Agalia Tan

Nobody talks salary in rom-coms — or really in movies at all. That’s probably in part to avoid dating a film too much. But it’s also because concrete numbers are startling, even distracting. Suddenly you’re tabulating Lucy’s lifestyle, trying to conjure up a mental balance sheet. And for “Materialists,” money is in every frame, in a way we’ve... See more

Because someone once said: we are not defined by the love we receive - we are the love we give. The act of loving, even without outcome, still expands the soul and reveals what we’re capable of carrying.

Generally speaking, quantification and the logic of optimization which it encourages tend to transform our field of experience into points of aggression, as the sociologist Hartmut Rosa has aptly put it. Data-driven optimization is, in this sense, a way of perceiving the world. And what may matter most about this is not necessarily what it allows... See more

The journey is about continual way-finding. It’s not like you find a way and then you’re done. Way-finding must happen everyday.

This coincides with another well-documented trend: rising narcissism, or at least rising narcissistic traits. The self has become the central moral reference point. Personal truth has replaced shared truth. Authenticity is prized over accountability. Subjective feeling over objective reality.

Within this worldview, relationships exist to validate... See more