[SIC] 276: Patient Capital

Volume Six, Number Seventeen

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Corollary sources this week: The New Statesman / Elevator / Morning Consult / After School/ International Intrigue / Cultique / Declarative Statements / Weak Signals And Other Trends / Champion Weekly / Network Notes / Garbage Day / NYT / Public Announcement / Reasons to be Cheerful / BoF / Futurism / The Deep Dive / How Long Gone / Brendans Communication Miscellany

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Hi all,

Approaching the new year, I’m giving a bunch of thought to how [SIC] works, how I allot time for it, what sources to cut from my weekly headline-gathering, and where else to look. The brand / marketing strategy legend Rishad Tobaccowala wrote an atypical edition of his Sunday newsletter “The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past” over the weekend, about Poetry, and it occurred to me that while I want to apply a more incisive approach to story finding, the thing I can’t lose in editing is the meaning contained in [SIC]’s rhythm.

Need to think about how to realize that, but one thing that helps a lot is guidance and suggestions from you all. Thanks, to that end, to Howard Gray, Piers Fawkes, Jeff Johnson, Celeste Blewitt, Molly Raskin, Iolanda Carvalho, Drew Millard and Peter Spear for contributions of stories. Thanks also to Ed Cotton, my guest on [SIC] Talks #60 - whose sense that the communications medium will necessarily move in a more human direction is one that I share. Here’s the convo:

[SIC] Talks #60: Ed Cotton

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Supporting text for that sense from two (full disclosure, kinda long) stories I’ll highlight here: A Camera, Not an Engine from Venkatesh Rao on how modern AI puts us firmly into an age of exploration of computational reality, to which Reggie James’s Digital Quality of Life makes a useful corollary/answer. Also corollary, Bret Easton Ellis’s 2011 piece “Notes on Charlie Sheen and the End of Empire,” written on the eve of another changing of the cultural guard. W. David Marx’s A 2023 Look-back: the internet dies, etc. in his Culture: An Owner’s Manual is another worthwhile vector in that discussion.

Speaking of lookbacks: in this week’s at-a-glance zeitgeist roundup, it’s: The 21 best memes from 2023. Frieze Editors on Art in 2023. Who made the best furniture this year? There's no way to know, per Sami Reiss.The Biggest Fashion Story of 2023 The luxury industry is at an inflection point. Meantime, Jason Diamond says This Was a Year of Very Good Books. The 40 Best Ads of 2023. And from Iolanda: Data visualizations from the year.

The rest follows, after the jump.

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The Macro Narrative

• From Molly: 2023: The year of the girl / Dazed

• yes, and: This Was the Year Famous Guys Started Dressing for Attention / GQ

• thus: Is the Way Men Talk About Fashion About to Undergo Another Sea Change? / NYT

• 2023: The year of loneliness / The Week

• America is getting lonelier and more indoorsy. that’s not a coincidence / The Atlantic

• From Matt: FDA to review MDMA-assisted therapy / WaPo

• And Congress Is PushingRevolutionary Research on Psychedelic Treatments for the Military / The Intercept

• Hence, from Drew? the surprising resurgence of the trip-hop subgenre / Nina.Protocol

• Inspired by Spotify’s year-end wrap-up, singles are compiling their dating recaps into presentations with statistics and pie-charts / WSJ

• Has The Digital Age Ruined Dating? / Byline

• Exploring scheduled sex: a modern relationship study / Calendar Labs

• More explorations: The Bompas and Parr “Imminent Future of Food and Drink” Report / Bompas and Parr

• Less food: The Ozempic Effect: Social Side Effects of Medical Breakthroughs / Zine

• Another alt perspective: Retail theft from the perspective of the shoplifters / Vox

• Life in China is back to normal, so why are foreign tourists skipping the country? / Jing Daily

• Like for instance? Did the PRC just annex a chunk of Bhutan? / Twitter

• Praxis wants to build the city of crypto / The Future Party

• But who would give this guy millions to build his own utopia? / NYT

• Corollary: Does London need the Sphere? / Dezeen

• The more we treat the internet like gravity, the less we know which way is up / The New Statesman

• Jamie Dimon’s $4 Trillion Machine. He made JPMorgan Chase the biggest bank in the world. What is it, exactly? / NYMag

• Also eco-nomics: Ford is  halving production of its F-150 Lightning pickup truck as carmakers confront weaker-than-expected demand for EVs / Automotive News

