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- š„The Paradox of Now #10
š„The Paradox of Now #10
šA Skort-Wearing Chickpea
Scott Mayo
April 04, 2025 ā¢ Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
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šHAPPY BORN DAY!š
A belated but no less enthusiastic Happy Existence Anniversary to one of my all-time favourite humansāTassy!
I was scrolling through my chaotic notes app the other day (which, much like my brain, is a lawless land), and I found a quote I wrote ages ago:
Find friends youād name your children after.
Tassy, you are one of those friends. Thatās the highest compliment I can give.
Hope you have the best dayāthough, letās be honest, youāre stuck spending some of it with me.
So, mixed blessings. š
Me & Tassy
Now let me give you a taste of what's coming:
š„A man who knows how to reframe life
š„Me attempting to be ānormalā
š„Have you heard about this new fizzy milk trend?
š„Eggstra Newsš„
Your weekly dose of some fascinating and fun finds:
š„ Keeganjasper ā A storytelling genius with a camera. He does what I doā¦ but 10x better. Watch his work and see for yourself.
š§ 0.1% of Ideas (George Mack) ā One of the sharpest minds of our time. His insights reframe the world in a way thatāll change how you think. A goldmine of inspiration.
šThe WAR of ART ā The ultimate book for creatives, side hustlers, and anyone battling procrastination. Short, powerful, and a game-changer.
The Paradox of Now
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Who Remembers Normal?
Normal behaviour is forgotten. Only weird behaviour survives
Imagine this scene: You're at a funeral listening to a eulogy for one of your friends.
āHaiku was a nice person who always showed up on time in his work. He responded to emails really quickly and loved to drink tea with just a dash of milk and no sugar. He would occasionally change the tie that he wore to have some stripes on it. He only ever ate bananas that were spotty and his favourite thing to do at lunch was to put crisps inside his ham and cheese sandwich. He also enjoyed reading in his spare time. He always drove the speed limit and never got a parking ticket. His favourite food was spaghetti Bolognese because he once ate it on his favourite holiday to Rome and never let his fish tank get dirty. He was a nice man and we are sad to have lost him.ā
What would be your first thought?
I know what my first thought would beā¦
I need to find better friends so that I can go to better funerals.
Unlessā¦
Unless at the wake the buffet is like a make your own sandwich style layout where you then decide the bread, the filling and then the crisps to match and then there are judges ranking the best combinations.
Note to self: Write this funeral idea for myself in my will
The Eulogy Test
What would your eulogy sound like?
Would it catalogue your punctuality and email etiquette?
Or would it celebrate the time you hosted a funeral-themed dinner party where guests created sandwich masterpieces judged by a panel of your most critical friends?
The latter makes for a better story.
And in life, as in business, the better storyteller wins.
Weird behaviour wins.
No one remembers NoRmAl.
The Business of Memorability
The best brands have some level of absurdity about them
When I talk to students about marketing, branding, and business ideas, I always emphasise one thing: memorable brands stand out.
(For those who donāt know, I work in a universityās student enterprise and start-up team, helping students develop businesses and entrepreneurial mindsets.)
Think Cillit Bang with big shouty Barry Scott!
Think Monzo and their modern take on banking.
Think Surreal with their nostalgic and humanistic ploys.
Think Liquid Death selling water with the attitude of a heavy metal band.
Surreal
These brands understand a fundamental truth: in a world of sameness, calculated weirdness cuts through the noise.
How can you apply this to your own personal brand?
No one remembers NoRmAl.
The Psychology of Standing Out
We're biologically wired to notice the unusual. Our brains are pattern-recognition machines that filter out the expected and highlight the unexpected.
It's evolutionaryāthe unusual could be an opportunity or a threat, but either way, it deserves our attention.
This is why, at a recent BBQ I was invited to (BBQ in March WTF?), I didn't bring the standard bottle of wine. Instead, I arrived with:
Sugar-coated chickpeas
White Asian pears
Fortune cookies
While the wine would have been consumed and forgotten, the evening ended with everyone comparing fortunes and debating the strange sweetness of those chickpeas.
There was laughter and joy and memories captured in those moments.
