alexi gunner
@idlegaze
cultural strategist
writes idle gaze; a newsletter exploring the undercurrents of the modern zeitgeist.
founder @ idle gaze consulting
cultural futurist @ RADAR
alexi gunner
idlegaze.substack.com
Note-taking system using physical index cards with waiting room concept for organizing research and ideas into writing sections
TRANSCRIPT
If I did the shorthand of a word or a phrase, I would just a couple of weeks later, I'm looking at that card. What was I wanting to remember about this? I don't, I don't remember the context. So I, by the way, implicit, and I think in all of this is that our memories are way worse than we think yes terrible yeah so i i try to add like the necessary
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Cultural criticism has become a performative identity. Once the domain of academia and journalism, it’s now a currency for digital clout. The question isn’t just why critique thrives online—it’s why it’s been reduced to soundbites, stripped of depth, and optimized for engagement over insight.
Nikita Walia • The Rise of the TikTok Oracle
They understand that modern brands are no longer built through controlled messages but through curated chaos – and they know how to make that chaos work in their favour.
Zoe Scaman • The Synthesised Strategist
"We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost-effective." – Kurt Vonnegut
Paul Venuto • feed updates
Viewed one-dimensionally, the other concept that requires clarification is gate-keeping. Only seen to be a fence, its hinge is forgotten. A gate is the passage between interior and exterior, from one space to another, private to public, mine to another's. It is both about keeping out and allowing in. The current conception of “gate-keeping” is... See more
Ruby Justice Thelot • In Praise of Gatekeeping
“The HHS came out with a report basically stating that there's an epidemic of loneliness and isolation happening among the younger generations because they have very much grown up on the Internet and now have a hard time meeting other people in person and connecting. And I think we're kind of an [unintentional] solution to that problem,”
Viktoriia Vasileva • New York's Hottest Club Is a Chess Club
but one of the beautiful things about the old "kissaten," the cafes of pre-specialty-coffee Japan, is that they're often heavily customized by the owners, with Viennese lamps, or teddy bears, or Oscar Wilde-esque velvet everywhere. Blue Bottle's Nestle turn (the aesthetic aspects involving James Freeman's fondness for Apple Stores and Shake Shack)
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