• From Piers: “Maybe a connection with low alcohol beer, economy and the end of post pandemic treat ourselves” [Brewers Upstate are Closing] / Chronogram

• Because? even those making $100K a year are living paycheck to paycheck / The Daily Upside

• Related: What Does the Working Class Really Want? / The Atlantic

• Four major forces changing the labor market / HBR

• IE: Labor unions win AI protections / Axios

• And the office is about to enter its experimental phase / Fast Company

• Somehow connected? The Pantone Color of the Year “Conspiracy,” Explained / Hyperallergic

• A new initiative enables New York teens to text, call and video chat with licensed therapists / Chalkbeat

• Destigmatizing Drug Use Has Been a Profound Mistake / The Atlantic

• Related? Our kids have too much stuff / WaPo

Generationations

• Nearly 1 in 5 teens say they're on YouTube or TikTok "almost constantly" / Axios

• Hence? From Molly: The Decline of Teen Hangouts / The Atlantic

• The rise of A.I. chatbots like ChatGPT has not increased cheating in high schools, Stanford researchers found / NYT

• But Ozempic and AI are fuelling our pleasureless society / i-D

• Ergo: Provocative Sex Is Back at the Movies.  But Are We Ready for It? / NYT

• Corollary: Gen Z is bringing a whole new vibe  to the workplace: Anxiety / Insider

• Ergo: How Anxiety Became Content/ The Atlantic

• Which all leads to?! From Drew: the jarringly exuberant Zoomer rave scene in NYC / Nina.Protocol

Platformations

• From Celeste: “Bold moves by Netflix, especially given the context, which the article dives into on the motives behind releasing this data” [Netflix Reveals Viewing Data Across Entire Catalogue For The First Time] / FT

• How Twitter broke the news / The Verge

• YouTubers can finally turn off the comments / Engadget

• Is TikTok Brainwashing the kids? An Old Moral Panic in a New Form/ The Guardian

• In contrast, tho? How Discord breeds extremism / WaPo

Stylistics

• Berlin Dispatch: Out with Punk and in with Prada / Frieze

• [SIC] Talks guest Ed Cotton on The Pradasphere, as discussed in the show / LinkedIn

• But given Viral memes and $1M handbags: Is luxury fashion now a spectator sport? / Jing Daily

• Case in point: Balenciaga launched its inaugural Skiwear Collection on December 11, along with an interactive video game available on WeChat in China / Jing Daily

• Not to mention adidas' Roblox residency & Balmain turns to generative AI / Jing Daily

• Related? From Piers: Why are so many brands replacing their creative director? / Glossy

• Will the Creative Director Epidemic Continue Into 2024? / Hypebeast

• The Hypebeast 100: : This Year’s List of the Most Accomplished Creatives/ Hypebeast

• A guide to shopping for a Hypebeast in the Making / Airmail

• Corollary: Why Stylish Guys are Suddenly Obsessed with Ballet Flats/ GQ

• Is it because of a Long Pasta Lunch With the Cashmere King of Pasadena, aka [SIC] Talks Alum Davide Baroncini? / GQ

• Also? The Skims nipple bra is now sold out. Is the female nipple now a fashion statement? / WaPo

• Apropos of that, are fashion’s buying practices really improving? / Vogue Business

• Hence? Why we need to move on from clean beauty / Vogue Business

• Speaking of moving on, from Piers: People aren’t going to breweries, they aren’t buying posh watches… [The record rush to buy a Rolex or a Patek Philippe is over] / Fashion Network

• Just Watch: Breitling Buys Universal Geneve / BoF

Culturations

• This Video Isn’t Just About Taylor Swift. It’s About You / YouTube

• From Jeff: A History of David Berman's Football Fandom / NFL Weakly

• From Howard: “May be of interest” {Richie Hawtin’s next musical frontier? High school science class] / Wavetable

• Greg Bresnitz is the new mayor / FWB

• From Celeste: “The strikes and now a quiet arena for deals on IP and projects [It's Quiet, Too Quiet In Hollywood: Where Are The Deals?]/ Hollywood Reporter

• Why are evermore artists ditching dealers?  / The Art Newspaper

• Neglected middle class may be key to growing stagnant art market / The Art Newspaper

