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

🎨 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 Ben’s piece Marks of Making resonated so much:

Objects that expose their “marks of making”, 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, it’s easy to lose sight of that fact. I’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

🎨 Henrik struck again. Look at that opener 👇 I was hooked right there. The whole thing looks like a great -and wise- ‘lesson’ 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 “design process” 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 iterating—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.

Giacometti’s studio

Assorted links from week29, 2024

👕 Shameless plug to start: I was stoked to meet and chat with Sophie about the possibility (or not) to regulate our emotional attachment to fashion. [if you can't read the article, let me know and I can send it to you]

If we don’t pay enough attention to what we want and why we want it, we just tend to crave for what’s next.

bloom (2024), Art/Prompt by Valentina Calore, AI-generated image

Assorted links from week28, 2024

🚶‍♀️I can’t agree enough with Patricia's title ‘solved by walking’. I’ve personally always loved walking. I’m currently in Berkeley, CA and I’m very surprised by the low amount of people walking -especially in the hills. Below are Russel's words:

In addition to physical exercise and my family fondness, walking remains important to me as an emblem of the sacredness of life. Humans think. Human feel. Humans move.

We encounter others in our walks. The world – nature, cities, streams, forests – unfolds underfoot. Walking remains a primary way we go beyond ourselves.

Photo by Karthik | Louisville, USA

Assorted links from week27, 2024

🪡 The first name of my very first company -back in 2010- was ‘My Tailor is My Friend’ so this new section by Mathilde on The Objet Journal feels quite special. Clara Metayer is a Parisian tailor, founder of Sauve qui Peut and tailor-in-residence at Patine.

Over time, I realised that I didn’t want to sell new products. We already have so much. How about keeping those we have and love? This opened a brand new world! Mending is made of so many techniques. For one given challenge, there are a thousands solutions: visible -embroidery, patches,…-, invisible - darning, or the art of recreating fabric literally, be it jeans or wool stitches,…

Anni and Josef Albers at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

Assorted links from week26, 2024

🤰 This testimonial by Daniel is a must read: Looking for the Anti-Mimetic Doctors. The subtitle says it all: “Rethinking Medical Interventions, and the Courage to Do Less”. On many aspects, it reminded me Mathilde's experience -and I know she might share it all soon on A Wander Woman.

As doctors, we know full well that tracking the baby’s heart rate during labor has increased interventions but has not improved outcomes. In simpler terms, tracking the baby’s heart rate during labor has gotten more women induced or sliced open, but has not decreased stillbirths or postpartum deaths. Then why do we do it? Because it’s scary not to, that’s why. And I speak from experience.

“The Doctor”, by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes

Launching your startup while having very young kids

Yesterday I saw a post popped up in the Acquired slack's #parents channel. Marc basically asked: "has anyone started a vc-backed company while having very young kids or planning to? [...] how did timing it with a young family impact it [your company] longer term?".

This was my answer:

one thing i didn’t expect when starting something new while becoming a parent [and i can speak on behalf of my wife too who’s launched something new too while pregnant]: having young kids at home makes you so much more efficient. and i’m talking like 1,000x more efficient. period. both in terms of: (a) prioritizing what to work on [answering the simple question: what would seriously move the needle?] and (b) decreasing time between starting to work and being 100% focus/ deep in flow mode (procrastination just completely disappeared)