The alternative to franchise thinking is not contrarianism. That’s just another kind of sequel, the reboot that inverts the original. It’s Joker as protagonist in the Batman universe. The alternative is earnest investment in new ideas. This yields less confident conclusions. You can’t write a viral essay that says “it’s complicated and I’m not... See more

If you produce ideas, don’t let the validated crowd out the emerging. If you curate ideas, don’t be beholden to consensus and algorithms. And if you consume ideas, gravitate toward what you don’t yet understand instead of going all-in on the ones you already do. Because otherwise — it’s sequels all the way down.

Flattened, algorithmically-driven, risk-averse, accounting-based reboot culture continues to win despite the incredible diversity and eagerness of the creator economy and its long tail of choice and representation.

But despite a firehouse of hot takes, nothing much has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s gotten worse ?

In 2024, all of the Top 15... See more