Malcolm Gladwell's lecture on Monday night about culture - and how it can define our behaviours to the point of irrationality - has made me think about shibboleths.
Shibboleths are the practices that identify us as being of a particular background, and the word itself is a kind of discriminator between those who know what it means, and those who don't.
Walking past the golden arches on Tottenham Court Road a few moments ago, it occurred to me that I've never seen anyone in our agency eat a McDonalds for lunch. This is something that people in our profession, location and mindset just don't do.
A shibboleth in absentia, as it were.
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