Andrew McCluskey

There is so much freedom to play and experiment in these shared non-monetized spaces, but the music industry is deeply broken and it is making music matter less, not at its core, but the consequence of diminishing its monetary value while placing the burden of popularity on broke artists means the whole thing feels like a demoralizing shakedown.... See more

Cultural capital is the knowledge and proper performance of certain high-status conventions that identify an individual as a member of a high-status group.

Complex cultural ecosystems with many sub-units provide inherent sources of novelty for the mainstream — e.g. minority cultures, subcultures, and countercultures create new conventions with potential to provide stimulation to mainstream individuals.

People naturally remember musical language, and I would encourage writers to inject their prose with a bit of music. When you’re writing, think about repetition and variety. Crescendos and rests. Pace and punctuation. Read your work out loud, and feel the rhythm of the words in your voice.

“Facts don’t change minds, friendship does!” James Clear explains how convincing someone to change their mind is actually about convincing them to change their tribe. “Perhaps it is not difference , but distance that breeds tribalism and hostility.” Relevant in times of rising social polarisation.

In a completely ultra-poptimist world, there would be no available incentives to create novel, complex, or ambiguous works of art. We would have to rely on artist altruism or insanity.