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Creative Studies

Creative Studies

De: Geoffrey Colon
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Creative News for the Creative Class. Hosted by Geoffrey Colon.

creativestudies.substack.comGeoffrey Colon Ciencias Sociales Economía
Episodios
  • Keeping it Real: The Moat is IRL, Not AI

    Keeping it Real: The Moat is IRL, Not AI
    Jan 29 2026
    If you live long enough, you’ll spot the patterns. Here’s one I’ve been keeping my eye on.In the 1990s the term Keeping it Real was used by many of us in the hip hop community which was lifted from African American Vernacular English. But why did this term in particular resonate? We have to think of what was happening at that time as a scene which had local roots and a foundation in New York City (Bronx and Queens to be precise) in the 1970s started to really grow and create influence across the globe in the 1980s and early 1990s. With this growth, the era of the “corporate sellout” was in full swing. We could easily spot this “talent.” Pawns of the larger major labels given six-figure record label deals because they had one or two solid hits, acted a particular part, but really lacked a vision for a long tail career that said anything. As more of this talent got signed, an entire underground spawned. Labels, artists, even clothing lines. A backlash to the fakery usually driven by a visual image. And this is where we heard people utter, Keeping it Real more to the point it even ended up as a mantra on a popular reality TV show, “When people stop being polite, and start getting real.”At its heart, Keeping it Real meant and still means:* Staying authentic* Being honest about who you are* Not selling out, fronting, or pretending to be something you truly are not for status or moneyThis idea was deeply important in early hip-hop, where credibility and lived experience mattered a lot. Maybe more than anything for a life long career of artistry. It reminds me I was able to meet RZA when I worked at a record label in the early 2000s. He’s the real deal. A prime example of someone honest about his roots, his passions and influences. A lot of early gatekeepers told him Wu-Tang would never go anywhere. But he heard things others didn’t and went with his gut.The reason I bring this up?It taps into a universal tension: who you really are vs. who you’re expected to be. And let’s be honest (a phrase that came out of keeping it real), authenticity never goes out of style, even when that word gets overused.Fast forward to the early aughts and many bloggers that inhabited the web would write out their entire souls to strangers online. There was something wonderful about this. These were normies, people like you and me who simply had a digital mood board. But instead of using it to try to convert into a career of sorts, many did this from the point of how open source works. They approached their writing from a “What Can I Offer the World” point of view. I remember talking to many of these bloggers. Most of them were introverts uncomfortable with their new found fame. One told me something that still resonates. “If people can learn something, cope better with what I share, and unite with others based on shared experiences, then maybe this will help bring humanity together with a common understanding. Maybe we’ll find more commonality with our universal human peers.”This type of Hopecore continued to spread as online influence grew and social media rose in popularity. Before you knew it, an entire cottage industry of creators and influencers had spawned. Need dating advice? There’s a creator/influencer for that. Need tourism ideas? There’s an influencer for that. Need ideas for an outfit? There’s a creator who does some cool hauls with a style you might like for that. And even how we approached our careers started to transform. “Oh, so and so has 900,000 followers on Insta (ahem, little did anyone know this person bought all those followers), they must be good at social media marketing. Let’s hire them!”This worked for a really long time. In fact in the past 15 years I would note that I have gotten hired from a great social media presence on LinkedIn, TikTok and now Substack. But when people hired me, they also knew my real credentials. I had the portfolio of work to back it up. And most important? I had the lived experiences. When you meet me, I can tell you all the learnings and relearnings from these experiences. I can talk game.This is a huge advantage not being talked about much by those so keen to lean heavily on knowledge engines to give them all the answers. IRL is now the moat in a world where prompt addicts think they can just figure out answers from some Large Language Model and be an “expert.” They’re looking more and more like the Matt Damon character in this Good Will Hunting scene…For the past six years everyone assumed what people tell them they’ve done or even have experience in is all fake quackery. Snake oil. That creative? AI must have made it. The people you say you know? BS to just get a meeting to talk about investment. And part of this is because instead of Keeping It Real there have been so many faking it until they make it with illusions of grandeur that trust has eroded our social fabric. “Should we believe what they say on their resume...
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    6 m
  • What's in store for 2026? More turbulence. Fasten your seat belt. Icebergs ahead.

    What's in store for 2026? More turbulence. Fasten your seat belt. Icebergs ahead.
    Jan 5 2026

    If everything is a Remix, then everything is filled with uncertainty. I’m approaching 2026 similar to 1976. Why? 1975 was a massive year of turbulence. Just like 2025. So should we assume because of turbulence things will smooth out as we get to smoother air? Not necessarily.

    It’s difficult to forecast anything in this day and age. Too many changes, too many system flaws, too many human and technological errors. Too many bad hot takes. But it’s good to discuss what is possible to get a better idea of the behavioral landscape. Some highlights we see on the horizon for 2026:

    * What’s tangible? What can we touch? In a world overwashed in digital and made up metrics, people want what’s “real” again.

