Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well and found ways to reflect with the falling leaves. I read this commencement address and wanted to share it:
“I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”
I’ve been doing alright – I still feel unchallenged and unfulfilled at work but have been sincerely trying to at least snag one interesting side project (about 10% of my time…). Unfortunately, the two best descriptors I have for my new work environment are still ‘hostility’ and ‘bureaucracy’… not all is doom and gloom, I have been enjoying playing tennis and running this fall! I made my tennis ladder’s playoffs and ran the Bronx 10 Miler in 1:18!
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In a recent trip to visit my friend Connor, I found a book by Le Corbusier I’d never seen before, and I was struck by its ending. It’s a little long to paste here as a quote and includes an accompanying image - find it in this footnote if you’d like to read it.1 It reminded me of the ‘Classic’ and ‘Romantic’ divide (or lack thereof) that has long been a theme in my life. If this concept is new to you, I’ve written about it previously here:
This contradiction has come up again as I revisit what I think I should spend my time doing. Looking back at my childhood with this lens, I have always been drawn to both sorts of applications (Romantic photography and Classical mousetrap vehicles for competition), but I’ve realized this year that I had many other Romantic (design focused?) inclinations that were honestly stunted or ignored. My mom tells me stories of walks she’d take me on when I was a toddler - I would name out every car brand because I noticed their design differences. I also liked going to the auto show with my dad to see new model designs in middle school, even though I’m not much of a car person. I just thought it was interesting to experience. I didn’t go to many summer camps when I was little, but creative cooking summer camps were always the ones I’d pick. Today, I love experimenting with cooking as a creative escape from my day to day, even exploring coffee tasting menus with Sfânt. There are many such instances from my childhood that I frustratingly did not realize the significance of until recently.
The host and guest on this podcast (guest is Matt from Union Square Ventures, their new ‘AI Tools Tinkerer’) discussed the ‘kid who takes things apart’ archetype. While I don’t think I literally took thing apart like many famous people (builders) seemingly did, but I was always very interested to understand how things worked. I never took shallow explanations as satisfactory, I really wanted to get into the weeds about why things are they way they are - in engineering and many other contexts.
Ironically, these realizations come at a time when I am considering changing to a more technical career - and I’ve frankly never had the confidence to pursue my Classical inclinations fully. One where I could have the potential agency to include my Romantic expression in time, but that would be its own journey. What sort of work can support my ambitions while also allowing me to feel fulfilled with how I spend most of my time? I’m not sure how to resolve this uncertainty without just trying something else, and soon.
If you have any advice, you know how to reach me :). With that, I’ll continue to the rest of this slightly longer post than usual. First off, a quick poll on which of these ideas to flesh out first:
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Reflections from the Rocky Mountains
I’ve been yearning to travel after having less days off this year and managed to book a long-weekend trip to visit my college friend, Connor, in Boulder, Colorado (around an hour towards the Rockies from Denver). Here are some notes–both surprising differences, interesting similarities–on how I think Boulder compares to the environments I have grown up in, and how it relates to trends on my mind.
The focus on sustainability, and a near-spirituality linked to the natural beauty of the outdoors, reminded me of the PNW. Notably, there was a distinct New Mexican influence compared to the PNW, but it was more similar to what I’m used to than not. This is something (while occasionally too much for me) I miss about the PNW while living in the NE. It is a curious counterculture to the history of atomic, mining, and oil research the region is known for–UC Boulder has a list of physics Nobel laureates, and a ginormous refinery is the only real feature of the drive from Denver International Airport to Boulder. I learned that one of the world’s atomic clocks is in Boulder, maintained by the Department of Commerce!
Everyone seems to have some sort of connection to the outdoors. There were many hikers, bikers of all sorts, runners, and people just getting outside with their families. I can see why so many professional endurance athletes are based out of Boulder: its peaceful, the mountains are meditative and ever-present, the altitude helps, and a host of supporting talent: equipment shops, performance science, nutrition, and physical therapists. I can’t imagine what it’s like in peak summer or winter sports seasons.
It was sad hearing a Lyft driver say it had rained twice since March… and hearing stories of wildfires entering residential neighborhoods from Connor as we drove around one day - Oh yeah, this neighborhood is all new high-end developments where older family homes used to be, before they got burned down and a pittance in insurance money. Those families were displaced. This wasn’t surprising given the region’s housing policies; Boulder city, until earlier this year, was legally only able to increase its housing supply by 1% annually. Our Lyft driver lived about a 25-minute drive away, in another municipality entirely.
Photos from Boulder, CO
Besides the stunning peaks rising from the plains, I was struck by the sense of ‘small town America’ that I so often hear about but still don’t truly understand. The University of Colorado’s main campus is in Boulder, and it was parent weekend when we visited. The cool parents joined their kids at frat parties and bar outings before Coach Prime commanded his Buffs to an easy victory. This big state school energy is very different from my preppy yet hippy pre-college experience. It is also remarkably unlike the careerist culture I found myself embedded in at university (the generally wealthy students floating without purpose aside).
