Agalia Tan

In his view, everything society now produced—including science and technology—served industry, not humanity, and thus was increasingly being purposed not to enrich our lives but to psychologically condition us so we wouldn’t resist what was being done to us and to the earth.

Remember that work created in the spirit of commerce, that doesn’t spring from some sense of passion, some place of truth within you, will rarely be successful.

My friendships were slowly turning into transactional instances of scheduling morning coffees, similar to the corporate world. It feels like I’m not growing alongside them as a person, and every time we catch up, I’m supposed to bring something new to the table

Real humans are weird and contradictory. They have random obsessions that don't fit their "brand." They go through phases. They abandon hobbies and pick them back up years later.

They contain multitudes, and those multitudes don't need to have a coherent narrative thread.

Projects let you be gloriously non-linear. You don't have to turn every... See more

The outcome of such algorithmic gatekeeping is the pervasive flattening that has been happening across culture. By fatness I mean homogenization but also a reduction into simplicity: the least ambiguous, least disruptive, and perhaps least meaningful pieces of culture are promoted the most.

Flatness is the lowest common denominator, an averageness

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While researching this phenomenon I encountered papers on Harley-Davidson owners, punk music listeners, Dutch black metal fans, collectors of strategy games, and at least a dozen other subcultures. In each, an authenticity construct having to do with commerciality and consumption is shown to be important to identity. What is distinct about hipster... See more

They also get to join the order of skilled workers pushing back against the disposability of modern consumer culture. Trying to get anything serviced these days can bring on feelings of loss and frustration—or, worse, resignation. Just buy new shoes, or a new toaster, or a new car. At times it can feel like we’re all riding an absurd carousel,... See more