|
Imaginary Worlds
and Where You Live |
You're receiving this Thursday Briefing as part of your membership. Thank you for supporting independent publications!
Charis recommends the book Exhalation and thinks about place-making.
I’m halfway through reading Exhalation by Ted Chiang, a collection of short fiction stories written by the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others (which was the basis for the movie Arrival). It’s fabulous and the kind of material you could inhale in one sitting while sipping coffee by the window on a Saturday afternoon. The stories are well-written and imaginative, but I think the real reason this collection is so powerful is the ability to make you really chew on hard existential questions: how do you come to terms with being unable to change the past? How does society continue when it’s possible to know for certain when civilization comes to an end? How would you react if it was demonstratively proved that free will doesn’t exist? If it became popular to raise AI beings like digital pets/children, would you grant them autonomy? And more!
I sit here now unable to work because I am mulling over what decisions I would make in the worlds that Chiang has conjured. I also find myself fantasizing about being in those places living in the extraordinary circumstances described. Then again, our planet is remarkable too. Watching an Attenborough documentary gives just a glimpse of the natural wonders of Earth. Spotify Wrapped is a reminder of the incredible ability of humans to make, enjoy, and share music. Humanity has the remarkable ability for destruction and failure as well—a glance at the news tells us that.
Chiang’s book transports me to imaginary places, which I love, but I’m also inspired to find the same amount of wonder for the place I live in. In beautiful synchronization with those thoughts is a Twitter thread written by Zedeck Siew I read recently that ruminates on emigration, leaving, and belonging to a place. From this thread, “As rice grows in specific soil, as a bird needs ground to land on - we all have to find a home, a place to belong. It will be hard work, to find this place and belong to it. I hope, dear friend, wherever you find your home, you find it truly.”
- Charis
|
|
|
|
The Bulletin
Listen and see the latest from MAEKAN and the community. |
|
|
|
Vicky Gu's Field Notes: 2021
MAEKAN contributor and supporter Vicky Gu shares her second annual recap of her experiences as an independent consultant and strategist. What's amazing is her ability to not only tackle a diverse set of opportunities but to crystallize the learnings of each experience.
|
|
|
| For Your A-10-tion |
The best links from across the Internet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. 📱 Inside Spotify's Plans To Become the IG And TikTok Of Audio
A deep dive into Spotify's drive to expand beyond music to include storytelling, live talk and other audio content. This move was preceded by large licensing deals this year that included $60 million for Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy and $100 million for The Joe Rogan Experience followed by partnerships with the Obamas, Harry and Meghan, Kim Kardashian and Ava DuVerna. As Steven Bertoni writes:
"The company has come a long way since Ek reluctantly threw on a suit and tie—and threw back a few whiskies—to pose for the cover of the first Forbes 30 Under 30 issue ten years ago. Back then, in January 2012, Spotify had just 500 employees, $300 million in sales and a valuation of $2 billion. The service had been available in America for only six months. Today, Ek’s superstreamer plays in 184 countries, has 7,400 employees and $9.7 billion in annual sales. Spotify went public in 2018, and Ek—who in 2012 had a paper fortune of $300 million—is now worth $4.4 billion."
2. 🕸️ Monarchs Co-Creator Eric Hu Emphasizes Sustainability and Beauty In Web3
Eric Hu, co-creator of the 888-NFT "Monarchs" project with Roy Tatum, talks with Yana Sosnovskaya of ZORA and shares his thoughts on the coming age of Web3. He talks about the blurring of lines between design and art, and mentoring underrepresented artists making their transition into the space.
3. 🚀 Geek Culture Creators Thrived During Pandemic
The BBC looks at how creatives linked to a broad geek subculture found new opportunities particularly during the pandemic that helped them boost both their fanbases and careers. In particular, the success of comic app WebToon and its launch by Korean tech company Naver Corporation opened up the pathway for aspiring comic artists to go full-time.
