To Be a Wild Robot
A Literary Bang-Bang, Lessons from Mac and great branding for Colleague
Ness is about making and thinking about content—strategy, storytelling, and the creative life. It’s free for now. Someday, it will earn its keep.
Love for The Wild Robot and the Power of Sharing Books with Kids
Seven years ago, I was at a small dinner party in Brooklyn with two other couples. One of the guys turned out to be a children’s book author. Knowing my wife is Italian and that we were expecting, he very kindly brought us a copy of his book Mr. Tiger Goes Wild (Il Signor Tigre Si Scatena) as a gift. At some point in the conversation, he casually mentioned that he also wrote books about robots for kids. Being a little aloof, I didn’t think much of it. Also, robot books for children didn’t sound all that interesting at the time.
Fast forward to today: I just finished reading The Wild Robot Protects with my son. It was the first time we’ve tackled a long book together, and the first time we both really enjoyed the same book. When I finished the last chapter, my son asked me to keep reading. We read the acknowledgments and the author’s note, just because he didn’t want it to end.
The Wild Robot is so beautifully crafted. The characters are unique, the story is rich, and the whole thing feels alive. It’s not moralistic. It doesn’t oversimplify characters into good and bad categories. It’s the kind of book I want my son to read.
If I ever cross paths with Peter Brown again, I’ll heap praise on him for creating such remarkable work—and thank him for helping me share great writing with my son. Honestly, it’s one of the best gifts I could imagine.
The Always-Creating Life Of Mac DeMarco
Mac DeMarco has cut his own path in the music world. He has his own label. He rarely tours. He doesn’t seek fame. And it’s always seemed like he’s in complete control of his destiny. He’s like the living embodiment of all the woo-woo Rick Rubin do it for yourself and others will like it stuff, which is why I was so happy to see him get the full New Yorker treatment.
On writing songs, Mac says: “I think if I don’t do it, I will be punished by the universe,” he said. “When I’m making the songs, I feel satisfaction, and maybe that’s also some kind of addiction—‘You did it again, pal!’—but I think it’s just that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.” He went on, “I can have other hobbies. I can poorly renovate houses or fuck up motorcycle engines. But when I do those things I feel guilty.”
There’s something all of us creatives can learn from Mac.
A Strange Sort of Literary Bang-Bang
I just finished what I’m calling a literary bang-bang—two (food-adjacent) books back to back. This round was Graydon Carter’s When the Going Was Good followed immediately by Keith McNally’s I Regret Almost Everything.
It felt like a bang-bang because both authors are restaurateurs, contemporaries, and New Yorkers with plenty of stories to tell. Carter’s book is hands down the stronger one—not a shock, given he’s an editor and a restaurateur.
I wanted to love McNally’s book. I was hoping for a sense of place—what it was like inside the Odeon in the ’70s with Mick and Warhol tucked into a corner booth or something. But McNally doesn’t really spill that kind of tea, nor does he conjure much atmosphere. What he does do, in painstaking detail, is unpack his own personal challenges. Compelling, yes. Entertaining? Less so, especially next to Carter’s breezy slide through the last days of peak magazine journalism.
So there it is: two book reviews from a guy who claims to hate book reviews.
Self Promotion Alert
I was featured in Tokens & Tactics talking about how I’m using AI to build more efficient workflows. I’m especially excited to attend the BrandX conference this September to learn how other marketers are using AI and to connect. If you’re there, please hit me up.
🙌 Colleague
My good friend Sandro recently launched a new fractional office space startup called Colleague, and my wife’s studio Palette, did the branding. I’m so impressed all the way around. Just such good work.
75 Years of Aspen Institute
Here’s a short video we put together at Aspen Institute to celebrate 75 years of work, to tell our story and look ahead.
Good one. More book reviews.