My Summer Lair Chapter #81: What’s Your Story?
So Olivetti the Italian typewriter company?
In the 1930s Adriano Olivetti took over his Dad’s business and made a number of powerful changes that back then seemed revolutionary but today we take for granted as part of startup culture. Adriano hired Giovanni Giudici, a poet to run the company’s library. Factory workers would get 2 hours of lunch…1 hour to eat food and 1 hour to “eat” culture. The company’s library because a cultural focus to stimulate the intelligence of the factory workers. It was meant to enhance the design and care that went into building and creating Olivetti typewriters. In many ways Matt McCue is Adobe’s Giovanni Giudici…a resident poet-in-chief promoting culture and design and of course: stories.
To quot their website: “99U tells the stories of creative leaders who are mastering their crafts, building incredible careers, and shaping their industries.”
99U is Adobe’s inspiring publication arm from the company which creates design tools like Adobe Photoshop: here’s the tools and here’s the by-products what cool creatives fashioned with the tools. Matt McCue is the Editor-in-Chief of 99U.
I spoke to him at FITC Toronto following his talk: How To Tell Your Story.
This experience is inspiring…it made me think about my story…the story I want to tell, the story of Girth Radio and the work we are all doing.
I’ve found when you interview established actors say…people who have been in the industry for decades who have endured all kinds of interviews…it doesn’t matter what you ask them. They will instantly share a story. They will share a funny experience.
When you interview somebody starting out their stories are thin…they’re so focused on the work and getting to places (“I’ve arrived!”) that they don’t fully understand what they have accomplished…and who they have accomplished it with. Really all interviews should be one question: What’s Your Story?
High Five for people not falling asleep at during his talk. That’s the mark of a good storyteller.
99U @ W • T • F
Host & Photography Sammy Younan
Recorded: Monday April 9, 2018 at 12:30 pm (at FITC)
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