Curation Is King

Watch streams and playthroughs: Ashley Bardhan recently argued that watching a video game isn’t so different from playing it. I agree. This guidance won’t surprise anyone under the age of 30. But many gamers in the millennial demographic (or older) have yet to make a habit of watching streams on Twitch or playthroughs on YouTube. If this is your f

... See more

This shift towards a global sameness, driven by digital platforms' algorithms, challenges the very notion of personal taste. As these platforms prioritize content or products that resonate on a mass scale, they nudge us toward a homogenized cultural landscape. The result is a world where diversity of thought and creativity often gets drowned out by... See more

This theme isn’t just confined to bookstores; it sprawls throughout our urban fabric, notably into the realm of generic coffee shops. Both scenarios – bookshops and coffee shops – underscore a broader trend: our tastes and preferences, once diverse and eclectic, are being molded into a uniform, digitally driven aesthetic.

In this realm, what wins is... See more

All of which raises another set of questions, about art rather than morals. Which is a better measure of an artwork, its quality on average or its peaks? How should ambition be weighed against execution, jolting insight against missteps, the good against the bad?

What we’re not noticing enough is the fact that algorithms have flattened our cultural landscape and induced a sense of passivity and numbness, challenging our capacity to engage deeply or be genuinely curious.