[SIC] DAY THREE HUNDRED THIRTY NINE

Vol 3, No. 48

Thanks for the likes yesterday, all. Nice to feel welcomed back. Gonna make this post free.

My first 20 links of the day kicks off, appropriately enough, with a conversation about

Rare Beauty

’s publishing strategy with

Katie Welch

, a [SIC] subscriber. Love it.

Ben

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[SIC] DAY THREE HUNDRED THIRTY NINE

1. Inside Rare Beauty’s Substack strategy. In an era dominated by short-form content, Rare Beauty has opted to engage in open narratives / Vogue Business

2. Corollary: Video is helping smaller creators on Substack grow their subscriber numbers faster — but larger creators aren't experiencing the same boost / Digiday

3. Elsewhere in new trends: Are overly perfect images boring now? YSL seems to think so / IG

4. Also not boring: The furniture designers centring Nigerian cultural symbols / It’s Nice That

5. Cloudflare introduced a feature that could stop AI chatbots from crawling sites / Quartz

6. How the Grateful Dead built the internet / BBC

7. The New World Order of Education is basically pro-wrestling, if you think about it?! / American Enterprise Institute

8. Power naps may spark “aha” moments / Smithsonian

9. Hence? Gen Z is increasingly planning mini-retirements (self-selecting unpaid time off) every year or so to recharge / Fast Company

10. Which could institute a European-style holiday culture in the US / CNBC

11. Leaving a big city? Get yourself a hyperlocal social network / It’s Nice That

12. Apropos of being outgoing: What Makes Someone Cool, according to researchers who measured coolness around the globe / NYT

13. Not cool? The New York Times most stylish people of 2025 (so far) is an objectively bizarre list / NYT

14. Among those on the list, Takashi Murakami, whose former gallerist Tim Blum is stepping away from his gallery, which will no longer operate with a traditional model / IG

15. Apropos of that: If public art is meant to inspire, why is it so bad? It’s hard to deny it – most public art is a flop / Monocle

16. Also bad? Lorde Shocks Fans With Nude Vulva Photo by Talia Chetrit in deluxe vinyl release/ Hyperallergic

17. More ‘interesting’ commercial choices: Amazon opened a dedicated Oasis storefront for the band’s reunion tour / Variety

18. And Lululemon is suing Costco, alleging that the wholesale retailer is selling illegal knockoffs / AP News

19. Sportswear corollary: Fixing up Nike is a marathon, not a sprint / FT

20. Related: Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone on the brand’s resurgence / Fast Company

[SIC] DAY THREE HUNDRED THIRTY NINE