Natalie Audelo

Modern aspiration is not about having money to buy things, but having taste to know what to buy.

We all love the training montage in movies—those brisk two-minute sequences where the protagonist transforms from novice to expert while upbeat music plays. One minute they're struggling to do a single push-up; the next, they're ready for the championship fight.

Real life doesn't work like that. The actual training—the part where you build the found... See more

Entrepreneur Phil Levin on the importance of neighborhoods:

"You are going to spend 1000x more time in your surrounding 5 blocks than you will in any other neighborhood in your city. Thinking about all the things that New York City has—or the next city has—is a lot less important than thinking about the things within the five blocks where you live.

M... See more

“ There’s also this other thing (above right) which is functional: My favorite candleholder ever. It’s beautiful, and no one else can ever buy it, because it was made by an old Italian man in Cetara on the Amalfi coast . I want so many things in my life to look like this, and nothing does.”

I also love the point being made in the video above about how people can be a part of culture by just enjoying it, you don’t have to be a model or a ‘somebody’. It connects directly with a conversation I saw playing out on TikTok this week between Rian Phin and a few other folks, who ultimately stated they preferred fashion analysis from outsiders,... See more

This reorientation toward meaning over materialism is beginning to take root elsewhere, too.