And in the juxtapositions may lie the meaning.

*Image: Midjourney to the prompt “juxtapositions”*

1. Digital silicon-based data driven solutions. Analog carbon-based emotional challenges.

A machine computes. A human dreams.

The elegance of code is often thwarted by the messiness of people.

Algorithms find co-relations between present and historical data sets. Adventuresome people leave the beaten path and innovate by forging new connections between things that were unconnected before.

Software is written but T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) emphasized “nothing is written” in human progress.

It is imagined.

Silicon Valley believed AI could monitor and clean up the weaponized mess of social media. Lots of computing power and tens of thousands of people later the situation continues to sizzle.

People surprise and are illogical.

Math may have no meaning or it may be the closest to truth.

Meaning often has no math and for most people the real world is not enough.

2. Diversity of people. The diversity of voices.

Diversity is critical.

Diversity ensures innovation as differences of perspectives, voices, and expertise find ways to connect, intersect, compete and intertwine.

Life, nature and biology are driven by diversity.

The drive to diversity whether it be gender, ethnicity, sexual preference or background is important because it is fair, just and supports ideas, value, freedom and career growth.

Even more critical is that the diverse voices are heard, and diversity is not just diversity of faces or quotas to meet benchmarks.

3. Why we join. Why we stay.

We seek jobs and careers that will afford us money, power and fame.

And we measure our wealth, our span of control and our influence.

But we stay for connections, purpose and personal growth.

Do we feel connected to the people we work with, the purpose and values of the place we spend our lives, do we feel we belong and our voices are heard.

Most importantly do we feel we are growing as people with our skill and expertise?

We came for the numbers that we could measure on a spreadsheet.

We stayed for the stories that strengthened our heartbeat.

4. The potential of the old. The fixation on the young.

Those over 65 have increased by 50 percent in the past decade from 12 percent to 18 percent of the US population over the past ten years and now those 60 plus control 65% of all American wealth!

Those 60+ now have 47x the wealth of someone under 35. This is up from 10x five decades ago.

Modern health care indicates that a healthy 55 will not only have money but over 30 years of a physically healthy life. 100 year life spans will be normal soon. Today the growth market for most businesses in the US and in most developed markets from Europe to Japan are 50+. They do not see themselves as seniors and Covid-19 has underlined that they are open to new behaviors and brands.

But look around at the marketing in most countries which aims decades below where the money is not only in depiction but also tone of voice. Survey the ages of folks in marketing departments and agencies. It is often hard to find people of “seasoning” in most marketing areas.

Ageism is when we discriminate against our future selves.

5. You. The other you.

A person in two moods can be more different than any two people.

You are both what you were and what you will become.

Some things change and some things stay the same.

It is hard enough to understand yourself and really difficult to understand other people.

Thus, let us be careful in both life and in business to believe we have anybody pegged.

When you have someone segmented and boxed and x-rayed. You have measured their ROI and Lifetime value. When you have them tiered and graded and valued remind yourself that someone is doing the same thing to you.

How does it feel?

And don’t you sometimes just do strange things to make their calculations crackle and burn and go all wrong?

You are both the marketer and the one marketed to.

You are both the archer, and you are the target.

6. Balance. Unite. Integrate.

In the digital world there are zeros and ones

In the real world there is a spectrum between zero and one.

In the fantasy world there is a yes and no for every question.

In the real world there are yes, no, maybe, depends, later, or avoiding the question all together.

The wise understand that one has to continuously manage a spectrum.

A spectrum of people, voices, opportunities, options and decisions.

The challenge is how to balance between the outcomes, unite the meaning and the math and find ways to integrate the possible with the improbable.

And to remember humans are incomplete, imperfect and impermanent.

As are all the decisions we make and the positions we take.

And in the juxtapositions may lie the meaning.