Entitled, privileged, and rather cruel way of saying that perfectionism is more important than empathy and compassion. Not everyone has been born into a life where they have "choices" (I use quotes because somewhere someone has to make a choice to feed their kids or pay the heating bill and your big example is what song to listen to on Spotify?? Get a record player, buy records, easy fix!!)
Can I be upfront with you here. We are apathetic and being because corporate greed has taken over everything for profit. They don't care about the quality of your furniture or appliances or music, art, education, the longevity of your computer and digital equipment. We buy it THEY profit. That is all it is. Your administration is using you. Using entitlement and privilege to twist the narrative and blame the "incompetent" whether it's an incompetent person or thing. There is no such thing as perfect or utopian. The richer people get, the poorer people get. Equal distribution for All???? Now THAT would be Utopian!!!!!!
1. Superabundance is an interesting book showing (to me, convincingly) that despite inflation, shrinkflation, wage stagnation, etc. everything is more abundant than it used to be. There is a possible exception of "housing", especially in the last couple years since their book came out, but even there we can attribute the high cost of housing to government programs that subsidize the housing market, like mortgage tax deductions and the promise of a bailout if all the housing loans fail. Let me know if you want the book. I can give you my copy.
2. But there are subtle areas where I couldn't agree more. I remember that with Tivo, I could record shows and zip through them with instant feedback to by button clicks. Now, with streaming, these systems are clumsy and slow. Click "fast forward", and it takes 5 seconds for the system to fast forward 15 seconds. Low impact area, but perhaps an interesting microcosm?
3. Globalization was a major catalyst that made your first lie seem true. Now that certain thresholds of surplus/comfort have been reached, many countries are turning inward, pursuing independence over the endless pursuit of outsourcing to the next, lower-income manufacturing center. Thus, much of the truth of the first lie was premised on labor and resource exploitation. Maybe the higher prices we'll face in the coming years are the fair prices and the lower prices from before that were "synthetic" or "unsustainable" in some way?
Is the idea of superabundance that the very fact of having access relates to quality of life improvement? (and yes, I'd gladly borrow your copy)
#2 is so weird and funny, it seems to me that scrubbing is not as necessary today as it was in the Tivo days, but still, why is it so much worse?
I think #4/#5 an explain a lot of the shitification of art. When art becomes a passive experience (both the viewing and purchasing) we're bound to end up in a sequel ridden, "Court of the Girl in the Window on the Train in Flames" romantasy laden beigescape.
2. Like we all used to own a "box" that stored our shows locally. There was a limit to how much you could have stored. You managed your local repository accordingly. Your reward was instant feedback between your remote and your desired action. Now, all actions are mediated by the cloud and the speed of your internet. When I click the button for "fast forward by 15 seconds", it takes the system ~3 seconds to acknowledge that I pressed the button, a couple more seconds to execute, and a couple more seconds again to start playing from that new point. I might as well have just let it play! This is a microcosm of the frequently pointed out "nobody owns anything anymore; it's all subscriptions" take.
Regarding 4/5, this of course isn't that new of a thing. I think romance novels, spy novels, and mystery novels have dealt with this for a while. I bet "Westerns" dealt with this in their heyday decades ago. Perhaps people have shifted in such a way that we prioritize art in our tv series more than in our movies now. The dialogue and cinematography of GoT, for example, is infinitely better than in hit shows like The Wire. When it comes to "really smart art", like GoT or Inception or Memento etc., some of that has also been shunted off into Anime, right? Deathnote is one of the smartest shows I've ever seen.
On this point, I think you'll enjoy this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuTwM6jB9JY) YouTube video explaining the death of sincerity in popular art....from LoTR to Deadpool.
Thanks Zac - wonderful piece. Even though I am insulated by most of the crap happing in the US now, it still drags you down. Yesterday I was walking around Arashiyama (Kyoto) in the winter sunshine which perfectly summarized how I felt about your last sentence....... The way back is paved with The Bricks of Taste and The Mortar of Sincerity.
Thanks Nick! I’ve spent about 8 weeks in Kyoto over the past two years, and honestly can’t get enough of it.
Many of my experiences there informed this essay, especially when it comes to craftsmanship, and demanding more out of the quality, and aesthetics of the world around us.
Entitled, privileged, and rather cruel way of saying that perfectionism is more important than empathy and compassion. Not everyone has been born into a life where they have "choices" (I use quotes because somewhere someone has to make a choice to feed their kids or pay the heating bill and your big example is what song to listen to on Spotify?? Get a record player, buy records, easy fix!!)