Old Granola vs. New Hippie
Rayon Vert ← cool outdoors/biking/fashion brand with a special founding story, this feels very old Boulder to me.
I thought this Freitag bag that’s fully recyclable is also cool, although the price and branding make it feel newer hippie to me.
The amount of camo skins entering the cultural zeitgeist is insane right now (esp. in places like Brooklyn and I guess by extension Boulder). This feels very ‘New Hippie.’ Last weekend, Lily and I went to study a few coffee shops in East Williamsburg and saw six men wearing camo hats with orange embroidery/text in the span of two hours. I think the trend is so omnipresent because of everything that’s going on in the US right now… even brands like Topo Design and Klean Kanteen are coming out with camo merchandise/accessories. I saw this Horses2 (love the channel) merch item today, and the Brat mixed with camo trend is … its just gone too far, ok? xD
In short, old Boulder (and in many ways the surrounding towns of Lafayette, Louisville, etc. since there has been an economic outward push from Boulder) felt like a place where people care about the place they live in…
However, there was a slightly melancholic air to our time there. Speaking with Connor’s family about how the area’s communities had changed over the decades had an air of nostalgia. For whatever reason, the feeling reminded me of the ending tone in Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Not directly, but the sense that the promise of previous waves had broken and washed back to sea…
Speaking of that, I’ll end with this talk Cabel (Panic Inc. CEO) gave. The talk centers around a piece of McDonalds wall art, I was really moved by the end:
The artist involved really seemed to care about his work 🙂. The best parts of Boulder and its surrounding culture had this energy.
Thanks for reading! Why not share it with someone you think would find it interesting?
Mark Zuckerberg’s rebrand is seemingly complete - he has stopped appearing in the media for now after 6 months of nonstop involvement. He even appeared in the flesh at the Acquired live event, was exclusively profiled by Bloomberg, and also helped create a 6.5-hour Meta history podcast. Some think he’s right on smart glasses/open-source AI frameworks and wants the people to know I guess, but I think this speaks to a more triumphant return of ‘Great Men’ in Western culture…
The ‘Bitter Lesson’ - Moore’s Law just makes brute forcing technologies is sometimes the best approach (as we are seeing with LLMs)
Apple released some of their old WWDC talks. They shed a light on some of their design philosophies more clearly. I was surprised by how contemporary they still feel. WWDC18: The Qualities of Great Design | Apple
Every.to, an online tech media company, is bundling AI writing and content production tools into its subscription. (For example, Make It Sparkle)
So many creative web conferences are either advertising on traditional digital-media outlets like IG, etc. or on secluded blogs, hard to find are.na channels, etc. Further barbell-ing of the internet (dark forest in some ways), which I have many thoughts about.
Low shutter speed photos have become rather trendy since about June, especially in sports photography. I took a photo class in college, and my final project was about movement in NYC (and used long shutter speeds to play with that theme ;) )
I’ll leave you all with that!
Take care everyone - Andrei
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Connor’s grandparents had this book by Le Corbusier that I hadn’t seen before in their very impressive book collection. I was struck by the last
"A book is now being printed, in several languages, on the research in which I have been engaged for more than fifty years. The final page of this book proposes a revolutionary issue: the sustained, patient and fruitful 'conversation' between architect and engineer, engineer and architect, speaking as equals, with equal responsibilities and prestige. This conversation is that of the 'constructors'.
Nothing can now be constructed without this patient and profitable understanding between engineer and architect, each knowing his place, each recognizing his duties and his rights. Formerly, at the beginning of the machine age, the engineer was often timid and self-effacing. In contrast, the architect was often pompous, omniscient, trailing clouds of pretension. But things have changed! The tendency now is for the engineer to be scornful and aggressive towards the architect enthroned above him. And so the fight is on! My theory (see sketch) will establish peace, and bring collaboration and efficiency to the aid of the 'constructors'.
During the Occupation, I founded the AS-CORAL, and I then tried to indicate, in a symbolical drawing, the differing responsibilities of the 'constructors' - the architects, the engineers - working alongside each other, but along different lines. In my drawing, of two spheres, I placed the sphere of the architect above that of the engineer.
In 1959, in the book mentioned above, I gave a quarter turn to my drawing, thus bringing architect and engineer together on a horizontal line - on the same level, but with differing tasks and responsibilities.
These then are the engineer's responsibilities: the respect of physical laws, the strength of materials (supply, economic considerations, ete. in relation to safety, relatively speaking). And these the architect's: humanism, creative imagination, love of beauty, freedom of choice. In my drawing, the engineer's sphere casts a reflection on that of the architect — the reflection of the knowledge of physical laws. Similarly, the architect's understanding of human problems is reflected in the sphere of the engineer.
The shaded areas of the sketch indicate the world of the engineer, the dotted areas that of the architect. Under this symbolic composition I have placed two clasped hands, the fingers enlaced horizontally, demonstrating the friendly solidarity of both architect and engineer engaged, on the same level, in building the civilization of the machine age. This is the emblem of the "Constructors'."
