[SIC] 308: Ergo Associates

Volume Six, Number 48

Ben Dietz

Aug 08, 2024

The [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled and published free on Thursdays to 6253 subscribers for this edition.

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Corollary Sources This Week:

Semafor / Morning Brew / Who Do You Know / The Daily Upside /Weak Signals And Other Trends / The Stanza / PSFK / Garbage Day / Politico / Morning Brew / The Future Party /Marginal Revolution/ After School/ Dirt / Nieman Lab / Wall Power / 1440 / The New Statesman / Taylor Lorenz’s Newsletter / Dealbook / Public Announcement

Contributors This Week:

Ben Pruess, Piers Fawkes, Iolanda Carvalho, Cheryl Dunn and Celeste Blewitt

Hi all,

Nice to be back, tho the week off was a relief. As I was saying to my [SIC] Talks guest Evan Armstrong off mic yesterday, my compilation process for this weekly send is not hugely efficient, so even getting to skip that part of my daily reading felt like it saved me a bunch of time and aggravation. I gotta figure a more efficient method - any suggestions, send em.

My conversation with Evan was a smidge more technical and maybe even deeper than normal in some ways; what he does with Napkin Math a few times a week is firmly held - like [SIC] - in tension between doing the right amount of exposition and too much. Which made the conversation really salient for me. Have a look, be the judge:

Speaking of interviews, the folks at AdHoc did me the honor of designating me a Thought Enthusiast and asking for my thoughts on a bunch of stuff for their newsletter - that was fun to do. Related to that: a fun read from Trace Crutchfield on how the original “VICE Guide to Travel” wound up paving the way for streaming video, which offers me more credit than I’m due, but was nice to read. Trace is launching ‘This is Now” as a new video series via Substack; I’ll be keeping any eye on that. To that end: Like Kickstarting? Kickstart here!

Back to Evan for a second: the news that Gen Z and millennials continue to dump dating apps links nicely to his recent piece "on Why dating apps are important for the economy and to his Here’s a Million-dollar Software Idea post from Tuesday, which we dissected a bit on the pod. Corollary: [SIC] homies Brian Morrissey and Ana Andjelic do the husband and wife episode of The Rebooting thing and it’s pretty great honestly. A Confusing Time for Mass Brands indeed.

Elsewhere: Kyle Chayka’s heavily-cited take on Spotify (and quitting it) coincided for me with finding a bag of CDs including Songs for Marcella - August 2008 -the songs I burned onto a CD from iTunes to play in the Volkswagen Golf for my wife and Campbell, who was 18 months old. He’s off to college in two weeks.

That rediscovery and [SIC] homie Nick Catchdubs’s Stuck On Repeat post about new records that keep him coming back made me decide a weekly playlist is gonna be a feature of Volume Seven, in two weeks. In the meantime, I’m jamming along to DJ Private Ryan’s new Soca Starter (Cropover 50th edition) mix. Great work music.

Last couple things before the deluge: Nathaniel Matthews’s Hard Mod Magazine Launch party Monday, August 19 6p at Printed Matter on 11th Avenue looks like fun and Im gonna try to go. Related to that, from Cheryl Dunn:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

hi friends . if you happen to find yourself upstate or are lucky enough to live there , I would love to see you friday august 16 at the opening of this show  at opus 40 @officialopus40  . 30 years ago me and a group of 18 or so friends set off to go the concert .  we got there and the fence had been knocked down already, it started pouring rain.  those of us without good boots bailed and took the van, 5 of us were left, aka . stuck in this glorious crazy scene for 4 days  . i had a Pen FT half frame camera and a pocket full of tri-x . here is some of how it felt  like to me . i distinctly remember seeing the photographers side stage looking out into the sea of mud covered fans in horror . it was Us and Them  and never did the 2 meet .  until now . 

hope to see u  
cheryl

I’ll miss it, unfortunately, but if you can go, you should.

OK, now the links.