• Visitor numbers for UK museums show signs of recovery / The Art Newspaper

• Can Sukeban Make Female Wrestling Fashionable With Americans / NYT

• Wu-Tang Clan announce Las Vegas residency / The Fader

• How Andrew Dosunmu Makes the Street His Studio/ The New Yorker ‘

• Getting clipped up Why do we make skate videos? / Simple Magic

• Because of the SOTY glory? IG

• From Peter: Masturbation: A Short History of a Great Taboo / Aeon

• Coco Gordon Moore on love, loose teeth and mac ​’n’ cheese / The FACE

• Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life / FS Blog

• The FACE’s podcast about 2023's best and worst music / The FACE

• Corollary: Want a Synthesizer? Go Ahead, Take One. Synth Library NYC aims to demystify these sometimes complicated, often expensive instruments into the hands of anyone who wants to try one / NYT

• Hipgnosis Songs Fund has sold £18M of "unspecified ‘non-core’” songs, presumably in a bid to stem cash flow issues after a fairly terrible year’s trading / The Guardian

Technopolis

• The EU’s Sweeping New Rules to Regulate AI / Wired

• ChatGPT is winning the future — but what future is that?”/ The Verge

• Related: the “fog of war” around AI / The Atlantic

• Apropos of that, From Peter: Of memes and magick. How the internet became the purveyor of ancient magic. Bending a mysterious world to your will was the goal of esoteric practices. Now it’s the unashamed aim of the tech titans / Aeon

• Hence, from Celeste:  “I’ll keep to the 50 word horoscopes I think” [AI Astrology Is Getting A Little Too Personal] /The Atlantic

• For Mindy Seu, Digital Archiving Isn’t Just a Job—It’s a Lifestyle / Vanity Fair

• Fortnite’s Rock Band revival could transform metaverse concerts / The Future Party

• ‘Flatcoins’ are the way forward (?!)/ FT

Media-tions

• Jezebel Relaunches Under New Ownership, Eyeing Direct Advertising / AdWeek

• Dropout CEO Talks Doubling CollegeHumor Successor’s Streaming Subs and Content Output, Price Increase Plans and First Profit Sharing” / Variety

• The show is over for Showtime as a standalone brand / Variety

Market / Influence

• US Ad Employment Reaches a New Record High / Ad Age

• Hence? Soho House has stopped accepting new members in some cities after getting too popular / CNN

• And Ikea branches out into the fitness space / Creative Review

• While Uniqlo plans more than 20 new stores  in North America in 2024 / Retail Dive

• As ‘city walk’ becomes a status symbol among China’s urban consumers, lifestyle and fashion brands are creating street experiences as an accessible entry point / Jing Daily

• Blame China: Etsy Cuts 11% of Headcount as Competition From Shein and Temu Mounts / The Information

• And Chanel braces for ‘tougher’ year ahead, fashion chief warns / FT

• Mickey Drexler on the past and future of retail / Fast Company

• Colette’s Sarah Andelman returns to retail with new project / Vogue Business

• Marc Andreessen on 'the future of consumer products' / Fortune

• The celebrity beauty brands that are actually good / FT

• Have influencers made experiential marketing risk-free? / The Drum

• Corporate America Is Testing the Limits of Its Pricing Power  / NYT

• Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers will test the economics of baseball / NYT

• Bought as an N.B.A. Team, the Mavericks Are Being Sold as Much More / NYT

• In Olympics race, adidas pursues edge in new sports / Reuters

• Inside the World Excel Championships / WSJ

• The “worm,” a logo that NASA dumped over 30 years ago, is experiencing a renaissance inside and outside the agency / NYT

• On the spacetime travel tip, from Piers: “Super nerdy and not a show I’ve watched since I hid behind the couch every Saturday night - but quite a simple and effective display to signify the changing of the guard” [Doctor Who TARDIS And Sculpture Appear On South Bank ] / Londonist

• Hence: Just like Dr Who, nostalgia must look to the future as much the past / The Drum

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

• We raise 18 billion animals a year to die — and then we don’t even eat them. From farm to plate, one in four animals raised on factory farms is wasted/ Vox

• Eleven Madison Park, which went entirely vegan in 2021, is introducing a special type of eggs to its menu / Fast Company

• Also not vegan? Doritos debuted nacho-cheese flavored booze. (S/o to [SIC] supporters at EMPIRICAL). / Beverage Dynamics

The Natural (?!) World

• From Piers: Geocities.Space / Geocities

• From Iolanda “I love this!” [Buildings We Love to Photograph at Night] / Build World

• Floating farms may be the agriculture of the future. On one in a Rotterdam harbor, cows happily graze, poop, and produce milk / Quartz

• Canadian authorities have captured a runaway kangaroo after it punched a police officer in the face / Reuters

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