đ I havenât met Sean yet but Iâm a huge fan of his work and canât 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 wearâwhether wired earphones or AirPodsâsay something about the tribes you belong to, the belief systems you hold, and how you identify with a group.
đ§ Yep, Sean again â 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, thereâs 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.
Happy new year to y'all đ„ 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.
]]>đ©âđ We need a Cambrian explosion in education. Period. I felt it as a kid, then student. Iâm more convinced than ever now as a parent. Latham shared âsome ideas on how we could experiment our way forward in educationâ: 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. Weâre closer to the school, closer to friends, closer to the train station and still enjoy an incredible view on one of Lyonâs river. Itâs pretty cool (at least before moving across ocean) đ Happy new year everyone đ„
âïž Iâve been âtouchedâ by this âsufi parableâ â 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.
âïž 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 âyesâ (more like a âhell yeah, with pleasureâ). 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. Heâs obviously too kind with me but his words made me happy. So thank you đ 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.
đ©âđ Capitalism is the beast that eats them all. Or how Stefan is reminding us how âbeing aspirationalâ is the biggest driving force of any behavior. Why did Slavoj Zizek write copy for A&F in 2003?
The 2003 âBack to Schoolâ 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.
âïž Last week Iâve 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 hasnât been as bad as⊠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 theyâre getting worse. Which is exactly what we see in the data: every year, people say that humans just arenât as kind as they used to be, and every year they rate human kindness exactly the same as they did last year.
If Iâm right, peopleâs colorful theories of the End Times come second. What comes first is the conviction that the worldâs problems are brand-spanking-new. And that conviction is stunningly consistent across time.
âHappiness is all gone,â says the Prophecy of Neferty, an Egyptian papyrus from roughly 4000 years ago. âKindness has vanished and rudeness has descended upon everyone,â agrees Dialogue of a Man with His Spirit, written at around the same time. âIt is not like last year [âŠ] There is no person free from wrong, and everyone alike is doing it,â 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. âAll is ruin! Indeed, laughter is perished and no longer made.â Worst of all: âEveryoneâs hair has fallen out.â
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'.
]]>đ 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 Iâve never had before.
đ Iâve been truly interested in are.na for a while, and been a fan of Cabâs âItâs Not Business, It's Personalâ series too. The fact that both of them are skateboarders isnât lost on me haha. USB Club is one of a kind so if âentrepreneurship on your own termsâ feels attractive -or just consumer hardware- check this one out: An Interview with YatĂș Espinosa.
My wish is not for more founders like YatĂș but for more founders to realize that they can approach their own work in a similar way to YatĂș â 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 dreamsâthey 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.
]]>đŒ I first saw Ianâs answer directly on Twitter. The whole thing sounds like poetry to me. Of course Iâve 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 âstorytellingâ 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.
đ» Talking about stories and memories, Iâve found Zachâs story about âa family treasureâ so beautiful: The Violin. Itâs also an ode to craftsmanship and I share Zachâs conclusion: âwe need more people like Aaronâ.
đȘ©đœđȘĄ aaaaand Mathilde did it again: this time with a behind-the-scenes from our latest Objet soirĂ©e 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
đ đ€ latest instalment of the Objet column in Dirt with Erin Somers on sleepwalking, surveillance delusions, and the anxieties of adulthood: The Sleep Mask.
đȘ© Mathilde delivered another behind-the-scene from our Objet soirĂ©e 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.
đđł The Obet column in Dirt never disappoints. Akosua on micro-utopias, going Matilda-mode, and embracing her consumerist impulses: The Milk Pan.
đđŠ 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.
đ 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 đ€Ż
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.
]]>đđĄ The last object I was expecting when we talked about an Objet column in Dirt was The Sanrio Machete. But Michelle did it and itâs a banger.
âDo you feel badass with your machete?â 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.
đ Many things in this â30 values, beliefs, and other ideasâ by Jackson resonated: Things to Remember.
It all comes down to love and gratitude. Happiness is love, full stop.
đ§đŠ Mathilde insisted I read that one and itâs a must-read indeed. Freya dug into âour broken homesâ and how it affected -more than we might think- an entire generation. The subtitle itself is powerful: âwe simply donât believe anyone will stayâ -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 didnât 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 werenât 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.
đȘĄ đ Last week was special with Objet -we threw our second soirĂ©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 youâre living in SF, they always share some cool events you can join. Thatâs how I knew about the new IRL Movie Club for instance and got to watch the Join or Die documentary.
I canât agree more with Caitlin and really liked her invitation to move from volume to value: Less Volume, More Value. I also agree with her âmedium-hot takeâ: âvolume-based growth lacks imaginationâ.
đ đ Dirt also introduced their new column -Objet- in collaboration with us. Theyâve 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 donât just put them on display but use them as they were made to be used.
Thereâs also a sense that whatever it witnessed through my ownership is just a minor chapter in the bagâs 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.
San Francisco is great on all fronts but my personal writing. Objet n°2 is coming on Oct. 4th. If you want to embed memories into your clothing, RSVP here.
âł Since weâre talking about memories, handle them with care. Julia delivered a banger on Reboot: A Strange Kind of Memory.
Our brains canât store every observation, thought or perception that passes through and that isnât a bad thing. Constraints and selections are what allow us to stay sane in a world of complete sensory overload.
âł Real long-term thinking is so underrated. Iâd love to find a way to teach this skill to both our kids. Bill Gates framed it quite perfectly a while ago: âmost people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.â. 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.
đč Iâve always loved a good brand story so when I received Waqas's deep dive on Teenage Engineering, I felt excited right away. Why Teenage Engineering is so Cool. This is exactly the type of opinionated company and brand we'd like to see more of. Which makes me wonder: why are there so few in the world? How can we empower more people to launch weirder and cooler things?
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. 2023, 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?
]]>đš 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 Benâs piece Marks of Making resonated so much:
Objects that expose their âmarks of makingâ, 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, itâs easy to lose sight of that fact. Iâm not necessarily lamenting this disconnect, but I appreciate any design which reminds us (whether intentionally or not) that it was made.
đš Henrik struck again. Look at that opener đ I was hooked right there. The whole thing looks like a great -and wise- âlessonâ 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 âdesign processâ 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 iteratingâpaying 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.
It took Mathilde, Max and I, 4 weeks in San Francisco to gather 35 people to get a uniquely designed label with a chip inside sewn on their denim by local tailors; generating 200 taps during the night -playing a âtap them allâ game- which triggered 1,300 notifications total. Letâs unpack Objet's first soirĂ©e: La PremiĂšre.
đȘĄ We threw our first âdenim soirĂ©eâ in San Francisco last Friday and we canât be happier. Stella was one of the local tailor. Learn more about her and how sheâs doing some magic with fabrics since age 8.
đ 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 donât pay enough attention to what we want and why we want it, we just tend to crave for whatâs next.