Thoughts on Community vs. Individualism, Authenticity, and Climate
October's Curated Ingest
Hey everyone!
Apologies for the wait - the return to in person instruction has been particularly heavy on my time, in both good and bad ways. I have only recently had the time and headspace to reflect and notice some common threads from what I’ve been ingesting. With that…
Community, Individuality, and Authenticity
What Was The Hipster? A lot on commodified culture (and reactions to culture) in this piece. It - very fairly - called out the way I am a very strong consumer (which I don’t think is inherently bad)…
Purchasing the products of authority is thus reimagined as a defiance of authority. Usually this requires a fantasized censor who doesn’t want you to have cologne, or booze, or cars. But the censor doesn’t exist, of course, and hipster culture is not a counterculture. On the contrary, the neighborhood organization of hipsters—their tight-knit colonies of similar-looking, slouching people—represents not hostility to authority (as among punks or hippies) but a superior community of status where the game of knowing-in-advance can be played with maximum refinement. The hipster is a savant at picking up the tiny changes of rapidly cycling consumer distinction.
(in some ways, this collection of links may be viewed as a hipster savant picking at the tiny changes of writing and thought on my interests…)
Amateur Environments. How technology amateurizes various things, and what this means.
Around the World in 80 Dates. A travel YouTuber did a very well produced show in Romania (of all places?) and it is mandatory viewing if you want to speak to me.
Kajet Digital. This has been a really important find for me - there has been a large diaspora of Romanian young people for decades (which has recently started to change) with dramatic effects on Romanian identity and community. I am a direct result of said diaspora and feel its effects. This journal discusses issues that I think are important and relate to the Romanian identity: utopia (important societal role given Soviet history), struggle (periphery of empires of history, colonized for resources, etc.), periphery (periphery of empires, diaspora), communities (how much of Romania is fractured in various ways). I have some PDFs if anyone’s interested :).
Rebirth of the Body Politic. On the origins of linking politics to the body - and how this has tracked over time.
Small Footprint - How We Live Small. The only channel I watch on 1x speed launched a mini series on how to update cities to be more livable according to today’s standards.
Climate
The team behind Twelve on “carbon building blocks” - similar to the solar panel.
The Economist has pushed a new section on climate that I have ‘enjoyed’ perusing.
Misc.
Readwise is launching a new app soon, and I really enjoyed reading their blog introducing it! It explains their methodology in a way that I thought was interesting to read as someone interested in product.
On code and banking —> thank you Jonathan!
Re-Organizing the World’s Information: Why we need more Boutique Search Engines —> really love Azout’s writing, and I agree with this one a lot!
Movies! Go watch Dune, the new Bond, etc., just for the spectacle :).
To end with some photos:
