Agalia Tan

Once upon a time, when checking and scrolling were not an option, there existed so much interstitial space. The gap between one activity and another was an open field, a transitional territory.

Every year I try to spend around a week on a writing retreat in the high desert of West Texas. It’s a reminder of how much of our lives we spend looking down at screens, or crammed in cities without trees or grass or stars or space.

“Wellness culture encourages people to view their health as a perpetual work in progress and to be constantly monitoring how they feel — two things that can heighten anxiety and preoccupation with illness,” she explains. “Rather than being able to appreciate the health and capabilities that we have, we are encouraged to always strive for more, to b... See more

And then I paid attention. Not just to what the tools could do, but to how they made me feel. How were they changing me? The nature of work? What it feels like to be human.

Don’t ask yourself where your true gifts lie. Ask what other people seem weirdly bad at.

Not even our sleep is safe. Nintendo recently announced “Alarmo,” a very cute alarm clock that uses motion tracking to play different sounds from various Nintendo games to help getting out of bed easier. Move to the left, and the sounds of Super Mario coins ring. Move again, more coins clanging. By the time you get out of bed, that little Italian p... See more

ChatGPT allows you to automate tedious thoughts. Whenever you are mildly curious about a question or annoyed at not having a piece of information, you can delegate that labor to ChatGPT.

We can talk about creativity (whatever that is) and changing culture (whatever that is) and all that jazz as much and for as long as we want, but when most agencies are expending precisely zero per cent of their time working out how to transition out of this dysfunctional and doomed way of working to something that is higher value, more profitable,... See more