Assorted links from week50, 2024

🌐 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 I’ve never had before.

🗝 I’ve been truly interested in are.na for a while, and been a fan of Cab’s ‘It’s Not Business, It's Personal’ series too. The fact that both of them are skateboarders isn’t lost on me haha. USB Club is one of a kind so if ‘entrepreneurship on your own terms’ 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 — to give themselves freedom to explore their own ideas to the fullest extent, with humor, creativity and ambition.

Assorted links from week48 to 49, 2024

đŸ–Œ 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.

đŸŽ» 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’.

Assorted links from week47, 2024

đŸȘ©đŸ—œđŸȘĄ 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

🛌 đŸ’€ latest instalment of the Objet column in Dirt with Erin Somers on sleepwalking, surveillance delusions, and the anxieties of adulthood: The Sleep Mask.

Assorted links from week45 to 46, 2024

đŸȘ© 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.

🍄🍳 The Obet column in Dirt never disappoints. Akosua on micro-utopias, going Matilda-mode, and embracing her consumerist impulses: The Milk Pan.

Assorted links from week41, 2024

😇 Many things in this ‘30 values, beliefs, and other ideas’ by Jackson resonated: Things to Remember.

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

👧👩 Mathilde insisted I read that one and it’s a must-read indeed. Freya dug into ‘our broken homes’ and how it affected -more than we might think- an entire generation. The subtitle itself is powerful: ‘we simply don’t believe anyone will stay’ -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 didn’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 weren’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

đŸȘĄ 🌁 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 you’re living in SF, they always share some cool events you can join. That’s how I knew about the new IRL Movie Club for instance and got to watch the Join or Die documentary.

I can’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 ‘medium-hot take’: “volume-based growth lacks imagination”.

🍄 👜 Dirt also introduced their new column -Objet- in collaboration with us. They’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 don’t just put them on display but use them as they were made to be used.

There’s also a sense that whatever it witnessed through my ownership is just a minor chapter in the bag’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.

Assorted links from week38, 2024

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.

⏳ Since we’re talking about memories, handle them with care. Julia delivered a banger on Reboot: A Strange Kind of Memory.

Our brains can’t store every observation, thought or perception that passes through and that isn’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

⏳ Real long-term thinking is so underrated. I’d love to find a way to teach this skill to both our kids. Bill Gates framed it quite perfectly a while ago: “most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.“. 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