    * There is less risk being taken and a need for managed outcomes. We’ve been seeing this since 2023. This continues through 2026.

    * Cost-cutting seems to be the bet on revenue model. Until there is nothing else to cut. Then what? More uncertainty.

    * This year will be slower than 2025. Which means if we think things are going to “get better” we’re in for some heavy future shock.

    * Being first to market and “FAST” is maybe not the best recipe for success now even though this is what Big Tech sells to customers. Maybe being strategic, deliberate, deep and calculated aka “SLOW” is the better opportunity in a year that looks like a quagmire and uncertain. Why? Going slow allows you to focus. Going fast feels good for dopamine levels until you’re fried.

    * Are we seeking monocultures again over personalized feeds because the former leads to less alienation?

    * 2026 will be the first year portfolio careers are finally accepted and not looked upon as “weird” by those in career recruitment. All of us have multiple email addresses now to handle the various outputs we participate in.

    What are your thoughts for this year? How are you feeling? What are your big bets in business? Feel free to share in the comments.

    Creative Studies. Creative News for the Creative Class. Join Us at CreativeStudies.News



    To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
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    27 m
  • 2026: The Remedy of the Commons and the Revenge of the Humanities

    2026: The Remedy of the Commons and the Revenge of the Humanities
    Dec 29 2025
    “Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.”This is something we will finally learn in 2026. The year I will dub “The Revenge of the Humanities.”We seem to have a death of permanence. But all of the broken pieces of how our society operated for much of the last 80 years are not thrown away. They are picked up and re-assembled into a new society. This is what we are witnessing as what we undergo for the 2020s is best described as future shock.What is it?Too much change in a short amount of time.We have all suffered from dopamine deep fry.When there is a significant amount of changes in a short amount of time, society undergoes what individual humans undergo when they face high levels of stress: literal shock. Everything we’ve been witnessing since the 2008 financial collapse has been one elongated version of shock. Certain generations seem to be okay with this. Writing new rules for a new world. But those who want to go back and make things great again seem to be trying to keep the beating pulse going on what appears to be a dead corpse.The primary question now for us to answer is, will our society give out and die from that shock or resuscitate and move forward to truly live?This leads to wondering why we believe that just because we have the capital and power to build certain technologies, if we should do so. We seem to think that innovation and the logic of the markets are the only path to perseverance. But are we overdue for adopting a paradigm of the commons approach for the 21st Century? And what would that look like?An alternative that has been tried and tested in practice by communities past and present, the paradigm of the commons goes beyond the state and the market and implies the radical self-instituting of society, allowing citizens to directly manage their shared resources.This isn’t the techno feudal corporatism that exists now. It represents more of a model in which the emphasis is on the importance of self-governance and community stewardship, contrasting with traditional market logic that prioritizes individual profit over shared responsibility. Key aspects of this world to help eradicate future shock could include:Self-organization: Communities that can directly manage their shared resources without external control, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility.Holistic behavior: The commons presumes that humans can engage in more complex, humane behaviors that go beyond selfishness, promoting social solidarity and cooperation. It is no longer focused on the corporate state.Resilience: The commons can be found in various forms throughout history and organizations including indigenous practices, open-source software, local food production systems, community organizations and city-states where a percentage of all revenue is put toward the larger common wealth and good.This challenges the rational belief that everything that works best is a marketplace, privately owned and monetized like a casino.David Bollier describes a future by adopting the commons because:“Market enclosure is about dispossession. It is a process by which the powerful convert a shared community resource into a market commodity, so that it can be privately owned and sold in the marketplace. Enclosure preys upon the common wealth by privatizing it, commodifying it and dispossessing the commoners of their autonomy and resources.Enclosures sweep aside the social relationships and cultural traditions and sense of community that had previously existed. It requires the imposition of extreme individualism, the conversion of citizens into passive consumers, and greater social inequality. Money becomes the coin of social legitimacy and participation in a society.”For all this to happen there must be events that occur that we are not ready for.Future shocks.This will result in collapse and reform. Disruption and destruction. Which clears the way for a new canvas to paint on again. A new social contract. New collaboration. New collectivism. Public spaces and the commons, both online and off, are counter attacks to entrenched private power strangling society currently. It’s also a human reaction, a counterculture to the robotic-ism and cold and plastic solutions that have been shoved down our throats by big tech the past two decades. This is the only true path to creating real possibilities and new forms of social organization without being dictated solely by profit, markets or revenue.I hope you will use 2026 to learn, unlearn and relearn what will make you happy, curious and challenged to become a more well rounded and complete human being in a world over washed in technology. To hear more, visit creativestudies.substack.com
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    7 m
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