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 dreams—they 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.
🖼 I first saw Ian’s answer directly on Twitter. The whole thing sounds like poetry to me. Of course I’ve 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 ‘storytelling’ 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.
🎻 Talking about stories and memories, I’ve found Zach’s story about “a family treasure” so beautiful: The Violin. It’s also an ode to craftsmanship and I share Zach’s conclusion: ‘we need more people like Aaron’.
🪩🗽🪡 aaaaand Mathilde did it again: this time with a behind-the-scenes from our latest Objet soirée in NYC -first one in the big apple, definitely not the last I can promise you.
is throwing a party 3,800mi from home (vs 5,800mi) easier? let's find out
🛌 💤 latest instalment of the Objet column in Dirt with Erin Somers on sleepwalking, surveillance delusions, and the anxieties of adulthood: The Sleep Mask.
🪩 Mathilde delivered another behind-the-scene from our Objet soirée n°2 in SF early Oct in the Objet journal: it's happening in about 48h!
To get an idea of who we are (sometimes a bit crazy but lovely overall) and discourage you from throwing events 5 800 miles from home.
🍄🍳 The Obet column in Dirt never disappoints. Akosua on micro-utopias, going Matilda-mode, and embracing her consumerist impulses: The Milk Pan.
🍄🦊 The Objet column in Dirt is getting crazier by the weeks. This time, Amelia shared with us her relationship with The Fox Skull and brought us on the thin veil between who we are and who we could be.
🌁 Patricia asked me great questions about the cities in my life and made me reflect on why San Francisco. Returning Home: Miracles and Ambition.
No-one can underestimate the global -and most probably long-lasting- impact of Facebook. 4 billion -with a b- monthly active users across Meta's family of apps -which includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. It's hard for the brain to grasp such numbers. The global population is around 8b. 3 billion -still with a b- daily active users! Can we imagine? It literally means 3 billion people log in and actively use at least one of these apps daily 🤯
Never in the entire history of humanity something -an institution, a company, a government- reached such penetration on a global scale. Now imagine, the company is only 20 years old.
🍄🗡 The last object I was expecting when we talked about an Objet column in Dirt was The Sanrio Machete. But Michelle did it and it’s a banger.
“Do you feel badass with your machete?” No, I thought, I feel like Simone Weil handling a firearm.
Ted Gioia -or The Honest Broker; which I highly recommend- posted a few days ago: Nine Predictions for the Future of the Music Business. First I'd suggest a 10th prediction: a new cohort of companies cooperatively owned by the artists themselves, the workers and/ or the community.
Two recent examples I'm very excited about: Hearing Things -or the next cooperatively owned Pitchfork [i.e. music journalism]; and Subvert -launching today; join me and many other artists, labels and supporters and become a founding member- or a collectively owned Bandcamp successor [i.e. online record store and music community].
This summer, I went to a nice space in SF named Founders, Inc. -in a quite amazing spot in the city by the way: Fort Mason; with a very 'San-Franciscan' view- listen to a live discussion between Ryan Hoover and Furqan.
Something Ryan said stuck with me since then: 'adjacent 2nd order impact'. As a non-human bot gently detailed it for us: "Second-order effects, also known as second-order consequences, refer to the indirect or ripple effects that occur as a result of an action or decision, which may not be immediately apparent. While first-order effects are the direct outcomes of an action, second-order effects are the subsequent changes that result from those initial outcomes.".
My mind started to wonder constantly about possible second-order effects around us. Two topics close to hearts -for obvious reasons- are: kids [I'm a father after all] and urbanism [I've lived all my life in urban areas and I'm a skateboarder, so my natural 'playground' are the streets]. Meanwhile, I was living this summer a kinda perfect suburban life in Berkeley, CA. Here are some behind-the-scenes pics and details by Mathilde if curious.
So when Steyn published his view on screen time limit -tl;dr: they've never enforced screen time limits on their kids [now 5 and 3 yo]- and then shared it on the #parent-lounge channel from the Sublime slack [oof] it occurred to me: kids screen time might just be an urbanism problem.
