Agalia Tan

By pausing, opening an app or a notebook or pulling my sleeve up to write an idea on my arm (something I do a lot), and committing that idea to memory - that act itself breathes life into not just the idea but into my conception of self as an artist, a writer, a person who takes his own ideas seriously.

Writing things makes them real. The stuff of s... See more

Related, are our searches and consumption driven by preferences or inquisitiveness?

In so many ways to live in 2024 is to be subject to a constant and all-out assault on our attention . It’s the ability to attend to anything — a book, another person, ourselves — that is being eroded. I’m increasingly convinced, then, that the next big vector for inequality is around this most fundamental of human capabilities. The elites are going... See more

The public like occupied this funny zone where the experience of liking something on social media felt private, but was public. Very VERY few things online are like this. When I toss a double tap to a dank meme from like @da_midwestern_p00syzone while half-watching Netflix’ The Starting 5, I’m mostly not thinking about how it will be perceived, eve... See more

For the you that is hungry for more moments that are tender, curious, full, both dumb funny and smart funny (thank goodness the robots are still crap at humor), emergent, and imperfect. For the you that is building good and better things for the humans in your lives. For the you that wants texture and stories and things that are whole, not just sum... See more

Social media’s algorithms, Manifest Destiny style, took the wide-open space of my attention as empty land to be colonized. And to colonize desirable space, land has to be first defined as free, available for the taking. Which means, conveniently, the land has no life, or reason, or desire, unto itself and isn’t already a “home.” But my attention is... See more