Go Flip Yourself.

🔌 I haven’t met Sean yet but I’m a huge fan of his work and can’t recommend enough this interview of him by Edmond: Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival. It's very thoughtful and I can assure you many nuggets of wisdom inside. For instance:

The objects you wear—whether wired earphones or AirPods—say something about the tribes you belong to, the belief systems you hold, and how you identify with a group.

🧠 Yep, Sean again — this time on memory: Unbundling memory. This resonates a ton. Also because yes, it relates to my work with Objet.

Constraints incentivize care.

With productivity tools, there’s always a trade-off. In this case, as we delegate more of our memory-making behaviors to technology, we risk weakening our sense of perception & judgment.

📰 I just love this kind of perspective: ‘how French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world’. Elegance and hustle. It makes you think deeper about the current fears -and opportunities- of Internet, mobile, social media, AI.

In the 1860s, Charles Baudelaire bemoaned what we might now call doomscrolling:

“Every newspaper, from the first line to the last, is nothing but a tissue of horrors. Wars, crimes, thefts, licentiousness, torture, crimes of princes, crimes of nations, individual crimes, an intoxicating spree of universal atrocity.

And it’s this disgusting aperitif that the civilised man consumes at breakfast each morning … I do not understand how a pure hand can touch a newspaper without a convulsion of disgust.”

It also reminds me Adam's own The End is nigh and here’s why.

👩‍🎨 The Artisan’s paradox highlighted by Todd felt very close to heart. I see it almost on a daily basis -connecting with a various set of artisans myself. Also, I got lucky enough to personally meet Beatrice in SF last summer and can’t recommend enough her work. Objects worth remembering forever. First thing Mathilde and I would do when based in SF will be to join her classes and learn to make our own leather accessories.

🇨🇳 I enjoyed this piece -almost a year old- from Sui. I’m often shocked by people’s views -or just pure ignorance- on China and I can tell very few think about China as a trendsetter. So here’s a dive into the ‘Chinese trends moulding digital habits in the West’: China, the internet's favourite trendsetter?

🏘 ‘Recovering our neighborhoods’ sounds like an amazing endeavour. Seth delivers some very strong arguments as to why, and how. And ultimately, if not for us, let’s do it for the children. The Real User Interface: Recovering Our Neighborhoods.

If we want to revitalize our neighborhood communities, we should ask: which factors explain why so many have declined in the face of technological change? I see four: changes in the physical landscape, decline in local institutions, individualization of religion, and shifts in our education and aspirations. Where these four factors have changed the least, community remains the strongest.

🌆 The origin stories of cities are myths so powerful. Thanks for the reminder Matt: $24 Worth of Beads and an Olive Tree. It definitely makes me want to dig more into Lyon’s origins typically.

It also reminded me Imagine a City - a love letter to the cities of the world by Mark Vanhoenacker.

🥊 I spent countless hours on Street Fighter II. Before going back to video games, I enjoy this kind of video.

⛪️ We watched Conclave this weekend and what.a.movie! Beyond the psychological thriller itself, I also learnt a ton about the Church rules once the Pope’s dead. Definitely worth a watch.