Yihui

Knowing what book someone is reading and what parts they resonate with most can be so intimate. It reveals their interests, where their head is at, and what excerpts are so significant that they will mark up a page because they think it’s worth revisiting at a later time. I’m fascinated by what books others gravitate towards and I find that it... See more

Good books are compressed thoughts. They are like soda cans left in a hot car: when you open them, the content explodes from their container, spraying and spraying—pouring out much more than it seems reasonable a little can like that could possibly contain. In seven hours, I can read a book of thoughts that someone spent two years thinking. There... See more

With more creators , more content , and more choice than ever before, consumers are now being consumed by a state of analysis paralysis. The real scarcity isn’t content anymore. It’s attention. When it’s impossible to absorb everything from the flood of information, the best we can do is pick and choose what matters to us most — or, better yet,... See more

There are certainly traditional businesses that people have an emotional connection with, but the way people express that connection is by being patrons of the business – the very word patron implies a financial relationship.

The relationships between a community space and its members are totally different. So are their expectations. If you (as a... See more

I believe community spaces are defined by their purpose:

The purpose of a community space is to give people a place to gather, connect, and belong, usually centered around a particular set of activities, interests, and/or beliefs.

Homes, gardens, workshops, farms, and warehouses can all become community spaces...really, any space where people can... See more

For the last few years, I built and ran a space in Brooklyn called Highside Workshop. It was a multipurpose space that hosted everything from concerts to art galleries to motorcycle repair workshops to tattoo popups. I don’t know how many events we ran, but I’d guess pushing a hundred, and there were constantly people coming in and out for band... See more

my job is to sort through the noise. We live in an attention economy, and my job is to process the stimuli, to categorize what is worth devoting time, thought, and perhaps money to. Isn’t it crazy, at the end of the day, when you think about it? There is so much stuff , and I’ve declared it my duty to rummage through it. That’s the importance of... See more

It is a cruel and fundamentally inhuman tragedy that the culture has convinced so many of us that we must be healed in isolation, because being surrounded by people — people who love us, or care for us, or are willing to sit in the same room with us while we clean up our messes — is about the only way that I, for one, have ever been able to get... See more

Maybe we don’t always choose the thing that feels good in the moment because we’re not just consuming to be entertained—we’re consuming to be changed. The instant mood-booster makes the day easier; the cerebral downer makes the self sharper. You can offset one with the other, but the real balance isn’t in the mix—it’s in the intention. Knowing when... See more