Happy new year to y'all š„ Special thoughts to our LA friends. If you'd like to help, here's a list of places.
If I had to wrap my 2025's intentions into one word only, it'll be 'change'. Only 2 weeks in, and 'change' I went through already. Which might be a good sign.
Physically speaking, I changed flats. I haven't moved as far as I wished initially -across Ocean literally- cause I'm still in the same city in France, Lyon. I just traded one river banks for another. But still, I changed neighborhood, the view -and from the 6th floor you can see way further- and all our habits accordingly. The kids love it: we're closer to their school so they can jump on their own bikes and go there while I follow them on my board -which is quite cool I've to admit- we're closer to their friends so yesterday for instance -classic Wednesday afternoon- we were able to join some of them nearby and play for a few hours between the skatepark and the soccer pitch. The neighborhood being recent, I truly appreciate the urbanism itself: 10x more infrastructure for people, no cars, bike lanes and just tons of space to hang out outside. Mathilde loves the flat cause it's smaller too. I concede 100m2 is big enough for a family of 4 so we didn't need more.
So that's how we kicked off the new year: moving stuff around. We spent 3 years in the previous flat, which is surprisingly long according to our own standards (we moved 18 times across 4 continents in the past 15 years). I truly appreciated the move itself. It took us a few days but we did it entirely alone Mathilde and I; filling up a family car gently lent by our parents and performing 11 back and forth between both flats in total. I think moving is good for your mental health, and sanity. It's also the best way to avoid too much clutter. Next time, we cross the Atlantic Ocean.
š©āš We need a Cambrian explosion in education. Period. I felt it as a kid, then student. Iām more convinced than ever now as a parent. Latham shared āsome ideas on how we could experiment our way forward in educationā: What will it take to revitalize education?
We used to believe in education. We believed education would pull people out of poverty, free them from ignorance, and help them flourish. We believed education was more than simply training for a job; it was the moral and ethical development that our children deserved. At one time, we even thought education was the foundation for our republic.
I kept the laptop away last week. The kids stayed with their grand-parents while my other half and I moved flats. Weāre closer to the school, closer to friends, closer to the train station and still enjoy an incredible view on one of Lyonās river. Itās pretty cool (at least before moving across ocean) š Happy new year everyone š„
āļø Iāve been ātouchedā by this āsufi parableā ā thanks a ton for sharing Waqas:
We thought that heaven is a place where we are supposed to go, perhaps it was a state of mind we were supposed to achieve.
āļø I enjoy reading Franco every week. His words are full of wisdom. When he asked me to answer a few questions, it was an instant āyesā (more like a āhell yeah, with pleasureā). He asked great questions. He made me think about my current feelings, the biggest lessons I learnt from my parents, or happiness as a whole. Heās obviously too kind with me but his words made me happy. So thank you š Kev's interview.
Kev is like a DJ who picks the right kind of music, articles, ideas, and cool stuff with such unique tastes and styles. I am like a fan who can just relax and follow the tones he plays within the audience. I guess the French have that special touch on whatever they do.
š©āš Capitalism is the beast that eats them all. Or how Stefan is reminding us how ābeing aspirationalā is the biggest driving force of any behavior. Why did Slavoj Zizek write copy for A&F in 2003?
The 2003 āBack to Schoolā catalogue came when Abercrombie were at their all-time aspirational Americana high. Logos were cool. Cars were cool. Sex was cool. Even some politicians were cool. Just so long as they were having sex. And it was then that Abercrombie reached out to the sexiest philosopher on this side of cable television to write their ads for them.
āļø Last week Iāve spent times with 2 great-grand-mothers -which is definitely something quite special. But it always makes me sad when I hear them being so pessimistic about the current state of the world. They were born in France right at the beginning of WW2 -one of them from a Polish -jewish- mother!- one of them looked her then boyfriend be enrolled for the war in Algeria -they were only 20- they went through the whole Cold War and so on. But nope, when you ask them, the world hasnāt been as bad asā¦ now. Adam digs into this phenomenon. The end is nigh and here's why.
That can explain why things always seem bad and why things always seem like theyāre getting worse. Which is exactly what we see in the data: every year, people say that humans just arenāt as kind as they used to be, and every year they rate human kindness exactly the same as they did last year.
