Authenticity
What does it mean for something to be 'authentic'?
Keely Adler and
Authenticity
Just before he stepped down as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos wrote his final shareholder letter. He closed it out with a section he titled, “Differentiation is Survival and the Universe Wants You to be Typical.”
He prefaced his own thoughts with a quote from The Blind Watchmaker, “if living things [don’t] work actively to... See more
Patrick OShaughnessyx.comSwept up in the Instagramization of the 2010s, the contemporary poetry world saw an exaltation of ‘honesty’ as an aesthetic priority. Poetry not as craft, but as ‘outlet,’ with the goal not of developing ourselves and enriching our understanding of the world, but of sitting more comfortably with how we already were and what we already believed.
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When scientific progress destabilized religious authority and the lack of meaning found in a pure rational worldview revealed science’s limitations, movements like Theosophy offered a kind of third way, a path toward understanding the world between science and religion. Theosophy was in conversation with both realms, using tools like magical
... See moreJessa Crispin • Culture, Digested: The Worst Book I Read This Year
Meanwhile, a fixation on honesty continues to pervade popular arts discourse, music included. Indie scenesters have historically been the ones to agitate most over authenticity, but in the golden age of confessional pop music, the aesthetic concern with honesty isn’t limited to subculture anymore. Direct access to artists’ personal lives seems more
... See moreDirt • Dirt: The Decay of Lying...
You never called Eight Sleep a mattress company. Instead, you pioneered a new category of ‘sleep fitness’ by positioning it as a ‘sleep fitness brand.’ Tell me about the decision-making and strategy behind this.
ZATARAIN: We were not intentional about our positioning for the first five years of the company because we didn't even know what brand... See more
ZATARAIN: We were not intentional about our positioning for the first five years of the company because we didn't even know what brand... See more
Polina Pompliano • How Eight Sleep Co-Founder Alex Zatarain Built a Company That Pioneered the ‘Sleep Fitness’ Category
‘Do not try to be the best. Be the only.’ It helps me believe in a positive-sum world —where my success does not hinge on the failure of others, and I am not in a rat-race.” — Nishant Jain
Caroline Cala Donofrio • The Best Advice I've Ever Heard
Compulsion. I think about that word a lot. I believe that all of us, carelessly walking about planet earth, are intrinsically compelled to do something . It’s in our nature, in the shape of our soul. To excel, to truly be the best, I think it’s crucial to spend time thinking about what that is. Because if you do something other than that, you’re... See more
Dan Shipper • How David Perell Uses ChatGPT as a Creative Partner
the path to excellence is aligning what you do with who you are. Lean in, or better still, dive in, headfirst. The first step is to look inward and think deeply about who you are and what you’re made to do.
Through both the album itself and her content around it, Charli has been honest and candid about where she’s at. It’s a refreshingly honest contribution amidst a category clogged with insincerity. She’s holding the insecurity of being who she is, online, in the world, in these parties along with the rush of just being a person getting lit with her
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