Sixian

To look at a container ship is to see the world as a set of modular units. The ship itself: a gigantic rectangle. Steel containers form an improbable stack of colorful bricks atop the deck, held together with twist-locks and lashing rods. Inside the shipping containers square wooden pallets subdivide the space, a nesting layer of modularity that... See more

“If standardized time was a fiction more or less driven by capitalism,” writes D’Erasmo, “it might be possible that [internet] atemporality is a fiction more or less driven by capitalism as well.”

What's driven the growth of this industry for the last five to 10 years is this emergence of streaming. We just talked about how it's more than half the business today. It was single digit seven years ago and so that's just been rapid. All of the growth of the value of streaming has basically come from a few developed markets, historic markets that... See more

unlike specializing, developing opinions, crafting a point of view and building a vibe is an iterative, generative process - once you start trying out your voice there’s a feedback loop that helps you develop your voice and strengthen your point of view.

I suspect we may be on the verge of an antiflock era of history now, at all levels.

So the challenge now is to write a new version of this fantasy that describes the version of myself that currently feels impossible, and then simply orient myself towards that until it becomes true.

James: The power law gets steeper in this case because of the transparency that the internet gives us... And that is affecting people everywhere, as they struggle to realize where they are in the power law of life. It’s not just getting clients. It’s putting out your songs on YouTube or TikTok, just for fun, and seeing all the people who are... See more

Arman: Prior to this industry, prior to 2000, when Napster and the ripping services emerged, it was an interesting model for this business. You had a few dominant, large labels that controlled every aspect of music from the discovery of the talent, to the producing of the songs, to the recording of the songs, because they own the studios because it... See more