Ben

[SIC] 308: Ergo Associates

The Macro Narrative

As discussed with Evan: You can’t innovate away loneliness / Embedded
Related: What's digital liveness? / Alive in Social Media
There’s a core reason teens are anxious - and it’s not phones / Slate
Screen time is fine for kids, actually / The Walrus
In fact, Sadness Among Teen Girls May Be Improving, C.D.C. Finds / NYT
Possibly because? The average take-home pay for teenage workers in the US has gone up 36% since 2019 / CNBC
Adult corollary: The Anxiety of Spending Money You Definitely Have / The Atlantic
Hence: Sales of smaller vehicles that are cheaper than their beefier counterparts are on the rise / Axios
And Low-cost airlines are suddenly embracing premium upsells like extra legroom and priority boarding / Axios
To that end… Are luggage-free trips the future? / BBC
Maybe not, if the Airport is the New Third Place / The Lindy Newsletter
Back in the workplace: Assigned Desks are now a Work Perk/ Business Insider
Corollary on location: The Importance of neighborhoods / The Carbon Almanac
Hence? Pennsylvania is the new Florida / Axios
Surprisingly, not Florida: “Where J.D. Vance Gets His Weird, Terrifying Techno-Authoritarian Ideas” / The New Republic
Meanwhile Clive Martin asks if cocaine is driving the British riots / The New Statesman
How 2024 Became the Zoom Election / NYT
“Executive coaching” has become the optimized version of therapy in Silicon Valley / NYT
Explaining the vibe shift on Wall Street: The stock market is not the economy / Semafor
Corollary: Bullshitization and Common Indifference Problems / Ribbonfarm
But Finance should pay much more attention to undersea cables risk / FT
To that end: Expect Heavy Turbulence for the Next 5 Months / An Honest Broker
Because of? The Garbage Time of History: China's Economic Decline / Youtube
As ‘underconsumption-core’ gains traction in the West, China’s Gen Z is also embracing simpler living amid rising youth unemployment and decelerating economic growth / Jing Daily

Generationations

Elsewhere: An increasing share of adults say they're unlikely to have kids — and the major reason is, well, they just don't want them / Axios
So… A crop of new fertility tech startups in Silicon Valley are launching innovations in baby development / The Future Party
The latest Gen Z-Boomer dictionary is out / Tiktok
Which is good Who’d want to watch a podcast, anyway? 18 to 34s outpace older demos in watching video podcasts and in letting them just play as background / WaPo
Meanwhile Older Americans are drinking more than they did pre-pandemic /NYT
Soon as I get a new hip: The fountain of youth is, apparently skateboarding / Reuters

Platformations

Bewildered adland says Musk’s lawsuit will only make things worse for X / The Drum
Meanhile Substack is turning into Twitter, announcing posting privileges for all registered users/ Substack
While Bytedance agrees to withdraw addictive’ TikTok Lite app for teens in Europe / Fortune
Related: Where Facebook’s AI slop comes from / 404 Media
And, corollary: Pose 28, Toxic Themes and Lana Lore: Gen Z’s obsession with Roblox’s “Dress to Impress” / Screenshot

Stylistics

So Is resale cooked? Big money is trying to burn it to a crisp! / Blackbird Spyplane
Two stylists from different generations, Grace Coddington (stylist and editor for Vogue in the 80s) and Lotta Volkova in conversation / System
Related: Isabel Cristo on getting dressed / The Paris Review
Under Armour announced it was acquiring Unless Collective, a regenerative fashion brand founded by former Adidas executive Eric Liedtke / Retail Dive
From Iolanda: The tenniscore revival speaks to new fashion attitudes / Canvas8
Rat Boy Summer is over. Goodbye Hot Rodent, Hello Beefcake / The Guardian
Ergo: How Bermuda Shorts Became Quintessential Island Uniform / Robb Report

Culturations

Before reality became debatable, there was “The Blair Witch Project” / NYT
And now? Rapper 21 Savage dropped a financial literacy book titled Master Your Money: Financial Success 101 Guide With 21 Savage / Complex
Corollary: The Best Books of 2024 (So Far) / Esquire
50 Years Ago, WTC Was Home to the Art Crime of the Century / NYT
As depicted in the film Man on Wire / Pluto TV
Related: Philippe Petit’s Poetic (and Illegal) Walk Between the Twin Towers / The New Yorker
The Rise of the Kidney-Shaped Pool and Its Unexpected Impact on Skate Culture. Who knew the sport of skateboarding owed so much to Alvar Aalto? / Dwell
Apropos: The act of creation is rarely a solo affair. Here are five outsize teams behind projects ranging from a performance piece to a new pizza / NYT
Hence: Ten of the best independent designers across North America – each from a different city across the continent / Dezeen
And A profile of Annabelle Selldorf, the museum and gallery world’s favorite architect/ Vogue
From Celeste: Cult Mykonos Beach Club Scorpios Is Taking Over The World / Vogue
And: “Long read on the history of cricket in the US and the latest win for the US Cricket team” [Inside U.S Cricket's Shocking Victory] / The Atlantic
Less shocking: DEI Initiatives Are Dying Down. Now What? Tips for arts organizations on how to get it right in times of inequity and unrest / Hyperallergic
Also challenging: The Hyperallergic Art Crossword: August / Hyperallergic
From Celeste: “How brilliant, such a great outcome, Australia's youngest Olympian winning gold in skateboarding. [It's Just Insane: 14 Year Old Arisa Trew Wins Olympic Skateboard Gold At Paris Olympics] /The Guardian AU
Deez Links’s Delia Cai drops in on Day One FM / Spotify
A Unified Theory of Glen Powell / Anne Helen Petersen
Kinda-related: How “Industry” Made Prestige TV for the TikTok Era/The New Yorker
Nine Observations on the Avant-Garde. Has it disappeared? Does anybody care? Should they? / An Honest Broker