Can I be upfront with you here. We are apathetic and being because corporate greed has taken over everything for profit. They don't care about the quality of your furniture or appliances or music, art, education, the longevity of your computer and digital equipment. We buy it THEY profit. That is all it is. Your administration is using you. Using entitlement and privilege to twist the narrative and blame the "incompetent" whether it's an incompetent person or thing. There is no such thing as perfect or utopian. The richer people get, the poorer people get. Equal distribution for All???? Now THAT would be Utopian!!!!!!
I’m sorry you didn’t like the essay.
I'm sorry I let my anger and frustration of our current fiasco allow me to be snarky. It was late, I was angry.
Love it! Some thoughts:
1. Superabundance is an interesting book showing (to me, convincingly) that despite inflation, shrinkflation, wage stagnation, etc. everything is more abundant than it used to be. There is a possible exception of "housing", especially in the last couple years since their book came out, but even there we can attribute the high cost of housing to government programs that subsidize the housing market, like mortgage tax deductions and the promise of a bailout if all the housing loans fail. Let me know if you want the book. I can give you my copy.
2. But there are subtle areas where I couldn't agree more. I remember that with Tivo, I could record shows and zip through them with instant feedback to by button clicks. Now, with streaming, these systems are clumsy and slow. Click "fast forward", and it takes 5 seconds for the system to fast forward 15 seconds. Low impact area, but perhaps an interesting microcosm?
3. Globalization was a major catalyst that made your first lie seem true. Now that certain thresholds of surplus/comfort have been reached, many countries are turning inward, pursuing independence over the endless pursuit of outsourcing to the next, lower-income manufacturing center. Thus, much of the truth of the first lie was premised on labor and resource exploitation. Maybe the higher prices we'll face in the coming years are the fair prices and the lower prices from before that were "synthetic" or "unsustainable" in some way?
4. Netflix seems to have shows designed for multi-tasking. A quick search shows this is a "thing": https://duckduckgo.com/?q=netflix+shows+made+to+multi+task&atb=v314-1&ia=web
5. Would love to read a deep-dive about the influence of the subscription model (spotify/hulu/etc.) on art quality.
A lot to respond to here.
Is the idea of superabundance that the very fact of having access relates to quality of life improvement? (and yes, I'd gladly borrow your copy)
#2 is so weird and funny, it seems to me that scrubbing is not as necessary today as it was in the Tivo days, but still, why is it so much worse?
I think #4/#5 an explain a lot of the shitification of art. When art becomes a passive experience (both the viewing and purchasing) we're bound to end up in a sequel ridden, "Court of the Girl in the Window on the Train in Flames" romantasy laden beigescape.
2. Like we all used to own a "box" that stored our shows locally. There was a limit to how much you could have stored. You managed your local repository accordingly. Your reward was instant feedback between your remote and your desired action. Now, all actions are mediated by the cloud and the speed of your internet. When I click the button for "fast forward by 15 seconds", it takes the system ~3 seconds to acknowledge that I pressed the button, a couple more seconds to execute, and a couple more seconds again to start playing from that new point. I might as well have just let it play! This is a microcosm of the frequently pointed out "nobody owns anything anymore; it's all subscriptions" take.
Regarding 4/5, this of course isn't that new of a thing. I think romance novels, spy novels, and mystery novels have dealt with this for a while. I bet "Westerns" dealt with this in their heyday decades ago. Perhaps people have shifted in such a way that we prioritize art in our tv series more than in our movies now. The dialogue and cinematography of GoT, for example, is infinitely better than in hit shows like The Wire. When it comes to "really smart art", like GoT or Inception or Memento etc., some of that has also been shunted off into Anime, right? Deathnote is one of the smartest shows I've ever seen.
On this point, I think you'll enjoy this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuTwM6jB9JY) YouTube video explaining the death of sincerity in popular art....from LoTR to Deadpool.
Thanks Zac - wonderful piece. Even though I am insulated by most of the crap happing in the US now, it still drags you down. Yesterday I was walking around Arashiyama (Kyoto) in the winter sunshine which perfectly summarized how I felt about your last sentence....... The way back is paved with The Bricks of Taste and The Mortar of Sincerity.
Thanks Nick! I’ve spent about 8 weeks in Kyoto over the past two years, and honestly can’t get enough of it.
Many of my experiences there informed this essay, especially when it comes to craftsmanship, and demanding more out of the quality, and aesthetics of the world around us.