Any given brand tries to affiliate itself with a lifestyle by pointing to it. It wants to be the ideal expression of that lifestyle. And there will be an ecosystem of companies feeding on any given lifestyle in this way. Some companies’ hold on a lifestyle will be so complete that it is incentive-compatible for them to grow the overall adoption of... See more

Since 2016 I have been exploring this idea and have made many attempts to explain it in different essays. None of these attempts have fully captured it, but I think the idea is so important and so explains certain features of our world that I keep trying again and again. In this piece I want to briefly outline how I arrived at this idea and... See more

lifestyles and brands together formed decentralized pseudo-communities of practice, where the product at stake was an idealized consumer type, metaphorically represented by a starter pack meme.

Naomi Klein in No Logo

Charles Taylor’s work. I was aware of his book A Secular Age

Brands gesture to these ideas of excellence, but they are only lived out, or fulfilled, by the lifestyle participants themselves.

The Ethics of Authenticity

Alasdair McIntyre’s book After Virtue , which would provide a better framing for the moral notion in a lifestyle.

engagement with an activity or theme or way of life that is taken up wholeheartedly—not necessarily without reservation but without any holding back, without *avoidance* or ironic distancing and also without facade or artifice. Brand values are not sincere; a hiker’s love of hiking and pursuit of the outdoors is.