Thanks for visiting my blog! This is a collection of almost everything I’ve published in the last two years. Click here to check out my work. Below are some main themes I focus on (with essays for each):
- Social Media (read: “The Instagram Generation” or “We’re Primed to Be Addicted to Social Media“)
- Marketing (read: “People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Themselves,” “The Approval Economy,” or “How Sexual Selection—Not Natural Selection—Explains Opulence in Nature and Society“)
- The internet, and networks, specifically (read: “An Economy of Desire“)
- Big Data (read: “The Death of Advertising” to see how I once thought about it, and “How Sexual Selection—Not Natural Selection—Explains Opulence in Nature and Society” to see how my thinking on it has evolved)
- Economics (read: “The Information Market” or “The Market Is Catching Up to You“)
- Evolution (read: “The Power of Unseen,” “Evolution Has Already Approved of Everything You’ll Do Tomorrow,” “The World Is on a Collision Course With Itself,” or “How Sexual Selection—Not Natural Selection—Explains Opulence in Nature and Society“)
- Antitrust (read: “Competition Won’t Fix Big Tech“)
All of these essays also appear on Medium, for whom I am a contracted/paid columnist. (To check out my presence there, click here.) If you’re curious about how Medium works, please reach out to me.
Some of the authors and writers who have shaped my thinking and writing are:
- Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus
- Marshall McLuhan, media philosopher and author of many books, including Understanding Media
- Tim Wu, author of The Attention Merchants and The Master Switch
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile and The Black Swan
- Neil Postman, author of Amusing Ourselves to Death
- Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World
- Rory Sutherland, vice chairman of Ogilvy & Mather and author of Alchemy
Some of my favorite ideas are:
These are all ideas that have drastically changed the way I view the world. As Proust wrote:
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
If you’d like to contact me directly, the best way to do so is by email: zander@zandercutt.com. You can also reach out to me on Twitter: @zandercutt, or add me on Linkedin. If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll receive emails each time I publish with that piece in the body of the email. This happens roughly once a month. If you feel so compelled, you can also support me on Patreon by clicking here.
Last, two things you should know: I love both coffee and beer. If I had to pick between having one or the other for the rest of my life, I would choose coffee. Luckily, though, we don’t live in a world where I have to choose, so if you’re in Chicago (or the Bay Area, where I am relatively frequently), feel free to reach out and propose we grab either one, or simply go for a walk, or chat, substance-free. I am seriously open to whatever.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Zander Nethercutt 