Technopolis

How is AI reshaping travel and tourism? / The Drum
Has AI finally figured out how to generate images of human hands? / Ars Technica
From Piers: “Future is here” [humanoid AI robot figure 02 evolves – it talks, corrects its mistakes and has a ‘common sense’] / Design Boom
Hence? Meta is trying to woo celebrities like Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina to voice AI assistants / The Verge
AI Grief Chatbots Are Imitating The Dead/ Service 95

Media-tions

Warner Bros Discovery looks to avoid break-up with smaller asset sales / FT
Axios has its first-ever layoffs, citing “shifting reader attention and behavior” and AI / Nieman Lab
While CNET has been sold to Ziff Davis / NYT
And, from Piers: “always felt that this was such a missed opportunity. “ [United Airlines is sunsetting the print component of its magazine Hemispheres] / Digiday
The business empire of MrBeast, the YouTube superstar, is under pressure / Business Insider
More video: CNN is launching a FAST channel / The Hollywood Reporter
And From Iolanda: Cineverse’s free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels now available via video on Spotify / Media Play News

Market / Influence

As athletes embrace influencer work, 'a new breed of agency' emerges / Digiday
Corollary: Andrew Essex, Senior Managing Partner of TCS Interactive on the Great Minds Pod / Spotify
Snickers owner Mars may soon own Pringles owner Kellanova / Quartz
This list is hilarious: 20 Brands catching Boomers Attention Right Now/AdAge
Chipotle, Lowe's and Walgreens are the best big companies for high school graduates looking to get hired and promoted quickly / Axios
While McDonald’s is dropping a ‘collector’s meal’ with throwback toys for adults / Quartz
And, from Iolanda: Netflix is bringing its Stranger Things play to Broadway / the Verge

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

From PIers: re extending ip… : there is a back to the future afternoon tea in London / Londonist
While, deep in the stars of Texas: Michelin Is Bringing Its Guide — and Stars — to Houston (and Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth) / Eater
Producer Treasury Wine Estates’ will abandon low-end labels Blossom Hill and Wolf Blass to pivot upmarket/ Semafor
A visualization of alcohol preferences around the world / Visual Capitalist
Modelo is now the beer sector’s biggest buyer of TV ads/ Marketing Brew
From Celeste: So Long Pavlova, Trifle Is The Dessert Of The Summer' / NYT
From Piers: And The Evolution of New York-Style Slices and Pies / Eater
And: “then again, move over pizza” How Egyptians Are Shaping New York’s Street Food Scene / Mille World

The Natural (?!) World

Air pollution makes it harder for bees to smell flowers / Knowable
From Piers: I swear by almighty river: an ancient practice is making a comeback in Britain's courts / The Guardian
Straight women have fewer orgasms than lesbian and bisexual women, and fewer still than men / NYT
Albino Penis Envy (APE), one of the most potent psychedelic mushrooms, was partially the product of “dumb luck,” according to the man who created it / Doubleblind
Also dumb, from Piers: Dolce & Gabbana launches $100 perfume for dogs inspired by owner's poodle / CNBC
A Colorado Neuroscientist Wants to Give MDMA to Dogs / Doubleblind
MDA is a cousin of MDMA and the sassafrass tree. / Doubleblind
It’s Lights Out at a Cosmic Restaurant. Palomar Observatory bids farewell to a tradition of napkin rings, cowbells and astronomical table conversation / NYT
While the U.S. Air Force monitors 25,000 pieces of trash in low-Earth orbit / Scientific American