Archetypal Wisdom for the Modern Media Age with Will Cady, Head of Creative Strategy at Reddit
The Most Important Thing
This conversation was a reflection of how the remarkable shifts in institutions that we’ve seen in 2020 also indicate deeper shifts within ourselves. In this chat, we probed questions about how algorithms shape our identities and whether our identities are even ours to own. Pressing as these themes are now, they have been the foundation of Will's approach to his music and to marketing for the last decade. Join us as we dive in
Also, check out Will’s favorite non-profit, Project Healthy Minds, which is confronting the mental health crisis in America.
About Will Cady
Will Cady is Head of Creative Strategy at Reddit and oversees a team dedicated to finding homes for brands within Reddit’s ecosystem of vast and varied communities. Prior to this, Will launched, hired, and managed Reddit’s Los Angeles brand partnerships office; leaning on his years of experience architecting revenue-driving programs that connected brands with fast-growing pockets of music, art, and experience just as they reach their tipping points. Will has created and executed programs for a host of Fortune Global 100 brands including Amazon, Toyota, Sony, T-Mobile, and many, many others during his time at Reddit. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and recipient of an Emmy Award (Local NATAS) for Best Musical Composition/Arrangement, Will’s writing has been published in SPIN, Performer, and Death & Taxes.
About Reddit (From Wikipedia)
Reddit (/ˈrɛdɪt/, stylized in its logo as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website.
Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called "subreddits", which cover a variety of topics such as news, politics, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets, and image-sharing. Submissions with more up-votes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough up-votes, ultimately on the site's front page. Despite strict rules prohibiting harassment, Reddit's administrators spend considerable resources on moderating the site.[6]
As of October 2020, Reddit ranks as the 17th-most-visited website in the world and 7th most-visited website in the US, according to Alexa Internet, with 40.9% of its user base coming from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 10.0% and Canada at 5.2%.[7]
Episode Overview:
In this episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Reddit’s Head of Creative Strategy, Will Cady. When I first reached out to Will, I knew that it would make for a fascinating conversation given the quality of his posts on LinkedIn and other platforms. Gladly, this episode even exceeded my expectations. We started off chatting about R/Randonautica – a serendipity machine built on Reddit. We wove in mysticism, archetypal thinking, and of course the challenges of the modern media age. We analyzed the impact that algorithms have on the way we show up in the world and closed by highlighting the importance of mental health. There was a bit of Zen and a bit of Watts along the way. I hope you enjoy!
My Favorite Quotes:
“There is life that happens when we look into our screens, and there is life that happens when step out into it.”
“Where do these synchronistic experiences come from? From what we want to see, and for me that is enough for meaning.”
“I’ve come to look at Tarot as a SaaS product, but it’s analog.”
“In my experience, the more space that I leave for synchronicities, the more profound the ideas that I can work with become. It’s almost like working with a cloud computer rather than a local hard drive.”
“At a minimum, our minds are meaning making machines.”
“We’re in a place right now where we’re revisiting the way we make decisions… because we’re in the process of making something new and exciting AND it’s not a “this or that” kind of change.”
“They kept going until they deconstructed me down to understand that I’m nothing. Then there’s a layer underneath being nothing that is being ‘NO thing.’”
“Reddit is a river and meme marketers are fishing on that river.”
“Downvotes are incredibly valuable in maintaining the potency of what makes it to the front page of Reddit.”
“When the algorithms are so heavy, it changes the way we voice ourselves in order to get more credit.”
“The need for discernment and the value of a slower cycle sometimes is something for us all to be really, really, cautious about.”
“Many social media platforms are designed for us to share things quickly and regularly, but discourse requires that we sometimes take a step back.”
“Reddit has always been very clear about the difference between policing behavior and ideas.”
“There isn’t even room today for discourse because of the indecency with which people are entering conversations.”
“They are talking about mental health in a way that is polished, in a way that belongs in any conversation.”
“A good mental health practice helps you get underneath the different ideas and identities that you think are yours that weigh you down AND empowers you to select who you want to be and what you want to think on a daily basis, and that’s the way things really ought to be, and that’s where we’re headed.”
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 – r/Randonautica
06:00 – Tarot, meaning, and correlation vs. causation
11:00 - Mysticism in the modern context
15:00 – Polarity thinking, Archetypal thinking, and bridge building
20:00 – Rinzai Zen and identity
25:00 – Bridging advertising/content marketing on Reddit with the integral
29:00 – Reddit is a river
36:00 – Heavy algorithms
45:00 – Performative activism + pace of posting
50:00 – Reddit’s decision to remove hate speech
55:00 – Project Healthy Minds and the importance of mental health
Episode Links:
Will’s Info
AdWeek Magazine on Will
Other Resources & References
NYTimes article on Randonautica
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Polarity and Archetypal Thinking
Miyamoto Musashi – The Obstacle is the Way Quote
Marc’s Info:
Marc Weinstein, host of the Look Up! Podcast is a public speaker for corporations, universities, and conferences. Click here to view past talks and to book Marc