No one remembers NoRmAl.
The Professional Advantage of Being Peculiar
In professional settings, strategic weirdness can be even more valuable.
When everyone else in a job interview is speaking about the ātime they worked well in a teamā Iām busy throwing my leg up onto the interview table to show off my Highland Games Haggis Hurling Champion tattoo.
Was it professional? Not conventionally. Was it memorable? Absolutely.
Did I get the job?
Yes.
This same approach has transformed my pickleball journey.
While others obsess over technique and practice non-stop, I rock up in skorts with homemade trifles for the organisers.
I make people play silly games with strawberry laces and strike alternative poses with my partnerāluckily, Maisieās all for it. Thanks, Maisie! š
This distinctive presence has earned me a sponsorship deal as a pickleball player, voluntary opportunities to write for a world pickleball magazine, and invitations to join the team running some of the UK's best tournaments.
Just this week I received a voice note that went something like this after the most recent pickleball tournament:
Itās nice to meet someone at these events who actually has a personality. You tolerate weird, awkward sh*t. You donāt even tolerate it you actually embrace it. You are the epitome of the weirdness and it's delightful. Sometimes there is just a lacking of fun and personality in this world but you are not that!
Itās my chaotic version of planned happenstance.
No one remembers NoRmAl.
Maisie & Me
Strawberry Lace Game
The Calculated Risk of Weirdness
Embracing your oddities makes you more relatable, not less. People aren't drawn to perfection; they're drawn to authenticity.
Being memorable isn't about being weird for weirdness' sake. It's about strategically allowing your natural quirks to shine in contexts where they'll create connection rather than confusion.
Think of it as seasoning your personal brand with just enough peculiarity to be distinctive without being alienating.
Here is some food for thoughtā¦
The average person is overweight, in debt, and depressed anyway.
Being average and normal isn't just forgettableāit's a statistical tragedy!
No one remembers NoRmAl.
A Challenge to the Comfortable
This week, I'm taking LEGO figures to photograph among the produce at my local Co-op.
Next week, I'm organising a two-person silent disco next to a mammoth exhibit at the museum.
Neither of these actions will change the world, but they might change how people see meāand more importantly, how I see myself.
The question isn't whether you want to be remembered. The question is how.
Will they recall your punctuality and spreadsheet prowess?
Or will they tell stories about that time you did something so peculiar and so perfectly you that it couldn't possibly have been anyone else?
What small act of calculated weirdness could you perform this week?
What tiny rebellion against the beige backdrop of conformity might make someone smileāor better yet, make you smile?
Because in the end, eulogies aren't really for the dead.
They're for the living.
No one remembers NoRmAl.
š„ Haikuās Haiku š„
Haiku #10
Normal is boring,
Embrace authenticity,
Go make fizzy milk.
š“ Palm Tree Euphoria š“
At the weekend, I made fizzy milk.
Why? I hear you cry from the judgment balconies above.
Because when my friend mentioned they had a SodaStream, my first question was:
āHave you ever made fizzy milk?ā
The answer was no.
That had to change with immediate effect.
In my mind, this was either a stroke of genius or a terrible mistake.
I knew it could result in either quitting my job in that instance and start a multi million pound company, or sitting on the toilet as the fizz and the milk curdled in my stomach.
I had to know which it was going to be and there was only one way to find out.
We rimmed the glass with peanut butter and sprinkles, added a cocktail umbrella, and fizzed the night away.
The result?
Harrowing.
Do not try this at home.
To make matters worse, a housemate Iād never met walked in mid-experiment, forcing me to explain why I was carbonating oat milk at 10pm.
Now I am immortalised as the āFizzy Milk Guyā.
A badge of honour I wear with pride.
Because no one remembers NoRmAl.
Mocktail: Alkaline Surprise
Your turn:
If you could fizz any liquid, what would it be?
Send me your answers, and Iāll taste test my favourite next time.
Hmmā¦ On second thought, I might not taste test your suggestionsā¦ now that Iām actually thinking about it. š¤£
And if this fizzy flavour of brain chaos makes your brain happy, come and find more insights, weirdness, and everything else in between on my socials.
See you dashing ducks over there! š„
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