[SIC] 266: Sufficiently Inefficient

Volume Six, Number Six

Ben Dietz

Oct 05, 2023

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Corollary sources this week:Motive Unknown / Weak Signals And Other Trends / Storythings / Public Announcement / 1440 / The Micromobility Report / Morning Consult / The Daily Upside / Dealbook / After School / Semafor / Simon Owens / The Future Party / Quartz / Kottke / Beats & Bytes / Reasons to be Cheerful

Hi all,
I’ve gotten into a good morning rhythm sending out [SIC] Day micro-digests of 10x daily links to paying supporters each day at 9am ET, so I’m experimenting with that timing for the weekly free digest today. I’ll (maybe) scrutinize the analytics and see how this performs relative to sending in the afternoon, but in the meantime if you’ve got thoughts, LMK in reply (or ideally in the comments below, which I think help juice the Substack algo or something).

Thanks to a murderers row of [SIC] readers who sent stories this week - see below for Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Piers Fawkes, Molly Raskin, Eric Korsh, Jolyon Varley, Marie Dolle, Ken Miller, Zach Sokol, David Bloom, and Jeff Carvalho contributions this week. And everyone else, send ‘em if you got ‘em.

Speaking of Jeff, our pandemic-era project Culture Club Show returns October 11th as a weekly live conversation, podcast and video pod. @cultureclubfyi (twitter) and @cultureclubshow (IG) for info. We’ll announce guests shortly.

Beyond that, the links. Enjoy.

Ben

======[SIC] 266: Sufficiently Inefficient======

The Macro Narrative

Why the Hell We Are Obsessed with Hell / Hyperallergic
From Jeff Carvalho: Perfect for SIC: Link between Yankee Candles and COVID spikes / Undark
Peter Zeihan asks: The European Union: Will It Adapt or Die? / YouTube
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak launches plan "to stop councils implementing" 15-minute cities / Dezeen
And proposes to raise the legal smoking age one year, every year, would eventually apply to the whole population/ Quartz
So then, Is ‘Street Medicine’ the Next Frontier for Cities Addressing Drug, Homelessness Crisis? / New York Sun
Or maybe its just a portable charger that hacks London's Santander bikes so homeless people can charge their phones / Dezeen
Conversely: Detroit is sprucing itself up. Ten years after declaring bankruptcy, Motor City is starting to bounce back / FT
From Piers, "Visual/spiritual inspiration": One kissa is all it takes: Tokyo’s finest jazz haunts – in pictures / The Guardian
Less inspiring: Why retail shopping is no fun anymore / Axios
Also no fun: the CPSC announced a voluntary recall for 300,000 Onewheel electric skateboards across the U.S. in response to four known death cases between 2019 and 2022 / The Verge
Corollary: The Best Thirst Traps Money Can Buy / The New Yorker
Ergo, from Molly: Prozac Nation, Meet Lexapro Sweatshirts/ NYT
Related: Why thousands of young Chinese people use a pink dinosaur as their alias on social media / Rest of World
And also: young, affluent donors support issues over organizations/ Barrons
Corollary, from Iolanda: “Paying for news: Price-conscious consumers look for value amid cost-of-living crisis" / Reuters Institute
'They can’t buy into that American Dream: How Younger Workers are Redefining Success / USA Today
Hence?, from Molly: Bedroom culture is having a resurgence / i-D
Related, from Piers: “Considering how much nostalgia there is for pasts we didn’t live, this [Sabine Marcelis Lava Lamp] could be a hit for holidays 24…” / Wallpaper
And from Marie: “Thought you might find this interesting:” Solarpunk is the next big literary-design movement / Ecotech

Generationations

Also from Marie: You might enjoy: How Gen Z is building an aesthetics based on ‘inconvenience’ / D1A
Gen Z Wants Feminine Care Brands to Just Say Vagina / NYT
Corollary? Why Subtitle Use Is Deceptively High Among Young Viewers / Morning Consult
Bosses are getting GenZ’s skills deficit all wrong: the generation says it’s hard, not soft, skills they need to learn / Fortune
Meanwhile, Gen Xers are stuck in the middle of a retirement nightmare / CNN
Hence: Artist Marc Hundley Recommends Finding Success After 40 / Pulling Weeds
Also stuck in the middle: The scoop wars of the modern NBA “It’s the only real rivalry left in the NBA,” one reporter said of the battle between ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and his former protégé, The Athletic’s Shams Charania. “Everyone else likes each other.” / WaPo
‘They don’t want to give power to girls’: the women shaking up Colombia’s graffiti scene / The Guardian
Meanwhile all the coolest Gen Z power girls (and Paris and Nicky) were at the Miu Miu show / Fashionista

