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 develop... See more
I love Shorin admitting that capturing this idea fully might be an impossibility but he’s going to try anyways
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.
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
brands do not succeed only because they codify certain product benefits to the consumer, but also because they signify of point to the lifestyle and its meanings