zemotion's comments

It's not quite that simple. The needs and responses of a local market can be completely different from one to the next.

Because of differing cultures, we respond very differently to color palettes, design aesthetics, safety concerns, cool factors, etc. And since the entire point of marketing is to sell, then the the brand's visuals, branding strategy, responses to concerns, etc, all have to be completely customized for the local market in order to engage customers.

For example one common difficulty tech companies often encounter while trying to enter Japan was how difficult it was to acquire and retain users compared to anywhere else. Some gave up, some would keep trying, and surprise—it would magically work out when you hire a local ad team, local designers, art directors, etc. Western companies' sleek, advanced designs are easy to use and navigate, but the locals understand that culturally, the Japanese society resists change. They are used to early day yahoo/geocities level of banner ads and flashing gifs on a page so that they can feel certain that what they are using can be authentically catered to the Japanese people and supported. Overly simple designs like a Bootstrap framework was simply too frightening, new and confusing.

Same can be applied to pretty much anything from fashion, beauty, food, retail of any kind, to things like Uber, which specifically has its own complexities to solve while trying to enter a taxi-efficient market like that; a completely different marketing problem to solve than say Australia's safety concern as you mentioned.

TL;DR: Can't easily centralize marketing because local cultures and needs are always different; and you need locals to know what locals will want/engage with.

In darker moments I always think that eventually, this is an inevitable outcome for someone like me. But as somebody who's also experienced help that worked, even if for only a time, I wish that you (we) can hold on to some hope and trudge on. Maybe life will surprise us and we'll go at it till the end. Good luck.

I think some of these results are really lovely, the one at Interlaken is a perfect travel photo. Would be interesting to see more types of work this could apply to.

Saw a few people talking about retouching and studio work - I do a lot of studio shoots and retouching on my own, and would be happy to help or participate in projects. Feel free to reach out.

Thanks for this!

One of my friends left school to pursue a professional career at 18, did it rather successfully and then retired after a few years to go back to school. He decided to go back via community college but it bored him to tears. The teaching was terrible and none of his peers seemed worth talking to. Then he started looking at the online recordings that good schools put up of their classes, realized the gap in teaching quality and decided to transfer to a vastly better school. He's been much happier since.

It's easy for us to blame or be indignant about our environments, but sometimes I also think it's our own responsibilities to go find the places in the world that would work for us.

I personally like finding hobbies and pursuing them relentlessly with the goal of becoming the best in the world. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I usually enjoy myself and get to meet some really remarkable people I wouldn't have otherwise.

Quit and do things you like instead. You can always build new contacts, skills, and connections. Once you burn out you are just dragging along, it's painful and it's pointless.

I've been in three completely different fields for 3, 6, and 10 years respectively. Once you find something you like, it's very easy to dig in and build a new network and learn. Don't be afraid, be excited. The worst is when you are doing something you feel dread for or don't want to get out of bed in the morning for. Happy to talk/answer any questions.

They are viewed the same sports professionals in China/Japan/Korea. Go news would share sports frontpage, and players are paid well. In China the national Go association is managed under the sports council, with dorms and national squads under the association.

As it's a game more popular amongst older demographics, there tend to be a lot of wealthy patrons and supporters (individuals and companies) who sponsor tournaments and teams. One of the highest-paying competitions is the Ing Cup with a prize of $400,000. Japan has nearly 10 major year-long tournaments every year, totaling over $2mil in prizes, many are sponsored by major newspapers.[1] China has domestic year-long leagues, where city teams each have their own sponsors. All the games I mentioned here pay a match fee whether players win or lose.

So yes, it is a popular game in Asia, however less so for the younger demographic and is unfortunately in decline. Most people just don't have the attention span, interest or time these days. :(

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_Go_tourna...

Most of them are pretty bad. I had some roommates who were crunching for over 9 months on a title. They'd head to the studio around 8-9am and head home around 3-4am. Some days they slept at the office.

After the project, the company decided to take away a bunch of their leave days that were accumulated with the OT, because it was inconvenient for them. These are people who were there for 5-7 years.

I've freelanced all my life so I don't know how these things usually go, but it sounds pretty damn awful.

I visited Minamisoma last year, just viewing the damages from the outside was heartbreaking, seeing these images of interiors is so incredibly difficult, had me close to tears too.

Super cool project! And damn unexpected to see Jean. Interested to see how the colored versions will look. Good luck moving forward!