There’s still reason to be optimistic, really

Eight years in the making, Stefan Engeseth’s Homo Stupido: Recycling Our Stupidity to Save Our Planet came out this week, published by LID Publishing.

Having read every book that Stefan has authored, I have my favourites, though my ranking seems to be at odds with the general public’s. Take Sharkonomics, for instance: Stefan began with an interesting thesis. What can we learn from sharks that can be applied to business? The idea really resonated and the book was translated into multiple languages, opening doors for him beyond his usual realm of marketing, and into management.

But to me my firm favourites remain One: a Consumer Revolution for Business, which may have only appeared in English, but did reach a second edition; and his original Detective Marketing, the name which his business still takes. Detective Marketing also began with an interesting premise: what can we learn from private detectives that can be applied to marketing? It showed a playfulness and joy, demonstrating Stefan’s innate curiosity and creativity. It intrigued me so much in 2001 and when we met in person in 2002, our first conversation lasted six hours.

One evolved those ideas into a comparatively hefty tome, but it also solidified other thinking that existed in the marketing and branding spheres. We can see how marketing has evolved in the 20th century, from top–down models to the relationship marketing (or one-to-one, to put it crudely in lay terms) ideas of Finnish academic Christian Grönroos. It made sense to go from one-to-one to one: where the business was already on the side of the consumer, kind of a dialled-up version of marketing orientation and the work of Narver and Slater. In 2005, when One was released, this was Stefan at his best, most elegant thinking, drawing threads from other marketing disciplines into one, while injecting his creativity and left-field thinking.

Where, then, does Homo Stupido lie? Somewhere, I think, between the popular appeal of Sharkonomics and the playfulness of Detective Marketing. He certainly has released this book at the right time, when we question whether our political leaders know what on earth they are doing; or maybe we already understand that they do not know what they are doing. And if that’s the case, is there any hope?

Think of Homo Stupido as Stefan’s train of thought as he attempts to answer: if we’re this stupid, how did we manage to last this long? And while climate change is mentioned numerous times, Stefan doesn’t think that we’re all doomed, though he does believe we can’t continue the usual way, and radical change needs to come.

It’s quite a refreshing read, written in a light fashion, but leaving room to ponder. In some ways that was the genius of Detective Marketing, though in the earlier work Stefan acts as our guide more than he does here. Is stupidity a virtue? He thinks there are situations where it could be. Why do many pretend to make out that they know more than they do, when the opposite—of asking questions and purposely acting as the dumbest person in the room—can boost others and improve meeting dynamics? Instead of focusing on what we know, why don’t we focus on what we don’t, then we can figure out where we might fit in and make change for the betterment of our planet?

This is the fun, narrative tone that Stefan takes in Homo Stupido: there is a sense of wonderment, and the author shows his humility. He doesn’t pretend to give all the answers, but he challenges each and every one of us to collaborate on that better future. He wants to see us live without historical bias—not quite ‘history is bunk’, but he feels that biases hold us back. He has concerns about AI, but also sees possibilities. He believes world peace is achievable, even in these uncertain times, and that free energy is within reach.

In these respects, Homo Stupido is an optimistic book, shining light through the crevices, reminding us that we can still create our future. It doesn’t fully answer how we managed to last this long, but it does show that humans can do and be better.

My initial thought was that it needs is a rallying-point in the concluding chapter, a virtual place where optimistic ideas can be collected, but what then? Other authors (myself included) have attempted such fora and these ultimately wind up in a form of online drawer, not to be touched or referenced again. Maybe it’s better that Stefan leaves it with us to do—to go forth in Thunbergian fashion—and to refer back to Homo Stupido as required, to re-energize us. Detective Marketing did as much, inspiring us to think creatively about marketing. Homo Stupido inspires us to think creatively about our species’ survival. •

 
Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.

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