Mark Masterson
@bobdmark.bsky.social
I art things. I word things. I places by cycle thing.
AI-n’t nobody home.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
AI-n’t nobody home.
I like your note-taking AI. You, not so much.
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:58 PM
AI-n’t nobody home.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
We've replaced judgment with metrics, conversation with systems. The call without response is just shouting. On the dearth of feedback, teaching its value—and why does creative matter if nobody knows what good looks like anymore?
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
The Not So Brief Conversation
Intent Without Feedback is Just Noise.
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:16 AM
We've replaced judgment with metrics, conversation with systems. The call without response is just shouting. On the dearth of feedback, teaching its value—and why does creative matter if nobody knows what good looks like anymore?
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Sometimes good ideas happen. Sometimes they get stuck in traffic on the way to something else.
The shirts that shouldn't exist but do: bureauofbaddecisions.com
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
The shirts that shouldn't exist but do: bureauofbaddecisions.com
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Failure to Lurch
Friction, Time, and an Idea in Ghana
open.substack.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Sometimes good ideas happen. Sometimes they get stuck in traffic on the way to something else.
The shirts that shouldn't exist but do: bureauofbaddecisions.com
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
The shirts that shouldn't exist but do: bureauofbaddecisions.com
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
The second chance is the one that matters.
Brand arrivals are now so fast, they’re gone before they ever land.
Intent is cheap. Acceptance takes time.
And most don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Brand arrivals are now so fast, they’re gone before they ever land.
Intent is cheap. Acceptance takes time.
And most don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Intent. Acceptance. Rinse and Repeat.
Brand meaning as second chances.
open.substack.com
September 5, 2025 at 9:43 AM
The second chance is the one that matters.
Brand arrivals are now so fast, they’re gone before they ever land.
Intent is cheap. Acceptance takes time.
And most don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Brand arrivals are now so fast, they’re gone before they ever land.
Intent is cheap. Acceptance takes time.
And most don’t stick around long enough to mean anything.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
For the firsters, disorientation is what we’re feeling as we get deeper.
If we can make it out to create another day, it just may be worth the spit.
Out of the pause.
Into the Re-Flesh.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
If we can make it out to create another day, it just may be worth the spit.
Out of the pause.
Into the Re-Flesh.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
The Pause that Re-FLESHES
The Singularity of Creative Evolution
open.substack.com
August 18, 2025 at 11:10 PM
For the firsters, disorientation is what we’re feeling as we get deeper.
If we can make it out to create another day, it just may be worth the spit.
Out of the pause.
Into the Re-Flesh.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
If we can make it out to create another day, it just may be worth the spit.
Out of the pause.
Into the Re-Flesh.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Creative Bilinguals: The Last Generation
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Creative Bilinguals: The Last Generation
They speak in both tongues of the beautiful wrong.
open.substack.com
July 29, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Creative Bilinguals: The Last Generation
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
THE UNIVERSAL FUCK YOU open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
THE UNIVERSAL FUCK YOU
AI, Disengagement, and the Quiet Collapse of Want
open.substack.com
June 26, 2025 at 12:35 AM
THE UNIVERSAL FUCK YOU open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Hilltop: Breathe…
When I was growing up and thinking about what I wanted to do, it was advertising—it was about leading lemmings off a cliff. Now I want and we need to lead them up a hill.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
When I was growing up and thinking about what I wanted to do, it was advertising—it was about leading lemmings off a cliff. Now I want and we need to lead them up a hill.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Hilltop: Breathe…
Hilltop doesn’t work in AI.
open.substack.com
March 29, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Hilltop: Breathe…
When I was growing up and thinking about what I wanted to do, it was advertising—it was about leading lemmings off a cliff. Now I want and we need to lead them up a hill.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
When I was growing up and thinking about what I wanted to do, it was advertising—it was about leading lemmings off a cliff. Now I want and we need to lead them up a hill.
open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Client meeting at Changi… Leaky roof…
March 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Client meeting at Changi… Leaky roof…
After seeing the latest McCann Truth About report on the American Dream, I had some thoughts. Maybe some not so copasetic to their American delusion. Spoiler: creativity isn’t a savior. It’s a mirror.
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
The Beautiful Wrongless.
The Magnificence of Creative Numerology and 58008
open.substack.com
March 18, 2025 at 1:28 AM
After seeing the latest McCann Truth About report on the American Dream, I had some thoughts. Maybe some not so copasetic to their American delusion. Spoiler: creativity isn’t a savior. It’s a mirror.
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/markmast...
February 11, 2025 at 5:22 AM