Brian Wiesner

There was a time where I could hardly even pay attention to the blooms, where I barely noticed they were there. There was a time where I felt agnostic to the seasons; where I thought that it was always time to work the earth, to pound the soil, to prepare for blooms—forgetting, of course, to appreciate them when they did appear.

I dream of many different careers, many different lives, many different loves, many different renewals of my ‘self’ as if I was an immortal being who was able to experiment and explore across an endless timeline.

Making the internet work for creators

The second reason why Ben’s milestone is significant is that he, better than anyone else, has identified and articulated the force that has overwhelmingly shaped online media over the past decade: Aggregation Theory.

Ben’s theory describes how and why a few major platforms have come to dominate the flow of... See more

I think anemoia is partly why we’re seeing a rise in sales for flip phones in the United States, particularly among young people. I think that’s why Gen Z is moving away from dating apps

It made me start to wonder just how much I’d been affected by the bubble of prosaic routine in the US, feeling the only path to success was rigidly linear. This was a gentle reminder that there were no straight lines on the path to success. Success became a universe of possibilities. Their energy imbued my world with new, limitless horizons.

Life... See more

But what makes us

HAPPY

?

While this is likely a bit different for everyone, I believe that once we have reached the “love and belonging” step on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we have already achieved a lot of happiness.

Human connection is absolutely key to wellbeing as found by many scientific studies. And conversely, social isolation has been... See more

Incense has been used for timekeeping in China and Japan for centuries, constituting a different, olfactory way of experiencing time. Lighting a stick of incense when welcoming someone at the door is a gentle way to signal that one has (or has not yet) overstayed their welcome. The more intricate incense clock originated in China in the Song... See more

I feel as though I am in one such moment in my inner life, where it feels like seeds I have been nurturing for some time are coming to life, and I am now beginning to understand what the labour I faithfully put in was for. I’m also aware that this phase is not permanent. I can see and appreciate the moment I am in as a moment . Something about that... See more

The challenge, or opportunity, for companies like Substack is to figure out how to help creators reach new audiences and grow without having to compromise on ownership. The aggregators of the early internet unlocked great power for creators through building central gathering places. We are doing the same with the Substack app and features—like Reco... See more