Platformations

Did Substack bring back the blogosphere? Christina Loff, the partnerships lead at Substack, published a piece arguing that the platform spurred a resurgence in old-school blogging / Substack Reads
Because? BookTok doesn't just sell books; it also is driving foot traffic into physical bookstores / Publishers Weekly
From Jolyon Varley: “Another labour of lol from our camp. Hope you (and maybe your readers?) will enjoy the read”: “Chaos in The FYP”: OK COOL’s exclusive annual TikTok Trend Report has dropped / Google Drive
How Taylor Lorenz went from Tumblr queen to internet historian / Embedded
Related from Eric: “Not sure if you already saw this interview with Taylor Lorenz & Lucas Shaw…”[How Internet Influencer Became the Hottest Job in America] / Bloomberg
Tiktok is reportedly testing a paid, ad-free version of its app / The Verge
While Instagram and Facebook may start offering European users a paid, ad-free version. Meta is considering a $14-a-month charge for ad-free Instagram, or $17 for both apps on desktop / WSJ
And Elon is trying to bring live shopping to Twitter with the help of Paris Hilton / MediaPost
Spotify has patented a ‘digital mixtape’ generator that compiles users’ voice recordings with songs / Music Business Worldwide
Meta recently admitted that it has used mountains of public social media posts to train its AI models / Axios
And while Apple may be quiet on AI, it’s also the biggest buyer of AI companies / Quartz
From Piers: Has Amazon Marketplace become a company town? / Retail Touchpoints
Corollary: 12 of the best YouTube channels, chosen by YouTubers / Descript

Stylistics

Mastering “Day-Core”: Sunlight as ephemeral decor / For Scale
Is there room for world builders in fashion anymore? / GQ
Corollary, from Ken: “Did a little write-up on photographer Slim Aaron and the aspirational appeal of travel.” [The Glamour of Summer, According to Slim Aarons / Conde Nast Traveler
And Linda Evangelista and the Canny Eye of Steven Meisel / The New Yorker
Another world: Inside Selena Gomez’s Beauty Juggernaut / Fast Company
Related, from Iolanda: “Gender-fluid fashion is reaching a cultural apex so mainstream fashion brands looking to capitalise on its growing popularity need to be prepared to speak about it authentically" / Marketing Week
Also growing in popularity, from Celeste: ’How Loro Piana Became Silicon Valley's Favourite Flex’ / NY Mag
Ergo, from David: “rather astonishing set of factoids about the luxury goods business and its rapid growth the past few years, up roughly 40 percent.” Data shows that the value of the global personal luxury goods market jumped from $268B in 2017 to $372B in 2022. / Inside Marketing
Meanwhile Prada is designing NASA spacesuits. Will luxury customers wear them next? / Vogue Business
More flexing, from Celeste: “a great insight into what the next generation will covet in terms of classic cars. Although I quite enjoy the author's want to honour the Corolla, my Corolla was once involved in a police chase.....that story is for another day, haha!” [ 'Here's To A New Generation Of Classic Cars’ ]/ Atlantic

Culturations

When art dealers go bust, what happens to the art they hold? / The Art Newspaper
Are NFTs really dead and buried? All signs point to ‘yes’ / The Conversation
IE: Despite partnering with popular brands, hedge fund billionaire and MoMA trustee Steve Cohen’s NFT startup has ceased operations / Hyperallergic
But, but From Piers: in contrast there’s the DJ Carl Cox’s Virtual Odyssey: The Unveiling of Intermundium in Sensorium Galaxy / NFT Culture
Nike’s dot.Swoosh initiative’s first shoe dropped IRL with the heel tab “This is Not a Jpeg” / Hypebeast
And Fortnite is launching age ratings for all of its experiences, which Epic Games says is “a critical step toward building a metaverse that’s safe and fun for everyone” / The Verge
Speaking of fun for everyone (especially if you have a light appreciation for math): Matt Levine’s “Money Stuff” review of the first half of Michael Lewis’s SBF Book is the best thing of the week / Bloomberg
On the topic of other halves: Hamburger Eyes’s Ray Potes on “Wrong Side of the Lens”/ YouTube
Elsewhere from Piers: Begin Again: Oliver Jeffers on creating his new picture book for adults / Creative Boom
Corollary, from Molly: The New Rules Of Friendship Online / Bustle
Speaking of new rules: Songwriters, composers and AI: 'In summary: regulate, goddammit!' / Music Ally
And apropos of that, from Celeste: "Such a reminder, of set lists, albums that bands have stopped playing and creating a show for an audience in a time when there is access immediately at every moment in time.” [Don't Play The Hits! Rarities Are One Of The Great Joys Of Live Music ] The Guardian UK
Related: Paramount To Create ‘90s Boy Band Documentary Featuring *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys & More / Loop Mag
The new music video from DJ Khaled, Lil Baby, Future, and Lil Uzi Vert premiered on…Nickelodeon / Rolling Stone
Elsewhere, Paramount pulled out the think-outside-the-box playbook for marketing its remake of Mean Girls, putting the entirety of the 2004 hit Mean Girls on TikTok… in 23 parts in celebration of Mean Girls Day / Deadline
Related: Writers are worried , arguing that Paramount’s ploy undermines the recent gains made by the Writers Guild of America in their new contract / Time
Hence?! Tina Fey is celebrated October 3rd by auctioning a signed and annotated 70-page script of Mean Girls: The Musical / Hyperallergic
Kinda sorta similar?! Bloody Bloody Boudoir Ladies: Turning Kitsch Ceramics Into Horror / Hyperallergic
Melting drums: The 808 Edition. WITI’s Colin Nagy on hardware, culture, and expression / Why Is This Interesting
Also on fire: Ed Ruscha’s Calmly Collapsing America. In “Now Then,” a sprawling retrospective at MOMA, the artist traces the rise and fall of a national language / The New Yorker
Corollary Collapse: Be Proud of Your Overflowing Bookshelves / Departures
And related, from Piers: 10 lessons I learned from being a nerd / Ted

