Assorted links from week41, 2024

šŸ˜‡ Many things in this ā€˜30 values, beliefs, and other ideasā€™ by Jackson resonated: Things to Remember.

It all comes down to love and gratitude. Happiness is love, full stop.

šŸ‘§šŸ‘¦ Mathilde insisted I read that one and itā€™s a must-read indeed. Freya dug into ā€˜our broken homesā€™ and how it affected -more than we might think- an entire generation. The subtitle itself is powerful: ā€˜we simply donā€™t believe anyone will stayā€™ -it gives me goosebumps. As a young father of two who grew up in a very broken home -no father and a hard-working mum who didnā€™t have any bandwidth most of the time- that post feels quite special. The Age of Abandonment.

Throughout history our ancestors built customs and institutions to bind us together and then, one by one, we kicked them down. We killed God, we mocked marriage, we attacked the family, we uprooted neighbourhoods, we debunked every last myth and story. And we kept going and going, until we got here, with our sad little divorce parties. Until we got here, with a generation huddled, heartbroken, fearful of love, fearful of life, kicking away at anything that reaches out to help. We lifted the burden from adults, told parents to do what makes them happy, forgetting that those structures werenā€™t just limits on adult freedom; they were foundations for children to stand on, to step off from, on which they depended. We shattered them and now we wonder why a generation is falling apart. Welcome to the age of abandonment.

Shimayama-san behind the counter of his tiny shop in Akihabara, Tokyo, which he ran for 43 years. Photo by Lee Chapman

Assorted links from week39 to 40, 2024

šŸŖ” šŸŒ Last week was special with Objet -we threw our second soirĆ©e in SF on Friday and got lucky to see some great folks share the love.

What Saumya and Colt are building is so important. Check their work out: Build IRL Newsletter #22. And especially if youā€™re living in SF, they always share some cool events you can join. Thatā€™s how I knew about the new IRL Movie Club for instance and got to watch the Join or Die documentary.

I canā€™t agree more with Caitlin and really liked her invitation to move from volume to value: Less Volume, More Value. I also agree with her ā€˜medium-hot takeā€™: ā€œvolume-based growth lacks imaginationā€.

šŸ„ šŸ‘œ Dirt also introduced their new column -Objet- in collaboration with us. Theyā€™ve asked five writers to write about a single object that is significant to them and will be publishing these essays in the coming months. For its first: Marlowe Granados on the cathartic potential of a second-hand bag: The Bakelite Bag.

I like to think of them [old things] as talismans of the past. I donā€™t just put them on display but use them as they were made to be used.

Thereā€™s also a sense that whatever it witnessed through my ownership is just a minor chapter in the bagā€™s life. It holds my secrets but also the mysteries of those that came before me. I can only hope to pass it on as the common thread between me and generations of stylish women.

Let's talk about merch for a minute (or 2)

Let me tell you a story: I was wearing this white Ketchup t-shirt last Saturday during a 5k run in the Golden Gate Park. Julian might have beenĀ the first -definitely not the last- to come and ask me how much I like Ketchup. Later on while we were getting our morning coffee at Flywheel, someone came and asked me if I was also working at Heinz. Thatā€™s when I saw his sweatshirt -Ketchup related of course- and we all had a good laugh and started talking. First question from him being: 'where did you get this?' and since itā€™s coming from my favorite burger spot in France, it led us to talk about Lyon, the food scene, SF and so on.

Ketchup tee gently offered -out of my loyalty- by the Smash Burger in Lyon

Assorted links from week38, 2024

San Francisco is great on all fronts but my personal writing. Objet nĀ°2 is coming on Oct. 4th. If you want to embed memories into your clothing, RSVP here.

ā³ Since weā€™re talking about memories, handle them with care. Julia delivered a banger on Reboot: A Strange Kind of Memory.

Our brains canā€™t store every observation, thought or perception that passes through and that isnā€™t a bad thing. Constraints and selections are what allow us to stay sane in a world of complete sensory overload.

Assorted links from week37, 2024

ā³ Real long-term thinking is so underrated. Iā€™d love to find a way to teach this skill to both our kids. Bill Gates framed it quite perfectly a while ago: ā€œmost people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.ā€œ. Kyle delivered a banger here. I felt invited to reflect on my own life while reading the piece: Decades.

Long-term thinking suddenly makes short-term thinking appear incredibly silly.

'View of the World from 9th Avenue', Saul Steinberg cover for The New Yorker magazine in March, 1976

On the proliferation and efficiency of writing circles

First and foremost, it's time to celebrate. I'm on my longest streak re: writing on this blog. I've been publishing every month since Sept. 2024, reaching a 13-month streak. The 2nd-longest was 'only' 11-month -I reached that mark twice in the past though. The best news still: I've no intention to stop. So I expect this 'record' to be beaten on a regular basis going forward -every month literally. What did trigger it?

Officers of U.S.S. Hunchback - formerly attributed to Mathew B. Brady

Assorted links from week35, 2024

šŸŽØ We let disposable stuff put us -humans- in a state of disconnection and lack of meaning. Objects are evidence of human existence. This is why Benā€™s piece Marks of Making resonated so much:

Objects that expose their ā€œmarks of makingā€, or artifacts of how they were constructed, are a reminder that everything is made. Nothing simply appears. In a time when most people are wholly detached from making anything they consume, itā€™s easy to lose sight of that fact. Iā€™m not necessarily lamenting this disconnect, but I appreciate any design which reminds us (whether intentionally or not) that it was made.

Assorted links from week32 to 34, 2024

šŸŽØ Henrik struck again. Look at that opener šŸ‘‡ I was hooked right there. The whole thing looks like a great -and wise- ā€˜lessonā€™ to pass on kids: everything that turned out well in my like followed the same design process.

  • If I look at things that have turned out well in my life (my marriage, some of my essays, my current career) the ā€œdesign processā€ has been the same in each case. It has been what Christopher Alexander called an unfolding. Put simply:

    • I paid attention to things I liked to do, and found ways to do more of that. I made it easy for interesting people to find me, and then I hung out with them. We did projects together.

    • I kept iteratingā€”paying attention to the context, removing things that frustrated me, and expanding things that made me feel alive.

    • Eventually, I looked up and noticed that my life was nothing like I imagined it would be. But it fit me.

Giacomettiā€™s studio