4. 🧁 Supplant: The New High-Fiber Low-Cal Sweetener
The sweetener is getting a marketing boost thanks to world-famous chef Thomas Keller. The sugar substitute comes from a Cambridge-based team led by biochemist Tom Simmons who discovered a way to pull sugar from the stalks and stems of grains instead of from traditional sources like sugar cane. Aside from the health benefits to humans where it behaves like fiber and has less than half the calories per gram of white sugar, Supplant could be beneficial to the environment by adding an alternative use for discarded husks and stalks and for traditionally water-intensive sugarcane cultivation.
5. 🎭 Italy Piloting "Netflix For Culture"
ITsArt is a new streaming platform being piloted by the Italian ministry of culture to bring Italian culture worldwide amid pandemic struggles and travel restrictions. The content ranges from live operas and documentaries to virtual tours and museum exhibitions. ITsArt is currently available in 26 European countries and will roll out a global expansion to the United States and China next year.
6. 🧠 Metaethics: A Primer
A primer on metaethics and how it differs from ethics that also explains the difference between the two camps metaethical theories fall into: moral realism (there are objective moral values that can be true or false) and moral antirealism (there are no objective moral values or normative facts).
"We need to know, ultimately, if the meanings of our moral concepts affect our practical action. We need to find out if shared or unshared understandings of ethical judgment can help us understand disagreement about what we ought to do. Understanding the very things we say helps us to understand ourselves, and how we view the world. And so, even if we find that metaethics doesn’t affect our moral choices, we may find it nevertheless matters because it reveals a new way of understanding ourselves and others."
7. ✈️ Sports Leagues Can Fight Climate Change Through Their Team Travel
Research by Seth Wynes at the Concordia University has found that sports leagues and their high-visibility teams and athletes can have an impact on climate change through their team travel schedules. For instance, the MLB has some of the lowest emissions due to their practice of playing more games against opponents in nearby cities rather than flying across the continent after playing one match.
"His analysis estimates that in 2018 the four leagues combined for about 7.5 million kilometres of air travel on 5,655 flights, generating nearly 122,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. However, if travel patterns enacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic were permanently adopted, emissions from team travel would drop by 22 per cent, more than 25,000 tonnes."
8. ♻️ Lord Plunkett: The Death Metal Baron Rewilding His Land
In order to meet climate commitments, the planet will need to rewild an area the size of China and return it to nature. Despite being criticized for "wasting" what would otherwise be good land for agriculture, Lord Plunkett, the 21st baron of Dunsany in Ireland, decided to turn over 300 hectares (3 square kilometers) into land free of livestock, planting, hunting and crowds. The vegan, death metal-loving amateur filmmaker currently resides in Dunsany castle on the estate.
9. 💲 21 Savage And Chime Teach Financial Literacy
The rapper and the financial technology company have parntered to announce their 2021 Bank Account Financial Literacy campaign, which offers six courses that include "credit reports and scores, using credit cards and discovering smart ways to plan and pay for college." The campaign also includes the chance for completers of all six courses to win one of 100 scholarships worth $1,000.
10. 💸 BNPL Is the New Credit Card Debt
In a similar vein, one issue to watch out for is the idea of "Buy Now, Pay Later," which in essence is just a rebranding of a loan. In principle, it involves consumers being able to pay a fraction of an item's cost and then pay the difference in installments over a time period to follow. Popular with young people who are put off by banks and the credit (debt) they offer, it is still financially and psychologically costly to late payers in a way that's not far off from the credit card debt they fear otherwise.
"BNPL marketing is Don Draper in Allbirds and a Patagonia vest, messaging for a modern age that generates irrational margins for the brand. Afterpay promotes that it charges “no interest!” However, miss one installment and you’re likely paying more, whether it’s called interest or a late fee. Afterpay competitor Affirm advertises the opposite: “Simple interest and no fees.” It then reiterates the message: “We don’t charge fees of any kind — not even late fees.” Bottom line, they’re all charging you the same thing: money."
Joan Tiffany Siy's LomoChrome Purple shots from Amsterdam
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
