world. People can define themselves and others through categories originating in human-science expertise — to be “charismatic,” “neurodiverse,” “neurotypical,” “manic-depressive,” to have an “Oedipus complex.” We make our…Culture2 min readCulture2 min read
Sep 15, 2022Where does culture come from?Culture has many origins. Sometimes it comes from collective movements that build over years. Sometimes it comes from a particular music festival, at a particular time and place. Sometimes it comes from the creative genius of a single individual. And sometimes it comes, or is at least shaped by, a…Culture1 min readCulture1 min read
Jul 28, 2022Culture creators get miraculoushow to make meaning in a fragmenting culture — At it’s height, J.Crew was the most important retailer of men’s clothes in the US. Then it collapsed into bankruptcy. The man charged with revival is Brendon Babenzien. In a wonderful essay in GQ, Sam Schube gives us a glimpse of Babenzien at work. We find Babenzien wondering about the…Marketing3 min readMarketing3 min read
Jul 25, 2022Just in time (how to be an anthropologist in business)As the academic world continues its slow-motion descent into financial and sometimes intellectual insolvency, some anthropologists seek employment in the world of business. The Journal of Business Anthropology asked me to describe my experience. Here is what I wrote for them. But first, here’s an image from the field. It’s…Anthropology13 min readAnthropology13 min read
Jun 10, 2022When Mitski met Taylor Swift(on the secrets of selfhood and celebrity) Grant McCracken grant27@gmail.com the argument: In a world shaped by a post-Diderot effect, the individual is more individual and identities are less identical. Mitski describes it as a traumatic event. “I remember Taylor Swift talking to me, but I don’t remember what I…Music10 min readMusic10 min read
