Assorted links from week39 to 40, 2024

šŸŖ” šŸŒ Last week was special with Objet -we threw our second soirĆ©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 youā€™re living in SF, they always share some cool events you can join. Thatā€™s how I knew about the new IRL Movie Club for instance and got to watch the Join or Die documentary.

I canā€™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 ā€˜medium-hot takeā€™: ā€œvolume-based growth lacks imaginationā€.

šŸ„ šŸ‘œ Dirt also introduced their new column -Objet- in collaboration with us. Theyā€™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 donā€™t just put them on display but use them as they were made to be used.

Thereā€™s also a sense that whatever it witnessed through my ownership is just a minor chapter in the bagā€™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 nĀ°2 is coming on Oct. 4th. If you want to embed memories into your clothing, RSVP here.

ā³ Since weā€™re talking about memories, handle them with care. Julia delivered a banger on Reboot: A Strange Kind of Memory.

Our brains canā€™t store every observation, thought or perception that passes through and that isnā€™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

ā³ Real long-term thinking is so underrated. Iā€™d love to find a way to teach this skill to both our kids. Bill Gates framed it quite perfectly a while ago: ā€œmost people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.ā€œ. 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

Assorted links from week35, 2024

šŸŽØ 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 Benā€™s piece Marks of Making resonated so much:

Objects that expose their ā€œmarks of makingā€, 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, itā€™s easy to lose sight of that fact. Iā€™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

šŸŽØ Henrik struck again. Look at that opener šŸ‘‡ I was hooked right there. The whole thing looks like a great -and wise- ā€˜lessonā€™ 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 ā€œdesign processā€ 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 iteratingā€”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.

Giacomettiā€™s studio

Assorted links from week28, 2024

šŸš¶ā€ā™€ļøI canā€™t agree enough with Patricia's title ā€˜solved by walkingā€™. Iā€™ve personally always loved walking. Iā€™m currently in Berkeley, CA and Iā€™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 ā€“ nature, cities, streams, forests ā€“ unfolds underfoot. Walking remains a primary way we go beyond ourselves.

Photo by Karthik | Louisville, USA

Assorted links from week27, 2024

šŸŖ” The first name of my very first company -back in 2010- was ā€˜My Tailor is My Friendā€™ 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 didnā€™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,ā€¦-, invisible - darning, or the art of recreating fabric literally, be it jeans or wool stitches,ā€¦

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