Technopolis

Workers could be the ones to regulate AI / As tech titans and lawmakers argue, the Hollywood writers’ strike has shown how employees can set the rules / FT
But! The Virtual human market is predicted to reach $440.3 billion by 2031 / Jing Daily
Hence! The synthetic social network is coming / Platformer
Plus! ChatGPT’s latest update fuels publishers’ concerns about AI chatbots siphoning traffic / Digiday
So! Publishers and advertisers are successfully implementing the next generation of AI / Digiday
Though! ChatGPT may be making workers perform worse, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group / Insider
And! Modern cars are a privacy nightmare / Mozilla
Less emphasis! Even Microsoft Paint is getting an AI art generator / Creative Bloq
Buy! Walmart experiments with generative AI to help people shop / Axios
Ok, stopping that gag now. From Iolanda: Humane launches a wearable AI Pendant designed by Jonny Ive. It’s a "screenless, standalone device and software platform built from the ground up for AI." AND IT REMEMBERS EVERYTHING. / Engadget
While! How AI and Brain Science Are Helping Perfumiers Create Fragrances / BoF
And! Hannah Diamond Has Cracked the Code of Using AI for Music / Wired
But! These Latest Celebrity Deepfakes Show How Advanced Scams Have Become / Lifehacker
Plus! Meta’s new AI stickers are already causing a commotion with a Winnie-the-Pooh holding a rifle, just one of the designs it generated / Quartz
Sorry about that, got hacked. The anatomy of a Facebook account heist / Vox

Media-tions

Journalists can be TikTokers too. Three journalists explain how to use the platform for news / Nieman Lab
The Media Convergence. The borders between channels are blurring as they steal each other’s features, adopt universal standards and simplify for consumer ease / The Drum
Hence: The Wall Street Journal debuts a new podcast with investing news for “Joe Sixpack” / Nieman Lab
And The New Yorker Launches “Critics at Large,” a New Culture Podcast / The New Yorker
While culture news site Dirt Media buys a design newsletter (and plans to acquire more) @Daisy: DM me! / Dirt
Aesthetically related from Zach: “I spent the summer guest editing the new issue of Hypebeast Magazine "The Fever Issue" -- a 256-pager that features Jun Takahashi, Peter Sutherland, Jon Rafman, Mowalola, Small Talk Studio, Emma Stern, Shy's Burgers, and more” / Hypebeast

Market / Influence

10 rules of IP brands. What are IP brands and how they operate? / Sociology of Business
Ergo: Why Netflix is Selling Pizza and Wedding Gowns Based on Your Favorite Shows / WSJ
More IP-isms: Pixar’s “Elemental” was initially derided as a flop. But it has since proved a success, raising questions about the conventional animated film business model / NYT
So then; What Does a ‘Video Day’ Look Like For Consumers? / Channel 4
Needs variety! [SIC] Homie Bobby Hundreds throws back to 2018 on The importance of diversity and representation in brand-building / Monologue
Hence? Macy’s to Triple Small-Format Store Count in Move Away from Malls / Bloomberg
And Hasbro taps college athletes, and Nerfball, to build clout with Gen Z / Digiday
From Piers: “Talk about finding your niche”: Design co creates stuff for corners / Design Milk

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

Fast food drive-thru times shrink as fewer customers wait at the window / CNBC
Related: Taco Bell’s drive-thru is the one to beat, says a wildly thorough report / QSR Mag
Two-thirds of California’s largest school districts now serve non-meat, non-dairy meals at least once a week / Civil Eats
From Piers: Kellogg's cereal business begins trading as stand-alone company WK Kellogg /CNBC

The Natural (?!) World

The Smartest Man Who Ever Lived / The Atlantic
Well yeah but did he discover you can use a disco ball for safely observing the sun during an eclipse? / ARXIV
Or, or, or: The Mathematical Theory That Connects Swimming Sperm, Zebra Stripes, and Sunflower Seeds? / Popsci
Swimming adjacent: Scientists are releasing a horde of crabs to save Florida’s coral reef / Vox
Ending on a high note: A Family of Humming-Birds, a loving restoration of a 19th-century monograph showing hundreds of species of hummingbirds from around the world / Kottke