Brian Thomas Clark
@btc
Strategist/Producer/Collector
Digital Experience Director @risd
Brian Thomas Clark
At some point, you have to decide: Do you want to directly contribute to the enshittification of the daily life, or not?
It’s very, very easy to throw up your hands and say there’s nothing you can do. It’s harder to take the time to think about and act on using whatever power you have in productive ways. This could mean organizing in your workplace,... See more
It’s very, very easy to throw up your hands and say there’s nothing you can do. It’s harder to take the time to think about and act on using whatever power you have in productive ways. This could mean organizing in your workplace,... See more
Everything is private equity <3
Our Cringe = Sublime SEED touched on some of this — simply opting out of performance becomes an act of quiet rebellion. Going for a walk without posting about it. Writing a thought without tweeting it. Wearing an outfit without wondering how it will look on Instagram. These small acts chip away at the scaffolding of digital humiliation culture.
Humiliation Rituals
The larger truth is that the Internet creates the illusion that all culture is taking place right now. Actual history disappears in the eternal present of the web.
Is Mid-20th Century American Culture Getting Erased?
Social media encourages us to think of every thought we have as interesting; it makes everyone else feel accessible, and therefore disposable; it exposes us to endless bad actors, hardening our hearts and compelling us to suspect the worst; it rewards vulnerability, but also incentivizes defensiveness; and, most cogently for the purposes of this... See more
Dirt: What was 'replying'?
What was 'replying'?
Shouting into the void that answers back.
Mariah Kreutter on what it means to “reply” in 2023.
dirt.fyi email
10/9/2023
Online discourse has debased and trivialized the concept of obsession.
People love to post about how they’re “obsessed” with a pair of jeans, or with Flossie the world’s oldest cat (respect), or with something else they will forget exists within minutes of posting about it. They love to pretend they “can’t stop thinking about” Bolivian neo-Andean... See more
People love to post about how they’re “obsessed” with a pair of jeans, or with Flossie the world’s oldest cat (respect), or with something else they will forget exists within minutes of posting about it. They love to pretend they “can’t stop thinking about” Bolivian neo-Andean... See more
Bring back real obsession
taste and digital life—digital cultures
Jan 08, 2026
The idea is that literary representation is an act of transubstantiation. Literature pulls the real up out of the realm of temporality and insignificance and remakes it into a form that will never decay and never die. There is nothing doctrinally religious about this conception of the literary act. It is at the heart of modernism.
Imitation of Life
The gift with the highest return: believing in someone before they believe in themselves.
Brain Food: A Good Email
via dirt.fyi
It can be hard to encourage people to speak candidly in front of the CEO, but Duckett says she has a go-to question she “always” asks employees to get them talking.
“What would be the one thing that you’d change if you were [in my shoes], like, ‘Finally I get to be the CEO and I can get something done’?”
By asking that one question, you “immediately... See more
“What would be the one thing that you’d change if you were [in my shoes], like, ‘Finally I get to be the CEO and I can get something done’?”
By asking that one question, you “immediately... See more