sparks

DMs saying “Hey I made this THING. Do you want it?” work better than emails (immediate “verification” of who you are in one click, etc.)

Edgar D. Mitchell, an astronaut on Apollo 14 and the sixth man to walk on the moon, memorably put it like this:

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You

Brian Klaas • We Are Different From All Other Humans in History

When all artists are confined to the same handful of platforms to promote their work, only the top 1% get a fair slice of them. And when all listeners are dispersed over an infinite array of small-scale, pop-up, artist-first solutions, no one gets a pleasant digital music experience. The only solution is stratification at scale.

Article

aggregation is convenient for consumers, bad for the long tail of creators.
first time I hear the term “stratification at scale” - seems to suggest we can avoid flattening by building platforms that cater to different segments and preferences. (ie Sublime can be the platform for creative thinkers)

Today, I can barely tell anyone apart. Many of the Substacks I follow use these big, figurative words that don’t really make sense in an attempt to go viral, which on this platform means getting subscribers and notes and comments. It’s like there’s this internet language that “works” for engagement (literal language, but also sense of style, and a... See more

Emily Sundberg • The Machine in the Garden. - By Emily Sundberg - Feed Me

everyone is boring

I relate to this: “I don’t have any new lessons. But I often think that it’s not the new lessons as much as it is, really, learning the old ones again and again.”

Like me, she was very good in a crisis and very bad on a typical weekday; I believe it was she who introduced me to Walker Percy, even taking me to Covington to see where he lived, and he was well-aware of this reality: “It is easier to survive a category five hurricane than it is to get through an ordinary Wednesday afternoon.” My mother was... See more

Mills Baker • Mother

I keep hearing a voice in my head that says, “The second half of your life doesn’t have to look anything like the first half of your life. The first half was bound; the second half is free.” Free, free, ever more free. Free from my own distorted thinking, free from any lingering shame and fear and resentments, free from expectations. This what I