Authenticity
What does it mean for something to be 'authentic'?
Keely Adler and
Authenticity
I'd either drive people away or they'd come in closer to see what it was all about. There was no in between.
-Bob Dylan
this year, and beyond, i will move with my own mutability as a gift and no longer search for performative one-dimensionality. being home has taught me this, as i have had to witness my own shapeshifting and reckon with the deep-rooted reasons for it. i remember one day hearing adrienne maree brown and bayo akomolafe ask each other, “so what if i’m a shapeshifter?” and how they instinctually move and mutate through the cracks of the earth, and i haven’t stopped thinking about it since. this piece of writing is inspired by that question. as i become many different forms, i will stay grounded in my ever-changing essence and merge together the many shapes i am capable of becoming. 💞
instagram.comWhat I want to say most is that I am not an improved or better version of myself than I was a year ago because that is no longer a goal — but I am a truer version, a closer-in version, a more expansive and open version, a less clinging-to-certainty version, and that, to me, counts for a lot more than seeking to endlessly upgrade myself.
the goal is not to optimize yourself, it’s to get closer to yourself
On the other side of creative aliveness, there is flatness. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, about what happens when our worlds go flat. The dynamism we lose, the emotional urges we suppress, the original impulses we become too afraid to nurture.
On the running path recently, a song came on. It was by Eminem. His music is not my choice for ... See more
On the running path recently, a song came on. It was by Eminem. His music is not my choice for ... See more
Leandra Medine Cohen • Notes from the running path
Leandra on anti-flatness
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 pos... 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 pos... See more
Polina Pompliano • How Eight Sleep Co-Founder Alex Zatarain Built a Company That Pioneered the ‘Sleep Fitness’ Category
