Sixian

To fill in the gaps in this literature, to draw connections among different disciplines, is an act of repair or, simply, of taking care — connecting threads, mending holes, amplifying quiet voices.

A simple interaction with a stranger at a cocktail party who doesn’t reciprocate our handshake can leave us sour all night. We may even respond with aggression when we are introduced to that person via email a week or two later.

But in many ways, it felt like we were moving in a spiral, building up new sets of knowledge just to orbit the same ideas from a slightly more advanced perspective. We expected the satisfaction of linear knowledge growth, yet despite all the tools at our disposal to expand and archive knowledge, the more we learned, the more we seemed to forget.

Stretch wrap illustrates one of the fundamental stories of the twentieth century. On the one hand, cities and industries are constructed on an epic and hyper-visible scale from steel, wood, glass, and feats of engineering. On the other hand, within the interior spaces of the warehouse, the factory, and the distribution center, plastic expands and... See more

Many Founders have a fantasy that data will be an ongoing insight engine — that as they collect more and more data, they will get more and more insights that will give their startup an ongoing advantage.

In the early days of the internet, the Web’s surface was relatively smooth and its “gravitational force” was weak. You could random walk without getting sucked into any black holes. During the 2010s, social media platforms “dug into the Web surface, dragging activities down their slopes … As a result of this magnetic-like attraction, caused by the... See more

Jean-Luc Nancy, commenting on “touch and touchlessness,” describes how all touch is ultimately and finally touchless, that touchlessness is the basis of our intimacies. As we view a grid of hundreds of viewers in a videoconference, where voices and images of faces surely touch all of our ears and eyes, he reminds us how even the most intimate... See more

People used to think they needed permission - so they would ask for somebody else to give them permission to advance, to be something different - a new job title, a new degree, a new certification, a new membership.