Skip to content
Guest Thinkers —

“Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable”

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

On the Fast Company weblog, Danielle Sacks has posted a brief summary of highlights from The Idea Conference organized by Advertising Age. The “breakout star of the day” was Robert Stephens of Geek Squad, who regaled the audience with stories about launching and bootstrapping Geek Squad from untested concept to (geek) cultural icon. Along the way, he offered up some great quotes about innovation:

(1) “I believe advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.”

(2) “Ramen Noodles. This is why startups are so innovative. Large companies want to be nimble, that’s why they go to “idea” conferences. I suggest starve departments of money.”

(3) “If you look for ideas in your industry, you’re stealing. If you steal ideas from other industries, that’s innovative.”

[image: Robert Stephens at The Idea Conference]

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
Related
Culture & Religion
The Arts
What is Punk? Punk isn’t about mohawks or studded leather, says Henry Rollins – it’s about resistance to tyranny in any form. How Art Can Change Society, with Sarah Lewis Sarah […]
Guest Thinkers
Happy New Year
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
Up Next