If Iām right, peopleās colorful theories of the End Times come second. What comes first is the conviction that the worldās problems are brand-spanking-new. And that conviction is stunningly consistent across time.
āHappiness is all gone,ā says the Prophecy of Neferty, an Egyptian papyrus from roughly 4000 years ago. āKindness has vanished and rudeness has descended upon everyone,ā agrees Dialogue of a Man with His Spirit, written at around the same time. āIt is not like last year [ā¦] There is no person free from wrong, and everyone alike is doing it,ā says the appropriately-named Complaints of Khakheperraseneb from several hundred years later. And some unknown amount of time after that, the Admonitions of Ipuwer reports that actually things just started going to hell. āAll is ruin! Indeed, laughter is perished and no longer made.ā Worst of all: āEveryoneās hair has fallen out.ā
I haven't heard the 'work hard, play hard' motto for a while. I remember hearing it all the time back in the early 2010s. The 'work hard play hard' mentality seems to be a relics of the hustle culture. I've no idea where it came from initially but our kids started to watch the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV show from 1987 and while I was re-discovering the intro -and esp. Michelangelo's line- I wondered: was it a first inception of the 'work hard, play hard' lifestyle? Or in their case: 'save the world, play hard'.
š The title says it all: For The Love of God, Make Your Own Website. You know what to do then.
To me, having my own website, even one I run as a business with my friends, gives me a degree of freedom over my own work that Iāve never had before.
š Iāve been truly interested in are.na for a while, and been a fan of Cabās āItās Not Business, It's Personalā series too. The fact that both of them are skateboarders isnāt lost on me haha. USB Club is one of a kind so if āentrepreneurship on your own termsā feels attractive -or just consumer hardware- check this one out: An Interview with YatĆŗ Espinosa.
My wish is not for more founders like YatĆŗ but for more founders to realize that they can approach their own work in a similar way to YatĆŗ ā to give themselves freedom to explore their own ideas to the fullest extent, with humor, creativity and ambition.
As fas I remember I've been attracted by the whole co-living idea. First I grew up in a family of 6, then, during my studies, I lived in a flat of 4 right next to the campus -i.e. we hosted many parties and gatherings- and I continued to share flats in the beginning of my adult life. Like there were 5 of us in our incredible rooftop -probably still one of the best flat I used to live so far- in Geylang, Singapore.
Of course at some point I ended up living just by myself with Mathilde, my other half. Even though, thanks to our decade-long partnership with Max at work, we've always had interesting set-ups where he'd live in his own flat but on the same floor, or in the building across the street or -like these days- 15min. from us by walking.
So we've contemplated the idea of co-living for a long time. And we've talked about it to many friends. Some of them seemed really into it too but we never agreed on the geography. I think we've fallen into the trap of 'let's make a lifelong decision right now and make it perfect'. Which was too much to handle for everyone involved.
6 months ago I wrote about launching your startup while having very young kids. And I concluded that kids make you a 10x better entrepreneur.
Right there might lie the secret about launching your startup later in life: very young kids act as a forcing function to focus.
I recently came across a post from Nikunj on twitter that got me completely off track. It is so beautifully written -about unconditional love- and I wholeheartedly agree so I wanted to update my own post with this ressource.
The conclusion is so perfect:
I'm more ambitious now, not less. Kids don't limit your dreamsāthey force them to grow. They push you to scale professionally because they deserve your best, and personally because they're watching everything you do.Most people think having kids means choosing between ambition and family. But the biggest paradox? Nothing fuels ambition quite like unconditional love.
Nikunj's blog is here. It's an easy subscribe for me.
š¼ I first saw Ianās answer directly on Twitter. The whole thing sounds like poetry to me. Of course Iāve shared many of his influences growing up -starting with skateboarding- so I understand his language. Moreover, with Objet, we're allowing people to imbue their clothing with stories and memories. So the whole āstorytellingā part of this makes just total sense. Why Collect Digital Art? What Do You Believe?
Basquiat's work increases in value because the number of people who know the story increases while the supply does not. Luxury brands are trading on heritage and storytelling, not only products.
š» Talking about stories and memories, Iāve found Zachās story about āa family treasureā so beautiful: The Violin. Itās also an ode to craftsmanship and I share Zachās conclusion: āwe need more people like Aaronā.
