Stephen Walker — Opinionated Ad Man, Writer, Author, Professional AI Hater, Marketer and Trader.
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Sighcosis.
Funny thing is, I was just looking around on the internet today and I was wondering what was going on. There seems to be a whole bunch of psychosis unfolding as we speak. I’m just getting back into the flow…
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Talk yourself silly.
A few years ago, a friend on Facebook, Colette, ran a little group. This was a little before AI got stuffed down our throats. There was a tiny group of people who got together, who wanted to learn how to…
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I’ve made a terrible decision (you’ll love it)
Confession time. Somewhere along the way I started doing the thing I swore I’d never do. I started behaving. I know I know… Polishing ideas before sending them. Sitting on the weird ones. Asking myself grown up questions like “is…
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Neo-intellectual takeover
This wasn’t an email I wanted to write because this belongs in a 120 page physical book that people need to re-read over and over again. (I’m still writing it) But I’m gonna give you the TL;DR version. So grab…
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The guru carousel strike again
I seem to be on a role lately and well I’m not surprised this happens, it just seems to be happening more often than not. Guru posts some post/platitude that is factually incorrect and contradicts itself in all 3 acts…
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A Lesson From a Conman
Around 1926 a charming lad decided to visit Al Capone, who at the time was probably the most feared gangster back then. He had an elegant accent and introduced himself as Count Victor Lustig. He basically promised Capone that if…
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Kids are monsters
Straight up, unfiltered, pure grade sociopaths… We try to sanitise youth with cartoon dogs and participation trophies, but a school playground is the equivalent of Mad Max’s Thunderdome… Except it’s covered in woodchips and sticky juice box residue and snot…
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What are we here for?
Seriously? Like honestly, what are we here for? I get there’s the whole religious aspect of it and then there’s the whole nihilistic aspect of things and we hit this moral grey line where people are like “fucks aren’t given…”…
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You need to go back to school
And that school is the old school. I’ve been speaking to a lot the younger gen lately on and off and as much as they can be painfully infuriating with their tiktok addiction and brain rot… There seems to be…
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Antinet Zettelkaste
Long story short. A few years ago I stumbled upon Scott Sheper’s book on the Zettelkaste. It was a more fundamental look at Niklas Luhmann’s system he created in the 50s. I’m not gonna bother you with the lore of…
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Psychobabble.
“I’m tired, boss. Tired of being on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. I’m tired of never having a buddy to be with, or tell me where we’s coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I’m…
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sorry I vanished
…but I’m back and want to hear everything. Hey… I know I should’ve told you I was vanishing for a short while, but honestly, I didn’t plan it. One day I just looked at my screen and felt this overwhelming…
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Trump doin’ Trump things
I’m sure you’ve seen it awash across social media today. People and their lukewarm takes on Trump and his most controversial statement. Rhetoric in action and even though he’s an absolute psychopath. You have to admire his ability to wind…
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The year everyone became a “polarity coach” (lol)
This is all new to me. Looks like 2026 is the year of the polarity coach and I don’t know if I should be dying from laughter or feeling a little sad. I’ll figure it out later anyways… Fresh off…
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The gospel of creative profanity.
By Me, To Me, About Me, For You… (I’ve been asked by a few folks how it feels like to live inside of my own head) Here’s a monologue of the type of shit that I write when I need…
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Ego is not the enemy.
Ryan Holiday was wrong. Our ego is not our enemy. Yes there’s a time where we need to put our ego to the side and just look at things from a different lens, but when it comes to building your…
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A quiet act of immortality
When you write something real. Something that bleeds a little, something that costs you something to put on the page. Remember this… …you’re performing a quiet act of immortality. Every sentence you craft carries a fragment of who you are.…
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Armchair psychologists who can dish it but can’t take it
Nothing cracks me up more than watching someone try to psychoanalyse you out of your own position, then immediately fold like a cheap suit the moment you push back. You post something with clear reasoning. You explain your stance. You…
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You’re a poly what?
I recently discovered I’m a polymath, and suddenly my entire life kinda makes a little more sense. Not the scattered, unfocused, “jack of all trades, master of none” bullshit I’ve been telling myself for years. An actual polymath. Someone whose…
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Permission to be human this weekend
I’m taking the weekend off to binge Mayor of Kingstown and catch up on the books that have been giving me dirty looks from my bookshelf. No content creation. No strategic networking. No optimising my morning routine with kale and…
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Ads are a brain parasite and you’re the host.
Strap in. Buckle your seatbelts. Duct tape your frontal lobe to the dashboard because we’re going on a RIDE through the screaming neon hellscape of advertising, and I promise you, you’re not gonna like what you find when we get…
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Crush those excuse.
I just paid someone £500 to basically bully my subconscious into submission… And before you ask. Not therapy. Not Coaching. Not some airy-fairy hand-holding session where someone validates my feelings and tells me everything’s gonna be okay. I paid someone…
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Big Bad Bully Club
This week has been pile on city, and I’m watching people I used to respect turn into schoolyard bullies with blue checkmarks and LinkedIn profiles. Everyone’s got a take. Everyone’s got an opinion. Everyone’s got their pitchforks sharpened and ready…
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What would Søren do?
I spent another day unpacking old notebooks out of boxes. Went through an old diary that had notes from the time I was balls deep in the studying of Søren Kierkegaard. The quick skinny on the dude: “Søren Aabye Kierkegaard…
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One thing you you shouldn’t forget
I can’t remember the saying but you’ve heard it before… Something something all work and no play makes you blah blah. It’s true. We’ve gotten to that point where we’re trying to just posture and pretend to the masses that…
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My man Wendig
I wanted to write about this but my man Chuck Wendig put it out there before me. So grab a glass of water or whatever and have a quick read of his words below… “I wanna talk about Cameron’s The…
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Asimov’s rolling in his grave and we need a 4th law…
Isaac Asimov is spinning in his grave so fast you could power a small city with the kinetic energy… The man who gave us the Three Laws of Robotics, which is unironically the foundational ethical framework for artificial intelligence, is…
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You’re using the wrong voice (and it’s killing your writing)
A dead poet in Los Angeles figured this out 40 years ago… I need to tell you something and you’re probably not gonna like it. Your writing voice. The one you’ve been carefully cultivating, polishing, workshopping, and deploying like a…
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Se7en deadly marketing lessons
As I’m closing out on a week long water fast. I thought I’d re-share something that tips the scales in your favour if you use it ethically. One of my favourite films wrapped in biblical lessons which a lot of…
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Death by a thousand Discord messages
So it’s not a secret that I’ve been unwinding myself from doing client work for the last few years. Frankly, I’ve just been so bored of people flip flopping into different “things” and then when the things that were working…