reading, watching & listening to

fascinating historical perspective.

our ancestors experienced day-to-day unpredictability (you could die from childbirth, starvation was a constant threat, etc…) but global stability (if your parents were peasants, you’d prob be a peasant).

modern humans inverted that - routine defines us but there is global instability (the world is constantly changing - technology, climate, politics)

other weird things about modern life:

• children teach their parents how to use tools that are critical to thriving in modern society, a complete inversion of the transmission of knowledge through generations.

• non-local social comparison - we compare ourselves to billions of people, not a few hundred in close proximity to us.

• we are distanced from nature, whereas for generations before survival was tied to understanding the natural world.

When I started writing a newsletter in 2019, I remember thinking there were too many newsletters. That was before Substack had made a meaningful dent on the Internet and only a handful of writers were seriously using it. The coolest things do not yet exist. You are not late.

a beautiful book of aphorisms so packed with insights you’ll want to text your friends or tattoo on your skin

Smaller, slower distribution could mean better content, better relationships, and better businesses — doubtless at smaller scales than what was hoped from BuzzFeed, Vice, etc., but then those didn’t work out. The benefits of cultivating and controlling your own distribution are mutual comprehension between a publication and its consumers; feelings of loyalty and trust; and perhaps an ability to survive in the long term, building a more durable institution.