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Now, when I shop, I try to look for things that will hold lots of memories. Not just from a cost-per-wear perspective, but because of the absolute satisfaction of watching a bag or a piece of clothing become not just something you wear or use but part of your identity, a part of your life. I got kissed in this dress. Okay. I got kissed in this dress about 400 times. Well, now we’re talking. Just like each couple has their own unique lore (we met online, and then chatted for 365 days straight before meeting…) the objects we love most develop their own mythology.

fascinating conversation with Daylight Computer founder:

How do we bring evolutionary harmony? […] Evolutionary mismatch is redefining the way a human is built and that a lot of these vulnerabilities and unhealthy behaviors and the path of least resistance not often being aligned with our intention, is not necessarily a bug, it’s a feature.

Daisy is talking:

In my world, I’ve seen the retreat to tangible things more in categories like print books, print magazines, and stuff like perfume, things that can’t be replicated digitally. 

I think people just want things that they can hold and touch, honestly, and that’s a natural impulse, but I don’t know, I think hardware is just a reflection of our relationship to objects generally, I don’t think it’s a special category.

That can explain why things always seem bad and why things always seem like they’re getting worse. Which is exactly what we see in the data: every year, people say that humans just aren’t as kind as they used to be, and every year they rate human kindness exactly the same as they did last year.

If I’m right, people’s colorful theories of the End Times come second. What comes first is the conviction that the world’s problems are brand-spanking-new. And that conviction is stunningly consistent across time.

“Happiness is all gone,” says the Prophecy of Neferty, an Egyptian papyrus from roughly 4000 years ago. “Kindness has vanished and rudeness has descended upon everyone,” agrees Dialogue of a Man with His Spirit, written at around the same time. “It is not like last year […] There is no person free from wrong, and everyone alike is doing it,” says the appropriately-named Complaints of Khakheperraseneb from several hundred years later. And some unknown amount of time after that, the Admonitions of Ipuwer reports that actually things just started going to hell. “All is ruin! Indeed, laughter is perished and no longer made.” Worst of all: “Everyone’s hair has fallen out.”