Growing up in the age of forever young: How to avoid the tipping point of being dated.

On a scene in MadMen where Don Drapper is listening to this new record on his turntable (it’s The Beatles I think) sitting down in his Eames Lounge Chair with a nice Whisky on the rocks trying to understand what does the young listen to, and it doesn’t makes sense, it lacks the melody and the voice and rhythm he´s used to.
It´s not that he likes it or not, it´s testing his ability, as an ad man, if he can understand how the world is changing, the new media, how the young consumer powerhouse is evolving, the trends and what do those stand for, it´s understanding his own craft. It´s a tipping point on being current or dated.
The Jeans Metaphor:

You could compare how people feel about their jeans to how open they are about new culture and change:
- You are the now
- It´s like trying to fit into the now
- It´s just to aggressive it’s better to wear those old trusty pair of jeans
- Never getting into the fad, people don´t know how to dress these days.
As you get older you get wiser but mainly, you know what you like and want, you start to like your life as it is, your music your friends, your jeans, and you get comfortable.
But as Sujan Patel wrote in his article for Forbes:
“Sure, no one likes feeling uncomfortable, but it’s a big part of improving your performance, creativity and learning in the long run.”
And why being uncomfortable is a cornerstone in the Advertising/Social Media industry?

Because since the dawn social media revolution everything changes extremely fast, Facebook algorithm changes every 3 months, 200,000 new apps were created between 2016 and 2107 that´s 547 every day, It will take you more than 12 hours to catch up with the best latin hits of 2017 so far including Des-Pa-Cito.

Overall it´s a numbers game, the further away you are from the Zeitgeist the more it´ll take to understand it and the further away you’ll be on creating relevant content and relevant campaigns.
Here are 3 tips you can do to keep current:
Try something new that’s not your cup of tea: “brains are made to be attracted to novelty — and it turns out that it could actually improve our memory and learning capacity. (Life Hacker Belle Beth Cooper)” force yourself to experiment, deep dive in understanding new cultures, music, generational movies, sports, etc.
Enter the wormhole through music: Music has being the eternal standard for culture, listen what do the artists talk about, the fashion, don´t judge, judging is always easier than understanding, even if it’s not your thing catch up and see what they are up to. Listen to songs and playlists you´re not used to, like Tidals: The Best Songs of 2017 (So Far), choose one that got your attention and Google everything about it, discover the world that it represents.
Keep up with trends: Check out key magazines and newspapers fashion week´s follow up, like The New York Times, Street Style section. Follow tastemakers on Instagram or Fashion trendiest sites, you’ll be surprised how understanding the sneaker culture will get you closer to hacking the world now.

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